The Heavensward Institute was no longer the silent tomb it had been a week ago. Under the command of Kaelen, the Third Disciple, the very architecture of the academy had begun to breathe. Using the Void-Construction Blueprints provided by the Sovereign Archive, Kaelen had woven Abyssal stone with Holy marble, creating buildings that defied gravity. Towers floated without pillars, and waterfalls of liquid Qi cascaded from the rooftops, feeding the Garden of Eternal Toxins where Saintess Liu Fei was currently experimenting with her "Holy Venom."
Gaurav stood atop the Sovereign Tower, his eyes closed as he synchronized his mind with the Sovereign Archive.
[Archive Synchronization: 12%]
[Processing World Will Data... Analysis: The Crimson Empire has mobilized its 'Silver-Winged' Army. Estimated arrival: 48 hours.]
[New Target Detected: The Nameless Sword-Slave. Location: The Slave Pits of the Southern Border.]
Gaurav opened his eyes, a golden ripple expanding from his pupils. "An army is coming, yet the Archive points me to a slave pit," he murmured.
"The Crimson Empire's Emperor is a man of pride, Gaurav," a voice colder than the deepest winter spoke behind him. Empress Mo Rong stepped out of the shadows, her silver robes shimmering under the moonlight. "You enslaved his son. He won't just send an army; he will send the Ancestor of War. Are you truly prepared to face a Level 9 Peak expert with only three half-trained students?"
Gaurav turned, a faint smile on his face. He walked toward Mo Rong and gently placed his hand on her cheek. The coldness that usually emanated from her skin was now tempered by the 'Soul-Thaw' elixir he had formulated. "Rong'er, in your eyes, they are half-trained students. In my eyes, they are weapons that I am currently sharpening. Besides..." He leaned in, his voice dropping to a seductive whisper. "...I have you and Zhu Feng. Who in this multiverse would dare touch me while the Night Empress stands guard?"
Mo Rong's cold exterior softened for a fleeting second, a blush creeping onto her porcelain neck. But before she could respond, the air in the room spiked in temperature.
"If you have time to flirt with the ice-block, you have time to check on the Divine Forge!" Zhu Feng burst into the room, her eyes flickering with orange flames. "The students you appointed to the Blacksmith department are idiots! They can't even handle 'Spirit-Iron' without melting their own eyebrows!"
Gaurav laughed, pulling both wives toward the balcony. "Calm down, my Fire Queen. The students are new, but the foundation is solid. In fact, I need both of you to accompany me. We are leaving the Academy for a few hours."
"Leaving?" Mo Rong frowned. "With an army 48 hours away?"
"The Archive has found our Fourth Disciple," Gaurav said, his gaze turning serious as he looked toward the South. "A sword-genius who is currently being treated like a dog. If we don't save him today, the 'World Will' will consume his soul, and we will lose the only person who can stop the Ancestor of War."
The Southern Slave Pits: The Descent of the Master
The Southern Border was a place where hope went to die. It was a wasteland of salt and blood, ruled by the Iron-Fist Sect, a subsidiary of the Crimson Empire. Thousands of slaves were forced to mine 'Blood-Essence Stones' until their bodies gave out.
At the center of the pit, chained to a pillar of obsidian, was a young man. His clothes were rags, his body covered in scars, and his eyes were covered by a tattered blindfold. He didn't move. He didn't scream. He simply sat there, holding a broken wooden stick as if it were a divine blade.
"Move, you piece of trash!" a guard yelled, swinging a whip infused with Level 3 Qi.
The whip lashed out, but inches before it hit the boy's skin, it stopped. Not because someone caught it, but because the air around the boy had turned into a vacuum of sword-intent.
"What the—?!" The guard tried to pull back, but his whip disintegrated into dust.
Suddenly, the sky above the slave pit split open.
A golden carriage, pulled by phantoms of black lightning, descended from the clouds. The slaves and guards fell to their knees as a suffocating pressure filled the air.
Gaurav stepped out of the carriage, flanked by Mo Rong and Zhu Feng. The contrast was staggering—the filth of the slave pit against the divine brilliance of the Librarian and his Queens.
Gaurav walked directly toward the blindfolded boy. The guards tried to block him, but a single glance from Zhu Feng turned their weapons into molten slag.
"Get lost," she hissed, her voice echoing like a volcano about to erupt.
Gaurav stopped three paces from the boy. He didn't speak. He used the Eye of the Sovereign.
[Target: Ling Yun (The Nameless)]
[Condition: Blind. Severed Meridians. Broken Spirit.]
[Hidden Talent: Heart of the Sword (Supreme Grade). He can cut through concepts, not just matter.]
[Flaw: 1,000. His heart is closed because he was betrayed by his own father, the Sword King.]
"Ling Yun," Gaurav said, his voice resonant and calm. "The stick in your hand is crying. It wants to be a sword, but you are holding it with a hand of despair."
The boy's head tilted slightly. "Who... are you? Another executioner?"
"I am the Librarian of the Heavensward Institute," Gaurav replied. "I am the man who can mend your meridians with a thought and turn that wooden stick into a blade that can slice the Heavens. But more importantly, I am the man who will give you the one thing you crave more than sight: Vengeance."
Ling Yun's grip on the stick tightened. "Vengeance is for the living. I am already dead."
"Then I shall resurrect you," Gaurav said. He reached out and touched the boy's blindfold.
[Technique Active: Sovereign Resurrection — 10% Output]
Golden Holy Energy flowed from Gaurav's fingertips. The severed meridians in Ling Yun's body began to knit together, reinforced by the Demonic Energy of the Archive to make them tougher than steel. The scars on his skin vanished, and his blindfold fell away, revealing eyes that were pure, liquid gold.
Ling Yun gasped, his vision returning—but it wasn't the vision of a normal human. He saw the 'lines' of the world. He saw the flaws in the guards, the flaws in the earth, and the flaws in the very air.
"Master..." Ling Yun whispered, the wooden stick in his hand suddenly emitting a hum so sharp it sliced the obsidian pillar behind him in half.
"Kill them," Gaurav commanded, gesturing to the corrupt guards of the Iron-Fist Sect. "Show them the first lesson of the Sword Hall: Justice is sharp."
What followed was not a battle; it was art. Ling Yun moved like a shadow. He didn't use Qi; he used 'Intent.' With only a wooden stick, he moved through the guards. Every strike was perfect. Every movement was a 'Correction' of their existence. In ten seconds, fifty guards lay dead, their throats cut with a precision that no surgeon could match.
Ling Yun turned back to Gaurav and knelt in the salt and blood. "My life is yours, Master. My blade is the Academy's shield."
[System Notification: Fourth Personal Disciple Bound.]
[Reward Unlocked: The Sword Pavilion & 1 'Heaven-Cleaving' Intent Seed.]
The Return and the Empress's Challenge
As they traveled back to the Academy, the atmosphere in the carriage was heavy. Ling Yun sat silently in the corner, his wooden stick resting on his knees.
Zhu Feng leaned against Gaurav, her eyes fixed on the new student. "Another one, Gaurav. And this one... he has 'Kingship' in his blood. You're collecting the most dangerous children in the multiverse."
"That's the point, Feng'er," Gaurav said, stroking her hair. "The Great Calamity won't be stopped by a Librarian alone. It needs a Legion."
Mo Rong, who had been quiet the whole trip, suddenly spoke. "The Crimson Empire's army has reached our borders. They have brought the Grandmaster of the Royal Academy, a man named Zhan Hu. He is a Level 9 expert and a master of 'Tiger-Style' cultivation. He has issued a challenge: If our Academy wins the 'Lecture Duel,' he will retreat. If we lose, he will raze the Institute to the ground."
Gaurav's eyes sharpened. "A Lecture Duel? They want to challenge me on the field of teaching?"
He laughed, a sound that held no mirth. "Kaelen! Wei! Liu Fei! Prepare the gates. We have a guest who thinks he knows how to teach."
The Academy Gates: The First Lecture Duel
The next morning, the fields outside the Heavensward Institute were covered in the silver tents of the Crimson Army. In the center, a large stage had been built. Grandmaster Zhan Hu, a giant of a man with a beard like a lion's mane, sat on a throne of bone.
"Gaurav!" Zhan Hu roared. "You claim to be a Master? You claim to teach the unteachable? I have brought my top 100 disciples. Let us see whose students are superior! We shall pick one student each. They will demonstrate a technique, and we shall 'Correct' it. The one who provides the most 'Perfect Correction' wins!"
The soldiers cheered, their voices shaking the mountains.
Gaurav stepped onto the stage, looking small and fragile against the mountain of a man that was Zhan Hu. Beside him stood his four disciples: The Prince, the Ancestor, the Saintess, and the Sword-Slave.
"I accept," Gaurav said, his voice echoing over the silver army. "But since you are the 'Grandmaster,' you shall go first. Pick a student."
Zhan Hu smirked. He pointed to his top disciple, a Level 4 genius. "Go! Demonstrate the 'Tiger-Claw' strike!"
The disciple moved, his Qi forming the image of a massive tiger. He struck a boulder, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Zhan Hu then stood up and gave a 30-minute lecture on how to improve the Qi-flow to make the strike 10% faster. The crowd went wild. It was a masterclass in Level 4 cultivation.
"Your turn, Librarian," Zhan Hu sneered. "Show us your 'Trash' students."
Gaurav looked at Ling Yun, the blindfolded sword-slave. "Yun'er, go. Show them the 'Falling Leaf' strike."
Ling Yun walked forward. He didn't have a sword. He didn't even have his wooden stick. He just had his bare hand. He moved slowly, his strike looking weak and sluggish. It didn't even crack the boulder.
The Crimson Army burst into laughter. "That's it?! That's the 'Sovereign's' teaching?!"
Gaurav didn't smile. He didn't frown. He simply looked at Zhan Hu. "My turn to correct."
Gaurav walked to the boulder. He didn't give a 30-minute lecture. He didn't even use Qi. He simply tapped a specific spot on the boulder with his finger.
[Technique Active: Sovereign Correction — Flaw-Point Strike]
BOOM!
The boulder didn't just shatter; it turned into fine, white powder. But that wasn't the shock. The shock was that every single soldier in the first ten rows of the Crimson Army felt their own 'Tiger-Style' Qi stagnate.
"The Tiger-Claw is a strike of rage," Gaurav's voice was like a gavel in a courtroom. "But rage is a flaw. My student didn't strike the rock. He struck the 'concept' of the rock's existence. Zhan Hu, you taught your student how to be a stronger animal. I am teaching my student how to be the Predator of Laws."
Zhan Hu stood up, his face pale. "You... you hit the 'Flaw Point' of the Tiger-Style just by watching? That's impossible! No one can see the flaws of a Level 9 technique so easily!"
"I don't see them easily," Gaurav said, his aura suddenly exploding, his Holy and Demonic energy forming a massive, shifting Archive behind him that touched the clouds. "I see them because in my eyes, your entire existence is a mistake that needs to be edited."
Zhan Hu fell back onto his throne. He looked at Gaurav, and for the first time, he realized that he wasn't facing a Librarian. He was facing the Final Judge of Cultivation.
"I... I concede," Zhan Hu whispered.
The Crimson Army stood in stunned silence. Their Grandmaster, a Level 9 Peak expert, had conceded to a man with Level 0 Qi.
Gaurav turned to his wives, who were watching from the balcony. Zhu Feng'er's eyes were wide with excitement, while Mo Rong'er's silver eyes were filled with a deep, terrifying pride.
"The lesson is over," Gaurav said, walking back toward his Academy. "Wei! Take the 'Grandmaster' to the pharmacy. He has a lot of 'Flaws' that need to be purged with your new Poison-Laxative."