The void tore open.

Aiden took one step forward, bringing Cheryl and Bella with him across endless mountains and rivers.

In an instant, they returned to the sky ten thousand meters above Celestial Imperial City.

At that moment, the wind stopped.

Inside Celestial Imperial City, countless Reclassers seemed to sense something. One after another, they looked up in shock.

"Aiden is back!"

Zoey moved at once and appeared on the top of a city wall tower.

Her clothes fluttered in the air, and her beautiful eyes were filled with seriousness.

Jade held her divine sword in her arms.

The sword intent inside the sheath rang wildly, as if it was afraid of something, yet also trembling with excitement.

Aiden stood in the void.

His white hair moved gently in the wind, and his eyes were cold and deep.

He wasted no words.

"Rise."

Aiden flicked his finger.

Boom!

Seven lights, bright to the point of looking almost unreal, burst from his palm.

They turned into seven crystals of different shapes and floated between heaven and earth in the pattern of the Big Dipper.

The first was the Crystal of Pride.

It shone with a purple-gold light and carried a lonely arrogance, as if it looked down on all living beings from high above.

The second was the Crystal of Envy.

It was a ghostly green, like a venomous snake, swallowing all the light around it. Its cold aura went deep into the bone.

The third was the Burning Crystal of Wrath.

It was dark red like molten lava.

The moment it appeared, the clouds ten thousand meters above the ground were instantly dried away.

The fourth was the Heavy Crystal of Greed.

It shone with a brilliant golden light, but it was so heavy that the void kept collapsing under its weight, letting out strained groans.

The fifth was the Silent Crystal of Sloth.

It was gray-blue and deathly still.

Wherever it passed, even flowing light became slow.

The sixth was the Clear Crystal of Lust.

It was clear and pink, shining with a perfect illusion that seemed to strike straight into the deepest part of every living soul.

The seventh was the Starving Crystal of Gluttony.

It was pure black, dark as ink, like a bottomless Abyss, greedily tearing at the energy around it.

At this moment, in this era, all seven Primordial Crystals were activated for the first time!

Buzz-!

The four-law resonance field inside Aiden’s body began to boil completely.

Space.

Thunder.

Light.

The Primordial Trace.

The four laws turned into a huge seven-colored divine ring, blooming again and again behind Aiden’s head.

Its divine power spread like an endless sea.

The moment the seven crystals touched the resonance field, they began to react with it in a way never seen before.

This was not a clash of one single law.

It was a mixed aura of laws, ancient and primitive, almost like the force that had existed when the world was first created.

This aura went beyond any known level on Earth.

It slowly turned into a real tide and rushed madly toward the core of Aiden’s law resonance field.

[Ding!]

The system’s voice rang sharply in Aiden’s mind.

[Perfect resonance detected among the laws of the Seven Pillars. Primordial law density has reached the critical point!]

[Hidden system vessel... Forced analysis in progress!]

[Vessel reading: 97... 98... 99...]

[Boom!]

[Vessel reading has broken past the limit. First rise into three digits: 105!]

The instant the reading passed one hundred, the strange ripple deep in the system-the one that had been trying to devour Aiden’s law essence-suddenly froze.

Aiden felt his whole body shake.

Then an indescribable feeling of clarity spread through every part of him.

At that moment, his understanding of the laws went through its third full breakthrough.

[Law comprehension increased: 63%... 64%... 65%... 66%!]

[Ding! Intermediate God stability increased: Basic Stability → Mid Stability!]

Rumble-

The sky and earth changed color.

At that moment, every expert above Divine Rank in Celestial Imperial City spat out blood at the same time.

Their eyes were filled with horror as they fell to their knees.

It was the absolute pressure of a higher law!

And that was not all.

In that instant, the entire law network of Earth went completely out of control.

In the Great Shaw Empire, in The Azurecloud Empire, in the far northern wasteland, in the deepest part of the Abyss...

Every place that had once sealed one of the Seven Pillars lit up at the same time.

Beams of law light shot into the sky and down into the earth, lighting up the night across the whole world.

For one brief moment, Earth’s law network shone.

"This is... the resonance of the Seven Pillars?!"

Zoey stared hard at the figure in the sky, who looked almost like a god.

Her voice trembled badly.

Jade could barely even hold her sword.

Her beautiful eyes were filled with shock.

Aiden stood at the center of the law storm.

In his double-pupiled eyes, the death and rebirth of countless stars were reflected.

Just then, as the hidden system vessel reading broke past one hundred, a crack suddenly opened in the deepest darkness of the system.

A broken soul fragment, carrying an ancient aura, slowly floated out from the vessel.

It carried the remaining wave of Yves’s Inner Spirit.

There was no world-shaking inheritance.

There was no godly skill that could destroy heaven and earth.

On that fragment, there were only five large words, forcefully branded into it with Inner Spirit Strength.

Aiden looked closely, and his double-pupiled eyes suddenly narrowed.

Those five words carried endless mixed feelings, a deep sigh, and a kind of peace from someone who had already seen through life and death-

"He was not wrong either."

Who was "he"?

Was it Leon, the leader of the Dawn Society?

Or was it the supreme god of the Heavenly Demon Clan?

Back then, when Yves faced that golden gate, what exactly had he seen?

What had made him leave behind words like these-words that sounded almost like surrender, yet were filled with sorrow?

The storm slowly calmed.

Aiden slowly clenched his fist and drew that fragment back into the deepest part of his Inner Spirit.

Then he raised his head and looked into the endless void.

His instinct told him one thing.

This final mystery, which had troubled Earth for a thousand years, would soon be uncovered by his own hands in the next few days.

...

The last light of the setting sun passed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, dyeing the My Lord study in Celestial Imperial City a dark red.

The shocking vision from yesterday, which had shaken the whole Earth and caused the Seven Pillars to resonate, had already faded.

But a faint trace of the Primordial Law still lingered in the air.

Aiden sat quietly in front of the desk.

His eyes were slightly closed.

Inside his body, the four great laws-Space, Thunder, Light, and the Primordial Trace-moved slowly like a river of stars, constantly strengthening his realm as an Intermediate God.

Suddenly, Aiden opened his eyes.

In his double-pupiled eyes, a peerless sharpness burst out, powerful enough to tear open the void.

"Since you have already come, why hide yourself?"

Aiden’s voice was very soft.

But it carried the dignity of a god-something no one could disobey-and it echoed through the study.

Yet everything around him was dead silent.

There was no alarm.

No wave of law energy from any activated formation.

Even the wind outside the window did not stop for a moment.

But in front of the floor-to-ceiling window...

At some point, a figure had appeared.

The man wore a gray robe that had been washed so many times it had turned slightly pale. His back was facing Aiden, and his body looked a little thin.

He stood there quietly.

It was as if he had been standing there for a thousand years.

It was also as if he himself was part of the window, part of the light, and part of the void.

Aiden’s pupils narrowed slightly.

With his terrifying senses as an Intermediate God, he still could not detect even the slightest wave of law energy from this man.

But that did not mean the man had no laws.

It meant his laws had already merged perfectly with everything around him.

The entire study-and even the void within a thousand meters-was under his silent control.

This kind of control was gentle and soundless.

It did not need any active release of power.

But it was far more terrifying than any violent domain.

"Leon."

Aiden slowly stood up.

Boom!

The might of an Intermediate God burst out from his body.

Dark-golden divine power turned into real waves, trying to tear apart this space that had been quietly taken over.

In the void, thunder and light twisted together madly at a tiny level.

But they still could not break through that invisible barrier.

The gray-robed man did not even let the corner of his robe move.

He slowly turned around.

It was the face of a middle-aged man so ordinary that it could not have been more ordinary.

Only his eyes were different.

They were deep and lifeless, as if countless eras had been buried inside them. They carried a heavy feeling, like someone who had seen far too many things that should never have been seen.

"The resonance of the Seven Pillars was beautiful."

Leon looked at Aiden. His voice was calm, like still water, yet it sent ripples through the void.

"Ten thousand years have passed, and no one has ever asked the Seven Pillars, ’What are you afraid of?’"

"You are the first."

Aiden looked at him coldly.

He raised his right hand slightly, and the Law of the Void gathered at his fingertips, forming a faint, almost invisible blade.

"The leader of the Dawn Society has come to me in person. Do you want to test my Strength?"

Leon gently shook his head, completely ignoring Aiden’s hostility.

"I am not here to threaten you."

He took one step forward.

Just one step.

The void blade gathered at Aiden’s fingertips melted away like snow under the sun, turning back into the most basic elements and returning to the world.

Aiden’s expression became more serious than ever.

This man’s strength was impossible to measure.

"I came only to tell you one thing."

Leon stopped.

His lifeless eyes stared straight at Aiden.

"You have two years left."

Aiden frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"The countdown for the Lord of the Primordial’s plan has been shortened from three years to two."

Leon’s tone was calm, as if he were simply stating some unimportant fact.

But those few simple words set off a storm in Aiden’s heart.

Two years!

The original three-year grace period had been cut down by a full year.

"Why two years?"

Aiden stared hard at Leon. Thunder flashed in his double-pupiled eyes, and his divine pressure made the air in the study almost freeze.

Leon gave a soft sigh and turned to look out the window at the towering Celestial Imperial City.

"Because you cleared the trials of the Seven Pillars too quickly."

"The speed at which you gained the approval of the Seven Pillars went beyond the limit anyone could have imagined-even beyond the Lord of the Primordial’s calculations."

"Your actions have brought everything forward."

Aiden let out a cold laugh.

Around him, the Law of Light and the Law of Space wove together, forming a bright divine halo.

"So you had a hand in this too?"

"You have also been pushing this from behind the scenes, haven’t you?"

Leon turned his head and looked at Aiden.

The corner of his mouth seemed to rise slightly, showing a complicated expression.

"Yes."

He did not deny it.

"We are all in the same river."

Leon’s figure began to fade, as if he could melt into the dark-red sunset at any moment.

"It’s just that I am upstream, and you are in the middle."

"And the Primordial Gate..."

"is downstream."

As his words fell, the gray-robed man’s figure disappeared completely into the air, leaving no trace behind.

The study became silent again.

Only Aiden remained, standing in the last light of the setting sun, his expression dark and uncertain.