Lorel stood up, moving towards the main platform without a thought for the consequences. Two guards at the base of the steps moved as one, their spears crossing to block her path.
"Please, Miss," one spoke, his tone rigid. "You are not allowed to step into the ceremony."
Lorel's voice was raw, frayed with anger and a desperate fear for her teacher. "General Mearl has been loyal to you all her life! How can you do this to her?"
Her grief was a visible thing, a crack in her newly forged composure. General Mearl was the first person who had ever believed in her. The first to tell her she could be powerful, that she didn't always have to be the sidelined daughter, the silent betrothed. That she, too, could rise. How could she stand still and watch this?
Even Chubbs, behind her, burned with a quiet, furious intensity. He was the same. General Mearl had been the catalyst for their growth. Without her letting him learn the final touch, Chubbs would still be just the fat, loyal boy who followed Lorel, not the cultivator he was painstakingly becoming. How could he stand still?
Seeing the two figures, Juo Si frowned slightly, but the expression was fleeting. "I understand your frustration, Lady Lorel," he said, his voice a mask of weary reason. "But things are the way they are. Mearl betrayed me, and by doing so, betrayed the entirety of the Four Kingdoms. She needs to pay for it." He turned his gaze downward. "Don't you think, General Mearl? Would you want your student to suffer because of you?"
He was very smart, turning the blade of her own loyalty against her. He knew Mearl would never let him harm Lorel, even if it meant her own death. This escalation was actually a tool to strengthen his presence. He was in no hurry to have them removed.
Mearl looked up at Lorel and the round-faced boy behind her. A little smile touched her split lips. She had never expected much from her life. All she knew was to serve. She had served the old king when the Four Kingdoms were one, and then she had served Juo Si out of loyalty to that king's memory. She had long known his ambition would consume her, and still she had followed willingly. She regretted nothing.
"Lorel. Chubbs," she said, her voice hoarse but clear. "You should leave now. If you still think of me as your teacher… let me bear my cross. I was not forced to serve Juo Si. I chose to." It was a choice born of the old king's command, but a choice nonetheless.
Lorel shook her head, tears now spilling over. "I can't do that."
"General Mearl," Chubbs added, his voice trembling with suppressed rage, "this cannot end like this. We have to do something."
Seeing how things developed, Juo Si's slow smile faded. "I am sorry, Lady Lorel. But certain things must happen." He waved a gentle hand at the guard standing by Mearl's side.
The guard condensed a blade of pure Qi with a flick of **Shidow**, raising it high, pointed at Mearl's exposed neck.
Lorel's anger, grief, and frustration ignited.
The seven-pointed array of the **Supremacy Swords** fanned into existence behind her back with a sound like shattering crystal. She ascended into the air, passing over the startled guards. With a wave of her hand, the swords descended like blooming meteors. The guard by Mearl swiped his Shidow blade upward in a frantic parry, but to his dismay, his energy was *obliterated* by the dominating intent of the pink swords. One blade missed his face by an inch, shearing through the edge of his helmet and embedding itself in the platform stone behind him with a deafening *PING*, trembling violently.
Chubbs activated his **Jingdao**. His round figure seemed to solidify, his skin taking on a faint, golden sheen. He had practiced his Reinforcement for years. His fingers pushed forward like lightning, his palm executing the **Final Touch**, concentrating Jingdao into a single point so intense it seemed to warp the air. The other guards were forced to react, their own armor glowing as they activated their Reinforcement.
Seeing things escalate, Gen and Liang arrived from the side. Liang was wreathed in the dazzling, multi-hued flames of the **Kalash of Elements**, while Gen landed with a solid *thud*, already sheathed in the humming, golden shell of the **Eternal Body, First Door**. Although he had no particular feeling for General Mearl, he cared for Lorel, and now she was in danger.
Juo Si now dropped any pretense of decorum. He looked at their resistance, a cold light in his eyes. He waved the other guards back. "Since you insist, I must set the example as king. Although I have only three Wheels open… I think the younger generation needs to understand something."
Juo Si took a single step forward and ascended into the void, standing on air. "You are all beneath me," he stated.
A golden crown, wrought not of metal but of solidified, intricate **Shidow** energy, appeared above his head. It was strangely made, with four jewels set into its band—red, yellow, gold, and black.
Juo Si gazed down at them. "This is **The Leader's Burden**. A spell created by the very first king of the Four Kingdoms. Reserved for the monarch. For the leader." His voice gained a regal, oppressive weight. "Now. Bend."
He gave a mental command. The first jewel, the red one, began to shine.
An intense wave of **Creation** energy—not a blast, but a heavy, smothering *presence*—burst out and washed over Lorel and the others. It was the crushing weight of royal decree given physical form. Lorel was slammed to the ground with a solid *thud*. Gen grunted, feeling an immense power holding him down. Despite his Jingdao, he felt sluggish, heavy, as if moving through stone. Even Liang, propelled by his flames, was forced back onto the ground, the fire around him dimming as if suppressed.
For the first time, Gen really looked at Juo Si. All this while, he had never seen the prince in action. He had always thought he knew nothing more than how to scheme. He was wrong. Juo Si did have the right to stand at the very peak of this generation. He was far ahead of many.
But Gen didn't care. Nothing would stop them from saving General Mearl today.
Juo Si then waved at the guards. "Continue with the execution. I will… entertain our guests." He turned his gaze back to the struggling group. "If you want to stand at the peak, then you will have to face me."
Gen smiled, a fierce, challenging grin. He pushed his body to the limit and unleashed the **Eternal Body, Second Door**. The golden aura didn't just cover him; it *sank in*, reinforcing him from his bones outward. A shimmering, heat-haze vapor floated around him. In his pristine white robes, Gen looked even more otherworldly. The oppressive pressure lightened just enough.
He jumped into the air, propelled by reinforced muscles and a burst of **Shidow**-manipulated air. As he rose, he tapped his foot.
The **Swords of Infinity** formation ignited on the ground below Juo Si. "Go," Gen said.
A beam of annihilating light, born from nowhere, pierced towards Juo Si's left side.
Juo Si's face twitched slightly. *He can still fly?* A genuinely amused smile touched his lips. He activated the next jewel on the crown—the black one.
A terrifying vortex of black Qi, the essence of negation and ending, spread around him. It clashed with the beam of light, which was rendered null inches from his body, dissipating into harmless sparks.
Then Juo Si floated forward, going straight for Gen. His own **Jingdao** flared, but it was strange—a deep, bloody crimson. As he moved, the red jewel on the crown activated again, amplifying his aura into a domain of crushing weight.
At the same time, Lorel, though she couldn't fly, unleashed her Supremacy Swords with all her devotion, attacking Juo Si from every angle. Juo Si simply left behind a fading red hue, evading every single sword with effortless, preternatural grace. Lorel blinked in shock. She knew how fast her swords were. Very few could evade them with such ease.
Liang summoned the Kalash of Elements and retreated, drawing not fire, but the **Lightning from the Kalash's Abyss**. A bolt of pure white lightning streaked out. Its appearance caused even Juo Si to frown slightly as he quickly pivoted mid-air, letting the bolt pass him by a hair's breadth.
"Interesting lightning," he muttered.
He tapped his foot on the air, and a formation—complex and bloody—spread beneath him, sending tendrils of blood-like flames biting forward at Chubbs, Lorel, and Liang, who were still clustered on the ground.
Gen frowned. "He too is versed in formations…"
As Juo Si contended with all of them, the observing elders didn't seem surprised, as if Juo Si's strength was not unknown to them. They only glanced at Lorel and Gen. Their progress felt too absurd, even to these old cultivators. *How and when did Gen learn formations? And become so proficient?* Furthermore, Lorel's Supremacy Sword was something deeply disturbing. Its content, its *intent*, made many think it would not be wise to use simple Jingdao to counter it.
In the Li Family pavilion, Li Zhi observed the fight with a frustration that ate at his bones. Ever since he had left the Jiang Mountain, his life had been miserable. His brother, Li Zhan, was so talented it felt a shame to even say they shared the same blood. Now Li Zhan was cast out and on the run. He thought things might get better for him. But now he was looking at Liang, Gen, and Lorel. All these people he had left behind on the Jiang Mountain. In the span of a year and five months, they were already able to clash with the apex of the Four Kingdoms. Juo Si was a talent that made others feel like a joke in front of him. How had the weakest disciple of the Jiang Mountain Liang gotten this far? Li Zhi was so annoyed his heart hurt.
On the platform, the fight intensified. No elder had the intention to intervene. If Juo Si was to lose today, it would be ideal for most of them.
But was it even possible?