[Epochal Ascendance Academy - Main Grounds]
The dimensional portal opened directly onto the academy's central plaza—a space that could comfortably accommodate thousands of students, currently occupied by maybe three hundred cultivators who'd been going about their normal routines.
All of whom immediately stopped what they were doing when Elias Vance stepped through, followed by his family and five slightly disheveled-looking students.
The whispers started instantly.
"Is that—"
"Elias Vance. The anomaly."
"Why is he here? I thought he left to explore the realm."
"Look at those students with him. Aren't they first-years from Aria's trial group?"
"They look like they've been through a war."
"Did you feel that dimensional disturbance earlier? The one that made the entire realm shake?"
"You don't think—"
