"This…"
Kaela stood frozen, her ethereal form flickering slightly as she watched the scene before her, eyes wide in disbelief.
The transformation occurring within Lyra her student, her test, and perhaps her chance at salvation was not something she had expected to witness outside of ancient scripture.
According to the ancient records kept within the Celestial Pill Sect, there existed a rare phenomenon that occurred when a cultivator's constitution and soul strength both crossed a mysterious threshold. The result was a spontaneous resonance of soul and body, often leading to miraculous breakthroughs or catastrophic failure.
The latter often ended in the cultivator's soul shattering and their body imploding from within.
"It seems this girl truly is blessed by fate," Kaela muttered, awe coloring her voice. "No wonder this guy would invest so heavily in her…"
In the world of Cultivation, talent dictated a cultivator's upper ceiling, and comprehension decided their ceiling. But only destiny, Qi Fortune could shatter both and rewrite the rules entirely.
It was no exaggeration to say that every Nirvana Realm Monarch those few who had survived the harrowing path of death and rebirth had carried an almost mythical level of luck, as if heaven itself favored them.
And Lyra?
She was just becoming one of those people.
Even Kaela, a peak alchemist of her era, couldn't help but reassess her previous thoughts. Maybe… just maybe, teaching Lyra alchemy wasn't merely repayment but it might be investing in a future true sovereign.
With a slow exhale, Kaela let go of her final thread of reservation. Her gaze softened, the tension in her translucent frame dissipating.
Perhaps this wasn't such a bad fate after all.
Seeing this shift, Leo watching silently from the shadows of the courtyard only smiled faintly. With a casual pat on Lyra's head, he left a few parting words instructing her to follow Kaela's teachings diligently, then disappeared in a ripple of golden light.
The moment lingered like the last note of a song.
"…Come. Let me test what you know." Kaela's voice was calm as she called out to Lyra, but it held the unmistakable authority of someone who once had stood at the peak.
She turned gracefully and began floating toward one of the secluded pill rooms deeper within the estate.
Lyra blinked once, then quickly scrambled to follow her new teacher as her heart was pounding with anticipation.
She had, after all overheard everything between Kaela and Ancestor Leo. This woman wasn't just a legendary figure she had been a Seventh-Grade Alchemist, someone whose status even the so-called Pill King of the Dusk Empire, Master Liu Yan, would bow before.
In fact, she doubted that Master Liu would even qualify to warm Kaela's furnace.
To be trained by such a person, coupled with her own transformed constitution and the boost from Ancestor Leo's unending treasures… Lyra clenched her fist tightly.
"If I can't reach Fourth-Grade Alchemist within three years… then I'd rather bury myself under a mountain."
While Lyra was thrown into the rigorous flames of alchemical training, a storm was brewing on the southern edge of Redridge Province, at the edge of the Moltenfang Mountains.
A hastily constructed command outpost had been built by the Blaze City's Guard, and within its cramped wooden walls, grim-faced officers and battle-hardened cultivators sat in tense silence.
"…Lord Commander," one scout finally said, "that bastard's snapped, he's even started to take hostages now."
The room broke into shouts, curses, and anxious mutterings as they heard the words of the scout.
"He's using a formation, one we're unable to dismantle quickly. He calls it the Eruption Array of Molten Flame. He's threatening to incinerate the hostages unless the princess meets him in person."
The air went dead silent as those words fell.
Even the seasoned commander of the Blazecity's outpost paled.
They had hoped this "grave robber" would die in a corner of the Moltenfang Mountains. What they didn't expect was for him to dig in like a venomous spider, seizing multiple border villages and dragging tens of thousands of innocent civilians into a horrifying stalemate.
The Eruption Array of Molten Flame was a forbidden formation, one that drew directly from the volcanic leyline beneath the region. Once triggered, it would turn dozens of miles into an inferno, a land of searing fire and death where even Soul Stage experts could be reduced to ashes in seconds.
Worse still, it had a detonation feedback system. Any spiritual energy that touched it sword qi, elemental spells, even defensive barriers would only accelerate the eruption.
And now it hung over their heads like a burning guillotine.
Before anyone could offer a solution, a firm voice cut through the room.
"Let me go."
All eyes snapped toward the entrance.
There, standing in a simple snow-white robe, her demeanor graceful yet unyielding, was Serena Firegrave Princess of Redridge and the daughter of Prince Firegrave as well as one of the top ten talents on the Dusk Empire's celestial rankings.
"But Your Highness—!" several officers exclaimed, shooting to their feet in alarm.
"Enough," Serena said cutting off any opposition her tone calm but her expression showing that her words were final. "Those are my people as well. As the heir of Firegrave, I will not allow their blood to be used as bargaining chips."
Her gaze swept the room. "Prepare the escort. I'll meet the robber at dawn."
Before anyone could offer objections, she turned on her heel and exited, leaving only the soft sound of her boots against the wooden floor.
A long silence followed.
"…She's got her father's fire, but that could also backfire if she make hasty decisions like this" one old officer finally muttered as he saw the resemblance between her and Prince Firegrave.
The Blazecity's commander rubbed his temples as he thought about the headache that was about to follow them, then motioned his aide over. "Get word to Sir Warden. And alert the Firegrave Manor. If the Princess is going to face this lunatic… we better be ready to burn down the entire damn mountain if anything happens."