The night outside Blinding Town was eerily still. The fog hung low, not drifting as it usually did, but suspended — as though the air itself was waiting. Only the faint hum of energy beneath the ground disturbed the silence, pulsing with a rhythm that seemed to echo the world's heartbeat.

Mayor Everlyn moved swiftly through the winding forest path that led to the cave hidden behind the town's veil. Her teal coat brushed against damp leaves as her boots crunched over the mossy soil. The deeper she went, the heavier the air became — the veins of power beneath the earth whispering warnings she couldn't ignore.

She clenched her jaw as she wondered.

'What is going on her?'

The confrontation earlier still weighed on her mind. The World Class cultivator's words — "the world has begun to move against him" — lingered like a curse. Everlyn wasn't easily shaken, but tonight, the World Vein was behaving differently. Its pulse was chaotic, unstable.

When she finally stepped out of the misted woods, the mouth of the cave loomed ahead — a natural fissure in the rocky hillside, glowing faintly with blue light from within. The air here buzzed with raw spiritual energy, the kind only a true World Vein could release.

But what caught her attention immediately weren't the glowing veins or the energy waves.

It was Bob, Julian, and Boma, all standing outside.

They weren't meditating. They weren't guarding. They were staring.

"Why are you three out here? Have you guys forgotten the situation you are in?" Everlyn asked, her voice low but firm as she approached.

The men turned. Bob's expression was unusually grim, Julian's face pale under the flickering light, and Boma's usual confidence replaced by something close to unease.

"Mayor Everlyn…" Bob began, then stopped himself, looking back toward the cave entrance.

Everlyn followed his gaze. The light from the cave flickered, irregular — bright one moment, dim the next, as if the energy inside was unstable.

Her eyes narrowed. "What's happening?"

Julian exhaled shakily. "It's Hutton."

Everlyn's heart skipped. "What about him?"

Boma folded his arms, his deep voice rumbling. "He's been in there for three hours now. At first, it was calm — like he was cultivating normally. But then…" He gestured toward the cave. "The energy started changing. Violent. Uncontrolled. Like the World Vein itself is reacting to him."

The mayor stepped closer to the entrance. The air around it was thick — almost suffocating. Blue arcs of Qi sparked faintly across the rocks, sizzling like static.

Julian continued quietly, "It's not just his Qi signature. There's something else mixed in — darker. Wilder. Every few minutes, the entire Vein pulses like it's rejecting him."

"Rejecting?" Everlyn repeated, her tone tightening.

Bob nodded grimly. "Or… submitting. We can't tell which."

A heavy silence fell. The ground beneath them trembled softly, a faint vibration that made the fog ripple at their feet.

Everlyn stared into the glowing cave mouth. Deep inside, she could sense him — Hutton Maxwell — his energy fluctuating violently between calm and chaos, as though two forces inside him were colliding. The God Crystals' aura pulsed faintly with his heartbeat, resonating with the Vein.

He's trying to absorb it… she realized.

But the World Vein isn't just a reservoir. It's alive.

Boma's voice broke the silence. "Mayor, I've seen many men cultivate beyond their limit, but this… this feels like he's trying to fuse with something he shouldn't."

Everlyn's eyes softened slightly, worry flickering across her calm face. "He's desperate. He knows they're coming. That's why he's pushing himself."

The light from the cave surged suddenly — a burst of blue so intense that everyone had to shield their eyes. The shockwave sent a gust of wind through the clearing, tearing leaves from trees and scattering pebbles across the ground.

When the light dimmed again, Everlyn took a cautious step forward, the hem of her coat fluttering. "If he continues like this, the Vein might collapse—or worse, devour him."

Bob gritted his teeth. "Then what do we do?"

Everlyn didn't answer immediately. Her eyes stayed fixed on the cave, her senses reaching out. Beneath the unstable aura, she could feel Hutton's spirit — strained but unyielding. He was fighting something deep within.

And then she felt it — faint but unmistakable.

A foreign pulse. A whisper of another presence, ancient and vast, resonating through the Vein.

Her breath caught. "No…" she whispered.

Julian frowned. "What is it?"

Everlyn's voice was low, almost trembling. "Someone—or something—is awakening inside the Vein. And Hutton's touching it."

The wind howled again, stronger this time. The ground cracked slightly beneath their feet, light bleeding through the fissures like molten energy.

Boma took a defensive stance. "Mayor, should we pull him out?"

She shook her head sharply. "No. If you interfere now, the backlash will kill him. We can only hold the perimeter."

They all fell silent. The glow from the cave intensified again, and from deep within came the faint sound of a low, echoing hum — like the heartbeat of a sleeping beast.

Everlyn stared into the flickering blue light, her mind racing.

The storm has already begun.

Thunder rolled faintly in the distance — not from the sky, but from beneath the earth. The World Vein was trembling.

And inside that glowing cave, the outline of a man kneeling in the center began to blur, as if his body was merging with the energy around him.

Everlyn's eyes widened. "Hutton…"

The light exploded outward once more, bathing the entire forest in blinding blue.

-----

The world inside the cave was unrecognizable.

The deeper Hutton sat in the lotus position, the more it felt like he was drifting between dimensions. The cavern walls that once pulsed faintly with light were now alive — threads of energy weaving in and out like veins in a colossal living heart.

He could hear them.

Whispers.

Soft. Endless.

Each one feels like it carried the weight of an age long forgotten.

"Return what is borrowed…"

"You cannot bear its pulse…"

"Mortal hands… should not touch divinity…"

Hutton gritted his teeth, sweat dripping down his face. His core was burning. The God Crystals, nestled deep within his palm right next to his dantian, had gone from radiant blue to blinding white. Every breath he took was pain — a searing, twisting kind that clawed at his soul and body alike.

He wanted to scream, but he didn't. He couldn't. Not when he was this close.

'Just a little more…'

He'd come too far to stop now. The God Crystals' energy was the only thing keeping him ahead of the predators that hunted him — the Harbingers, the World Class families, even the shadows that moved unseen across nations.

If he could fuse it properly… if he could align it with the World Vein's flow, he could ascend beyond Core Formation. He could touch the threshold of a Nascent Soul cultivator — or at least, something close to it.

But the Vein resisted him.

Each pulse of energy he drew was met by a counterforce — like two hearts beating out of sync. The deeper he pushed, the more violent the backlash became.

'You're not rejecting me', Hutton growled in his mind, forcing his Qi to spin faster. 'You're testing me.'

His veins glowed faintly beneath his skin, golden light threading through his arms and neck as he activated his internal technique. His meridians widened painfully, carrying the crystalline energy through every limb. The air around him began to swirl, loose stones levitating as if drawn by his will.

But then—

A third energy surfaced.

Cold. Ancient. Heavy.

The whispers stopped. For a brief, deathly second, all light in the cave dimmed. The hum of the World Vein faded into silence.

Then, a voice — one unlike the others — echoed directly into his soul.

"You dare touch what sleeps beneath my bones?"

Hutton's eyes snapped open. His pupils dilated instantly, and the world around him shattered.

The cave was gone.

He was standing — no, floating — in a vast expanse of molten blue light. Rivers of energy flowed beneath him, each one filled with fragments of memory: civilizations rising and falling, gods fighting in skies of ash, oceans swallowing empires.

He saw it all in a flash — not with his eyes, but through the crystal lodged close to his core.

"You think yourself chosen because you survived their wars and refuse to be forgotten," the voice continued, echoing from everywhere and nowhere.

"But you are only a vessel. The spark of my return."

Hutton's heart pounded in terror, but his pride refused to bow. "If you're a god," he hissed through gritted teeth, "then remember this—"

He raised his hand, and energy flared from his palm, forming the golden sigil of his cultivation art — the mark of the Heavenly palm.

"—even gods fall when men refuse to kneel."

The world trembled.

The rivers of energy erupted upward, crashing like tidal waves. The entire World Vein roared in response, as if the planet itself had just awakened.

Outside the cave, the ground quaked violently. Bob and the others fell back, shielding their eyes as an explosion of light erupted from within, turning night into blinding day.

Back inside, Hutton could barely stand the force pressing against him. His body cracked — tiny lines of golden light spreading across his chest and shoulders. The crystals within him pulsed in agony, their glow flickering between white and blood-red.

"So be it…" the ancient voice thundered.

"Then you shall witness what lies beneath the world you cling to."

The light condensed suddenly, forming a colossal silhouette before him — vague, immense, its shape shifting like smoke. Two burning eyes opened within the void, staring straight into Hutton's soul.

And with a whisper that was both a curse and a command, the voice spoke again:

"Awaken… Fragment of the Old Star."

Hutton's scream was swallowed by the explosion of energy that followed.

Outside, the entire hillside collapsed inward as the cave mouth shattered into blinding blue light. The shockwave tore through the fog, sending trees flying and flattening the surrounding valley.

Mayor Everlyn barely managed to throw up a barrier before the impact hit, her eyes widening in disbelief.

"Hutton… what have you done?"

The light reached the clouds — and for a single second, the sigil of an ancient rune burned across the night sky above Blinding Town.