Chapter 65: Rise of an Emperor Candidate

Back on the chaotic battlefield of the ruined secret realm, Arthur stood frozen as a cataclysmic transformation seized his entire body.

A torrent of blinding, golden-solar energy erupted violently from his chest, surging outward to completely swallow the firmament in a vast sea of sacred flames. The sheer density of the pressure instantly shattered the Emperor’s descending golden palm into harmless shards of light. Even across the dimensional veil, Ethan watched the phenomenon through his clone’s eyes, a rare flash of genuine shock crossing his face.

*The Second Awakening of a Sword Bone.*

Ethan knew the mechanics well. A supreme Sword Bone was not a static gift; it could undergo three to four distinct evolutionary awakenings, with each stage unlocking terrifying, world-altering dimensions of power. The First Awakening granted a specialized physical body and elemental affinity; the Second Awakening unlocked supreme soul-level dominance; and the Third Awakening touched upon the absolute laws of the cosmos. As for the elusive fourth and fifth awakenings, even Ethan’s past-life memories held no concrete records.

Yet, right before his eyes, Arthur was undergoing the Second Awakening.

The golden light surged, scouring away the red tint of Arthur’s hair, replacing it with a brilliant, sovereign gold that mirrored Ethan’s own. His eyes burned a deep, terrifying crimson. The raw physical blessing of his Sword Bone—the **Stellar Vajra Body**—was now fusing completely with its soul manifestation.

*ROAR—!*

From behind Arthur’s towering frame, space violently tore open, projecting a colossal, multi-layered spiritual apparition: a **Three-Headed Asura Giant**.

The colossal entity possessed three distinct heads, each featuring six glowing, blood-red eyes and a total of six massive, muscular arms crackling with divine lightning and golden runes. Though it lacked lower limbs, summoned only as a towering half-body projection of soul-energy, its oppressive presence made veteran cultivators drop to their knees. Intricate golden patterns etched themselves across Arthur’s skin, matching the celestial markings of the giant.

In an instant, Arthur’s combat power violently surged to the **Sixth Rank**, completely bypassing traditional bottlenecks.

Though Ethan himself possessed the means and Fate Points to elevate his true body to the sixth rank if he so chose, watching Arthur achieve such monstrous power organically left a bitter, sour taste in his mouth. He instantly calculated the benefits of executing the clone, stripping the bone, and claiming the destiny for himself.

*Ding!*

A sharp, warning-tinted system alert abruptly flashed into his mind.

> **[System Advisory: Host, exercise restraint. While I shielded you from the Heavenly Will’s absolute gaze once, attempting to forcefully steal a primary Chosen One’s second awakening destiny directly under the cosmos’s nose is highly volatile. The Heavenly Will is currently monitoring this sector with absolute focus. Any further direct interference will provoke an apocalyptic divine wrath capable of annihilating this entire regional grid.]**

Ethan’s lips curved into a cold, amused smirk. He leaned back in his study chair miles away, completely unbothered. *”Let the old heavens watch, then. After all, this is merely a black-magic blood clone, not my true mortal vessel.”*

Since direct intervention was restricted for the moment, Ethan decided to capitalize on his own preparations. He shifted his attention within the dark, warded chambers of the Warborn Mansion, calling upon two key items from his spatial treasury.

First, he retrieved the **Broken Sun-God Sword**, which still retained remnants of holy solar light. Second, he pulled forth the bound, weeping soul of the fifth-rank martial artist elder whom Arthur had previously slain.

The captive soul materialized as a translucent, shivering humanoid mass, trapped entirely within a web of dense black-magic chains.

“Quiet,” Ethan commanded coldly, his fingers weaving intricate restriction runes that bit deep into the spiritual body, binding the elder’s soul so tightly it couldn’t even emit a sound of agony.

Without hesitation, Ethan took the Broken Sun-God Sword and forcefully thrust the jagged blade straight through the center of the captured soul.

*SCREEECH—!*

The old man’s spirit let out a silent, soul-rending shriek of pure torment as the divine blade pierced its core. A volatile torrent of dark, malicious evil-energy began to bleed out from the soul, threatening to corrupt the surrounding room.

Before the malevolent aura could spill over, Ethan snapped his fingers. “Fire Fairy, your turn.”

From the depths of Ethan’s spiritual sea, the diminutive Red Fairy flashed outward, blinking in surprise as she surveyed the dark, ritualistic chamber. But perceiving the objective instantly, she nodded. Channeling her innate elemental domain, she unleashed her signature ability—**Nature’s Illusion**.

A shimmering, multi-colored barrier of dense illusionary mana radiated outward, completely encapsulating the Warborn Mansion. Inside, the destructive energies of the soul and sword clashed violently, but to the outside world, absolute calm remained undisturbed.

For several grueling minutes, the process continued until the fifth-rank elder’s spirit was entirely absorbed by the blade.

The Broken Sun-God Sword underwent a miraculous transformation. Its jagged edges glowed with a dual-toned, holy-yet-corrupt aura. This was the sword’s unique secondary ability: by consuming and purifying evil souls, it could store catastrophic kinetic energy. Though it had previously been too weak to harm a third-rank opponent, after absorbing a true fifth-rank martial artist’s soul, the sword could now unleash **5% of its peak divine might**—enough to execute a single, fatal slash capable of decapitating a sixth-rank powerhouse.

“A fine tool,” Ethan murmured, a satisfied smile touching his lips.

With a wave of his hand, he tore open a miniature spatial rift directly connecting the Warborn Mansion to the ruined battlefields of the secret realm. He sent the charged sword hurtling through the rift, where it materialized instantly into the waiting grip of his blood-magic clone.

Simultaneously, Ethan’s clone held the glowing Dragon and Phoenix blessing pearls in its other hand. He sighed softly, glancing toward Seraphina’s distant signature. *”Forgive me, Seraphina. It seems this supreme treasure must be repurposed elsewhere for now.”*

He turned his gaze back to the ruined battlefield outside.

Arthur’s terrifying transformation had reached its zenith. The surrounding merchants, shadow guild mercenaries, and imperial elites had long since retreated a mile back, their faces drained of color. They stared at Arthur not with mere greed anymore, but with unadulterated terror and deep, instinctive awe.

In their world, being born with a legendary bone was already a miracle; achieving a Second Awakening and manifesting an Asura war-soul meant only one thing—a destined, undisputed **Emperor Candidate**.

Arthur stood tall, his six-armed Asura projection shifting violently in the air as he swept his hand forward.

*WHOOSH!*

The three giant heads of the Asura apparition moved in unison, creating a thousand phantom afterimages that spanned over a hundred meters, raining down a torrential barrage of colossal soul-palms directly toward the Emperor.

King Vane’s expression finally lost its absolute composure. Though he was a veteran sixth-rank mage, the sheer oppressive weight of Arthur’s awakened divine pressure made his blood run cold.

“Impudent brat!” the Emperor roared, stepping back as a blinding golden formation erupted behind him.

From the center of the runes, a massive, primordial **Golden Lotus** materialized, its sacred petals unfurling. With a sharp crack, the petals detached one by one, each transforming into a magnificent, five-meter-long **Solar Phoenix** wreathed in raging fire.

The dozens of fiery phoenixes shrieked in unison, shooting upward like burning meteors to intercept the descending Asura palms.

*BOOM-KABOOM-KABOOM!*

The sky erupted into a magnificent, apocalyptic display of fireworks. From a distance, it looked as though an army of tiny, brilliant suns was colliding with the limbs of a primordial titan. The shockwaves sheared the remaining mountain ridges in half, turning the earth to glass.

The Emperor narrowed his eyes, testing the true boundaries of Arthur’s new strength. When he sensed that the Asura’s momentum had slightly slowed under the impact of the solar phoenixes, a cold, confident smile touched his lips.

With a sweep of his arms, the golden lotus formation expanded exponentially. All the detached petals folded inward, compressing into a massive, shimmering sphere of pure solar plasma. Deep within the center of the sphere, two enormous, predatory **red eyes** blinked open.

From the depths of the sphere emerged a breathtaking, ethereal entity: the **Golden Lotus Flame Spirit**.

She was a divine humanoid avatar, draped in intricate robes spun from living crimson flames, wearing a crown of condensed solar energy. Her features were impossibly exquisite, radiating an ancient, primordial majesty. This was the rare, sentient soul-spirit bound to the Emperor’s supreme flame—an entity possessed by only the highest-tier elemental masters.

The moment the Flame Spirit manifested, the surrounding temperature plummeted into a suffocating, dry heat that vaporized nearby rivers instantly.

With a flick of her wrist, the Flame Spirit summoned a pair of colossal, two-hundred-meter-long **Phoenix Wings** carved from pure, razor-sharp flame. She swept her wings forward, cutting through the spatial grid to slice directly through the remaining hands of Arthur’s Asura projection.

*CRACK—!*

The collision of the thousand-meter-long flame wings against the Asura’s soul-palms triggered a cataclysmic detonation that shook the entire empire’s western border.