The golden silhouette of Sylas floated in the void, his featureless visage angled toward a massive projection before him. Within the visual link sat a figure whose very presence seemed to weigh down the transmission.
After Sylas finished reporting the entirety of his encounter with Adrian, the Void Emperor did not react with anger.
Instead, a low, resonant sound filled the quiet expanse.
The Void Emperor laughed softly.
"He is truly surprising me again and again," he murmured, his voice carrying genuine amusement. "We thought his ideal was naive. We assumed his Origin Path was a flawed, terminal trajectory that would eventually crush him under its own flaws. But he has slammed our mouths shut with his actions. And now, he even rejected the opportunity to join my sect because he wants to create his own foundation."
The Void Emperor's violet eyes, swirling like collapsing galaxies, gleamed with respect. "Such ambitions, backed with a mysterious Prime Arcane Concept... he is truly something."
Sylas remained bowed, the golden light around him pulsing with uncertainty. "Master, what should we do now? If he refuses our protection, the other Major Sects will eventually target him."
"I had planned to talk with him directly when he made it to our sect," the Void Emperor replied, resting his chin casually on a hand adorned with nebulae-like streaks. "But it seems he would never join in the first place... It seems a change of plans is needed."
The Emperor's gaze shifted, piercing through the visual link as if looking across the universe itself. "Sylas, you return to the Milky Way Galaxy. I will take care of this young anomaly."
Sylas's golden form flickered violently, a rare display of shock breaking his usual serene composure. The Void Emperor directly stepping forward? A being of his unfathomable magnitude personally intervening for a single cultivator? It was something Sylas had not imagined possible.
"Yes, Master," Sylas finally managed to say, bowing deeply.
The Void Emperor ended the visual link, the projection collapsing into a shower of fading light.
Billions of light-years away, in a secluded chamber within his palace in the distant Void Galaxy, the Void Emperor rose slowly from his throne. He stepped toward the edge of his sanctuary, gazing out across the endless expanse of his galaxy. Stars burned in their trillions, swirling in magnificent clusters, each one a testament to the universe's staggering vastness.
He raised one of his hands, his fingers tracing an unseen line in the cosmic fabric, and gently pressed one of his fingers into the empty void.
…
Back within the Crimson Spire, Adrian entered his private chamber, the heavy doors sealing shut behind him.
He walked toward the center of the room, his mind completely unbothered by his rejection of the Void Sect. That decision had been forged in iron, and he harbored no regrets about turning down Sylas's offer. What truly occupied his thoughts was the warning Sylas had delivered.
The Major Sects already had their eyes on the Andromeda Galaxy. The chime had acted as a beacon, alerting the titans of the universe to his existence. If what Sylas said was true, the danger to his people was not a distant possibility. He needed to do something, to prepare a contingency, before things escalated to a stage he could no longer control.
As he was thinking this, the ambient mana in the room suddenly froze.
Before Adrian could summon a thread of his Source essence or even expand his domain, the space around him shattered like glass. The walls of his private chamber, the void of the Andromeda Galaxy, the very fabric of reality itself broke into millions of jagged pieces.
With a blinding flash, Adrian found himself standing upon soft, damp grass.
"What the—" Adrian muttered, his voice catching in his throat as even his mind couldn't grasp the situation properly.
There was no spatial teleportation ripple. There was no authority usage to suppress or negate. Without any of the conventional powers of the universe applying, Adrian had been violently pulled somewhere else.
He expanded his perception instantly, his body tensed for combat, but his senses met only an empty grassland surrounded by thick, impenetrable fog in the distance.
"Is this a Major Sect's doing?" Adrian thought, a cold chill running down his spine as he analyzed his surroundings. He possessed one hundred percent authority through his Source, yet he had been transported without even the slightest ability to resist or detect the method. "Are they this powerful?"
Suddenly, a few paces in front of him, Adrian noticed a simple wooden table set amidst the vibrant green grass. Seated at the table was a humanoid man, calmly pouring a steaming, nearly transparent hot liquid from a teapot into two small cups.
Adrian's gaze locked onto the man.
The man's skin bore faint streaks of violet, appearing as if miniature nebulae were continuously passing beneath the surface of his flesh. Pure white hair cascaded past his broad shoulders, swaying slightly. But it was his eyes that commanded absolute attention, striking violet orbs that looked exactly like twin galaxies collapsing inward, holding a power so immense that simply making eye contact felt like staring into an endless abyss.
"Who are you?" Adrian asked, keeping his hands ready at his sides as he took a cautious step toward the unknown man.
The man did not look up from the cups, his movements slow, deliberate, and entirely unbothered by the hostility radiating from Adrian. "You should have heard about me from Sylas," the humanoid man replied.
"Void Emperor??" Adrian asked, his eyes narrowing as he assessed the entity before him.
"Yes," the Void Emperor nodded, setting the small teapot down gently on the wooden table.
Adrian's muscles remained tense. His mind raced to calculate his options, though he knew deep down that if a being able to teleport him here like this wanted him dead, he would have already been erased.
"I suppose you are not planning to leave me?" Adrian asked, his tone guarded, expecting an immediate suppression.
The Void Emperor simply smiled and moved one of the filled cups across the table toward the empty seat opposite him. He gestured with a graceful sweep of his hand. "Come, have a seat and drink first."
Adrian hesitated for a fraction of a second. There was no killing intent radiating from the ancient ruler, only a suffocating, boundless calm. Cautiously, Adrian stepped forward through the damp grass and took his seat directly across from the Void Emperor.
Adrian held the small cup in his hands, feeling the gentle warmth radiating through it. He looked down at the nearly transparent hot liquid within it, but he did not bring it to his lips. He could not simply drink something unknown, especially not something offered by the leader of a Great Sect.
The Void Emperor watched Adrian's cautious grip on the cup and let out a soft chuckle. He lifted his own cup and took a slow sip, savoring the warmth as he closed his eyes briefly.
"You are cautious. Good. It is a trait that has kept you alive thus far," the Emperor said, setting his cup down. "But you can relax, Adrian Blackwood. I did not pull you across the universe to poison you, nor did I come here to force you to join my sect against your will. I merely came here to talk."
Adrian kept the cup in his hands, his white-grey eyes locked onto the ancient being. "To talk? After I just threatened to tear your sect apart from its foundations?"
"Especially because of that," the Void Emperor replied, his eyes gleaming with genuine amusement. "It takes a certain kind of madness, or a level of confidence, to threaten a Great Sect. I was thoroughly impressed by your madness and your rejection of my offers. Your dedication to this 'Origin Path' of yours... it is fascinating."
The Void Emperor leaned back slightly, gazing past Adrian into the dense fog surrounding them. "There is a reason why I subjected you to such a harsh test, Adrian. A reason why I commanded Sylas to observe you, to pressure you, and to offer you a place only if you abandoned your attachments."
Adrian remained silent, listening intently, knowing that the words of an existence at this apex carried truths most cultivators would kill to hear.
"I firmly believe that true strength is lonely by nature," the Emperor continued, "The universe is an infinite, uncaring expanse, and it inherently favors the solitary climber. The higher you ascend, the narrower the peak becomes. There is simply not enough room at the absolute apex for an entire empire."
"In my early years, I, too, had a family. I had companions who fought by my side, friends who bled with me, a mortal civilization I loved with all my heart. I wished to bring them all along on my cultivation journey. I wanted us to reach the heavens together."
The Emperor's voice grew quieter, laced with an old, inextinguishable sorrow that made the surrounding fog thicken. "But I learned a cruel truth. Talent is not something that can be shared. Comprehension cannot be simply handed out. As my own cultivation rose higher and higher, stepping into the Rule Stage, and eventually breaking the threshold of the Astral Stage, the gap between us grew insurmountable. Those without comparable aptitude were left behind."
"I watched them age. I watched them fail to form their Rule Cores. And eventually... I watched them die. One by one, until there was no one left but me. I had no choice but to walk the rest of eternity alone. That is the true burden of the strong, Adrian. You outlive everything you love."
Adrian felt a slight tightening in his chest. He understood the tragedy the Void Emperor was describing. It was the exact tragedy Adrian had feared since the very beginning, one of the main reasons he had spent so much effort on Origin Path. He had seen the gap forming back on Earth, and he had refused to accept it.
"That is why I did not believe in your Origin Path," the Void Emperor stated plainly. "I saw your ideals as something naive. A beautiful dream that would eventually crush you under the weight of grief when reality took its toll. I put you to the test because I wanted the universe to break that naivety for you, so you would realize early on that you had to walk alone."
A faint, genuine smile broke through the Emperor's sorrow. "And yet... you have clearly shown me that your path is surprisingly viable. At least, for you."
The Void Emperor gestured gracefully to the space between them. "I do not know the exact mechanics of your secrets. I know you possess a Prime Arcane Concept, and I sense that you have found a method to bypass the natural restrictions of comprehension for your people. You have elevated them to stand beside you. You achieved what I could not."
Adrian's eyes narrowed slightly. The Void Emperor was somehow able to see through the effects of the [Crown of the Source], or at least he had recognized enough to understand that Adrian's people were not growing through ordinary talent alone. That realization made Adrian slowly begin to understand the extent of the power possessed by the being sitting before him.
This was not Sylas, who had only interpreted his abilities through incomplete observations. The Void Emperor was seeing deeper, not everything, but far more than Adrian was comfortable with. His perception itself existed on a frightening level.
Adrian finally lowered the cup, placing it gently on the wooden table. "I am not a god or a ancient being like you. I am just a human who refused to accept that the universe dictates who gets to stand at the top. If the rules said I had to leave them behind, then I had to rewrite the rules."
"And so you did," the Void Emperor nodded, his tone carrying respect. "You have forged your own foundation, and I am not here to ask you to join my sect anymore, Adrian. I can see the sheer magnitude of your ambitions. You wish to build a Great Sect of your own, one that can rival or surpass everything that currently exists, right?. I can see through you, and I am not a fool to try and change a decision forged with such resolve."
"If you are not here to recruit me, and not here to kill me," Adrian said, his voice steadying, "then what is the purpose of this meeting? Just to share history?"
The Void Emperor picked up his cup once more, the violet galaxies in his eyes swirling with a sudden, sharp intensity.
"Yes. To share history," the Void Emperor said softly. "And to see for myself the man who intends to challenge the very heavens I sit upon."