Symmetry of Rays flared, calibrating his meridians like polished mirrors. Light didn't just move—it recalibrated him. His body moved like mirror rhythm: one pulse forward, one pulse back. Every action counterbalanced. His blade sang, his stance held, and the entire battlefield stuttered.
And through it all, the sword led—Luminal Edge, bright as judgment
His strikes cleaved through air, grazing mercenary number five's shoulder and dodging a venom arc from mercenary number three that hissed past his cheek. The battle was chaotic—Jalen maneuvered with spectral elegance, but wounds began to accumulate.
The mercenaries and the squad joined hands to launch a binding formation—but Jalen's Luminal Edge sliced through it mid-motion, radiant force tearing glyphs apart before they could settle, causing a backlash to the users, but nothing severe.
Then Jalen retaliated—with Silent Spear Manifestation, eight shadow spears that exploded from his palm like cursed comets. They struck hard. The squad and the mercenaries staggered, shaken that this kid was so powerful. Eight against one, and it seemed this boy who was barely mature was at an advantage. How could any of these prominent, well-known figures in the cultivation world tolerate this?
Eventually the eight decided to take things up a notch using powerful and various high-grade qi attacks, one after the other. And their combined attacks warped the battlefield. Lava geysers burst. The ground split. Lesser cultivators fled miles away from the blast radius.
Jalen shielded Jael with unflinching focus. The boy—descended from kings of beasts—had the potential, but not yet the strength. His qi was potent but fragile.
Jalen was bleeding from barely managing to evade all these attacks and retaliate. But not broken.
His endurance stunned his attackers and those who watched from afar.
Jalen panted, body battered, bleeding from multiple slashes. His clothes steamed from magma bursts. Cracks in the ground glowed beneath his feet.
The eight encircled him now, their aura pressing down like mountains. They weren't holding back anymore—every strike came with Spirit Fusion force, a pressure strong enough to bend light.
He couldn't keep up. His body was ready to collapse. But his spirit… had something else to give.
Jalen closed his eyes.
He didn't dodge the next blow.
He stopped.
The entire battlefield shuddered.
His aura didn't erupt. It vanished.
No glow. No pulse. Just void.
The shadows around him twisted unnaturally. Heat bent away. Wind stilled. Even the Khopesh behind him dimmed, as if recognizing what he'd become.
Jalen had entered Eclipsed Soul Vanishing.
"Stop wielding shadow… become it."
Mercenary number one reached him first. His flaming halberd swung downward and shattered mid-strike. No explosion, no clash. It simply broke. From the inside.
Mercenary number two screamed as Jalen emerged from her own shadow—just for a breath—and used Void Fang Projection on her. This caused her qi to collapse. Her knees buckled. She vomited blood.
The squad and the remaining mercenaries were trying their best to pinpoint Jalen, but they were having difficulties. It was as if Jalen was everywhere and yet nowhere.
A blur appeared inside the third mercenary's shadows. A ripple in spirit.
Jalen reappeared behind him, two fingers pressed between his shoulder blades. A burst of soul-force erupted from the man's chest, launching him through three stone pillars.
Afterwards he called forth the supreme-grade spirit tool sealed within him—Ebon Severance. Twin sabers, curved like crescent fangs, shimmered into existence from his wrists. They didn't gleam. They devoured. Follow by expanding his Shadow Domain Compression and the sub realm twisted. Light collapsed. Flame recoiled. Wind stilled.
Every cultivator felt it—like the realm itself was being swallowed.
And yet, one thing remained untouched.
The Khopesh.
Suspended above obsidian pillars, it burned like a divine ember—the only light left in a world of darkness.
Jalen didn't waste energy on the remaining enemies. He had none to spare.
His spirit cores were nearly drained. His body trembled. But his intent was absolute.
He turned toward the sword.
The flaming formation still pulsed, defiant.
Until Ebon Severance moved. A single slash with all his might—silent, precise.
Glyphs cracked. Sigils screamed.
The formation shattered like glass beneath a void pulse.
The Khopesh dimmed.
Jalen reached out.
The phoenix flame flickered once—then stilled.
His fingers closed around the hilt.
The weapon didn't resist. It recognized.
Then, despite the pain searing through his meridians, Jalen activated Flash Reversion. His light qi pulsed weakly, anchoring to the scorched obsidian arch where he first entered the subrealm. Space bent. Light folded. He vanished from the battlefield and reappeared at the portal's edge—where the memory of his arrival still lingered.
He didn't wait. He stepped through the portal and shot into the sky, searching for somewhere to hide and recover.
By the time the shadow domain was pierced by all the Spirit Fusion experts, Jalen was gone.
And so was the supreme-grade spirit sword. This causes mass outrage and makes those who hate Jalen hate him even more and wish to destroy him. As for the squad, they felt humiliated that they couldn't even capture one kid.