Chapter 207: The Eastern Gate Opens
The dust settled across the chamber floor.
Damon stood over the pile of ash that had been the Warden of the Eastern Gate.
His chest rose and fell in slow, controlled breaths.
The Chaos Devourer hummed in his grip, satisfied, the dark blade drinking in the last traces of the Warden’s essence.
Alena’s footsteps echoed as she ran toward him.
"Are you hurt?" she asked.
Her hands hovered near his chest, wanting to check for wounds but hesitating. Her green eyes scanned him with an intensity that surprised him.
"I’m fine, Don’t worry..." Damon said.
He lowered the sword and turned to face her. A thin line of blood traced down his chin from the split lip.
His ribs ached where the Warden had struck him. But nothing was broken.
"You’re bleeding," she said.
"It’ll heal."
Alena shook her head. She reached into her storage ring and pulled out a small jade bottle. She uncorked it and pressed it into his hand.
"Drink it. It’s a recovery pill dissolved in spiritual water. Faster than swallowing dry."
Damon looked at the bottle. Then at her.
"Worried about me?"
Alena’s cheeks flushed. She looked away.
"You just killed a guardian that’s been sitting here for who knows how long. The least I can do is make sure you don’t collapse afterward."
Damon smiled. He brought the bottle to his lips and drank.
The liquid was cool and sweet. It spread through his chest like warm honey, mending the small tears in his muscles and sealing the cracks in his ribs. The cut on his lip closed.
He handed the empty bottle back.
"Thanks."
Alena took it. She opened her mouth to say something, but a low rumble cut her off.
The chamber was changing.
The stone doors that had sealed the altar room began to glow. Lines of ancient script lit up along their surface, pulsing with a soft blue light. The runes spiraled inward toward the center, where a circular lock mechanism began to turn on its own.
Damon stepped forward.
"The Warden’s death unlocked the gate," he said.
He walked toward the doors. Alena followed close behind.
The doors groaned open.
Beyond them lay a corridor carved from crystal. The walls shimmered with an internal light, casting prismatic reflections across the floor. The air that drifted out was cold and thick with spiritual energy.
Damon activated his Incubus Celestial Eyes.
The corridor stretched for about a hundred meters. At the end, a circular chamber waited. In its center, a pedestal held a single object.
A jade slip.
But not just any jade slip. The energy radiating from it was dense enough to make the air itself vibrate.
"Something valuable," Damon said.
He walked into the corridor. Alena followed.
The crystal walls hummed as they passed.
The spiritual energy grew heavier with each step.
By the time they reached the circular chamber, the pressure was thick enough to make breathing feel like wading through water.
The pedestal stood in the center of the room.
The jade slip rested on it, untouched for what must have been centuries.
Damon approached slowly. He reached out and picked it up.
The moment his fingers touched the slip, information flooded into his mind.
Azure Dragon’s Legacy: The Ninefold Body Tempering Art.
A complete cultivation method.
One that used the Azure Dragon’s bloodline to temper the body through nine stages.
Each stage reinforced the bones, muscles, and organs until the cultivator’s physical form rivaled divine beasts.
Damon smiled.
He turned to Alena.
"Find anything good?" she asked.
"Better than good."
He stored the jade slip in his ring.
Then he scanned the room again. His Celestial Eyes caught something behind the pedestal.
A hidden compartment.
He walked around the pedestal and pressed his palm against the wall. The stone shifted. A small drawer slid open.
Inside lay a ring.
Damon picked it up. It was black, made of a material he didn’t recognize. He channeled a thread of spiritual energy into it.
The ring’s interior space was enormous. Easily the size of a small mountain. And it was filled with spirit stones.
Tens of thousands of them.
Plus several sealed jade boxes that pulsed with pill energy.
"Jackpot," Damon said.
He slipped the ring onto his finger and turned back to Alena.
"We’re done here."
Alena nodded. She looked relieved.
The room began to tremble.
Damon’s eyes narrowed.
The crystal walls flickered and cracks began spread across the ceiling.
"The realm is destabilizing," he said.
"The Warden’s death broke the seal on this section. We need to leave."
He grabbed Alena’s wrist and pulled her toward the corridor.
They ran.
The crystal walls shattered behind them.
The floor buckled.
The ceiling collapsed in chunks.
Damon activated Astral Steps.
He carried Alena through the crumbling passage, dodging falling debris, leaping over chasms that opened beneath their feet.
The exit appeared ahead.
They burst out of the temple just as the entire structure caved in.
Damon landed on the grass outside, Alena in his arms. He set her down and looked back.
Where the temple had stood, there was nothing left but a sprawling mound of shattered crystal and collapsed stone.
The air smelled of broken earth and spent spiritual energy.
Not a single wall remained standing.
Alena stepped up beside him, brushing a streak of pale dust from her forest-green robes.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
"Damon," she said quietly.
He glanced sideways at her.
Her sharp green eyes were lowered slightly, her expression carrying something uncharacteristically soft beneath its usual composed surface.
She tucked a loose wave of brown hair behind her ear, and when she finally looked up at him.
"Thank you," she said. "For letting me come with you. For... everything."
Damon smiled.
"You’re not done yet," he said simply, turning his golden gaze back toward the tree line and the vast, untamed wilderness that stretched out beyond the ruins.
"There’s still more to find out here."
Alena looked at him for a long, quiet moment.
Something had shifted in those green eyes, something that hadn’t been there when they’d first entered the realm together. Something warm, and entirely unguarded.
"Then I’ll stick with you a little longer," she said.