He stepped into the centre.
The array came to life.
Ryu sat cross-legged in the centre of the cultivation array, eyes closed, breath steady. Around him, the floor hummed with gentle light as the ancient formation flared to life, awakened by his presence.
Each circle of the array represented a stage of cultivation, etched in flawless geometry and infused with Qi drawn from the palace's restored heart. Symbols of the Six Soul Stages glowed beneath him.
Mind, Body, Bone, Viscera, Blood, and Soul radiating warmth and subtle pressure, as if testing him before allowing him forward.
Yan stood silently at the edge of the chamber, watching. The glow of the array reflected in her silver hair, casting flickers of golden light across her eyes. She had never seen anything like this before, an active sentient cultivation array that responded to bloodline alone.
Ryu inhaled deeply. The air around him trembled.
He could feel it.
The flow of energy, pure, unfiltered world essence rushed toward him from the walls, the floor, even the atmosphere itself. His body, already transformed by the Emperor's inheritance, responded instinctively, pulling it in, filtering it, absorbing it.
A voice echoed faintly in his mind.
"Do not resist the foundation. Let it shape you. But guide its shape with your will."
It was the Void Emperor's soul remnant, now only an imprint in his consciousness.
The energy grew thicker. The array brightened. The first step had begun.
Mind Tempering.
Ryu's consciousness plunged inward.
He found himself in a void. Dark, soundless, infinite.
At the centre floated a version of himself, ethereal and still. From the edges of this space came echoes his doubts, his fears, his regrets.
"You're not good enough."
"You're pretending."
They circled like vultures, clawing at the edges of his thoughts.
But Ryu gritted his teeth, drew in a breath, and pushed back. He didn't shout. He didn't rage.
He chose.
He chose stillness. Clarity. Purpose.
And with that, the voices faded. One by one, they blinked out swallowed by the light now glowing within him.
The Mind Stage was passed.
Body Tempering.
His limbs began to burn.
Muscles tensed. Bones ached. His skin flushed as Qi surged through every fibre of his body. It felt like being reforged from the inside out as if his body were being melted down and rebuilt.
Yan, watching from the edge of the chamber, could see it happening. His skin shimmered. The air around him warped slightly from the heat of his transformation. And yet, he didn't scream. He didn't collapse.
He endured.
Then the glow intensified again.
Bone. Viscera. Blood. Soul.
Each stage more gruelling than the last. His internal organs pulsed with pain as energy refined them, strengthening their spiritual capacity. His bones snapped and reformed under the pressure, ringing with the sound of resonance. His blood boiled, then cooled, until his very essence felt renewed. And when the final stage came, Soul Tempering, he saw himself again. Not in a mirror, but from beyond.
He saw the boy he had been. And the man he was becoming.
It was more than physical.
It was identity.
The array burst into light.
Yan shielded her eyes as a pillar of golden-blue flame erupted around him. Runes rose from the ground, spiralling into the air, surrounding Ryu like protective wards.
When the light faded, he remained kneeling, but the chamber felt different. Charged. Sharpened.
And then, slowly, he opened his eyes.
They glowed faintly with a golden hue.
Meanwhile…
Kalavan pressed through a narrow cavern, lit only by veins of glowing crystal running along the walls. His robes were torn, and dust clung to every inch of his body, but his steps remained sure. The world had changed around him, and within him.
Ever since the collapse, something inside Kalavan had been alive. His body had absorbed a sliver of spirit energy, and now it guided him like instinct. He could feel the pull of Qi ahead, like a trail of wind that whispered where to go.
As he turned a final bend in the path, the darkness gave way to light.
And there, at the mouth of the corridor, he saw it, a palace. Towering. Ancient. Restored.
The Void Palace.
Kalavan's eyes widened. He stepped forward, and the palace responded. The ground lit beneath his feet, glowing softly in acknowledgment.
"I've found them," he whispered. "The princess… and Ryu."
He stepped through the gates.
Back inside the Void Chamber...
Ryu stood.
He rolled his shoulders, feeling the new strength in his frame. He wasn't just physically transformed; his foundation had been laid.
Stronger than any first-stage cultivator he'd ever read about. Deeper. More refined.
Yan approached him carefully. "You passed all six stages."
He nodded. "Yeah… and I think I'm ready for the next."
She tilted her head. "The Practitioner's Stage?"
He smiled. "Not quite yet."
He turned toward the centre of the array, where a new formation was forming, one that pulsed with the raw essence of elemental forces.
The next trial had already begun.
His element.
The room dimmed again as the cultivation array shifted beneath Ryu's feet.
The Six Soul Stages had been completed, each one carved into his being like chiselled stone. But now, the array transformed. Symbols flared along the outer edges of the formation, glowing with wild, untamed energy.
Fire. Water. Wind. Earth. Wood. Metal. Yin. Yang.
This was the Elemental Trial.
At its heart stood a pedestal surrounded by eight radiant stones, each pulsing with an elemental core. As Ryu approached, he felt the world bend slightly. Time slowed. Qi grew dense. Oppressive. His body tensed in response.
Behind him, Yan stood with quiet awe. "This room… it's made to help cultivators form their elemental bond."
Ryu nodded. "This is where the Void Emperor must have awakened his element."
She clasped her hands. "Do you know which one you'll choose?"
"I don't think I choose," he said. "I think it chooses me."
The array pulsed brighter. The elemental stones rose into the air. Eight, in total, circling Ryu like planets orbiting a sun.
Each radiated a different aura, testing his spirit.
The fire stone flared with searing heat. The wind core spiralled with sharp, dancing eddies. Water moved with gentle pressure, wrapping around like a current. But Ryu stood still, letting them pass. He didn't reach out.
He let them feel him.
Suddenly, two stones began to slow.
Fire and Yang.
The air thickened.
The fire element hovered closest, flickering with hungry, dancing light. The Yang stone glowed with brilliant warmth, a force of creation and life. The two began to swirl in unison, spiralling around Ryu like twin flames. Heat blossomed from the ground. The glyphs at his feet glowed brighter. His veins lit up with matching golden-orange energy.
Yan gasped softly. "They're resonating with you. Both of them."
"I feel it," Ryu whispered. "They're... merging."
The moment they touched his skin, his body surged with energy. A burning sensation raced through his limbs but it wasn't pain. It was purity. Cleansing. His soul embraced the fire, and the Yang force gave it clarity, direction.
And then stillness.
The two elements sank into his core, vanishing from sight.
A glowing seal formed on his chest, an ancient rune in the shape of a phoenix wrapped in a sunburst, marking his elemental affinity. It pulsed once... then dimmed.
Ryu opened his eyes.
They glowed faintly red gold.
He stepped back from the array, breathing heavily but steady.
Yan met him with a quiet smile. "You did it."
"I think…" he said, looking down at the mark on his chest, "I've just begun."
He turned to her. "You should try. The array it's responding to both of us."
Yan hesitated. "I haven't formed my foundation yet."
"You will. This palace accepted you. I think it always knew."
She took a slow breath and stepped into the circle.
The moment she did, the array reconfigured, its symbols shifting to those of the Six Soul Stages, just as they had for Ryu. The room dimmed again. Energy flowed inward.
Yan closed her eyes.
Let me prove I belong here.
The foundation process began.
Mind Tempering hit her like a storm. The weight of expectation, of legacy, of her royal status, everything tried to drown her.
You are only a name.
You are a symbol, not a warrior.
You will never live up to him.
But she pushed back with calm resolve. Not defiance just conviction.
She didn't fight the voices.
She outlasted them.
Her body trembled as she passed through the stages, one after the other. Her breath sharpened. Her skin flushed. Her aura flared with radiant flame as her cultivation pushed her forward.
Then, at the peak of Soul Tempering, something unexpected happened.
From behind a sealed drawer near the chamber wall, a pulse of ancient blood energy awakened. A vial shattered, its contents spilling into the air, drawn by her presence.
The entire chamber shifted hue from gold to crimson-gold.
Ryu felt the shift. "Something's… changing."
The air cracked with heat as the blood merged into the array, drawn toward Yan's body. She gasped as her arms ignited flames licking across her skin.
Not just elemental fire bloodline fire.
The Phoenix Bloodline had awakened.
Yan screamed, not in pain, but in transformation.
Wings of fire burst from her back only briefly, before fading. Her hair lengthened, glowing silver-white tinged with red at the tips. Her body shimmered with power. And as the energy settled, a mark burned onto her skin a phoenix crest, similar to Ryu's, but surrounded by curling tendrils of flame and feathers.
Then — silence.
Yan opened her eyes.
They were no longer red.
They were white-hot flame.
Ryu approached slowly; eyes wide. "You…"
"I know," she said breathlessly, still dazed. "I felt it. Something in me... woke up."
Ryu helped her to her feet.
Together, they stood in the glowing room, their marks pulsing in tandem.
Two phoenixes.
Two rebirths.