Chapter 262: Valdris Royal Academy
Chapter 262: Valdris Royal Academy
RUMBLE—!!!
The colossal golden war-skiff, Dawn-Breaker, tore through the sky like a descending meteor.
Ahead of them, an impossibly massive, shimmering barrier of highly condensed essence stretched across the horizon.
This was the boundary array of Valdris City.
The wind rippled as the massive vessel breached the colossal boundary arrays of an entirely new world.
They had made it.
They were officially within the borders of the independent territory of Valdris City.
As the war-skiff soared forward, a sprawling, majestic metropolis came into view, its sheer scale and grandeur easily rivaling—if not surpassing—the Royal Capital of Solathane.
Towering ancient architecture constructed from luminous white stone pierced the skies.
Floating islands, far more numerous and massive than those in Stormveil City, hovered gracefully.
Suspended bridges of pure light connected floating fortresses, and the sheer density of the spiritual essence in the air was at a staggeringly high level.
Even the injured, exhausted High Preceptors on the deck felt their injuries healing slightly just by breathing the air around them.
The Dawn-Breaker descended rapidly toward the eastern quarter, angling toward a sprawling, magnificent complex that dwarfed even the grandest noble estates.
Valdris Royal Academy.
The moment the golden leviathan lowered toward the massive entrance plaza, alarms rang out across the Academy grounds.
VMMMM!
Dozens of streaks of light shot into the sky, rapidly surrounding the war-skiff.
Elite defense forces of the Valdris Royal Academy materialized in the air, their auras blazing with wary hostility as they faced the sudden, unannounced arrival of Stormveil’s legendary warship.
"Halt there immediately!" a commanding voice boomed from the Valdris forces. "You have trespassed into the airspace of the Valdris Royal Academy! State your intentions!"
On the deck of the Dawn-Breaker, Myrielle and Seraphine immediately stepped forward to the very edge of the railing.
"Stand down!" Myrielle’s voice rang out, infused with her Domain Master essence, projecting her identity clearly. "I am Myrielle, Vice Dean of Stormveil Academy!"
Seraphine stood beside her, her imperious aura completely unsuppressed. "And I am Seraphine, Matriarch of Emberford Noble Family! We mean no hostility. We demand an immediate, urgent audience with your Dean!"
The Valdris defense forces exchanged uncertain glances.
The identities of the two women were renowned throughout the entire Solathane Dynasty.
Recognizing the severity of the situation and the visible bloodstains covering the Stormveil elders, the Valdris commander hastily lowered his weapon and signaled his men to clear a landing path.
While the tense diplomatic exchange occurred on the deck, deep within one of the secure inner cabins of the war-skiff, a quiet miracle was concluding.
Inside Rhain’s dantian, the pitch-black void of the Abyssal Sovereign Physique spun furiously.
It had aggressively devoured every drop of the four Domain Masters’ essence that had been poured into him, utilizing the energy to forcibly knit muscle, bone, and tissue back together.
The gaping hole in his chest was completely sealed.
A newly forged, wildly beating heart pumped fresh blood through his reconstructed meridians.
Slowly, Rhain’s dark grey eyes fluttered open.
The first thing he felt was the wet, sticky sensation of dried blood, and the soft, trembling hands clutching his torn robes.
"Husband..."
Seris was kneeling beside him. Her beautiful face was stained with his dried blood and her own endless tears.
The moment she saw his dark grey eyes open and focus on her, the dead, hollow emptiness that had consumed her gaze completely vanished.
"Husband!"
She let out a sob of overwhelming joy and threw herself lightly onto his chest, burying her face into his neck as she wept uncontrollably.
"You’re awake... you’re really awake..." she wept, "I thought... I thought I had lost you..."
"I’m here," Rhain murmured softly, wrapping his arms around her delicate frame and gently stroking her silver-blue hair. "I told you I would be fine."
He held her trembling frame close, letting her cry against his chest.
Then Rhain looked at the unfamiliar surrounding, and asked, "Where are we?"
"We made it," Seris whispered, lifting her tear-stained face to look at him, her pale purple eyes shining with immense relief. "We crossed the boundary. We are in Valdris City."
Rhain gave a faint nod. His gaze darkened slightly as he recalled his near death experience.
This was the first time in this world that he felt the same feeling of impending death, that feeling of helplessness which he had felt in earth.
If he wanted to protect his wife and truly dictate his own fate, he needed to grow stronger.
Much stronger.
Meanwhile, in the adjacent cabin, another desperate battle for life was reaching its conclusion.
Carmilla lay on a pristine bed, her skin a sickly, pale-green hue from the lethal fire poison that had ravaged her body.
Myrielle stood on one side, her hands glowing with intense essence, forcefully freezing the poison’s advance through Carmilla’s meridians.
On the other side, Seraphine continuously channeled the refined liquid of top-tier Mystic-Grade life-sustaining pills directly into her friend’s body.
After minutes of a delicate tug-of-war, the pale-green hue on her skin began to fade slightly, returning to a ghostly white.
Carmilla groaned softly, her bright eyes fluttering open.
"Did we... win against those royal dogs?" Carmilla whispered weakly, her voice devoid of its usual energy.
"We did, sister," Myrielle sobbed, tears of relief spilling from her sapphire eyes as she gripped Carmilla’s hand. "We are at the Valdris Royal Academy. You are safe."
Seraphine closed her eyes, a heavy sigh escaping her lips. "Why are you such a fool, always ready to sacrifice your life. You nearly killed yourself today."
Carmilla managed a weak, playful smirk. "Still kicking, Sera... couldn’t let my little niece be a widow so soon..."
Outside in the corridor, High Preceptors Aldren, Octavius, Mordecai, and the rest of the battered Stormveil elders heard the muffled exchange and collectively released breaths they felt they had been holding for hours.
Their Dean was alive.
With the immediate crises averted, the group finally prepared to disembark.
Rhain, leaning slightly on Seris’s shoulder despite being fully healed, simply to ease her lingering anxiety, stepped out of the cabin and walked onto the deck.
The moment Rhain’s boots officially touched the sacred, ancient stone pathways of the Valdris Royal Academy—
[Ding!]
The crisp, mechanical voice of the System echoed clearly within his consciousness.
[Location Sign-In Node detected: Valdris Royal Academy.]
[Would you like to sign in?]
Rhain’s dark grey eyes flashed with delight, despite his egregious conditions.
The second most powerful city in the entire Solathane Dynasty, and a location that possessed true Monarch Realm powerhouses.
’Sign in,’ Rhain confirmed without a single microsecond of hesitation.
[Location Sign-In Successful!]
[Congratulations! You have received the Emperor-Grade Artifact: Purple Moon Mystic Furnace.]
[Item automatically sent to System Inventory.]
A surge of profound knowledge integrated directly into his mind, detailing the artifact’s properties.
[Purple Moon Mystic Furnace: An Emperor-Grade Alchemy Cauldron forged from the remains of a purple star. It possesses incredible heat distribution and durability, capable of easily withstanding the simultaneous burning of multiple Heavenly Flames without suffering a single crack. Furthermore, its innate array matrix passively suppresses elemental clashes, exponentially elevating the success rate and baseline purity of all elixirs refined within it, including Mystic and Emperor-Grade pills.]
Rhain’s breathing paused for a second.
An Emperor-Grade Cauldron.
His current dark-gold cauldron was merely Epic-Grade.
When he had refined the Mystic-Grade Spirit-Ascension Star Lily, the cauldron had nearly shattered from the violent backlash, forcing him to overdraw his soul power just to hold it together.
But with the Purple Moon Mystic Furnace?
Refining Mystic-Grade pills would become as casual as brewing a cup of tea.
He could even mass-produce them without the slightest risk of an explosion.
Furthermore, when he would reach an Emperor rank Alchemist in the future, he won’t have to bother looking for another cauldron.
It was the ultimate treasure even for an Emperor rank Alchemist.