Chapter 64: Bound by the Golden Bone

Thousands of kilometers away, amidst the frozen, desolate wasteland of the **Ice Star Empire**, the spatial fabric suddenly ripped open with a sharp tear.

Mia stumbled forward, catching herself against a jagged chunk of frozen granite.

Mia stood alone in the howling, bone-chilling expanse of the frozen valley, her breath pluming in the frigid air like delicate wisps of white smoke.

The heavy, magical white winter cloak Ethan had provided shielded her from the worst of the sub-zero temperatures, though a light shiver still danced across her shoulders as her body adapted to the alien climate.

Her innate ice-affinity bloodline hummed quietly within her veins, stabilizing her internal mana channels and easing her breathing against the harsh, oxygen-thin frost.

She blinked against the swirling snowflakes, completely disoriented. *Where am I? How did I get here in the blink of an eye?*

Suddenly, a calm, familiar resonance echoed directly within her mind.

*”Mia,”* Ethan’s voice resonated smoothly, carrying an absolute, reassuring authority.

*”I have already settled your background within this empire. Officially, you are the daughter of a traveling merchant who journeyed here to trade precious goods. Both of your parents tragically perished in a sudden blizzard accident. You barely survived as a second-rank ice mage, scraping by on the freezing streets. Now, at twelve years old, you will register with the local Adventurer’s Guild and begin your true journey.”*

Though Ethan had originally planned to wait until she reached fifteen before sending her into the Ice Star Empire—having orchestrated the merchants’ disappearance to craft a seamless, airtight backstory—the newly unlocked fate-sharing mechanics of the Sovereign Dominion had changed everything.

By directly investing his Fate Points into her, her innate survival probability and growth potential had skyrocketed. There was no need to wait. Her journey started right here, right now.

Thousands of kilometers away, inside the dark, warded study of the Warborn Mansion, Ethan gazed calmly at a glowing, golden holographic screen floating before him. Through the invisible divine link connecting the Sovereign Dominion, he could vividly perceive Mia’s exact location, her immediate surroundings, and her emotional state.

A profound, mystical connection hummed between them. Ethan realized that with a single mental command, he could instantly teleport across the continent to her exact coordinates, obliterating any threat that dared cross her path, or project a fraction of his power to shield her.

The absolute lethality of this sovereign authority was staggering.

Satisfied that Mia was anchored safely into her new destiny, Ethan shifted his focus away from the golden screen.

His consciousness plunged back into his spiritual core, navigating the intricate space-time pathways until his awareness locked onto his secondary asset: his autonomous blood-magic clone, lingering far away in the desolate, ruined remains of the hidden realm.

***

Back in the shattered ruins of the secret realm, the landscape was an apocalyptic graveyard. The violent spatial collapse triggered by the Heavenly Clown’s divine retribution had left mountains leveled and the earth littered with the bodies of fallen cultivators and mercenaries.

Standing amidst the carnage was Ethan’s black-magic clone, its shadowy form resting quietly while cradling the precious Dragon and Phoenix blessing pearls.

Not far away, a catastrophic, earth-shattering battle was raging.

The Royal Academy Principal stood firm, his robes whipping wildly in the psychic gale as he maintained a massive, shimmering **Azure Barrier of the Seven Heavens** around three surviving youths: Arthur, Kael, and Seraphina.

The Principal channeled a barrage of high-tier defensive spells—including the *Runic Shield of Absolute Repulsion*, the *Crystal Wall of the Ancients*, and the *Stellar Refraction Veil*—desperately absorbing a relentless onslaught of destructive attacks.

Opposite them stood the sovereign ruler of the kingdom—**King Vane**.

The king’s face was a mask of unmitigated, bloodthirsty rage. Though he couldn’t visually inspect the pulverized remains of his daughter Princess Vespera scattered across the rubble, his imperial spiritual sense screamed that her life had been utterly erased right here. And standing just feet away, drenched in the fallout of the realm’s destruction, was Arthur.

The king channeled his supreme, volatile affinity: the **Golden Sun-Scorched Flames**. Roaring waves of molten solar energy rippled across the stone pavement, turning the surrounding rubble into bubbling glass.

The Principal’s face tightened with grim resolve, blood trickling from the edge of his lip as he strained to hold the barrier against the Emperor’s sixth-rank destructive might.

“King Vane! You are blinded by grief! These children were trapped inside a collapsing pocket dimension dictated by cosmic laws. Blaming them for a cosmic catastrophe will destroy the very foundation of our empire!”

“I don’t care about cosmic laws!” the king bellowed, his eyes flashing with lethal fury. A massive, terrifying apparition materialized in the sky above him—an 80-meter-long **Golden Flame Dragon Head**, forged from pure solar plasma, descending slowly with apocalyptic pressure to crush the azure barrier. “That boy stood over my children’s remains! He absorbed the remnants of their destiny! I will execute him here and now!”

Inside the protective shield, Arthur was in a state of sheer, agonizing panic. He clutched his chest, gasping for breath as lingering trauma from the trial and the horrific realization of what he had lost tore at his sanity. Just moments before, as the realm collapsed, a bizarre, inexplicable phenomenon had occurred.

When the strange, formless cosmic figure had appeared in the sky, time and space had fractured into jagged splinters.

Suddenly, a blinding wave of golden flames had surged out from Prince Aethelgard—who had stood nearby—and violently transferred directly into Arthur’s body.

Aethelgard had been born with a legendary, ultra-rare **Golden Lotus Sword Bone**, an innate skeletal mutation exclusive to prodigies destined for the Weapon Master class.

That sacred bone, along with its innate solar flames, had forcefully ripped itself out of Aethelgard’s dying frame and embedded itself deep within Arthur’s physiology.

At first, Arthur had been terrified, feeling his skin sear and his bones fracture under the violent integration.

But as the foreign power settled into his marrow, an intoxicating, overwhelming flood of supreme strength had washed over him. A dark, seductive whisper in his mind had justified it all: *”Power has no master. To survive in this cruel world, you must devour every resource available. Take it all. Become strong enough to crush your enemies.”*

Overwhelmed by ambition, Arthur had accepted the gift. But now, he was cursing the day he had ever set foot in the realm.

The moment King Vane had arrived, the sovereign monarch had instantly sensed the unique resonance of the Golden Lotus Sword Bone radiating from Arthur’s chest.

The Emperor didn’t need proof; he knew instinctively that the stolen essence of the royal bloodline was beating inside this commoner’s chest.

Meanwhile, Keal was still struggling to stand properly. The pain in his lower body hadn’t subsided, and he kept grabbing Arthur for support.

“Help me up! Come on, give me a hand!” Keal pleaded repeatedly.

Arthur glanced at him, growing increasingly annoyed by his constant demands.

Seraphina was also acting as though she were genuinely frightened. However, she could have escaped from this situation with ease if she had wanted to.

Watching from afar through his clone’s perspective, Ethan observed the chaotic scene, a calculating smirk touching his lips as he noticed Arthur’s Fate Points surging upward by another 200,000 points.

Mentally querying the system, Ethan received an immediate clarification:

> **[Host, because you forcibly stripped the Red Dust Magic Flame from Arthur, the Heavenly Clown attempted to patch the anomaly. It forcibly hijacked the fate of Prince Aethelgard—who was destined to be a minor secondary Chosen One—and forcibly grafted his sovereign bone and destiny directly onto Arthur to keep him relevant.]**

Ethan chuckled softly in his mind. *”The Heavenly Will is truly desperate, trying to patch a sinking ship by feeding it more stolen wealth. Does it really think upgrading Arthur will save him from king vane blade?”*

[Host, there is something you need to understand. Unless you reach Rank 8, you won’t be able to do anything against the Heavenly Will.

I can protect you, but whether the people around you survive is entirely up to you. I may be able to save your life, but I cannot guarantee the safety of everyone else.

Take King vanes, for example. He is only at Rank 6. If the Heavenly Will wanted him dead, a single thunder punishment would be enough to kill him.

Of course, the Heavenly Will never reveals itself openly, so dealing with it—or finding a way to stop it—will be much more complicated.

However, one thing is certain: as long as your Fate Points remain above 200,000, Arthur, your life will not be in danger.”]

The eighty-meter-long Golden Flame Palm attack was hurtling toward Arthur and the others. Its overwhelming aura was so powerful that it could have destroyed an entire town.

However, the devastating attack suddenly froze in midair, as though an invisible force had stopped it in its tracks.

Arthur could feel an incredibly powerful energy surging within him. It was as sharp as a sword and as hot as a flame. His entire body glowed with a brilliant golden light.