The moonlight sliced through the still night, casting silver shadows across the tents.
Ash's body jerked upright.
He gasped—deep, broken breaths—as though he'd been drowning in a dream.
Sweat trickled down his forehead. His chest heaved. Shen Mu's whisper still echoed faintly in his ear:
> "Now… while its spirit still lingers."
Ash looked around the dim tent. Everyone else was asleep. The medicinal scent clung to his skin like a second layer. His wounds pulsed with heat—but he couldn't ignore the instinct screaming within him.
---
The Third Spirit Claim
Moving like a phantom, Ash slipped out of the tent and crossed the camp, barefoot and silent.
There, at the edge of the clearing, the massive corpse of the Golden Bone Ape lay under a spiritual shroud, its flesh untouched, its bones gleaming with a faint glow of residual might.
Ash knelt beside it.
He bit his thumb and smeared blood across his palm, pressing it to the ape's forehead. His spiritual energy surged, immediately challenged by the overwhelming aura of the Tier 5 beast.
> "I can't let this go. I need it."
The ape's death had left behind a chaotic storm of energy. It resisted violently. A normal cultivator would be crushed by the backlash alone.
Ash trembled. His bones ached. Veins bulged in his neck and arms. The Obsidian Throne flickered in his subconscious, opening faintly like an ancient gate.
> "Submit," Ash growled.
Minute after minute passed. His spiritual sea boiled. Shen Mu's voice shouted from somewhere far within—
> "Push! It's either this or stagnation!"
And then—
A deafening crack echoed inside Ash's soul.
His eyes widened.
The bone ape's spectral image appeared behind him, kneeling… then lowering its head. A black chain of necromantic energy wrapped around its neck, sealing the pact.
Ash's body shook as his spiritual core exploded with heat.
> He had done it.
The third spirit had been claimed.
---
The Aftermath – A Step Too Far
His energy spiked. The threshold of Qi Condensation shattered beneath him.
> Core Vein Formation was only an inch away—but that inch was a chasm.
Ash's body, already wounded, couldn't handle the final leap. Blood spilled from the corner of his lips. He collapsed, spiritual energy fading as his vision darkened.
---
Lian Rou's Discovery
It was nearly dawn when Lian Rou wandered near the outer tents. She hadn't slept—too many thoughts spinning in her head.
> "Why am I thinking so much about him…"
She caught sight of a slumped figure near the ape's corpse.
Alarmed, she dashed forward.
> "Ash!"
He was unconscious again, barely breathing.
But his body was strangely… stable. Pulsing faintly with an aura that didn't belong to the root forging stage anymore.
With effort, she lifted him into her arms, gritting her teeth.
> "You fool…"
---
In Her Quarters – A Conflicted Heart
Back in her room, Lian Rou laid him down carefully. His face was pale, jaw clenched, yet peaceful now.
She sat by the edge of the bed, brushing hair from his brow.
> "Why do you keep pushing like this…"
He had defeated a Tier 5 beast, advanced in cultivation, and now—now she was certain he was unlike anyone she'd known in her royal lineage.
Her mind drifted to the boy she had been betrothed to—a noble son from the Eastern Imperial Hall, prideful, spoiled, and barely able to hold a sword straight.
> "Yan Qing was right," she whispered. "A capable man… is always desired."
Her gaze lingered on Ash.
> "If only… that arranged marriage could be broken."
She leaned back, conflicted.
Duty and desire warred inside her heart. She was a royal. Bound by blood, bound by promise.
But for the first time, she wished… for something different.
Someone different.
---
Closing Scene – A New Presence
Deep inside Ash's spiritual world, the Obsidian Throne had changed.
It had grown larger.
And now—at its base—knelt three figures. The forging beast Vulcan, the nine-horned bull Mrit… and now, the terrifying golden ape, silent, crouched, waiting for its master's command.
Above the throne, a fourth silhouette slowly began to take shape in the shadows—something unseen, whispering from the future.
---