The Blue Tyrant Academy was not a collection of buildings or a manicured campus; it was a carved-out section of an ancient, brooding forest preserved within the high walls of Heaven Dou City.
It was a physical manifestation of Liu Erlong's soul—a place that refused to be tamed by urban sprawl or noble etiquette. As the carriage rolled deeper into the "Private Zone," the well-kept paths of the outer campus dissolved into a thicket of ancient oaks, strangling vines, and thorny brambles.
The air here was heavy, charged with a faint, flickering heat that made the oxygen feel thin and metallic, as if a great furnace was breathing just out of sight.
"This is as far as the carriage goes," Qin Lu said, his voice trembling as he stepped out onto the carpet of dead leaves.
He looked at the dense foliage with a visible swallow. "The Dean... she's been in a 'mood' for the last few months. Ever since the news from the Spirit Hall's Golden Generation began to dominate the headlines. Ren, please. Let me do the talking. She is a woman of fire; if you spark her, she will incinerate everything in this clearing."
Ren stepped out of the cobalt carriage, his boots making a dull, heavy thud on the earth. He didn't look at Qin Lu. His Void Blue Eye was already fixed on a small wooden hut by a black-water lake a hundred yards away.
Standing by the shore was a woman with long, raven-black hair that cascaded down her back like a frozen waterfall of ink. She was staring at the water with an expression of such profound, jagged grief that it felt like a physical weight, pressing down on the very grass beneath her feet.
"She smells of old blood and a very specific type of rage, partner," Solos whispered telepathically, the dragon's voice echoing with a low-frequency hum in Ren's skull. "And she's currently leaking Spirit Power like a cracked furnace. One wrong word and she'll try to turn us into a charcoal briquette. I'd stay on my toes if I were you."
The Elite Obstacle
Ren began to walk toward the lake, his movements fluid and purposeful. He didn't have time for the Dean's mourning; he had a kingdom to build and a family to find.
However, his path was obstructed before he could even clear the first line of oaks.
Three older students, likely in their final year of the advanced division, stepped out from behind a massive, moss-covered tree.
They were tall, well-built, and wore their cobalt uniforms with an air of unearned superiority that Ren recognized from a thousand boardroom meetings in his previous life.
At seventeen, they were already Spirit Elders (Rank 30+), the "Elites" of the commoner academy who had grown used to being the biggest fish in a small pond.
"Whoa there, pup," the leader of the trio said—a boy with a jagged scar across his chin named Garrick. He looked down at Ren, his lip curling into a sneer as he took in the white hair and the high-collared black robes.
"Teacher Qin, who is the brat? You know the rules of the Private Zone. No one goes to the Dean's lake without an invitation from the Student Council."
"Garrick, move aside," Qin Lu pleaded, his face pale and eyes darting toward the lake. "This boy... he is a special case. He saved our lives in the Star Dou. He needs to see the Dean immediately."
Garrick laughed, a sharp, mocking sound that echoed through the trees. "Saved your lives? This toddler? He looks like a lost noble's pet that wandered away from a garden party. Hey, kid," Garrick reached out a large, calloused hand, intending to pat Ren's head with enough Spirit Power (Rank 32) to shove him into the dirt as a 'lesson' in hierarchy.
"Why don't you go back to the carriage and let the real men talk?"
Ren didn't flinch. He didn't even look up at Garrick's face. He watched the hand descend with a clinical detachment, his Battle-Mind already calculating the structural integrity of the boy's wrist.
"You have five seconds to remove your hand before I remove the arm," Ren said. His voice was a calm, chilling baritone that seemed to suck the warmth out of the immediate air.
The trio went silent for a heartbeat before erupting in a chorus of derisive laughter. "Listen to him! A real little tiger!" Garrick's hand accelerated, his fingers splayed to grab Ren's hair.
CLANG.
Garrick's hand didn't hit hair. It hit the Void Blade Armor as it rippled into existence over Ren's head and shoulders in a flash of matte-black light.
The sound was not of flesh hitting flesh, but of a heavy sledgehammer striking a cold anvil. Garrick's fingers snapped back with a sickening, wet crack as his own force was reflected into his joints.
"Arggh! My hand! My hand!" Garrick screamed, stumbling back and clutching his mangled fingers.
Ren didn't wait for the scream to finish. He moved with the predatory economy he had mastered in the Spire. Using Spatial Anchoring, he "slid" across the grass as if friction didn't exist, appearing in Garrick's shadow before the other two students could even summon their Martial Souls.
He didn't use a blade; he simply drove his palm into the center of Garrick's chest.
[SYSTEM: 8x DENSITY BLOW — KINETIC DISCHARGE]
Garrick was sent flying backward as if struck by a battering ram. His cobalt uniform tore at the seams as his body crashed through the thorny brush, skipping across the surface of the black-water lake like a flat stone before skidding to a halt exactly three inches from the feet of the woman by the shore.
The other two students stood paralyzed, their jaws dropped. They looked at Ren, whose right arm was now fully encased in the black gauntlet, his eyes glowing with a terrifying, dual-colored light.
"The five seconds are up," Ren said, his voice flat.
The Meeting of Two Monsters
Liu Erlong did not flinch as Garrick's unconscious body skidded into her personal space. She didn't even look down at him.
Her dark, bloodshot eyes were fixed solely on the white-haired child standing a hundred yards away. The ground beneath her feet began to char, the grass turning to black ash as her Fire Dragon spirit power began to leak in jagged, uncontrolled bursts.
"Qin Lu... I told you I didn't want to be disturbed," Erlong said. Her voice was a low, dangerous purr that vibrated in the chests of everyone present. "But it seems you've brought me an interesting 'relative' to liven up my afternoon."
Ren walked forward, his footsteps heavy and measured. He stepped over the fallen branches and ignored the two students who scrambled out of his path.
He stopped ten feet from her, standing his ground as the lake behind her began to boil, sending up thick, white plumes of sulfurous steam.
"He's not my relative, Dean," Qin Lu blurted out, rushing forward only to fall into a deep, shaking bow. "He is an anomaly. He killed a 2,000-year-old Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear... alone. I believe he is the key to our Academy's future."
Erlong finally turned her full attention to Ren. She scanned him with a hunter's gaze, sensing the unnatural density of his Void-Eon Body. She felt the "heavy" air around him—a void of energy that seemed to consume the ambient spirit power of the forest.
"A Dreadclaw?" she muttered, her interest finally piqued. She took a slow step toward Ren, her aura expanding like a localized sun.
The pressure of a Spirit Sage (Rank 78) slammed into the clearing. The grass was flattened instantly, and the two students at the edge of the clearing collapsed, unable to breathe.
Even Qin Lu was forced to his knees, his face turning purple as he gasped for air.
Ren didn't move an inch. He used Spatial Anchoring, his feet locked to the rotation of the planet itself.
He looked up at the "Slaughtering Corner," his Starlight Red-Gold Eye igniting to match the crimson of her dragon fire.
"Don't waste your breath with the pressure, Dean," Ren said, his 8x well humming as it pushed back against her aura with a dark, violet radiance. "I've spent a year in a tower that makes your 'Dragon's Breath' feel like a summer breeze. If you want to test my mettle, stop trying to scare me and use your hands."
The clearing went silent. Even the boiling lake seemed to still.
Liu Erlong stared at the boy. For the first time in years, the crushing weight of her own loneliness and rage was met with something just as hard, just as cold, and just as broken.
A wild, jagged laugh escaped her throat—a sound of genuine, terrifying joy that had been absent since her separation from the Golden Triangle.
"Use my hands? On a brat who hasn't even had grown his hair yet?" Her laughter died as she saw the Void Gauntlet ripple into its complete Phase 2 form, covering Ren's arm to the shoulder in light-drinking metal.
She saw the absolute lack of fear in his gaze.
"Fine," Erlong whispered, her body erupting in a pillar of crimson flame. "Let's see if you're a genius... or just another ghost I have to bury in this woods."
She moved—not with a skill, but with the raw, blinding speed of a Dragon Master. Her palm, wreathed in white-hot fire, lunged toward Ren's shoulder.
Ren's Battle-Mind flashed. He saw the "Intent" line as a red streak in the air. He didn't dodge; he couldn't afford to show weakness. He raised his armored hand, palm open to meet her strike.
"Absolute... Severance."
CLANG.
The fire met the Void. The heat of her palm was literally "erased" the moment it touched the matte-black metal of his gauntlet, vanishing into the nothingness of his soul.
The physical force of a Rank 78 Master—enough to shatter a boulder—was diverted through his anchored body and into the earth, causing the ground beneath Ren to spider-web with deep cracks.
Erlong's eyes widened to the size of saucers. Her fire was being deleted.
She didn't pull away this time. Instead, her curiosity overcame her rage. She grabbed Ren's armored wrist, her fingers glowing with a specific, intense diagnostic light. She wasn't attacking; she was probing.
Her Spirit Power surged through his arm, bypassing the armor to touch the very marrow of his radius and ulna.
Her expression shifted from predatory interest to absolute, stunned silence. The flame around her body flickered and died, replaced by a cold wind.
"Qin Lu said you were a relative," she breathed, her grip tightening as she looked into Ren's eyes. "He thinks you're seven or eight because of how you carry yourself. But these bones... the growth plates..."
She looked at him with a mixture of horror and awe. "You haven't even had your sixth birthday. You're five years old."
The surrounding students, who had been watching from a distance, gasped so loudly it was audible over the bubbling lake. A five-year-old who could trade blows with a Spirit Sage was not a genius—it was a godling, a monster in the skin of a child.
Ren pulled his hand back, the armor receding into his skin like liquid mercury. "Age is a biological metric, Dean. It has no bearing on my capacity to fulfill my promises. I am the Anchor, and I don't have time to be a 'child.'"
Erlong looked at Qin Lu, who was still trembling on the ground, then back at Ren. She saw the "Blank" essence in him—the same emptiness she felt in her own heart.
She saw a boy who had already lost everything and had built a fortress out of the remains.
"Qin Lu, get out," Erlong commanded, her voice dropping to a low, protective growl. "Take Garrick and the other trash with you. This boy stays. He's not your nephew. He's mine now."
Ren stood his ground, looking her in the eye. "I'm nobody's property, Dean. But I will stay. I need a place to work, a place to grow, and I need the records of the Spirit Hall's 'Golden Generation.' I know they are here in the city."
Erlong grinned, a wild, dangerous look that would have sent most men running. "You want to hunt the Golden Generation? Little monster, you've come to the right place. I'll give you the records. I'll give you the training. But in exchange, you're going to help me turn this academy into a nightmare for every noble brat in the Empire."
Ren nodded once. "Deal."
As the sun dipped below the city walls, casting the forest in shades of deep violet and gold, Ren Skyheart followed the Dragon into her hut. He had his base. He had his protection.
And now, the hunt for his siblings could truly begin.