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The night before the Battle Royale was too still to be ordinary.
Even the wind that usually danced through the Sky Abyss Arena moved cautiously, whispering through the banners of a thousand sects. Campfires glowed like stars across the valley, each marking a group that would rise or fall with the dawn.
Cloud-Ridge's encampment stood along the eastern ridge, overlooking the river of light that wound through the arena floor. In the moonlight, the disciples of the fox-crest sect trained in silence. Theirs was the last night before chaos—and no one wanted to waste a breath.
Ria stood at the center of the training field, her sword buried upright before her, both hands resting on its hilt. Her eyes were closed, her breathing steady, her aura pulsing in gentle waves that shimmered with gold and silver light. Around her, Ren and the other chosen outer disciples formed a loose circle, their own qi harmonizing to hers.
Tomorrow, they would face the thousand sects.
Tonight, they would become one.
Ren stretched his arms, wincing as his joints cracked. "You know," he muttered, "most normal people sleep before fighting twelve thousand cultivators."
"Sleep dulls rhythm," Ria said softly. "The body must still move when thought is gone."
He grinned. "So, no sleep, just enlightenment through exhaustion. Got it."
Mei giggled quietly, arranging glowing talismans in a spiral pattern around the group. Jin spun his spear once and drove it into the ground, tracing a circle with its tip. Suna let water flow between her hands, shaping it into a translucent sphere that reflected the firelight. Lian and Hiro stood at the edges—Lian's crimson aura flickering like a heartbeat, Hiro's white wind circling her flames.
"Formation ready," Jin said.
Ria opened her eyes. The gold and silver within them glowed faintly, like twin moons. "Then we begin."
She drew her sword from the earth. The blade sang, resonating with the quiet hum of the Boundless Universe System that only she could hear.
> System Synchronization — Team Alignment: 94 %
Elemental Field Ready: Ignis Resonance
Advisory: Maintain Harmony. Overexertion may destabilize shared core flow.
Ria exhaled slowly. The air warmed around her. Fire and water rippled across the training ground as the Ignis Resonance Field unfolded—an aura that shimmered like dawn breaking underwater. The disciples felt its pull immediately; their qi responded instinctively, threads of energy connecting one heart to another.
"Hold your flow steady," Ria said. "Feel each other's rhythm. We fight as a single pulse."
Ren rolled his shoulders, twin blades gleaming. "Just tell me where to slice."
The field pulsed once, and they moved.
Their training wasn't combat—it was a dance. Jin lunged first, spear carving arcs of golden light. Ren met him mid-motion, crossing blades to deflect, spinning, redirecting force instead of clashing against it. Lian surged forward with flame trailing behind her, while Hiro countered with a burst of wind that split her fire into whirling ribbons. Mei's talismans glowed, expanding midair into shimmering seals that scattered illusions of enemies around them.
"Control the flow!" Ria called, her voice carrying effortlessly through the heat and noise. "Let your movement guide your mind!"
The ground lit beneath her feet as she advanced, sword cutting through the illusions in arcs that bent light itself. Flame followed her steps; mist trailed her strikes. She was no longer fighting—she was painting motion.
Ren laughed, even as he parried Jin's strike. "Every time I think I'm catching up, you start glowing again!"
"Then glow faster," she said, and her sword swept low, dispersing his afterimage with a gust of steam.
The System shimmered faintly across her vision.
> Harmonic Motion Catalyst — Active
Collective Stability: 100 %
Martial Skill Efficiency +4 %
Group Resonance Achieved.
They moved faster.
Water spun from Suna's hands, forming flowing paths that redirected Lian's flames into controlled bursts of heat. Hiro followed the flame trails, using them to channel air into crescents of slicing pressure. Ren and Jin wove through the chaos, their weapons flashing in precise rhythm. Every sound—steel, breath, heartbeats—aligned into one perfect cadence.
Ria's twin cores turned faster, feeding the rhythm. Her aura expanded, brushing against the walls of the camp and sending waves of shimmering mist into the air. The world itself seemed to respond—the grass bent toward her, the torches flickered higher.
> Boundless Universe System Update
Collective Efficiency ×4 Maintained.
Progression Stable.
New Title Effect Detected — Group Harmony Amplifier.
The camp guards paused at their posts to watch. Even some elders, walking between tents, stopped to see the glow rising from the Cloud-Ridge section like a pillar of living light. The energy was neither wild nor violent—it was alive, pulsing gently with the sound of unity.
Ren leapt back from the formation, panting and grinning. "Okay! I'm officially out of metaphors. We're terrifying."
"Not terrifying," Mei said between breaths. "Balanced."
Ria lowered her sword, the aura around her fading into soft motes of light. The others followed, sweat beading on their foreheads, expressions caught between fatigue and wonder. The field dimmed, but the warmth lingered—a pulse still connecting them all.
"The harmony holds," she murmured, checking the System's final readout.
> Synchronization: Perfect.
Core Efficiency Locked for 24 Hours.
Prepared for Grand Battle Royale.
Ren collapsed backward onto the grass. "Perfect harmony, huh? Guess we're done for the night."
Suna smirked. "If you can still talk, you can still train."
"Oh no," he groaned, rolling over. "Even the healer's gone bloodthirsty."
Laughter spread through the group, soft and genuine. For a moment, the pressure of tomorrow vanished. They were simply people again—friends on the edge of something vast and terrifying.
Ria sheathed her sword and turned toward the horizon. Beyond the distant peaks, she could see the faint shimmer of the Celestial Cavern—its light like a heartbeat beneath the stars. She wondered what it would feel like to step inside it. To breathe air so dense with power that it bent the soul itself.
Ren sat up beside her, following her gaze. "Thinking about winning already?"
"Thinking about what comes after," she said. "Power changes things. Not always for the better."
He leaned back on his hands, staring at the stars. "Then maybe we'll change better, yeah? With you bossing us around, how bad could it be?"
She smiled faintly. "You call it bossing. I call it guidance."
"Tomato, tomahto."
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The night deepened. One by one, the others drifted off to rest. Mei curled up beside her talisman scrolls, Jin meditated under his spear, and Lian's fire dimmed to a faint ember as she slept. Only Ria and Ren stayed awake, sitting side by side on the ridge.
The wind carried the sounds of other sects preparing—the clang of metal, the rumble of training chants, the distant hum of thunder as powerful cultivators tested their limits. The world felt like a bowstring pulled to its breaking point.
Ren broke the silence first. "You scared?"
Ria thought for a moment. "No. But I respect what's coming."
"Good answer. I'd say I'm fifty percent scared, fifty percent excited."
"Then you're balanced."
"Ha. Maybe your system should give me a title for that."
"It already did," she said quietly. "Partner."
He blinked at her, then smiled. "Yeah. I'll take that one."
They sat in silence again, watching the stars drift over the valley. A faint pulse of light flashed across the arena floor—formation arrays awakening one by one, preparing for dawn. The ground hummed softly beneath them.
The Boundless Universe System flickered once more in her mind.
> Final Notice — Grand Battle Royale Commences in 6 Hours.
Recommended Action: Rest, Maintain Qi Stability.
Progress Log: Chapter 40 of 1 000 +.
Ria rose, brushing dew from her robes. "Get some sleep, Ren."
"You first," he said, eyes half-closed.
"I'll watch the stars for a while."
He yawned. "Tell them to cheer for us."
"I think they already do."
As he drifted into sleep, Ria looked up at the vastness of the night sky. For a heartbeat, she could almost see the fox spirit within her reflected among the constellations, tails spread wide, eyes full of quiet fire.
Tomorrow, the world would roar.
But tonight, it listened.
And in the silence before dawn, the fox smiled.
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