The banquet was in full swing, a symphony of laughter, clinking pottery and the crackle of bonfires. While the dignitaries discussed grand alliances near the statue, Li Yu slipped away from the center of attention. He pulled his hood up slightly, masking his features and walked toward the edge of the plaza and into the alleyways where the mortal families and low-level disciples were seated.

  He walked slowly and was letting the energy of the city wash over him. It wasn't the powerful Qi of the masters that caught his attention; it was the raw, unrefined hope of the weak.

  He passed a table where a group of young children, no older than ten were huddled around a candle. They were wearing oversized robes made from cut-down sect uniforms.

  "I’m going to join the Beast Hall," a boy with a missing front tooth declared and waved a chicken bone like a sword. "My dad says the Commander started with just a bug. A tiny bug! Now he rides a Void Dragon!"

  "It's a Void Centipede, stupid," a girl corrected him and was rolling her eyes. "And I'm going to the Alchemy Hall. I want to make pills that make you fly. Then I don't need a bug to fly."

  "I just want to learn to read the formations," a quiet boy whispered. "Old Man Chen says the walls sing if you listen close enough."

  Li Yu smiled softly. He remembered being that small in his village. He remembered the first time he held a feeding bucket at the Green Mountain Sect, dreaming not of conquering the world but just of having a full belly and maybe, one day being strong enough to do as he liked.

  He moved on, passing a young couple sitting on a bench. The man wore the insignia of the former Iron Blood Sect; the woman wore the sash of the Violet Silk. A month ago, their sects were enemies. Now, they were sharing a mooncake.

  "We can build a house in the lower valley," the man was saying quietly. "The Alliance is giving land grants to mixed-sect families. We can start fresh. No more killing. We can do other tasks and jobs. Just... living."

  "A garden," the woman whispered while leaning her head on his shoulder. "I want a garden with spirit-herbs. And a fence that doesn't need spikes."

  Li Yu felt a strange vibration in his chest.

  For so long, he had been running. Running from the destruction of his second home, the Green Mountain Sect. Running from the memory of its destruction and heading towards revenge for them. What he was really running from was the guilt of being a survivor.

  He had built this Alliance out of necessity and other goals. He had viewed it as a potential tool—a shield to protect others and his friends from the chaos of the world.

  But looking at these people—these children dreaming of beasts, these lovers dreaming of peace—he realized it was something else.

  "It's possibly a legacy," Li Yu whispered to the night air.

  He wasn't just building a fortress. He was planting a seed. Just as the Green Mountain Sect had taken him in, fed him and given him a path when he had nowhere else to go. The Alliance of the Jagged Peaks was doing the same for these people.

  ‘Somewhere in this crowd, there might be another kid like me. A kid with a weird martial spirit and a big appetite. And this place would give that kid a chance to grow.’ Li Yu thought.

  The realization settled over him like a warm cloak. The ghost of the Green Mountain Sect, which had walked beside him, a silent shadow of grief and loss, seemed to nod.

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  ‘You did well, Li Yu.’ It seemed to say to him before fading away.

  He wasn't replacing the sect or its people. He was continuing them.

  Li Yu walked back to the central table, his heart feeling lighter than it had since the tragic event. He sat down next to Shen Tu, who was currently explaining the intricacies of earth-path cultivation to a fascinated Commander Lei.

  "You're back," Lady Yun noted with her sharp eyes. "You look... different, Commander."

  "Do I?" Li Yu poured himself a cup of wine. "I just took a walk to see the people celebrating."

  "You look lighter," Shen Tu paused his conversation and observed. "Like you put down a heavy pack."

  Li Yu looked at the wine in his cup. The reflection of the moon danced on the surface.

  "I think I did," Li Yu said softly. "I always thought I was walking alone. I tried not to, but oftentimes it felt that way. Carrying the memory of where I came from. But I realized... I'm not carrying it anymore. I've planted it anew. For another generation, for another set of people."

  He looked up at the statue. The ridiculous, stoic marble hero that wasn’t even a good representation of him.

  "This place," Li Yu gestured to the city. "It's not just a base. Not just a headquarters or fortress. It's a home. For them. And for me."

  Click.

  It wasn't a sound that anyone else heard. It was a sound inside Li Yu’s soul.

  The final invisible shackle. The subtle, lingering trauma of the Green Mountain Sect's destruction. The fear of loss that had made him hesitate to truly put down roots again shattered.

  The bottleneck he had felt on the mountain wasn't about Qi. It wasn't about resources. It was about intent. About the own demons he had been carrying inside his heart without him realizing it. Perhaps he did realize it but suppressed it as much as he could. Either way, it shattered with his new world view.

  His soul had been waiting for him to accept his role. Not just as a fighter, but as a Patriarch. The only way for him to effect any kind of change and give people a new chance. Give people hope. It was to lead and establish places just like this for people.

  BOOM.

  The wine in Li Yu’s cup evaporated instantly. The air in the plaza froze. The laughter died down immediately. The music stopped.

  A pressure, vast and ancient, erupted from Li Yu’s body. It wasn't violent but it was incredibly heavy. It felt like the sky was descending to touch the earth.

  Shen Tu’s eyes widened. He slammed his hand onto the table and erected a shield of Qi for everyone in the area.

  "He's breaking through!" Shen Tu roared. "Everyone back!"

  The spiritual energy in the Cloud-Mist Peaks. The ancient veins that had laid dormant for a long time. They roared in response to Li Yu’s call. A vortex of Qi that was visible to the naked eye as a swirling funnel of multicolored light began to form above the plaza.

  Li Yu sat there glowing with a terrifying light.

  But the energy was too much. If he broke through here, the shockwave would flatten the area completely. It would shatter the homes he had just admired. Worse of all, people would probably get hurt.

  "We need to move him!" Meilin shouted as she was standing up and helping to shield others like Shen Tu. Her wind aura flared into life.

  "No," a cool voice cut through the chaos. "We need to shift him."

  Si Luo and Bai Ruo appeared on either side of Li Yu. They moved with a synchronization that was fluid.

  Si Luo reached out with her hand glowing with the violet light of the Void. She didn't grab Li Yu; she grabbed the space around him.

  "Open," Si Luo commanded.

  The reality around the table tore open. It wasn't a portal; it was a shift. Like turning a page in a book. Si Luo, Bai Ruo, and Li Yu vanished instantly. Taking the pressure and everything else with them.

  The vortex of Qi above the plaza didn't dissipate. Instead, it funneled into the tear in reality, chasing its master like water down a drain. As if it couldn’t miss this chance

  The plaza was silent.

  Shen Tu let out a breath he had been holding. He looked at the empty space where Li Yu had been sitting.

  "Did... did he just ascend in the middle of dinner?" Shen Bo asked.

  "No," Torben grunted from his log and wiping the grease from his mouth. "He just went to take his rightful place."