Julian looked at his interface. With over 1,000 Destiny Points remaining, he didn't choose to continue adding points immediately. Instead, he saved them for a rainy day.
Looking at the field of Skittering Shadow corpses in the distance, a cold smile played on his lips. If not for those alien invaders, he wouldn't have been able to convince the Gear-Heart clan to migrate so easily. They were effectively his best recruiters.
"Barrett mentioned an old temple in the hills," Julian recalled their conversation. "He said a golden light fell from the sky, but when he went to investigate, he found nothing but empty stone. I wonder..."
According to Barrett, the light had been blinding but vanished in an instant. Julian set his sights on the location the Titan-born warrior had described.
Meanwhile, in another corner of this fractured world, the atmosphere was far more tense.
Elena's expression was solemn. Beside her stood several elite students from the High Dragon class.
"Are you sure? A relic landed in this valley?" Elena looked at the pass ahead. The valley was eerily quiet, the branches overhead weaving a dense canopy of shadows. It possessed a unique, haunting elegance, but the silence was unnatural.
"Sister Elena, I've confirmed it," a handsome student said firmly. "A black light fell here. But the locals say this place is cursed. No one who enters has ever come out alive."
"Even if it's dangerous, we have no choice," Elena said, her jaw set. "This is only a Level-1 Stargate. There shouldn't be anything at the Transcendent Realm here."
She uncoiled a long black whip, its surface shimmering with violet mana, and led her team into the gloom. Deep within that valley stood an ancient pagoda, seven stories tall, constructed entirely from bleached, polished white bone. Elena had no idea what was waiting for her in the depths.
At the same time, the other students of the High Dragon class were scouring the land. They found that a large number of alien races—Skittering Shadows, Jackal-Kin, and more—were sweeping through human settlements, intent on a total purge.
Julian arrived at the location Barrett had described. The building was dilapidated, weeds choking the stone walls of the entrance.
"The Temple of the Unified Frame?" Julian read the weathered plaque before stepping inside.
The main hall was small and abandoned. The incense burners were gone, and the floor was covered in a layer of dust so thick that every step sent up a gray cloud. Julian searched the corners, but at first glance, there was nothing.
"Golden light doesn't just disappear," Julian murmured. He checked the rafters and the floorboards, but found nothing special. Only a metallic statue of a seated figure remained in the center of the hall.
He didn't notice the statue's eyes—made of dull, unpolished ore—tracking his movement.
"Nothing? That's strange." Julian frowned. Then, a bold thought struck him. "If I can't find the secret, I'll just take the whole temple."
He reached out, communicating with the imprint of his Hallowed Realm. With a ripple of spatial energy, the entire temple was uprooted and vanished, reappearing instantly inside the Lotus Sanctum.
The moment the building settled into the black soil of his realm, a piercing golden light erupted from its windows.
"Unity through Steel!"
A resonant, mechanical humming—the voice of The Great Artificer—echoed across the Sanctum. The Gear-Heart clan, who were busy setting up their new homes, stopped in their tracks. Their eyes grew glazed and confused, a strange, forced faith beginning to take root as they turned toward the temple.
"Not on my watch," Julian hissed.
He vanished from the outside world and reappeared inside his Hallowed Realm. He felt the golden resonance trying to weave into his own mind.
"Hallowed Realm, suppress!" Julian exerted his authority. The ambient mana of the Sanctum surged like a tidal wave, crashing down on the temple.
Under the immense pressure, the source of the light revealed itself. The metallic statue was shedding its outer rust, revealing a core of pure, radiant brass.
Rare Treasure Identified:
The Iron Sage Statue (Grade 9)
Aura: The Great Artificer's Resonance.
Effect: Emits a constant frequency that forces sentient races to worship and believe in the "Unified Frame," effectively brainwashing them into a collective hive-mind.
Julian's eyes narrowed. He didn't like the "forced faith" aspect. It was a parasitic treasure that would turn his new followers into mindless drones.
"Seal!"
With a thought, Julian used the laws of the Hallowed Realm to lock the statue's power behind a barrier of mana. He didn't intend to bind this treasure to himself.
"I'll see if I can exchange this for a Moon Well with the academy later," Julian decided. "I need resources, not a cult."
He left his Hallowed Realm, returning to the empty clearing in the Sector of Ironside. He still needed to collect ten Blessed Stones to satisfy his mission.
Clang! Shing! Kill!
Suddenly, the sounds of a massive engagement drifted over the hills—the rhythmic beat of hooves and the clash of steel.
"Is that a human army? Or more aliens?" Julian wondered. He circulated his mana, his body blurring as he sprinted toward the location of the sounds of battle.