Julian looked at the way Elena was bound against the trunk and couldn't help but let a witty smirk play on his lips.
"Well, well. Is this a new training exercise for the High Dragon class, or are you just playing a very elaborate game of hide-and-seek?"
Elena's face flushed a deep crimson. She never imagined that Julian—of all people—would find her in such a compromising position. While Julian had been approaching the Bone Pagoda, a group of Bone-Eater Ghouls—vicious, pale-skinned humanoids with elongated limbs and obsidian claws—had ambushed her team. While the rest of her squad had been knocked unconscious, she remained wide awake.
As Julian stepped forward to cut her loose, Elena hissed, "Stop! Don't touch the bindings yet."
Julian paused, one hand on his hilt. "Why? Are you enjoying the view from up there?"
"These ghouls are performing a ritual to The Sacred Lord of Bones," Elena explained, her voice tight with embarrassment. Her hands were pinned behind her and her legs were tightly bound by her own violet mana-whip. "If you cut me down now, the ritual's energy will backflow. We'll be hit with a psychic shockwave that neither of us can handle. You have to kill the host first."
Julian looked up at her, noting her rosy complexion. "So, you're the centerpiece of the sacrifice?"
"Essentially. But there's a silver lining: the monster presiding over the ceremony is locked in a trance. He can't move an inch until the transition is complete."
"In that case, I'll go handle the host," Julian said, turning on his heel toward the rhythmic chanting deeper in the valley.
Julian reached the center of the clearing and saw a macabre sight. A dozen Bone-Eater Ghouls were leaping and shrieking around a three-meter-tall behemoth. It looked less like a ritual and more like a grotesque, primitive courtship dance.
"A bunch of monsters dancing? My eyes might never recover from this," Julian muttered.
He didn't waste time. He circulated the Nova Sovereign Technique, feeling the golden heat of his pure qi coat his skin like a layer of solar armor. With a light tap of his foot, he blurred forward.
The dancing ghouls shrieked, noticing the golden intruder. One pounced, its claws gleaming with a sickly light. Julian leaned mid-stride, letting the creature whistle past his ear. He brought his longsword up in a fluid arc, the golden qi singing through the air.
Pfft!
The blade slid through the monster's throat and out the back of its skull.
"So this is the power of the Ascendant Realm?" Julian smiled. He didn't stop. He moved like a phantom through the group, his blade a golden streak of light. In seconds, the ghouls were silent, leaving only the three-meter-tall giant frozen in his ritual trance.
"DAMN HUMAN!" The giant's single red eye bulged with fury, but his limbs remained locked by the ritual's power.
"Don't waste your breath. Villains talk too much," Julian said. He stepped inside the monster's reach and drove his sword straight through its windpipe.
"No—!" The giant gurgled. Julian twisted his wrist with a sharp snap, ending the life of the Ascendant Rank 6 host instantly.
As the body slumped, Julian noticed three items bulging in the creature's belt pouch. He reached in and pulled out a small silk bag, a miniature stone building model, and a jade slip.
"Talk about a windfall," Julian whispered, tossing the loot into his Hallowed Realm for later inspection.
Finally, he turned his attention to the Bone Pagoda. With a wave of his hand and a surge of spatial energy, the seven-story structure vanished, uprooted and stored safely within his realm.
Julian returned to the tree where Elena was hanging.
"It's handled," he announced. "Time to get you down."
"No need! I can manage!" Elena's face went red again. She twisted her body with a sudden, feline grace, channeling her mana to snap the weakened silk. She landed lightly on her feet, quickly adjusting her gear.
"You took everything, didn't you?" Elena said, looking at the now-empty clearing where the pagoda once stood.
"Spoils of war," Julian replied with a wink.
Together, they began freeing the others, including Marcus, Lily, and the rest of Elena's squad. As the students began to stir, Elena walked over to Julian, her expression turning serious.
"A word of advice, Julian. Don't hoard too many treasures in your Hallowed Realm at once. If the internal laws aren't stable enough, the realm might collapse under the weight of their conflicting auras."
"I'll keep that in mind," Julian nodded. "But tell me—what are these foreign races doing in a Level-1 Stargate anyway? This feels a bit extreme for a training exercise."
Elena rolled her eyes at him. "Someone obviously let them in, Julian. The Academy uses them as 'live-fire' obstacles. Do you really think I didn't have a way to escape if things got truly desperate?"
Julian raised an eyebrow. "Oh? So the 'distressed damsel' act was just for my benefit?"
"Hardly," Elena huffed. "As a daughter of a Great Clan, I have emergency teleports. But they're expensive and embarrassing to use in a Level-1 zone. It wasn't worth the loss of face."
Julian chuckled, then gestured to the nearly 500 unconscious people they had just cut down from the trees. These people were dressed in coarse tunics and appeared to be villagers.
"What do you plan to do with them?" he asked. "We can't just leave 500 civilians in the middle of a monster-infested valley."