The fires of the battle in orbit had not yet cooled when the great summoning bells rang across the continents of Earth.
In every major cultivation sect, city, and empire, ancient bronze bells shaped by spiritual blacksmiths began to toll. These bells, linked by sound arrays, echoed across oceans and mountains—heard even within the depths of the Earth's inner sanctums and the orbiting colonies of Mars and Luna Prime.
Their meaning was clear.
A World-Scale Cultivators' War Summit had been called.
---
Deep within the heart of Mount Tianhua, Rael stood before the Crystal Table—a vast hexagonal slab made of living mineral harvested from the core of a dead planet. Floating above it was a holographic map of the Milky Way's Orion Arm, highlighting dozens of human territories and bordering alien regions.
Beside him stood the strongest cultivators from Earth and beyond: Selene, Kaen, Elder Wu of the Stoneforge Sect, High Priestess Nara of the Moonlight Temple, and Lord Zhen of the Solar Sea Empire. Even the reclusive members of the Beast Tribes had sent emissaries—powerful Spirit Beasts in human form, cloaked in regal fur and carrying the scent of primordial bloodlines.
One such beast, Fengri, a lion-headed Spiritual King from the Ashmane Clan, let out a low growl as he studied the map.
"This time, it won't be just a probing fleet. The Council will deploy legions—Spiritual Emperors, Saints, and perhaps even Sages."
Selene narrowed her eyes. "We can't win if we remain on the defensive. Earth is strong, yes, but not invincible."
Kaen leaned on the table, his fingers trailing over the positions of enemy fleets. "We need to strike first."
Elder Wu stroked his long grey beard. "But where?"
Rael raised his hand and rotated the projection.
He tapped a red-marked planet in the Zareth Expanse.
"Ordis VII. A Council-controlled resource planet guarded by mid-tier cultivators and a handful of battle fleets. It's where they refine celestial ore into spiritual weapons."
Lord Zhen nodded. "Taking it would send a clear message."
Rael met their eyes. "Not just a message. We're not playing defense anymore. We're starting a galactic war."
A heavy silence fell.
Then, the Crystal Table pulsed, shifting to display twelve projections of noble families and major human empires. The heads of the great clans—the Dawnlights, Blackthornes, Rainsteel, Azure Flame, and more—appeared one by one, each connected through long-range spirit communication.
"Rael," spoke Patriarch Xian of the Blackthorne Domain. "Is it true? A Godspawn was defeated in Earth's orbit?"
Rael nodded. "Yes. And it was only the beginning."
Patriarch Xian's gaze sharpened. "Then it's time we finally use what we've hoarded for millennia."
He turned to the others. "Let the Vaults be opened."
Across the galaxy, hidden spiritual treasuries began to glow.
From beneath desert temples, sealed glaciers, forgotten underwater shrines, and ruins cloaked in eternal mist—ancient weapons, forbidden techniques, and rare medicines were activated.
The War Era of human cultivation had begun.
---
That night, Rael stood alone in the Courtyard of Stars, gazing at the sky. A quiet hum resonated from the ring on his finger—his key to the Spatial Kingdom.
He activated it.
In a flash, his surroundings shifted. The courtyard vanished, replaced by an endless plain bathed in golden mist. Giant floating islands drifted in the sky, each one overflowing with spiritual herbs, rare beasts, or glowing mineral veins. The atmosphere buzzed with dense, compressed energy so rich it made breathing feel like absorbing nectar.
This was Henricus Longus's legacy—the Spatial Kingdom that stored the collective energy of millions of years.
Rael walked slowly, feeling the spiritual threads connect to his core.
He approached a crystal tree in the centre of the plain, each leaf sparkling like a star.
From it, he plucked a single fruit—the Divine Solar Core, a treasure that could advance a cultivator from early Spiritual General to late Spiritual King in one leap.
But Rael didn't consume it.
He stored it in a jade box, marked with a sigil of his own making.
"This will be for the first warrior who breaks the Council's barrier planet."
As he turned to leave, a whisper echoed from the depth of the kingdom.
"…You are close."
Rael froze. "Henricus?"
The voice was faint, as if spoken from another dimension.
"No," it replied. "The path… is awakening. The true system hidden within the Council's cultivation design. They broke it long ago… but the fragments remain. In your body. In your blood."
"What do you mean?" Rael whispered.
But the voice faded.
The wind shifted. The kingdom returned to silence.
Rael clenched his fist.
"The system the Council hides… I will uncover it."
He exited the kingdom.
And above him, the stars seemed to pulse faster—as if the universe itself waited.
As Rael stepped out from the Spatial Kingdom, a cold breeze swept through the upper terraces of Mount Tianhua. The stars above no longer twinkled with indifference. They burned with purpose.
Waiting at the terrace entrance was Selene, her silver hair glowing under the pale moonlight. She nodded as she approached.
"The Council fleet has started to move," she said. "One of our spies reported that three Stargates have opened in the Corvus Sector. They're less than a week from Zareth."
Rael's gaze sharpened. "Then Ordis VII will be their supply line."
Selene handed him a jade slip. "Here's the latest intelligence. They're bringing in refitted Dreadships, reinforced with Spiritual Alloys. The cultivators stationed there have mostly reached the Spiritual General and early King stages."
Rael scanned the data. "Then we send a team of our top generals. One from each major empire. They will strike quickly, destroy the refining cores, and escape before the fleet arrives."
Selene raised a brow. "And who will lead this mission?"
Rael answered without hesitation. "Kaen."
---
On the outskirts of Earth's Solar Border, the battlecruiser Iron Resolve hovered in the darkness of space. Forged from stardust crystal and layered with Spiritual Runes, it was one of Earth's first warships capable of interstellar traversal without needing Council stargates.
Kaen stood aboard its bridge, inspecting his team.
Beside him were:
Jun Fei, a peak-level Spiritual General from the Moonlight Temple, renowned for her Silent Blade Array technique that could silence enemy Qi.
Borak Ironfist, a Spiritual Warrior from the Dwarven enclaves of Titan, who used twin warhammers forged from magnetic ore that could crush through force fields.
Lira of the Red Thorn, a shadow cultivator with Void Talent, specialising in assassination.
Commander Velian, a human-alien hybrid with Spirit Beast bloodline, whose control over gravitational Qi made her invaluable in orbital strikes.
Kaen grinned. "We go in fast, hit their core systems, and leave nothing standing."
He turned to Lira. "Disable their alarms. Make it so they don't even know we were there until everything burns."
Lira smirked. "Already done."
Kaen looked forward through the crystal dome at the growing size of Ordis VII—a red-and-gold planet ringed by rotating refinery satellites.
"All units, prepare."
As the crew secured themselves, Kaen pulled out a dark pendant from his chest. It pulsed with Void Qi—a relic given to him by Rael himself. It would serve as a one-time escape beacon, activating a short-range rift to any point within one planetary system.
He held it tightly.
"If I die, at least I'll take half their planet with me."
---
Back on Earth, Rael meditated beneath the Thousand Star Waterfall, a sacred site where the flow of spiritual energy passed through space-time, allowing a cultivator's soul to synchronise with celestial patterns.
Streams of silver and gold energy cascaded around him, soaking into his skin.
He wasn't just cultivating anymore.
He was reconstructing his Spiritual Core.
Rael's hands moved through the air, shaping symbols in complex forms: combining Solar Qi, Void Qi, and the rare Temporal Qi he'd only begun to understand.
Then something unusual happened.
The waterfall froze.
Mid-air.
Even the wind stopped.
Rael opened his eyes, breathing heavily. "I broke into... the Second Phase of Spiritual Emperor..."
A system message echoed in his mind—not a true voice, but the lingering consciousness from Henricus Longus' legacy.
"Your foundation is no longer mortal. You are now a Transcendent Core Holder. Step carefully. You are awakening the original cultivation system before the Council rewrote the laws."
Rael stared ahead.
The time was approaching when he would no longer be hidden in Earth's shadow.
He would become its sword.
---
Meanwhile, on Ordis VII, the operation had begun.
Kaen descended like a meteor, his daggers coated in darkness. As he hit the refinery's central compound, the ground shattered beneath him, and the spiritual arrays around the buildings cracked like eggshells.
"Lira, now!" he shouted.
A pulse of Void spread across the entire facility. The alarms went dead. Lights blinked out.
Jun Fei materialised next to Kaen and summoned the Silent Blade Array, forming twelve flying blades that hovered in the air, humming with eerie silence.
The guards rushed out—Spiritual Generals with long-range cannons and swords glowing with Council techniques.
They didn't last long.
Kaen leapt through them like a storm of shadows. His strikes weren't elegant—they were brutal. Every slash tore through armour, every step brought him behind another enemy.
Borak charged through a barricade of iron walls, smashing two enemies with a single hammer strike. His battle aura, infused with raw magnetic power, caused enemy weapons to malfunction and levitate mid-air before snapping like twigs.
Meanwhile, Velian hovered above the refinery dome. Her hands weaved together as she pulled gravitational fields into a tight sphere and then crushed it into the main power core of the refinery.
BOOM!
The ground shook.
Below, Kaen roared, "Move to Phase Two! Blow the satellite relays!"
Lira reappeared at his side. "Done."
One by one, the orbiting satellites exploded.
Without them, Ordis VII's data transmissions were silenced. The Council wouldn't know what happened until they sent scouts.
Kaen activated the Void pendant. "Mission complete. Returning."
The crew vanished in a flash of spatial shift, just as enemy reinforcements broke atmosphere.
All they found were ruins.
And a message, carved into the molten ground.
"Your leash is broken. Humanity has teeth."