Jared clenched his fist without warning. The five pearls collided. Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—five forces once utterly opposed—melted into a single gray orb streaked with shifting color, as though twilight had been trapped inside glass. It looked plain, almost crude, yet the raw elemental essence lurking within made every cultivator in the hall feel their very souls ripple.
“Five elements as one…” The moment the four words left Jared’s lips, the little orb burst into radiance and rocketed upward. Its beam punched through the marble dome, spearing the sky. All five-colored spiritual energy pillars swirling above the Five-Element Range surged toward that pillar in worship.
On each of the five peaks, ancestral statues ignited, sending five thick pillars of light to meet Jared’s own. A mighty roar echoed through heaven and earth, as if the laws of nature had approved!
Jared felt as if a long, dormant barrier within his body had suddenly been shattered. Deep within his core, in that embryonic chaos, a dim star blazed awake. It was no ordinary star but an Origin Star, its surface cloaked in gray haze, its heart turning with all five elements. The newborn star thrummed, a cosmic bell that shook the void.
Jared’s aura erupted, soaring beyond every previous limit, until the air itself bent around him like cloth drawn into a storm. The bottleneck of Jared’s cultivation shattered like thin ice in spring. In a single, breath-stealing pulse, his realm vaulted from Heavenly Immortal Level Three to Level Four, then climbed even higher until it steadied, quiet but immense, at Top Level Heavenly Immortal Realm Level Four.
With the surge came revelation. His grasp of the art of the Five Elements no longer resembled study; it felt like speaking a native tongue. When his gaze drifted to the Five-Branch Elders, every swirl of elemental energy—where it flowed, where it faltered, and how each element could complement or restrict one another—spread before him as plainly as ink on parchment.
“T-This is…” Aurelian stuttered. “This is the resonance of the primal elements! You have woken the ancestral veins of the Five-Element Range itself!”
The Five-Branch Elders dropped to their knees, not from fear, but from the instinctive reverence mortals feel when the very laws of creation stand revealed.
Jared drew in his aura. The bead called the Five-Element Unification Pearl drifted into his palm, dissolved, and reformed as a five-hued sigil that branded the back of his right hand with a quiet, living light. He looked to Aurelian, then let his calm stare sweep the ring of kneeling elders.
“The struggle among your branches ends here. With chaotic celestial energy as my guide, I will temper your five elemental roots into harmony… Will you watch and learn?”
Ferrum was the first to bow. “The Metal Branch is eager to learn!” Woodric pressed both palms to the ground, a sap-green aura trembling around him. “The Wood Branch is willing!”
Aquilus inclined his head, his voice as clear as spring water. “The Water Branch will learn with gratitude…”
Pyre struck his fist to his chest, a curl of scarlet flame licking over his knuckles. “Fire Branch, ready to learn!”
Terran rumbled his assent, earth-brown light pooling about his knees. “The Earth Branch is willing to learn.”
Just like that, all contention fell away. In every eye burned only the hunger for a higher road. Jared nodded once. He lifted a single finger and tapped the air. A curtain of shifting color unfurled—gold, green, black, red, and ocher braided together. Inside that living screen, the Five Elements birthed and quelled one another, split and merged, borrowed strength and returned it.
The mysteries did not read like scripture; they lived and moved, a direct exhibition of the laws of nature themselves. The elders watched like starving scholars, drinking in each transformation. Centuries-old barriers inside them loosened, and fresh insight bloomed at a speed that left their hearts pounding.
Beside Jared, Aurelian folded his arms, a maze of emotions flickering behind his eyes—admiration, relief, and a trace of awe he could not quite hide.
“Jared, you may not realize it, but in just one day, you have rebuilt the Five-Element Sect. A feud that rotted us for a thousand years ends today. That is a debt we will remember for all generations.”
Jared shook his head. “You flatter me, Mr. Metalhart. The art of the Five Elements has always been a single whole; I merely swept aside the fog to reveal the truth.” He glanced at the sigil glowing on his hand. “Besides, I’ve gained much myself… Illuminating the Origin Star has elevated my understanding of the art of the Five Elements to a new level, and that is more than enough.”
Aurelian fell silent, then executed the sect’s highest rite, the Five-Element Ceremonial Salute. “Jared, from this hour, you are the Five-Element Sect’s Elder Guardian. Your standing equals mine. Every disciple will heed your word!”
He turned, his voice ringing through the grand hall. “Hear me! The Five-Element Sect joins the Anti-Demon Alliance with immediate effect. All branch disciples will cease internal strife at once. Within three days, you will grasp Elder Jared’s method of cultivation in the Five Elements. In seven days, we march with the Alliance to strike down Malevolent Path Hall!”
The Five-Branch Elders answered as one, their shout rattling the rafters. No dissent remained—only a single, rising will to fight side by side.
Jared felt the newborn Origin Star flicker to life deep in his core. Its silver-white pulse rippled through every vessel like an anthem he had waited his whole life to hear. In that instant, the air around him trembled, as though the heavens themselves acknowledged the marriage of the five elements. The circle was closed, and the seed had sprouted.
Now, it’s time to settle the score with Malevolent Path Hall…
Far away, the aurora that had crowned the Five-Element Range had not yet faded, but the weather across level twelve was already turning—clouds tearing, winds reversing course, and destinies shifting like pieces on an unseen board.
