The horizon of the Human Kingdom was no longer a line of sky and earth; it was an undulating ocean of shimmering steel.
Five hundred thousand guards—the "Eternal Legion"—had arrived from every corner of the realm. Their march was a rhythmic thrum that vibrated through the crust of the planet, a sound of absolute military discipline. At the front of this massive formation rode the high-ranking generals, their banners snapping in the wind, their faces set in the grim determination of men who believed they were fighting a holy war to protect their Sovereign.
But as they reached the palace grounds, the sky began to bleed.
From the rift above, six Blue Emperor Dragons descended like falling stars, trailed by their riders. At the head of this vanguard was Merin Son, a Commander of the Ninth Whisper whose name was etched in the annals of a thousand destroyed worlds. His eyes were not human; they were vertical slits of glowing sapphire, and his presence alone made the atmosphere feel as though it were being crushed by an invisible forge.
"Six of us," Merin Son whispered, his voice carrying over the roar of the wind. "Against half a million ants. The odds are... insulting."
Beside him, his six teammates—Dragon Knights of the Ninth Whisper—drew their Heart-Cores. These were blades forged from the literal crystallization of their dragon souls. The air hummed with a frequency that made the soldiers' ears bleed.
At the palace center, Rayn stood paralyzed. He watched as the five lakh soldiers formed a phalanx that stretched for miles. He looked at the God Slayer in his hand, its crimson thunder responding to the slaughter that was about to unfold.
"FORMATION! THE HEAVENLY SHIELD!" Alaric's voice boomed, amplified by his Qi to reach every corner of the battlefield.
In a display of perfect coordination, the 500,000 soldiers raised their enchanted shields. A massive dome of golden light erupted, a collective barrier that pulsed with the life-essence of an entire kingdom. It was a masterpiece of human defensive cultivation—a wall of "Dao" that should have been impenetrable.
Merin Son let out a mocking laugh. "Sapphire Purgatory."
The six dragons opened their maws. But the fire that came out was not a stream. It came out in millions of tiny, incandescent sparks—sapphire embers that floated through the air with a terrifying, gentle grace.
When the sparks touched the "Heavenly Shield," the gold didn't just break—it turned into liquid. The enchanted steel of the shields melted instantly, the molten metal pouring over the hands and faces of the soldiers. Within seconds, thirty thousand guards were turned into formless mounds of ash and slag. The "Heavenly Shield" was gone, leaving a gaping, bloody hole in the center of the human army.
High above the carnage, floating in the center of a localized storm, Rena and Beatrice faced each other.
Rena stood upon the air as if it were solid jade, her black dragon wings unfurled to their full thirty-foot span. Beatrice, mounted on the male griffin Aurelius, stared at her daughter with a horror that transcended physical pain.
"Rena!" Beatrice screamed, her voice hoarse. "What is this? Look at what you are doing! How did you conceive a child with a dragon? How do you have these wings? I have checked your body every day for a hundred years—you have no Essence, no Dao! You are a 'Normal'! How can you possess the power of a Sovereign?"
Rena didn't move. She didn't draw a weapon. She simply smiled—a slow, chilling expression that lacked even a shred of human warmth.
"Mother," Rena said, her voice resonant and deep. "I have carried a heavy feeling in my heart for a long, long time. I want to reveal the truth to you today, so I can finally put my burden away. You told everyone that my father, the King, died at the hands of intruders, didn't you?"
Beatrice froze. Her eyes widened. "He... he was killed by a Tier-3 assassin from the Shadow Sect. We found the marks..."
"I made those marks," Rena interrupted, her laugh sounding like cracking ice. "Sorry for not telling you sooner, Mother. I was the one who killed Father. He was a good man, truly. He never blamed me for being 'Normal.' But the situation demanded his death. There was nothing wrong with him... except that he stood in the way of my child's safety."
The world seemed to stop for Beatrice. Her husband, a Tier-3 powerhouse, killed by a girl who didn't even have a spark of magic? "How?" she whispered. "Why?"
"Because you were too weak to break the rules for your own child," Rena spat, her eyes suddenly turning a deep, demonic red. "So I broke the world instead. I killed my father to ensure that when Rayn was born, he would have a path to the Ninth Whisper. I did it for the child you called a burden."
Rena lunged.
She didn't use a technique. She used raw, unadulterated Dragon Essence. Her black sword, filled with the weight of the abyss, collided with Beatrice's silver blade.
The shockwave sent Beatrice flying backward, her griffin screeching in agony. Beatrice gasped as her arms went numb. She had reached the peak of human cultivation, yet this blow felt like it had been delivered by a falling moon.
Down below, Alaric watched the sky, his soul trembling. Yesterday, he had looked at Rena as a frail woman who needed protection. Today, he realized she was the strongest being to ever stand on human soil.
Rayn ran toward Merin Son as the sapphire sparks continued to rain down, incinerating thousands.
"Sir! Please stop!" Rayn shouted, his voice cracking. "Stop the massacre! These guards are just following orders! They aren't the ones who hurt us!"
Merin Son turned his sapphire eyes toward the Prince. "Prince Rayn... these 'mere humans' dared to treat the bloodline of the Ninth Whisper as trash. They dared to hunt our leader. They dared to call you a freak. In the Dragon Dao, there is no 'following orders.' There is only the debt of blood."
Rayn looked up at the sky. "MOM! PLEASE! Stop them! Tell them to only target the leaders! Don't kill the soldiers!"
Rena looked down from her height, her red eyes glowing with a terrifying intensity. She didn't look like his mother anymore; she looked like an avatar of vengeance.
"Rayn... let them suffer," she said, her voice echoing through the minds of everyone in the kingdom. "For 130 years, they saw me as an insect. For 130 years, I chose silence. Today, I choose violence. I want every head in this kingdom to roll, except for the Queen and your friends. I want the soil to turn red so that no flower will ever grow here again without the taste of blood."
Beatrice screamed in despair. "Rena! Stop this! What do you want? I will give you anything! The throne? The treasury? Just stop the killing!"
"What I want," Rena whispered, her eyes fixed on the palace balcony, "is to see everything you protected burn in the fire of your own regret."
While the massacre raged, Jai stood at the palace entrance, his world collapsing. He saw the guards—men he had trained with—melting into puddles of gold and flesh. He saw his Uncle Alaric struggling to hold the line against the invisible pressure.
Suddenly, something small and warm brushed against Jai's boot.
He looked down. It was the Blue Griffin fledgling—the white-and-blue creature from Beatrice's throne room. It looked up at Jai with eyes that contained an ancient wisdom.
Jai knelt, picking the creature up. As his fingers touched its feathers, a blinding flash of sapphire light erupted. Jai gasped as a searing heat crawled up his left arm. When the light faded, a complex, glowing Bond Mark had appeared on his forearm—the mark of the Sky Sovereign.
Jai's Qi suddenly spiked. His blue eyes cleared, and for a moment, he could see the "Vortex" lines of the entire battlefield. But the sight he saw next destroyed any joy the power could have brought.
Rena had used a Dragon-Blood Artifact—a set of metaphysical chains that suppressed even Tier-1 beings. Beatrice was now anchored to the ground, her griffins dead at her feet, their necks cleanly severed by Rena's black blade.
Meilin Yue descended from the sky, her hands dripping with blood. She was dragging two figures by their necks: Edward and Mable.
She threw them into the dirt in front of Rena.
"Brother, sister-in-law," Rena said, landing softly in front of them. "I didn't want to kill my own family. But you treated my son like an animal. You beat the boy who was his only friend."
Edward and Mable were trembling so hard they couldn't even speak. They looked at the dragons, then at the burning remains of their army.
"The only mercy I will show you," Rena said, "is that I will leave your son alive. Jai is the only good thing that came from your bloodline."
Edward looked toward the gate, seeing Jai standing there with the blue griffin. "JAI!" Edward screamed, his voice breaking. "JAI, PLEASE! TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!"
It was the first and last time Jai had ever heard his father speak with genuine emotion.
Before Jai could even move, the blue dragons behind Rena lunged forward.
There were no swords. No magical blasts. The dragons simply opened their mouths and consumed Edward and Mable in a single, gruesome bite. The sound of crunching bone and the spray of hot blood across the marble tiles echoed in the silent courtyard.
Jai fell to his knees. His mother and father were gone—eaten like common meat in front of his eyes.
Beatrice, chained and helpless, let out a howl of rage that shook the palace walls. But her power was blocked, her kingdom was ash, and her family was dead.
Jai stood up slowly. The blue griffin on his shoulder let out a sharp, piercing cry. His eyes, once bright and hopeful, were now cold and hollow. He didn't look at the dragons with fear anymore. He looked at Rena with a lethal, focused hatred.
"You killed them," Jai whispered, his voice carrying through the void created by the Dragon-Blood artifact.
He drew his sword, the blade glowing with the new, sapphire power of the griffin. He began to walk toward the center of the palace—one boy against ten dragons and a Sovereign.
"JAI, NO!" Rayn screamed, trying to run toward his friend, but the Dragon Knights blocked his path.
"Prince," Merin Son said firmly. "Let the boy come. He has the mark of the Sky Sovereign. If he wishes to die with honor, we shall grant him that much."
Jai didn't stop. He stepped over the mangled remains of the guards, his eyes fixed on Rena.
"I'm going to kill you," Jai said, the Sapphire Bond Mark on his arm glowing with the light of a dying star. "I'm going to kill every single one of you."
"Cease, Jai!" Rayn's voice cracked like parched earth. "My mother committed a momentary folly, yet she still showed mercy by sparing your life. If you insist on drawing your blade against her, she will surely send you to the Yellow Springs! Back off, I beg of you!"
Rayn lunged forward, his hands trembling as they gripped Jai's shoulders, attempting to anchor him. But Jai did not falter. He was like an unstoppable tide. With a cold snort, Jai shifted his weight, and a surge of hidden strength erupted. Rayn felt as if he had collided with an iron plate; he was tossed aside like a kite with a broken string, tumbling onto the dusty earth.
Seeing their master fallen, the dragons let out earth-shaking roars, their scales bristling with killing intent. Yet, Rayn raised a blooded hand, signaling them to stay back.
"Since you are determined to court death, I have no other choice," Rayn muttered, his gaze turning frigid.
With a thought, the air began to hum. Clang! A streak of crimson light tore through the void as the Crimson Thunder Sword manifested. It did not simply appear; it emerged slowly from the ethereal plane, condensing into his palm as if the heavens themselves were forging it in real-time.
Jai continued his slow, rhythmic march, his azure eyes suddenly erupting into pools of crackling Blue Lightning. Opposite him, Rayn's eyes flashed with a sinister Crimson Bolt, his aura expanding until it shook the very foundations of the sect.
It took a long time to describe, but it all happened in the blink of an eye. In the next instant, two streaks of thunder—one red, one blue—collided with a sound that could shatter the heavens.