In a remote town dozens of kiloters from Sunstone, a burst of maniacal laughter suddenly rang out.
Carried by a magnificent surge of Power, a figure shot into the air. Like a great roc spreading its wings, he soared away, stepping from treetop to treetop.
"Hahaha... I’ve broken through..."
Branches swayed, and birds and beasts scattered in alarm. The sound of his voice was deafening.
He felt as if he could perceive the life trajectory of all things.
From the beating of a heart and the flowing of blood to the shifting of mountains and rivers and the turning of the stars, it was as if the entirety of existence was laid bare before him.
’Is this the Great Martial King Realm? To transcend the self and reach the True Self?’
"Not bad..."
A familiar voice drifted from the depths of the forest.
There, seated peacefully on a large boulder in the middle of a stream, was a figure clad in black.
He wore a silver mask and was cloaked in black from head to toe.
Powerful, mysterious...
Marshall Lowell stood by the stream with his hands behind his back. Facing the man on the boulder, he respectfully perford an Ancient Martial Ceremony.
"Sir, I have broken through to the Great Martial King Realm."
The man in black suddenly opened his eyes, gave him an indifferent glance, and nodded slightly.
"When can I go to Sunstone and issue my challenge?" An urgent light glead in Marshall Lowell’s eyes.
The resentnt from being suppressed by Sunstone for hundreds of years seed ready to finally erupt.
"Await my word..."
The black-clad figure stepped onto the water’s surface and shot away in the direction of Sunstone.
***
On the ancient Kaelan Mountains, a vast expanse of white snow lay, never lting year-round.
At the very peak sat a man who looked like an ice sculpture. A layer of white frost covered his body, making him resemble a snowman from a distance.
"You’re here." A dry, desolate voice emanated from the ice sculpture.
The black-clad figure paused, then let out a low chuckle. "You knew I was coming?"
"The Lowell Family doesn’t have the ans to help him advance so quickly. The person behind him must be you, correct?"
Master Aerion did not open his eyes, nor did his lips move. The sound seed to co from his abdon, as if through ventriloquism.
The corners of the man in black’s lips curled up, and a pleasant voice erged. "It is..."
"Who are you?"
"Don’t try to stall for ti. I know this is the critical mont of your breakthrough..."
His palm shot downward, his ten fingers curling into a claw. The snow on the ground seed to be lifted by so unseen force, rapidly spinning into a snowball.
"Die—"
The snowball, infused with Power, shot toward the man before him. It moved with unstoppable montum, as fierce as a tiger.
At this mont, all of Master Aerion’s ridians were filled to the brim with his own Power as he awaited the instant he would break through to the next realm.
But his Dantian was at its most vulnerable. If it were struck, at best his ridians would be destroyed; at worst, he would suffer from Qi deviation and die.
’This person chose this exact mont to attack. What a cunning plan!’
Master Aerion held his breath, preparing to withstand the attack head-on.
Just then—
A powerful white shadow leaped up from behind the man, opened its great maw, and shattered the snowball with a single bite.
"GRRR... GRRR..."
The white shadow let out a beastly, low growl.
A pair of ferocious eyes stared fixedly at the man in black. Its body was lowered, its fur bristled, and it looked ready to pounce at any mont.
"The Snow Wolf King? Interesting..."
The man in black and the white shadow leaped at the sa ti.
One black, one white, they tangled in the snow.
The sound of the wolf’s howls rose and fell.
Suddenly—
The white figure was struck in the abdon by a fist. It swiped with its claws as its body was sent flying, crashing heavily into the snow and rolling several tis.
Droplets of fresh blood splattered onto the white snow, like plum blossoms in bloom.
The man in black clutched his injured shoulder, a vicious glint in his eyes. ’That damned beast!’
He quickly pulled out a sealed syringe and, gritting his teeth against the pain, injected it into his own arm.
His cloak had been torn, revealing his silver hair.
His lightened pupils gradually returned to their original color.
"AWOOO—"
The Snow Wolf King’s howl echoed.
The man in black’s expression changed drastically. He rapidly gathered his strength and thrust a palm toward Master Aerion’s body, only to be repelled by a surge of force.
A "CRACK..." was heard.
The sound of cracking ice ca from Master Aerion’s body.
A pair of sharp eyes suddenly snapped open.
A sky-shattering Power blasted toward the man in black.
"PFFT..."
His body shot backward like a tennis ball that had been struck, landing heavily in the snow.
The silver mask on his face shattered into pieces.
Revealing his face.
Master Aerion stood up, his brow furrowed in surprise. "It’s you?"
The man in black wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. With a smile, he quickly got to his feet, revealing the thin armor beneath his cloak.
"Goodbye... Guardian..."
He threw an activated explosive device at the Snow Wolf King.
Master Aerion was shocked and imdiately took action.
The explosive device changed direction in mid-air and landed in the snow not far away, followed by a deafening "BOOM."
The soft white snow erupted, flying several ters into the air like a wall of snow before falling again like a blizzard of goose feathers.
The massive explosion acted like a fuse. Across the vast mountain range, a soul-stirring roar began to echo, rising and falling, growing ever louder.
"Not good—"
The peak trembled, the ground shook, and countless tons of snow began to slide downward, as if it were the end of the world.
Master Aerion scooped up the Snow Wolf King and fled, but a heavy sea of snow rushed toward them like a tsunami, blotting out the sky.
The man in black, also escaping, laughed out loud. He detonated another weapon in his hand and threw it toward Master Aerion behind him.
This ti, it landed right in the middle of his escape path.
The snow was blasted into a massive crater that imdiately began to collapse. With nothing to push off of, Master Aerion’s body plunged into the abyss along with the soft snow. But just before he fell, a white figure was forcefully thrown to safety...
***
In front of The Apothecary’s Hut, Leigh Miles yawned as she fanned a shabby coal stove.
Her Senior Sister, Aurora, had been unconscious for five days. Apothecary Warner said Aurora’s body was in the process of healing itself.
Suddenly, a few rumbles echoed in the distance.
"BOOM—BOOM—"
Leigh Miles fell right onto the ground as the earth beneath her suddenly began to shake as if in an earthquake.
She quickly looked up and saw that a third of the distant Kaelan Mountains seed to have been sheared off by a giant hand.
An entire slab of white snow was rapidly sliding downward.
"Oh no... The Kaelan Mountains are avalanching..." soone outside shouted.
Leigh Miles’s face turned pale in an instant. She scrambled to her feet. "Master..."
A figure moved even faster than her.
Ronan Warner was already rushing in the direction of the Kaelan Mountains...
The Kaelan Mountains were at the westernmost edge of the Aurum Mountains, over ten kiloters away. One behind the other, the two of them leaped toward the summit of Sunstone’s main peak.
The view was best from there, offering a clear line of sight to the entire Kaelan range.
Standing on the summit of Sunstone, Leigh Miles watched the churning white snow in the distance. Her eyes reddened, and she fell to her knees.
"Master—"
Ronan Warner clenched his fists tightly, his expression more serious than ever before, his body trembling slightly.
The avalanche continued for a long ti before finally stopping. The entire Kaelan mountainscape was completely transford.
Before them lay a world of ice, a vast expanse of pristine white snow.
"Master—" Leigh Miles followed Ronan Warner as they sped down the mountain, shouting as she ran.
But all was silent, and only her echoes answered—rippling, empty, and long...
"Master—"
"Master Aerion—"
The two of them shouted everywhere, but only echoes replied.
Suddenly—
"Whimper... whimper..."
A weak sound seed to co from ahead. Ronan Warner ran in that direction, dropped to his knees, and started digging. He pulled a tuft of white wolf fur from the heavy snow.
"Leigh, quick... It’s Whitlock—"
Leigh Miles imdiately joined him, and together they finally dug out the weakened Snow Wolf King.
It was shivering uncontrollably from the cold. One of its legs seed to be broken, and its mouth was covered in blood.
Ronan Warner undid his outer coat and cradled the Snow Wolf King in his arms to warm it, asking, "Have you seen Master Aerion?"
The Snow Wolf King whimpered twice and struggled to rise. It then coughed up a Jade Token that signified the status of a Guardian.
Leigh Miles’s eyes instantly filled with tears.
The Snow Wolf King licked her stunned face, as if in sorrow, then suddenly faced the peak of the Kaelan Mountains and let out a long howl to the sky:
"AWOOO—"
The sound was mournful and long, filled with imnse sorrow.
Ronan Warner’s eyes widened, his hands clenching into tight fists.
Several gray figures erged from the surroundings. They rushed to the peak, raised their heads, and howled as if mourning soone. Finally, they knelt on their forelegs alongside the Snow Wolf King.
Leigh Miles’s mouth hung open as if she were in a stupor. She stared blankly at the summit, her kneeling body trembling slightly as tears stread down her face like pearls from a broken string.
"Ma... Master..."
***
Elsewhere, Beta Morgan waited for a long ti, but when no one returned, a bad feeling crept into his heart.
He had heard about the avalanche on the Kaelan Mountains and had imdiately gone to wait outside the dicinal herb garden. But it had already been four or five hours since Leigh Miles and the others left. ’They still haven’t co back?’
He imdiately contacted Alvin Morgan to explain the situation.
There was a long silence on the other end.
Finally, Alvin Morgan’s voice ca through. "Does Aurora know?"
"She’s still unconscious..."
"Don’t tell her yet. I’m on my way now."
After hanging up, Alvin Morgan’s expression turned grim. He addressed everyone in the room:
"Imdiately initiate a Level One Alert. Aim all AI-controlled weaponry toward hostile approaches. Dean Morgan, take your n and guard the research institute. Anyone who dares to trespass will be killed without rcy—"
"Sir, what about you?"
"I’m going to Sunstone—"
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