CHAPTER 244: WORLD QUEST COMPLETE

Author’s Note: Do Not Unlock Yet. Chapter Is Still Under Construction.

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He inhaled deeply, then approached Lord Shen Yi and Master Yue Lan, who were waiting patiently in the Great Hall lined with glimmering arcane glyphs. Their expressions held polite vigilance—they had expected him.

"Master Lan," Victor bowed. "I’m ready to begin Tier 3 training."

Lord Shen Yi held up a hand. "We were just discussing your schedule. You have less than two weeks to learn the third-tier seal formation and array reinforcement. Failure is not an option."

Victor shut his eyes. The weight of the world pressed on his shoulders.

"But—," Shen Yi continued, voice sharp, "you were away handling that traumatic Blight Swamp mission. Lady Qing was right to insist that you be given priority. But the time lost..."

Victor’s fist clenched, but his voice was steady: "Leave it to me."

—

—Training Domain: Phase 1—

Victor stepped into a secluded part of the hall that Master Yue Lan had prepared. Ancient runes etched into the floor glowed steady. This was one of the specialist domain rooms, spaces where trainees could activate their elemental Domain or Bloodline techniques and control time to an extent.

Master Yue Lan offered a formal bow. "Demonstrate your ability."

Victor took a deep breath, his ears alive to the faint hum of magical energy. Then he activated his Void Emperor Bloodline.

From his core, milky-white qi surged across his skin. His hair floated, eyes gleamed, and arrow-like patterns flared across his arms and neck. The air around him shimmered. Then, using Void Domain, he shifted reality within a fifty-foot radius.

Time inside the domain slowed outward—relatively speaking, time outside was normal—but inside, it sped up by a staggering factor, effectively reducing days of learning to mere hours.

SYSTEM – DOMAIN ACTIVE

Void Emperor Domain – Tier II

Time Dilation x200

Cooldown: 90 minutes

This allowed Victor to absorb teachings at incredible speed. Master Yue Lan began the first Signs of the Supreme Array Formation, reciting ancient glyph incantations while Victor simultaneously sketched them in the air with concentrated qi strokes. The scrolls filled with glowing blue-ink tracings as layers of arcane geometry unfolded across the void room.

As Victor traced each line, arrays within the patterns began to hum with thin threads of energy. He adjusted sub-nodes, bolstered binding seals, and layered counter-symbols—all taught theory before, but now it was being made real.

Four hours inside the Domain equated to months of normal time. When he deactivated the domain, the wind snapped through the hall, and he collapsed to his knees, panting.

Master Yue carved symbols in the air with mana and smiled. "You’ve mastered the First-Tier Array Configuration. Two more to go."

—

—Training Domain: Phase 2—

Over the next two days of accelerated training, Victor mastered the second tier and moved into Tier III theory—the Perfect Seal Foundation formation.

It was a complex combination of five arrays nested together: Dragon Coil, Seal of the Grand Pacifier, Ether-Lock Cipher, Voidwell Engagement Matrix, and the Radiant Pale Flow.

Each component required precise qi input, energized through elemental catalysts: star-iron dust, crystalline jade pieces, herbal concentrates, liquefied moonlight, ghost-flame ash and a drop of royal blood—Xuan Qing had given him two drops weeks ago, cryptocurrency for arcane calibrations.

Inside the Domain, the theory became practice. Victor emphatically repeated each pattern day and night, cycling through memory drills, array reinforcement, and error-correction feedback. By Day 4, he had internalized the Perfect Seal Formation completely.

When he stepped out again, exhausted but triumphant, two notifications glowed:

SYSTEM – TRACE COMPLETE

Tier 3 Array Formation – Learned.

Unlock: Seal Reinforcement Technique (Level 3)

SYSTEM – ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

"Master of Tiers: You have learned the Perfect Seal Formation ahead of schedule."

Reward: +5000 EXP, +50 Spirit Coins

Master Yue Lan and Lord Shen Yi watched with respectful surprise.

"You did it," Master Lan said, voice hushed. "Three tiers in four days?"

Victor nodded, using a hand to hold his side. "With the Domain, everything inside feels faster."

Lord Shen Yi frowned, tapping his chin. "But there’s always a cost. The cooldown will be back in full. You’ll need to apply this outside the Domain—meaning real-time learning. Tomorrow, we begin immediate seal reinforcement."

—

—Gathering the Tools—

The next morning, Victor woke at dawn. He needed to gather ingredients—Moonveil Thistle (from Tarkos), Crimson Sang Tea, Spirit-Leech Root, Firewind Mandrake, Dragon’s Breath Crystals, Mists of the Blistering Peak, and the high-clarity Caustic Moon Sand—for sealing surfaces.

He also needed special tools: an eight-fold cauldron made of Void-Steel, enchanted parchments, binding scrolls with celestial silk threads, serpent-ink pens, and a set of lunar chiseling daggers.

The palace smithy handed him the cauldron, still warm, ridged with runic glyphs, and glowing faintly blue. The library gave him four sealed scrolls. The apothecary handed him bottles of reagents, mandrake root wrapped in silk, jars of dust, labeled and dated.

Alongside the reagents, he met Tarkos in the palace courtyard.

Tarkos approached, pausing before handing over a root-wrapped Moonveil Thistle. "Picked it myself," he said simply. "Ready whenever you are."

Victor nodded. "Thank you."

Tarkos’s expression was taciturn. "Just... do it fast. We can’t afford issues."

The courier carried everything into the palace’s specialized array hall—a grand circular chamber built around a central fissure that connected to the Ancient Grove portal. Intricate magical glyphs etched into the floor.

Tonight, the world would change.

—Final Preparations

As evening fell, Victor set down the cauldron, arranged herbs in the airpane compartments, unrolled the parchments, and positioned the crystallized reagents around the central node—exactly equidistant.

He opened his bag and pulled out his containment box—sealed with void locks. Inside it spooled three dozen rolls of celestial silk thread, liquid glyph ink, and pearl-white binding ribbons.

A final notification flared:

SYSTEM – PRE-SEAL PREPARATION COMPLETED

All ingredients accounted for.

Next Step: Engage Tier 3 Seal Reinforcement at Ancient Grove Portal.

Victor’s heart hammered.

Tomorrow, he would step into the Ancient Grove and apply everything—Tier 3 array techniques in real time, without the safety of Domain pockets. He would stoke the fissures, reinforce the chains, re-sanctify the talismans. If he did it successfully, the corrupt immortals would remain locked for millennia. If he failed—he’d unleash them upon Blueflame City.

He slid a hand over the cauldron lip and exhaled. "Let’s finish this."

A cool breeze whispered through the chamber as the Palace lanterns dimmed, and Victor sat cross-legged, chanting the Perfect Seal Incantation, preparing his mind for the crucible of stone, steel and arcane fate.

— End of Chapter —

SYSTEM – PRE-SEAL PREPARATION COMPLETED

All ingredients accounted for.

Next Step: Engage Tier 3 Seal Reinforcement at Ancient Grove Portal.

Victor’s heart hammered.

Tomorrow, he would step into the Ancient Grove and apply everything—Tier 3 array techniques in real time, without the safety of Domain pockets. He would stoke the fissures, reinforce the chains, re-sanctify the talismans. If he did it successfully, the corrupt immortals would remain locked for millennia. If he failed—he’d unleash them upon Blueflame City.

He slid a hand over the cauldron lip and exhaled. "Let’s finish this."

A cool breeze whispered through the chamber as the Palace lanterns dimmed, and Victor sat cross-legged, chanting the Perfect Seal Incantation, preparing his mind for the crucible of stone, steel and arcane fate.

— End of Chapter —

Victor Revenant stood before the gnarled arch of ancient roots marking the entrance to the Ancient Grove, his body tense beneath the weight of the orders he carried. Elder Mo stood to his left, robes fluttering in the wind, eyes unreadable yet unwavering. Behind Victor, Tarkos and two other cultivators lined up, their expressions curt, respectful, ready.

The mouth of the Grove was lined with thrashing vines that rumbled at Victor’s presence—an ominous roar that rejected any soul without the Void Emperor Bloodline. But Victor had walked this path twice before. The first time, driven by fate; the second, by rescue. Now, he returned as destiny itself.

—

The Entrance

A narrow tunnel of twisted vines stretched before him, dancing in silent greenness. Elder Mo stepped forward, planting his staff at the threshold and nodding to Victor. "We may wait here," Elder Mo whispered. "Enter and begin. But be swift. This place will not allow shadows or delays."

Victor nodded. He took one final breath, feeling the residual tingle of the Bloodline in his veins—skin tingling, hair lifted by unseen currents. He raised his hand, and the vines parted like curtains.

Inside, the underwater glow of bio-luminescent fungi lit a shaft of ghostly green light. The path wound downwards, surrounded by skeletal trees whose branches wept silver sap. The aura here was thick—an ancient magic that spoke of power and danger entwined. Every step Victor took echoed with the chanting of distant energies, deep in the soil, thrumming with timelines.

A pale, central shaft of moonlight beckoned ahead. Victor knew this was the Weeping Hollow—the prelude to the sealed gate. With each stride forward, he felt time warp, as if the Forest itself tried to slow him.

He stopped only at the edge of a dim pit, where the gate drifted down like an upside-down carousel of chains, talismans, seals, and links—dripping with tarnished magic.

—

The Gate of Corruption

The structure loomed like a brutalist sculpture centuries old. Chains thicker than a man’s waist coil through ancient pillars, binding a floating ring. Enchanted talismans fluttered against one another, some glowing crimson, others darkly dull. The seals—moon-white glittering strings—crossed the gate like spiderwebs.

Victor drew the crafted scrolls from his bag and released them across a low ledge. A subtle hum flared where they landed.

SYSTEM – INITIATING SEAL REINFORCEMENT

Required Components: Caustic Moon Sand, Crescent Night Phial, Moonveil Thistle Decoction, Dragon’s Breath Crystals

Bloodline Integration: 62% (VOID EMPEROR)

The notification shimmered—tailored coldly, mocking.

He stooped, dropped Caustic Moon Sand into a hollow bowl. Once poured, a cloud of pale dust rose like threads through the moonbeams. Carefully, Victor lit the Crescent Night Phial’s eclipse flame and heated it. When carefully balanced, he placed a dust-covered talisman into the glow as it cooked, shifting color from silver to pale gold.

His hands traced glyphs in the dirt. His voice, low and steady, recited sealing mantras: "Moon-chain, bind from void. Let light and dark entwine. Flow through threefold circle—seal be whole."

At the first flicker, gold veins crept into the dull talisman. It glowed, resonated, then snapped into place—pinned atop the eastern pillar. It whispered with reassurance.

One down.

He moved to another tap, pouring Moonveil Thistle Decoction atop the nearest chain knot. His fingers twined the solution around cold iron, chanting "My qi weave, union cleave..." The chain drank the golden red liquid until warmth spread through it. A lock of icy-blue energy pulsed and sealed.

Two down.

—

The Cauldron Ritual

Victor opened the Void-Steel cauldron, its metal still humming. With hands trembling but precise, he combined Dragon’s Breath Crystals and liquefied moonlight in swirling patterns. Steam erupted with sapphire haze.

He breathed into the steam vortex, imprinting critical patterns of his void qi, stable enough to resist drop below the threshold. Four pillars in a row were next: Dragon Coil, Pacifier Seal, Ether-Lock, Voidwell—each demanding a specific timeline of boiling, stirring, chanting.

As he worked, the Bloodline Qi pulsed stronger. For a moment he felt more than 62%; he tasted clashing currents of life, void, sacrifice. But he didn’t dare push deeper—he needed margins.

Scratch: An error sonic reaction at pillar three. The cauldron hissed violently, vapor scraping the edges of sanity. Victor froze. His heart pounding.

From behind, Elder Mo’s voice whispered—"Steady."

It steadied. Victor grounded himself. One deep breath.

He corrected the flow, grounded the bloodline to a single frequency, recited the silence rune "Zhuan Yan"... and fixed the loop.

The Cauldron’s lid rumbled, then cracked inward and bloomed. A small sapphire orb floated above it, humming softly.

He grabbed it with scroll ink droplets and pressed it against pillar two. Light rushed outward, sealing perfectly.

—

The Binding Scrolls

At each pillar’s base, Victor took his celestial parchments—thin as mist yet unbreaking. Each scroll required woven lines of moon-silk and qi-shaped inks written in perfect symmetry.

He dipped the serpent-ink pen and penned the glyph: "Void Anchor of Eternal Slumber, let gate stand unshaken."

Each parchment, glowing softly, sealed itself onto the pillar, fusing with the chain-link enchantments.

Fifth pillar, sixth pillar—he worked until nine parchments were sealed across the eastern half of the ring.

—

Time Falters

He could already sense the backlash of bloodline exhaustion. Fingertips grew pale. Sweat burned at his skin. The cavern air quivered.

But three more seals remained.

His vision blurred. The ground seemed to undulate in time-lapse.

He took another breath, extended his arms—activated the Void Domain field once more.

SYSTEM – VOID DOMAIN ACTIVE

Time Dilation x200

Cooldown available after 100 minutes

Inside, time slowed, his body still strong. But the strain grew. Back and forth, parable of breathwork and hour-long strings of work.

Elder Mo’s presence flickered now—he could not breathe outside the domain, and he hovered at the edge of its light-marker.

Victor pushed forward. The tenth talisman, 11th scroll. The final cornerstone: the Dragon Coil Array—where chains, glyphs, crystals, and Dragon’s Breath merged.

He took the sapphire orb from the cauldron’s lid.

He pressed his palm. Qi flared, converged. A shockwave followed as the orb dissolved into light, staining the array.

For a heartbeat, silence fell.

Then...

A ripple across the ring—the entire gate vibrated, chains stopped quivering, talismans shimmered, seals sealed themselves.

The gateways flew into stasis.

Victor felt the final echo of corrupted energy snap in half.

SYSTEM – SEAL REINFORCEMENT COMPLETE

Gate to Hollow Verdant—Stabilized

**Corrupt Immortal Imprisonment: ** Secured

Reward: +20,000 EXP, +Longevity Shard, +Sealcraft Mastery Boost

Victor finally collapsed—blood running from his nose and mouth. Void Qi flickered in pulses around him.

Elder Mo rushed forward. "Fang Chen! Are you alive?"

He sank beside him, supported by Tarkos.

Victor swallowed. "It’s done," he whispered. "All seven tiers... all reinforced."

Tarkos placed a steady hand on his shoulder. "You did it," he said quietly.

Victor closed his eyes as Elder Mo removed the suppression cuff—only now that it was safe to channel again. Blade of Void Qi glimmered faintly in his palm.

Somewhere behind them, the branches of the Weeping Hollow groaned in relief. The corrupted aura collapsed, folded in upon itself.

Beyond the gate, the Ancient Grove stirred—warped energies resealed behind massive void arcs.

Victor inhaled a deep breath of ancient air.

He had contracted the impossible. But at 62% bloodline integration, he couldn’t hold much longer.

He staggered to a sitting position.

—

Epilogue at the gate

Silence wrapped the group. Elder Mo offered a cloth.

Victor gasped as he nodded. "I—I will rest."

Tarkos nodded too. "Take ten minutes. Or two."

Victor looked up.