The pact was sealed not with a handshake, but with a quiet, promise that hung in the cold, thin air of the mountaintop. Fengliu, the Zephyr-Tide Roc King, looked at Li Yu, his ancient sky-blue eyes a swirling vortex of renewed hope and burning, centuries-old hatred. He had found his path to vengeance.
But there was a colossal, galaxy-shelled obstacle standing in the way of that path.
Khaos, his immense form still dominating the plateau, let out a low, rumbling sound of pure, unadulterated disdain. His voice, a deep, resonant boom that seemed to shake the very air around them, slammed into their ears.
"The bargain is struck? You have made a promise on this king's behalf, boy? You have committed my power to this lesser creature's pathetic quest for revenge? Your arrogance grows with your cultivation."
Li Yu turned to face the colossal sovereign, his expression of that of a child knowing he did wrong. He spoke aloud to Khaos. He argued not from pride, but from pure pragmatism: a Peak Core Formation beast was a significant risk for himself to fight and his own life, the anchor of their entire enterprise, was too valuable to gamble on a matter of pride when Khaos represented a guaranteed, risk-free solution.
Khaos considered this. The boy's cowardly logic was, he had to admit, sound. It was utterly pathetic but it made sense. He sounded back a final, grudging thought of assent, but his disdain was clear. The bird's quest was a tiresome affair, and it did not truly interest him.
Receiving the confirmation, Li Yu turned, his gaze falling upon the proud, hopeful Roc King.
"Sovereign Fengliu," Li Yu's voice was calm, but it carried a new, sharp edge of a negotiator. "You have made a request that requires the help of someone, a being you have just moments ago insulted with your foolish pride. Your life was spared not out of mercy, but because your skills are of use to me. You are now asking for the aid of that same power you insulted."
He took a step forward, his eyes locking with the Roc King's. "Your oath is meaningless. Your promises are just air. A request of this magnitude requires more than words. It requires a tribute. A show of sincerity to Khaos, the one who will do all the fighting. You will apologize to Lord Khaos for your insolence, and you will offer him a treasure worthy of his station. Only then will we consider your request."
The logic was brutal and humiliating. He was being asked to beg and pay for the aid of the very being who had just threatened to enslave him. Fengliu's iridescent feathers ruffled with a surge of renewed pride. But then he looked at the colossal, silent crab, at the absolute, casual power it radiated, and he looked at the memory of his sister, burning in a storm of ash and fire. His pride, which had cost him his sister's life once before, would not cost him his revenge.
With a deep, shuddering breath that seemed to carry the weight of three hundred years of grief, the proud Roc King lowered his majestic head in a deep, formal bow towards Khaos.
"Great Sovereign Khaos," Fengliu's voice was stripped of all its previous arrogance, filled only with a grim, desperate sincerity. "This one was blind with pride and ignorance. I have insulted your magnificence, and for that, I offer my deepest, most profound apology. My life is forfeit to you, but before you take it, I beg that you accept a tribute, a worthless trifle from my own meager collection, as a symbol of my sincerity."
He closed his eyes, and a single, perfect, crystalline tear, a solidified drop of a sovereign's grief, formed and fell to the stone plateau, shattering into a thousand glittering shards. From his own private storage dimension, a space woven from wind and light, a single object emerged, floating gently before him.
It was a beast core.
But it was unlike any core Li Yu had ever seen. It was the size of a human heart, and it was shaped like a perfect, iridescent feather, crafted from a shimmering, sky-blue crystal. It pulsed with a gentle, yet incredibly powerful, aura of pure wind and water. It held the faint, sorrowful echo of a once-great soul.
"When I finally mustered the courage to return to the Blasted Lands, a month after I fled…" Fengliu's voice was a choked, broken whisper. "Her body had been consumed by the elements, but her core… they had not even bothered to take it. They had killed her for sport, for the simple, cruel pleasure of it, and had left her legacy to be scattered by the winds."
Killing and being killed are the ways of the cultivation world. That is a fact that everyone had to accept. To fight against others, to fight for resources, to fight the very heavens. But to be killed and not even have a reason behind it, a meaningless death, that hit differently. Also, who said those that were killed couldn't be gotten revenge for, that was Fengliu's life. What he was consumed by since that time.
He looked at the floating, feather-shaped core, his ancient eyes filled with a love and a pain that was timeless. "This is her core. My twin sister's. It is my most treasured possession, the only thing of true value I have in this world. I offer it to you, Great Sovereign, because my request for your aid is a matter of the highest importance to me. This tribute is the only thing I have that can possibly convey the weight of my sincerity."
He was offering the very last piece of his sister's existence as payment for his revenge. The act of desperation, the sheer, absolute weight of his grief and determination, was a force more powerful than any technique.
A profound silence fell over the mountaintop. Kui and Xylia looked on, their own ancient hearts stirred by the Roc's tragic tale.
Khaos did not move. He simply stared at the feather-shaped core, the galaxies on his shell swirling slowly. He was a being of pride, of arrogance, of overwhelming power. He understood these things. But this… this was different. This was a tribute of a sovereign's love, a symbol of a shattered soul. He, who had never had a sibling, who had always been alone at the peak, could still recognize the sanctity of such a bond.
After a long, eternal moment, his voice, for the first time, was devoid of all arrogance, all contempt. It was a low, ancient, and deeply resonant rumble, the sound of a mountain giving its judgment.
"Keep your sister's core, little bird," he said, his voice soft, yet carrying an absolute finality.
Fengliu's eyes snapped open, his expression one of pure, uncomprehending shock.
"This king does not require payment for exterminating vermin," Khaos continued, a new, cold, and terrifying fire entering his voice. "Your sincerity… your determination… it is sufficient. The insult to my own honor is forgotten. My rage and power will now be directed towards your enemy."
He turned his immense, nebular gaze towards the distant, eastern horizon. "I will not just kill this Colossus for you. I will make it understand the meaning of pain. I will shatter its molten heart and grind its obsidian bones to dust. I will unmake it, piece by agonizing piece, and I will offer its screaming, terrified essence to the memory of your sister. That is my promise to you."
The promise was so absolute, so filled with a cold, terrifying wrath, that it made the very air grow colder.
Fengliu stared, his mind reeling. He had offered his most precious treasure, and it had been refused. He had been offered a promise of vengeance so profound, so absolute, that it surpassed anything he had ever dreamed of. He looked at the colossal crab, then at the calm human, and in that moment, his centuries of pride, his hatred of humans, all of it was washed away by a wave of pure, unadulterated, and overwhelming awe.
He did not need to be forced. He did not need to be threatened. He made his choice.
He lowered his majestic, iridescent head to the ground, a gesture of absolute, willing submission that no sovereign had made to another in ten thousand years.
"Great Sovereign Khaos," his voice was a quiet, steady vow. "This one's life was already forfeit. But now… it is yours by choice. I will not be your partner. I will be your servant. Allow me to bind my soul to yours. Allow me to be your eyes, your wings, your eternal, unwavering retainer. This is not a price. This is my honor."
From his own forehead, a single, shimmering drop of pure, silver soul-essence emerged. It floated towards Li Yu, a willing, voluntary offering. A master-servant contract, freely given.
Li Yu looked at the drop of soul-essence, then sent a quick, questioning thought to Khaos, who gave a single, almost imperceptible, mental nod of assent. Li Yu reached out and let the drop of soul-essence touch his finger, where it was instantly absorbed, forging an unbreakable, eternal bond.
The third sovereign of his empire had just been recruited.
Fengliu, now bound by a pact of his own making, rose, a new, fierce light in his eyes. His grief was still there, a cold stone in his soul, but it was now tempered by a burning, righteous purpose.
"The Blasted Lands lie to the east," he said, his voice now that of a loyal general reporting to his commander. "The Colossus lairs in a great, volcanic caldera known as the Ashen Maw. It is a place of fire and death. I will lead you there."
With the new alliance forged in a crucible of grief and pride, it was time to begin the hunt. Spine, who had remained a silent, mountainous observer throughout the entire exchange, let out a low, rumbling sound of approval.
Fengliu spread his magnificent wings. "We fly now!" he declared, his voice a clear, ringing cry of a king going to war.
He leaped from the peak, a flash of iridescent color against the bright blue sky. Spine followed, a dark, draconic shadow of immense power. The hunt for the Molten Heart Colossus had begun.