Chapter 226: Forbidden Fifth Floor
Chapter 226: Forbidden Fifth Floor
The morning sunlight spilled gently through the Core Palace’s secluded pavilion, illuminating the tangled silk sheets of the bed.
Rhain lay comfortably on the massive silk bed, one arm draped lazily behind his head while his other hand rested atop Seris resting against his chest.
[Ding!]
[Daily Sign-In available. Would you like to sign in?]
Sign in.’
[Sign-In successful!]
[Congratulations! You have received the Epic-Grade Artifact: Spirit-Severing Pendant.]
[Item automatically sent to System Inventory.]
Rhain casually checked the description in his mind. It was a high-tier defensive artifact that could automatically block and sever incoming soul-based attacks.
A useful tool, but nothing that would significantly alter his current combat strength.
He left it sitting in the vast expanse of his System Inventory without a second thought.
His attention then returned to his beautiful wife.
Seris was still half-asleep, her delicate fingers curled lightly around the fabric of his dark robes.
After the emotional whirlwind of yesterday’s ceremony and tournament, she had fallen after a few moments of her head touching his chest the previous night.
Rhain didn’t disturb her.
He simply lay there, enjoying the quiet warmth of the morning.
Eventually, Seris’s long eyelashes fluttered, and her pale purple eyes drifted open. The moment she saw his face looking down at her, a sleepy, devastatingly sweet smile bloomed across her lips.
"Good morning, husband," she she whispered, her voice carrying the hazy softness of sleep.
"Good morning," Rhain chuckled, gently brushing a strand of silver-blue hair from her face.
They lingered in the warmth of the bed for a while longer, enjoying each other’s company.
Eventually, Rhain sat up, gently extracting himself from Seris’s reluctant grip.
"I need to head out for a while," Rhain said, adjusting his dark robes. "There are a few things I need to take care of before the tower."
Seris nodded, her expression carrying a trace of the lingering worry from last night, though she suppressed it behind a brave smile. "I will cultivate while you are away. Master has prepared a new set of exercises for me after I broke through to the Spirit Manifestation Realm."
Rhain leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead before leaving.
The moment he walked into the open air of the Core Palace grounds, a sharp vibration came from his spatial ring.
Rhain pulled out Vulcan’s transmission talisman.
"Master," Vulcan’s deep, respectful voice echoed.
"What is it? Does someone want to meet me again?" Rhain asked with a frown.
"No master, I am calling to report on the Celestial Elixir Pavilion," Vulcan stated, "Our weekly revenue report is ready. Total income for this cycle has exceeded five hundred and twenty million Aetherium Crystals. Thunderwood herb shipment arrived on schedule, and Lady Elara’s logistics team has been excellent. We have enough raw materials stockpiled to sustain three months of continuous production."
Rhain gave a slight nod of satisfaction.
"Good work," Rhain replied. "Continue operations as normal. Do not change anything."
"Understood, Master."
The talisman dimmed.
With the Pavilion operating smoothly and Seris safely cultivating under Myrielle’s watchful eye, Rhain’s mind turned entirely to his primary objective for the day.
Grand Library. Fifth floor.
He soon made his way to the Inner Palace.
But today, the reactions of the disciples he passed were fundamentally different from any previous day.
"It’s Senior Rhain!"
"Look, he’s coming this way!"
"Greetings, Senior Rhain."
Disciples who were deep in conversation immediately stopped talking.
Those who were sparring in the open arenas paused their weapons mid-swing.
Groups of Silver and Bronze Badge disciples hastily stepped aside, bowing at perfect ninety-degree angles.
Even the few Gold Badge disciples he passed lowered their heads respectfully.
This was the monster who had defeated the undisputed king of the Inner Palace with a single bare fist, shattered Lyra Emberford’s fiery Domain, and had the Dean herself personally elevate his status.
In their eyes, the youth walking past them was no longer just a fellow disciple.
He was an untouchable god.
Rhain acknowledged them with brief, polite nods but didn’t slow his pace.
Ten minutes later, the towering five-story pagoda of the Grand Library rose before him.
The moment he stepped through the entrance, the bustling activity on the ground floor ground to an immediate halt.
Dozens of disciples holding scrolls froze in place, staring at him with eyes full of awe.
Behind the main counter, the strict, wrinkled-faced elderly librarian—who had previously questioned Rhain’s nine-hour stay on the fourth floor—immediately stood up.
There was no skepticism in the old man’s eyes today.
Only profound respect.
"Rhain," the old librarian called respectfully, entirely abandoning the stern demeanor he usually reserved for other disciples.
Rhain gave a polite nod and walked straight toward the spiral staircase.
He bypassed the first four floors without pausing.
When he reached the top of the fourth floor, a shimmering barrier of highly condensed essence blocked the stairs leading to the fifth level.
It was a restricted ward designed to repel anyone below the status of a Core Palace Disciple or a Preceptor.
Rhain simply retrieved the crystalline jade token Myrielle had given him.
The moment the token approached the ward, the thick barrier rippled and parted like a curtain of water.
Rhain casually stepped through, ascending to the forbidden fifth floor.
The moment both of his boots touched the polished wooden floorboards of the highest level—
[Ding!]
The mechanical voice of the System echoed clearly within his mind.
[Location Sign-In Node detected: Stormveil Academy — Grand Library (Fifth Floor).]
A faint smirk brushed past Rhain’s lips.
He had waited weeks for this exact moment.
’Sign in.’
[Location Sign-In Successful!]
[Congratulations! You have received the Emperor-Grade Martial Technique: Abyssal Sovereign Technique (Second Form).]
[Item cannot be stored in the system space. It has been directly integrated into the host’s consciousness.]
Rhain’s footsteps halted completely.
A torrent of profound, ancient knowledge detonated within his consciousness.
The sheer complexity of the information was staggering, far eclipsing the first form he had obtained back in the Azure Cloud Sect.
Rhain closed his eyes, his vast Soul Power rapidly dissecting and assimilating the Emperor-Grade technique.
The First Form of the Abyssal Sovereign Technique was primarily a cultivation method—a foundational art that allowed his dantian to act as a bottomless void, devouring and refining worldly essence at an impossibly monstrous rate.
But the Second Form was entirely different.
It was an active, combat-oriented manifestation of his physique’s true power.
Abyssal Void Domain.
Information bloomed in his mind.
By activating the Second Form, Rhain could project the devouring nature of his Abyssal Sovereign Physique outward, forcibly collapsing the space around him into a miniature Abyss.
Within this domain, any external energy—be it elemental attacks, pure kinetic force, or even the profound Laws commanded by Domain Masters—would be indiscriminately devoured and neutralized.
It essentially granted him immunity to any energy-based attack up to a terrifying threshold.
The void would simply devour the enemy’s martial arts before they could even touch his skin.
However, it wasn’t absolute.
The power of the Abyssal Void Domain was entirely dependent on his own cultivation realm and strength.
If he were to face an opponent whose realm or strength was far above his own—such as a high-stage Domain Master or a Monarch Realm expert—the sheer concentration and mass of their power could potentially overwhelm the void’s capacity to devour.
If the incoming energy exceeded his own foundation’s limit, the domain could be forcefully shattered.
But even with that natural limitation, the technique was fundamentally broken.
To be able to simply devour an opponent’s Domain and neutralize their Laws... it was a power that defied every law of the world.
In a battle between experts, where Domains dictated the line between life and death, having the ability to literally devour those rules was terrifying.
Rhain slowly opened his dark grey eyes.
A deeply satisfied smirk brushed past his lips.
"To devour the laws of the world itself," Rhain murmured, his eyes flashing with a sharp light. "Truly worthy of an Emperor-Grade technique."
His overall combat power had just undergone a qualitative leap that made yesterday’s tournament performance look like a casual warm-up exercise.
Having fully digested the Emperor-Grade reward, Rhain finally turned his attention to his surroundings.
He had come here for two purposes.
The Sign-In reward had been the first.
The second was to study every Mystic-Grade martial art the Academy possessed.
The fifth floor of the Grand Library was surprisingly small, only forty scrolls in total.
But the quality was incomparable.
Every single technique stored here was either a high-tier Epic-Grade masterwork or a genuine Mystic-Grade art, each one representing the accumulated wisdom of centuries.
Rhain bypassed the Epic-Grade works entirely.
He had already memorized more Epic-Grade arts than the entire fourth floor contained.
His attention focused exclusively on the Mystic-Grade section.
There were exactly ten.
Ten Mystic-Grade martial arts, each one sealed within its own protective array barrier, radiating an aura of profound power.
Rhain approached the first scroll and activated his Eyes of Truth.