Chapter 426: I Won’t Fail Again

The two factions led by Suien and Meien had only around 3,000 people combined. That number had been at least 50% higher before the mission, but unfortunately, not everyone had been prepared for such turmoil.

The twins had to swallow the pain of failure and their own helplessness. As leaders, they felt indebted to every life they had lost. However, both of them also knew that a Mage’s path toward immortality was like repeatedly jumping off a cliff.

The line between life and death was crossed over and over again, and everyone had to be prepared for the worst.

After everyone gathered in a vast open field, their eyes fixed on Priam, who stood waiting at the front.

The gleam in every soldier’s eyes was one of pure curiosity and excitement. They had heard countless incredible stories about this figure from their leaders. Besides, his records and achievements throughout the sect and across the entire universe were already something unique and terrifying.

Obviously, they knew that, as soldiers serving his sisters, the path to joining this monster was a straight line.

A few seconds later, Priam turned toward Dandara beside him. She kept her eyes fixed on the battalion in front of them, briefly assessing the soldiers.

"They’re not that bad," Dandara commented without showing any emotion. "Mentally, they’re close to the level of our newly recruited soldiers. I feel they’re loyal enough to the twins, and with proper training, they can become elite soldiers."

Suien and Meien, standing right behind them, puffed out their chests, immensely pleased with that statement. Hearing Dandara say they were "not that bad" was an excellent evaluation.

Priam nodded. "Great. You two, join the group."

He pointed at the twins before taking a gleaming crystal out of his ring.

"I’ll release all the energy around you and seal off the area. Your job is pretty simple: just absorb everything into your bodies, focusing on repairing the flaws in every inch of your meridians, cores, and Runes of Creation."

Upon hearing that, the twins’ eyes widened. They could hardly believe that solving a problem of such catastrophic proportions would be so simple.

Once they snapped out of their stupor, both immediately rushed toward the soldiers of their respective factions.

Dandara took a deep breath and helped Priam, using a bit of the essence of creation to enclose the entire area within a sealed dome.

Priam began releasing all the Great Mist Energy contained in the crystals. Then, he manipulated the surrounding Ether and used his mastery of the system to fuse everything together in harmony.

Within seconds, Divine Ether was born.

Everyone inside the dome watched as a dense, pulsating, multicolored energy began permeating the surrounding air.

Before long, the entire area was saturated with an absurd amount of Divine Ether. Every soldier began absorbing the flow and focusing their internal power, exactly as instructed.

It didn’t take long for everyone’s hearts to start pounding like drums.

Everything was being restored. At the same time, all the benefits they had gained from ascending within a Singular World were preserved intact inside their bodies.

From that day onward, those 3,000 Mages had climbed countless steps on the power ladder of the entire world. They would naturally stand far above any Mage of the same Rank, surpassed only by the Celestials.

Not even the Mages from the greatest sects in the northern region would have potential comparable to theirs.

That was because the techniques those sects used to stabilize energy still had clear limitations. If any of those soldiers had been in a northern sect, that level of internal contamination would have been considered completely incurable.

Seeing the results, the soldiers’ adoring gazes toward the figure standing in front of them only grew stronger.

...

...

...

Nearly three days passed. All the Divine Ether had been completely absorbed, and Priam had burned through half of everything he possessed. Now, he had only a little over 20% of what he had brought back from that world left.

All those Mage Masters now exuded a subtle, balanced, and peaceful aura.

They rose to their feet, euphoric and eager to celebrate their miraculous recovery to the fullest. However...

"Damn it! Don’t make us look bad in front of our brother!"

Suien roared furiously, and everyone immediately turned their eyes forward, their expressions tense. An instinctive fear ran through them as they heard their leader’s deep, angry shout.

Priam smiled faintly. He genuinely found it adorable to see those two acting like stern, respected generals. To him, all he had to do was close his eyes, and he could see those two little girls playing and running around on the Flying Boat.

"It’s still too early to celebrate. Everyone, come on. It’s time to become Sages."

He spoke, but nobody reacted.

Their expressions froze. They were certain they had heard him wrong.

After speaking, Priam took Dandara’s hand, then turned around and walked toward the teleportation inscription.

It took the two factions several seconds to move. The twins’ eyes were radiant with excitement, and they hurriedly ordered everyone to follow close behind.

Shortly afterward, they arrived at the inscription that would take them to the Celestial Cloud.

It was everyone’s first time at that location. The same Elder who had previously explained everything to Priam was still stationed there on guard duty. He went through the entire formal introduction, but his expression and gaze betrayed his barely contained excitement.

After all, Priam was back again, and the Elder had a feeling that he was about to shatter the common logic of the world once more.

Everyone settled onto the inscription and was instantly transported to the Celestial Cloud.

...

One day later, Mishnar received news that made her eyes light up with joy.

All 3,000 members of the twins’ factions had become Sages!

By that point, everyone already understood that Priam possessed an unbelievable ability or teaching method. With his support, anyone could break through that threshold with astonishing ease.

If he were in any other sect, the blades of envy and ambition wielded by the older figures would undoubtedly fall upon his back. Even the upper echelons wouldn’t rest until they had forced him to help all the Mages in the sect advance on a massive scale.

However, the Ironweald Sect was a place where conspiracies and underhanded schemes simply didn’t exist. The moment someone tried to plot something dishonest, they would be marked by the inscription and punished severely.

It was as though everything had been deliberately orchestrated by the Holy Goddess in the distant past, with the specific intention of allowing someone like Priam to rise quietly within the sect.

Priam no longer even bothered to hide his trump cards. Back when he was still an outer disciple, revealing too much posed genuine dangers. But now, as a core disciple, he was completely confident that the sect would never force him to do anything against his will.

Having to rise with extreme caution, concealing every detail that set him apart, would be an absurdly slow and exhausting process. Priam might have needed hundreds of thousands of years to achieve anything noteworthy.

Although Dandara had failed in her own mission in the past, she had left behind a perfectly paved path for her successor to follow.

She had truly thought of everything, even her own failure. That alone showed just how incredible she had been... and still was.

...

After all the new Sages returned to their respective residences, Priam had a serious conversation with the twins, with Dandara by their side.

They settled around a tea table, and the two began calmly recounting every detail of what they had endured throughout those long years.

The overall account matched the report he’d heard earlier. However, a few details omitted from the official version immediately caught Priam’s attention.

When the second wave of Mages from the northern region’s sects arrived in that world, the twins had initially managed to negotiate with their leaders, devising a strategic compromise that would allow them to carry out the mission efficiently.

Those Mages, although aristocratic and incredibly arrogant, weren’t completely irrational. The twins also wanted to return home as quickly as possible.

As long as they organized a coordinated assault with high chances of success, these new allies didn’t mind sparing the native forces to conserve their own resources.

However...

During the preparation and tactical reconnaissance phase, a particular faction from the northern region—the one from the Pure Lotus Sanctuary Sect—began conducting a covert, in-depth sweep of that entire universe.

It didn’t take them long to find what they were looking for.

That world was home to a variant race similar to another that inhabited the Ur-World.

They were known as Nature Wanderers—a native spiritual race born in the heart of primordial forests, endowed with pure, sacred, and immaculate natural power.

The moment Meien mentioned the name of this race, a dangerous light instantly flashed in her eyes, and her expression turned as cold and sharp as a blade.

Yes, they were the other world’s variant of the Pristine Wild-Spirits.

Despite belonging to different worlds, Priam already knew that a deep web of connections linked all worlds together. This cosmic resonance gave rise to striking similarities—such as the existence of humans across various worlds, even if subtle differences existed between them.

On the Ur-World itself, pure humans had once walked the land in a distant past.

Witnessing the visceral fury and murderous intent pouring from Meien’s gaze, Priam was visibly taken aback.

Noticing her brother’s attention fixed on her, Meien struggled to take a deep breath, trying to rein in her chaotic aura and suppress the hatred threatening to spill over.

Priam let out a soft snort. "I’ve already told you that you don’t have to hide anything or pretend to feel something else around me. Just tell me: why did this affect you so deeply?"

Meien closed her eyes for a second, swallowed hard, and nodded, her voice trembling with indignation.

"Those bastards... the moment they detected the presence of that race, they started hunting them down and slaughtering them without a shred of mercy. Only later did I discover that their sect specializes in the Paragon Art: Heavenly Devil’s Physical Refinement.

"This technique is widely renowned, and three major sects in the northern region have mastered it. However, while the others use this method to refine the bodies and bloodlines of powerful Primordial Chaos Beasts—raising their Mages’ physical capabilities to monstrous levels—the Pure Lotus Sanctuary Sect does something a thousand times worse..."

One of Meien’s hands trembled on the table, while the other clenched the fabric of her robes so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

"Every disciple of that sect possesses what’s known as the Divine Nature Body. They all boast an unparalleled connection to natural energy, as well as the ability to store enough of it to ensure instant regeneration in combat.

"They’re absurdly difficult to kill. Even their Holy Mages are nearly immortal monsters in short battles. And the reason for that... is that they’re the only sect in the world that has managed to secretly capture and reproduce the Pristine Wild-Spirits.

"And their most feared elite disciples... possess the Sovereign Nature Body. Their physical foundation comes from the sacrifice of Primordial Pristine Wild-Spirits."

Upon hearing that revelation, Priam’s expression changed drastically. The air around him froze.

Dandara, sitting beside him, stiffened, and an unmistakably murderous gleam ignited in her pupils. She had heard Priam himself recount the tragedy he had experienced on the mortal plane, and she knew how deeply the scars of that past still hurt.

Meien was so overwhelmed by the storm of emotions raging inside her that she didn’t even notice the dark transformation in her brother’s expression. She continued, her voice choked with a pain that seemed to claw at her very soul.

"The moment they arrived in that world, the hunters from that sect began cornering and refining every Nature Wanderer still alive. By the time we realized the massacre was happening in secret, they’d already done it to thousands of them across multiple planets."

Suien let out a long sigh before adding in a solemn tone, "I’ve never seen Meien react like that in my entire life. It was as if a demon had possessed her body. She marched alone against the main camp of those elite disciples and started a bloodbath without the slightest hesitation... Obviously, I was furious too when I saw what was happening, so I joined the battle at her side. But Meien had completely lost control."

Priam took a deep breath, forcing his heartbeat to slow down.

Now, every piece of the puzzle fell into place. He understood perfectly why the twins had severed ties with the reinforcements.

At the same time... Priam fixed his gaze on Meien, and an overwhelming, painful emotion erupted in his chest.

’Luvinah... no, my sister Meien... even without the memories of that life, deep in the very depths of your soul, you still carry that protective instinct and that fierce love for your original race...’

Priam murmured mentally. The suffocating memories of Luvinah and the image of that tribe, massacred long ago, came crashing down on Priam’s mind like an avalanche. He had to breathe in and out several times to calm himself.

"Bro..." Meien trembled when she noticed his silence. Mistaking the intensity of his gaze and the turmoil in his eyes for disappointment or disapproval of her impulsive behavior, she murmured in a faltering voice, "I... I was wrong... I swear, I don’t know what came over me. When I saw those creatures being slaughtered like cattle, it was as if something inside me burst into flames, a voice screaming that it was unforgivable and that I had to destroy them at any cost... I’m sorry. I promise I’ll never do it again..."

"No. You did exactly the right thing. I’m deeply proud of you."

Priam interrupted her without hesitation, keeping his gaze locked directly on Meien’s reddened, tear-filled eyes.

Within seconds, Priam’s expression softened, giving way to a cold, vibrant smile filled with dangerous anticipation.

Fate had finally placed the Pristine Wild-Spirits before him once again.

Priam clenched his fists.

’This time, I won’t fail again.’

He would save every single one of them, no matter the cost.

One of the greatest sects in the universe? Fuck it. He’d wipe them out if he got the chance.