‘Han, What is the realm of the Evil Entities that have descended?’
Kaiser didn’t miss the faint shift in the old eunuch’s posture, nor the brief flicker of hesitation that passed through his eyes.
Han was a man who rarely hesitated, decades of service had carved obedience and efficiency into his bones.
A pause from him meant only one thing.
He was seeking permission.
Not from Kaiser.
But from Kaiser’s father.
Kaiser could almost picture the silent exchange happening through the clan’s private channels.
Han’s question would be simple, respectful.
‘Should this information be shared?
He is still young.’
And his father’s response… Kaiser could guess it with chilling accuracy.
‘Do what you think is right, Han.
Your family has served the Empire for generations.
You may choose whom you place your trust in.’
A polite way of saying: If Kaiser was unworthy, then Han was free to withhold.
A test layered beneath another test.
Kaiser could again guess what Han would reply his Father with.
‘Your servant does not dare to be preposterous!’
Han’s mind withdrew from the private channel, his presence returning fully to the throne room.
When his gaze landed on the young Emperor, he saw a boy sitting in a tempest he did not create.
Kaiser’s expression was composed, but beneath the stillness lay a fatigue that did not belong on the face of someone his age.
Surrounded by bickering officials and silent giants of war, he looked like a lone flame in a room full of cold winds.
Han studied him.
For the first time in a long while, the old eunuch truly paused.
Silver light began to flicker within his eyes, so fast, so fine, that even seasoned cultivators would fail to notice.
His thoughts churned like a storm beneath a calm sea.
The flickering intensified, the silver becoming a tempest of light behind his pupils.
Then, slowly, the storm began to settle.
The countless threads of thought braided themselves into one final decision.
The silver calm condensed, gathering until his eyes shone with a steady, luminous brilliance, as if a moon had settled behind them.
Han stroked his beard, a soft rasp cutting through the din of the hall.
He shook his head, the gesture carrying a weight of melancholy, resignation… and faint respect.
A quiet sigh escaped him.
Then he reached out.
A thin strand of spiritual intent extended from his consciousness toward Kaiser, forming a direct mind transmission woven with solemn reverence.
‘Your Majesty… the realm of the Phantoms of Evil Entities that have descended is the Divine Transformation Realm.’
The world seemed to stop.
The arguments in the court felt distant, muted, meaningless.
Divine Transformation.
Kaiser heard the old man’s voice echo through his mind, and before he could grasp the full meaning behind the words, his thoughts simply… stopped.
Divine Transformation Realm?
The phrase struck him like a hammer to the skull, hollowing out every other thought.
His breath hitched, and for a moment, the throne, the court, the noise, all of it felt impossibly far away.
Divine Transformation.
His mind scrambled to anchor itself in the fundamentals.
Qi Cultivation was the path to immortality, the grand pursuit passed down through eras unbroken.
It was the art of drawing in the ethereal Qi between Heaven and Earth, refining it, tempering it, merging it with flesh and spirit to carve a bridge toward eternity.
But the path was not kind.
Every step was a mountain.
Every realm, a trial.
Qi Refining.
Foundation Establishment.
Golden Core.
Nascent Soul.
Divine Transformation.
Five realms.
Five thresholds that separated mortals from ascendants.
Each one represented a transformation in body, mind, and soul.
Each one required talent, resources, and willpower that most people would never possess.
And Han… Han had just told him that the beings that descended upon the sixteen cardinal directions.
Sixteen Evil Entities.
Sixteen calamities walking in eldritch form, were all at the Divine Transformation Realm.
His pulse throbbed in his ears.
Sixteen Divine Transformation Entities?
That wasn’t a crisis.
That was a cataclysm.
Even with everything he knew… this was absurd.
The strongest beings in the Dawn Empire were the Emperors themselves, all of whom had stepped into Divine Transformation.
The Skyfall Sect Leader, a man whispered to split mountains with a gesture, was also a Divine Transformation Entity.
Rumors claimed the Empire held a few hidden trump cards, reclusive elders or sealed guardians, who had once reached the same height.
But even if all of them stood together, even if every trump card the Empire possessed was forced into the open… that still did not mean they could face sixteen Divine Transformation Entities at once.
Sixteen.
Sixteen incarnations of malice and catastrophe.
Kaiser’s grip tightened on the throne.
The hall felt colder, the walls farther, the murmurs quieter, as though the entire court sensed the shadow looming over the Empire.
He leaned forward slightly, gaze sweeping across the line of Imperial Commanders standing to his left.
Titans of war.
Men and women who commanded millions.
Legends whose names alone could suppress rebellions.
Karon the Unrivaled, undefeated in his Realm for an entire century.
Garvick the King of Fists, who once obliterated a Demon Hierarch with a single blow.
And others, silent, composed, terrifying, each with their own armies, their own territories, their own influence vast enough to shake the provinces.
To Kaiser, their cultivation was a haze he couldn’t pierce.
Their Realms had never been officially listed, but it was speculated that each one of them was Nascent Soul Cultivators, but that was never confirmed.
They were pillars of the Empire.
Kaiser forced himself to withdraw from the flood of spiraling thoughts.
He inhaled slowly, steadying his pulse, anchoring his mind before it drifted into panic.
The revelation still echoed through him like an aftershock, but he pushed it aside long enough to form a reply.
A simple one.
‘I do not know, Father.’
It would have been easy, comforting, even, to pretend.
To posture.
To give a half truth or craft some vague, royal-sounding answer meant to impress or mislead.
But that wasn’t him.
And it wouldn’t work in front of his father.
Kaiser would rather face the truth than dress it in silk.
He would rather admit ignorance than pretend competence he did not possess.
That was his nature, the way he approached everything in life.
Dignified?
Imperial?
Worthy of the throne?
Probably not.
But Kaiser had never claimed to be a real Emperor.
He didn’t know the Empire’s true military strength.
He didn’t know how many Divine Transformation experts the Imperial Clan kept hidden in its shadows.
He didn’t know the secret formations, the sealed legacies, the ancestral weapons buried beneath the capital.
He didn’t know the hidden cards the Empire relied on when extinction loomed.
How could he pretend otherwise?
All he had was honesty, raw, unvarnished honesty, and he could only hope it was enough to satisfy both his father’s test and the silent expectations of those watching him.
For now, he could only speak the truth.
He did not know.