The velvet-lined cushions of the private first-class cabin on the Imperial Express vibrated with a smooth, rhythmic hum as the maglev train tore through the northern borders.
Grant Cross leaned his head back against the leather seat, staring out the reinforced window.
The familiar regional mountain ridges where he had dismantled his former family were gone, replaced by a sprawling expanse of jagged black obsidian peaks that guarded the perimeter of the Imperial Capital.
He had officially shed his faded canvas coat, now dressed in a clean, dark linen shirt that loosely concealed his physical form.
Inside his chest, the re-forged Primordial Dragon Core spun with absolute precision, circulating thick torrents of refined energy through his newly stabilized astral channels.
His baseline power felt entirely consolidated.
« SYSTEM CULTIVATION CORE OVERVIEW »
• Current Realm: Tier 1: Astral Vein Monarch (Stage 1)
• Active Baseline Combat Strength: 15,000
• Spatial Storage Status: Obsidian Dragon Blade securely bound to soul matrix.
• Core System Assessment: Power output is perfectly stable.
Ready for capital integration.
A sharp, static ring broke the silence of the private cabin.
Grant reached into his pocket and pulled out his black titanium card, which was currently acting as an encrypted communication transceiver.
The glowing surface projected a translucent, lifelike holographic display of Violet Vance right into the center of the compartment.
Her beautiful face was tight with intense anxiety, her usual ice-cold corporate composure completely replaced by a look of profound urgency.
Behind her, the flashing data monitors of the Vance Financial Group terminal were working at maximum capacity, tracking shifting security networks.
“Grant, thank goodness the connection secured,” Violet said, her voice dropping into a frantic whisper that cut through the cabin’s hum.
“You shouldn’t have boarded the Imperial Express.
The moment you integrated the Cross Clan Sovereign Seal, the capital’s high-tier network recorded the energy shift.
They know exactly which train car you are sitting in right now.”
“Let them track it,” Grant replied smoothly, his dark pupils reflecting the azure light of the projection.
“An empire isn’t built by hiding in the countryside.”
“You don’t understand the scale of what is waiting for you at the central terminal,” Violet continued, her hands visibly trembling as she swiped a digital document forward, causing a list of high-tier capital warning profiles to overlay on the screen.
“The capital is not like our province. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
It is an absolute slaughterhouse ruled by the Three Supreme Pillars—three ancient, god-tier merchant clans whose generational masters operate completely above the common laws of the underworld.”
She paused, taking a sharp breath as a blood-red badge materialized on the system feed.
“Worse than the pillars, the Imperial Prosecution Bureau has officially designated you as an S-Tier regional threat.
“They have already deployed an elite intercept squad to the primary platform.
“The bureau’s enforcers don’t negotiate, Grant.
Their captains possess specialized suppression arrays designed specifically to neutralize high-level rogue cultivators before they can step foot into the city center.
“If you disembark, you are walking directly into a combined martial ambush.”
“A thousand-year formation couldn’t drain my core, Violet,” Grant said softly, his voice vibrating with a low resonance that caused the water glass on his side table to rattle.
“A few capital bureaucrats won’t change my itinerary.”
“The bureau enforcers are Stage 5 Astral Vein executioners!” Violet pressed, her eyes wide with desperate fascination and fear.
“Their combined combat score transcends the normal boundaries of the regional elders you faced.
“My father is trying to pull strings to grant you a temporary corporate diplomatic pass, but the legal channels are locked down.
“Please, use the emergency spatial exit in the train’s cargo hold before the Express pulls into the platform!”
“Tell your father to save his diplomatic favors,” Grant whispered, his golden draconic circles igniting within his pupils with a cold, blinding radiance that completely distorted the holographic projection for a split second.
“The dragon doesn’t enter the capital through the back door.”
He tapped the edge of the titanium card, severing the encrypted transmission instantly.
The holographic image of Violet dissolved into harmless particles of blue light, leaving the cabin silent once more.
« SYSTEM TACTICAL DETECT: PERIMETER APPROACH »
• Destination Reached: Imperial Capital Central Terminal
• Ambient Atmospheric Pressure: Increased by 45% (High-density spiritual friction)
• Target Group Identified: 24x High-Velocity Signatures arrayed across Platform 9.
• Aggregate Threat Assessment: S-Tier Blockade Core active.
A heavy, mechanical groan reverberated through the length of the maglev train as the magnetic brakes engaged.
The Imperial Express slowed down rapidly, gliding smoothly out of the dark mountain tunnels and into the gargantuan, multi-tiered iron amphitheater of Platform 9.
The capital terminal was a massive industrial marvel, its towering steel pillars stretching hundreds of meters into a smoke-filled sky, lit by the harsh glare of thousands of sweeping automated spotlights. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Through the tinted glass windows, Grant looked down at the concrete platform below.
The normal civilian passengers had been completely evacuated from the sector, leaving the entire marble train station completely deserted.
Standing in a perfect, sweeping crescent formation directly outside his specific train car door were two dozen men clad in matching, high-grade white enforcement trench coats with silver prosecutor badges pinned to their lapels.
It was the elite vanguard of the Imperial Prosecution Bureau.
At the head of the formation stood a tall, broad-shouldered man with short-cropped silver hair and arms wrapped in heavy, rune-inscribed iron chains.
His eyes were entirely dead grey, and his physical body was passively releasing an oppressive, mountain-like gravity that cracked the reinforced platform concrete beneath his heavy boots.
« SYSTEM TARGET EVALUATION: INTERCEPT FORCE »
• Identity: Captain Vane (First Class Prosecutor, Imperial Bureau)
• Cultivation Realm: Tier 2: Astral Vein Monarch (Stage 5 – Elite Executioner)
• Current Enemy Combat Strength: 18,500
• Active Formation: [Sovereign Iron Prosecution Grid] (Combined squad strength effectively shields targets from low-tier domain skills)
To an ordinary cultivator, looking down at an 18,500 combat strength squad captain backed by two dozen elite enforcers would cause their spirit to instantly collapse.
The bureau had used this exact squad to execute entire rogue factions overnight.
They stood completely silent, their hands resting on the hilts of their specialized energy-dampening batons, waiting for the train doors to slide open.
Inside the cabin, Grant Cross slowly stood up from his leather seat.
He casually smoothed down the cuffs of his linen shirt, his expression entirely unbothered by the terrifying array of power waiting just inches away on the other side of the steel wall.
He didn’t drop into a defensive martial guard, nor did he reach into his pocket for his weapons.
He willed his consciousness inward, his baseline 15,000 power humming with a low, predatory hunger that thrilled against his nerves.
The level-up loop of the capital was finally open, and the targets were exactly the caliber he required to push his lineage to the next evolutionary peak.
With a single, silent thought, he commanded the system to prepare his spatial attributes for immediate deployment.
The automated pneumatic hiss of the train’s pressurized cabin doors echoed through the quiet platform.
As the heavy steel panel began to slide slowly into the wall, Grant stepped forward into the frame of the doorway, his golden draconic pupils flashing brilliantly through the terminal darkness as he prepared to step onto the capital floor.
Grant has arrived at the Imperial Capital Central Terminal, only to find Captain Vane and twenty-four elite enforcers of the Imperial Prosecution Bureau waiting to crush him on Platform 9!
Violet’s warnings were real, but Grant is stepping off the train completely unbothered!
Can his Tier 2 Astral Vein Monarch form break through an 18,500 combat strength executioner squad?