The Ashglass Ruins had changed.
What had once been forgotten, overrun by beasts and cultists, now stood reawakened—pulsing with draconic aura and Sovereign pressure. The Ashbound Totem loomed like a silent watchtower at the domain's heart, radiating waves of subtle fire that rolled outward in protective currents.
And Long Yan sat beneath it, eyes closed, meditating atop a bed of volcanic stone.
He wasn't just cultivating anymore.
He was listening.
To the land.
To the air.
To everything the Domain whispered now that it recognized him as master.
[System Synchronization: 86% Complete]
Next Tier Authority Unlocks at 92%
Trigger Requirement: First Diplomacy Encounter (Hostile or Neutral)
It was close.
Something—or someone—was coming.
Luo Yanling stood watch near the perimeter, her eyes narrowed as she scanned the southern pass. Her injuries from the Bone Cult skirmish were mostly healed, but she moved with the quiet tension of someone who knew rest was a luxury.
The forest was too still.
The ash-swept wind carried no birdsong. No distant roars. Only… hoofbeats.
She tilted her head. "He's here."
A few minutes later, three figures emerged from the haze.
Not soldiers. Not assassins.
Emissaries.
They wore crimson robes and black sashes bearing the emblem of an eight-petaled lotus pierced by a silver fang—Lotus Fang Hall, a sect known for ancient scholarship, neutrality, and recording the rise and fall of cultivators who shook the heavens.
They were historians—but not harmless ones.
At their lead was a woman in her forties, with greying hair, sharp cheekbones, and eyes like still water.
Luo Yanling greeted her with a hand on her sword hilt.
The woman bowed politely.
"I am Scholar Elder Mei of Lotus Fang Hall. We come bearing parchment, not blade."
"Then speak."
"We wish to record the name of the Sovereign who has claimed the Ashglass Domain." She glanced beyond her, toward the rising totem. "And offer an accord."
Long Yan met them within the shrine, seated on a carved stone throne now forming from the melted architecture of the old temple. Its back curved like a dragon's spine, incomplete, but growing more detailed with each passing day.
Mei knelt before him, offering a scroll sealed with golden wax.
"We are witnesses to the world's tides," she said. "You have triggered one."
Long Yan took the scroll and opened it.
[Non-aggression Pact: Lotus Fang Hall]
Clause I: They record, not intervene.
Clause II: They may send observers to events linked to Sovereign Domains.
Clause III: You are offered access to certain ancient records in exchange for granting three rites of interview across your rise.
He read it all.
Then asked, "Why?"
She smiled faintly. "Because in you, we see not just power. We see a shift. The last time someone triggered a Sovereign Domain in the southern range, it ended with a sect war and the collapse of two empires. We don't want that. We want understanding."
"You think I'll bring war."
"I think the world will bring it to you."
Long Yan considered this.
Then he nodded once.
"I accept. But I allow only one observer. No more."
"Understood." Mei gestured to the youngest among her attendants—a boy no older than seventeen, wide-eyed and carrying a jade-recording disc on his back. "Scholar Tao will stay behind."
Tao paled, but bowed deeply.
[System Notification: Political Pact Formed – Neutral Faction: Lotus Fang Hall]
Trust Level: 10 (Cautious)
Perk Unlocked: Historical Archives (Tier 1 Access)
Effect: You may now request information on ancient beasts, ruins, or cultivation anomalies.
The moment they left, Luo Yanling approached Long Yan with a frown.
"You're letting them watch you?"
"I'm letting the world watch," he corrected.
She folded her arms. "You know this will only accelerate everything. Other sects will take it as proof you're no fluke."
"I want them to."
"You keep saying that," she said, eyes sharp. "But you're one man. Even if you're dragon-blooded, they'll send armies. Why not stay hidden longer? Build in silence?"
Long Yan stood and stepped toward her.
"The longer we hide, the more they shape the narrative. I don't want to be a rumor. I want to be a presence. One that cannot be denied."
She stared at him.
And slowly, something in her gaze changed—not fear, not even admiration.
Something harder. Like… resolve.
"Then we need to prepare."
That evening, Long Yan unlocked the next stage of the system.
[Domain Development Unlocked: Sovereign Constructs Tier 2]
- You may now build: Obsidian Bastion, Sovereign Spirit Forge, Ashglass Beacon
New Quest Triggered: Beacon of Firelight
Objective: Build Ashglass Beacon to project Sovereign Aura across regional leylines
Reward: Map of Neighboring Ruins, Sovereign Reputation +15, Defensive Network Layer
They chose to build the Beacon.
Tao, the Lotus scholar boy, eagerly offered schematics from ancient texts.
Luo Yanling handled logistics.
And Long Yan… infused it with his essence.
The beacon stood by dawn—tall, crystalline, humming with sovereign energy. From its peak, a pulse of firelight surged into the sky and fractured into radiant threads that sank into the ground—reconnecting old paths.
The effect was immediate.
[Sovereign Aura Expansion: 27% of Regional Leyline Web Claimed]
New Territories Now Visible: Crimson Hollow, Shifting Bone Plains, Shrine of the Drowned Sky
Warning: You have awakened something old…
Deep underground, beneath the Crimson Hollow—a scarred chasm layered in blood-red moss and abyssal roots—something stirred.
It wasn't a beast.
It was a corpse.
Or rather… what used to be one.
A twisted, malformed creature with dragon bone, centipede legs, and eyes that flickered between memory and madness.
The beacon had reached it.
And in its ruined mind, it remembered pain.
It remembered Long Yan's blood.
"Ash…" it rasped in a voice that didn't belong to it. "Ash and fire and teeth…"
It began to move.
The next day, Long Yan stood before a new map—etched in fire-glass using Tao's records and system overlays.
Three other ruins were now visible.
Each one radiated trace signatures of Sovereign remnants—either failed domains, shattered constructs, or sealed cores.
Luo Yanling pointed to one: Shrine of the Drowned Sky.
"It was once part of the Rain Monarch's network. Said to be submerged beneath a shifting lake."
"That one can wait," Long Yan replied. His eyes were locked on Crimson Hollow.
"The leyline there is fractured."
Tao swallowed. "My texts say something sleeps there."
"Not anymore," Long Yan said.
"We're going."
They left that evening.
Luo Yanling traveled light, and Tao—against his will—was ordered to remain behind, "to maintain beacon integrity." He pouted, but obeyed. Long Yan warned him that if the beacon dimmed, they'd both die when the Cult returned.
The journey took one day, though the last few hours had to be navigated through a spiraling ravine of broken earth and whispering roots.
By the time they arrived at the edge of Crimson Hollow, the sky had darkened, even though the sun still hung in the air.
Spiritual fog clung to the cliffs.
The air smelled of iron.
And far below, at the hollow's bottom, something crawled across cracked ground—leaving grooves where its many limbs had scraped stone.
Luo Yanling raised her blade.
"That's no beast."
"No," Long Yan said. "It's what's left of a failed Sovereign."
He stepped forward, aura beginning to pulse.
And from the depths of the hollow, a scream echoed upward—high-pitched, metallic, wrong.
It was a call.
But not for them.
It was calling others.