Chapter 461: True Anomaly

Priam reacted as fast as he could, driven by pure survival instinct. He didn’t have enough time to burn his spatial bloodline, let alone form a second thought.

His fists shot forward, carrying the full extent of his physical strength.

However, his attacker was a Level 8 Exalted Sage—that Central Elder possessed more power than the Leader and all the strongest members of the Ironweald Sect combined!

Even so, Priam’s strike was cunning, ruthless, and impossibly fast.

The Central Elder’s eyes shifted.

"Not a bad reaction," she praised dryly.

However, she didn’t underestimate Priam in the slightest. When she finally made her move, she channeled everything she had all at once. With a slight movement of her hand, she deflected Priam’s desperate counterattack.

Then, her other fist shot forward like a bolt of lightning, striking the exact center of his chest.

*CRASH!*

Although Priam had done the impossible to twist his body out of the attack’s trajectory, he was shocked to feel every single one of his bones shatter upon impact. The pain that hit him was so visceral and overwhelming that his vision instantly went dark.

But he endured it and didn’t lose consciousness.

He slammed into a massive boulder behind him, embedding his body in it. Then...

"!"

The Central Elder was genuinely shocked to see that, even with every bone in his body shattered, he was staring at her with a gaze that was utterly bloodthirsty and unyielding. At the same time, an indescribable, paralyzing chill ran down her spine.

Priam quickly brought up the system’s confirmation window.

If he accepted, he could summon the manifestation of Heaven’s Will and unleash his unrestricted power. If he did so, however, the entire sect and every single person present would have to be eradicated.

But...

After a brief moment of reflection, he closed his eyes and let his consciousness fade away.

He felt that this woman genuinely harbored no malicious intentions. After all, he hadn’t even perceived her initial approach as a real threat. He saw no reason for her to wish him harm, so he trusted his instincts—and trusted that the Dandara of the past wouldn’t have founded a sect full of treacherous bastards.

Seeing him lose consciousness, the Central Elder let out a long sigh, an uncomfortable and strange feeling lingering in her chest.

It was as if she’d just peeked into the depths of the abyss, only for the abyss to stare right back at her. She didn’t understand how, but she had the feeling that, by a terrifyingly narrow margin, a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions had just been averted.

Turning around, she spotted Suien, already unconscious and limp in the arms of a second Elder, who had attacked at the same time.

With a wave of her hand, both completely broken bodies were enveloped in an elemental aura and transported away in the blink of an eye.

...

When they reappeared, they were in a hidden, secret location deep within the planet.

At its center was a colossal pool stretching a thousand meters across. The water’s surface was shrouded in a dense, mystical mist, from which a radiant, multicolored light emanated. The fluid exuded a sacred and overwhelming elemental aura.

If Priam had been awake, he would’ve been stunned: the entire area surrounding the pool was absolutely teeming with Elemental Spirits. Every one of those tiny beings possessed an immeasurable degree of purity and power.

In the future, Priam would discover that there wasn’t a single place in that entire world inhabited by more powerful Nature Elemental Spirits than this one.

Priam and Suien were thrown into the pool together, quickly sinking to the rocky bottom.

All the water around them began bubbling and bubbling as if it were boiling, raising a dense mist around them.

With every bone in their bodies fractured and not an ounce of physical strength left, their limp bodies began to act like sponges. Within that pool, an endless amount of pure energy began flowing into them.

The energy first moved instinctively toward the Magic Runes they had both carved for the Heavenly Elemental Body technique.

It was as if they were the dry beds of rivers that had gone countless years without a single drop of rain, finally being flooded with nutrient-rich water. They absorbed that energy greedily, trapped in an involuntary trance.

Unconscious, neither of them had any idea they were submerged in the precious and legendary Heavenly Pool—something crafted from a treasure originating from another world, one that even the greatest and most prosperous sects in the world had failed to replicate.

The secret that the other powers only understood far too late was that the Heavenly Elemental Body Sect’s core technique was unique and directly connected to the Elemental Spirits. These tiny allies were the ones who worked the real magic, balancing the elemental energy and making it docile and absorbable.

No matter how hard the other sects tried, they could never get these little spirits to cooperate in the same way. Thus, that sanctuary remained an exclusive and unparalleled trump card belonging to that one sect alone.

This pool was a true wonder of the world.

To maximize the effectiveness of the baptism, the Elders first had to break the disciple’s bones before throwing them into the fluid. That way, in addition to nourishing the Magic Runes, the energy reforged every fragment of the skeleton, making the bone structure infinitely more resilient and more closely connected to elemental essence.

In short, it was a divine process of physical and magical refinement.

However, the one carrying out the attack had to be an absolute master, capable of fracturing the disciple’s entire skeleton with a single, controlled strike. The destructive energy had to be calibrated with millimeter precision.

At the bottom of the pool, the submerged pair began absorbing the energy at a dizzying speed.

Then... a strange buzzing sound echoed from deep within Priam’s chest.

*BUZZ*

Priam had no idea what was happening. But his Nexus Seed had activated automatically, seizing the opportunity like a wolf in the middle of an enormous flock of sheep.

A colossal vortex began forming at the center of the pool as energy rushed into his body at an astonishing rate.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" The Central Elder’s eyes widened in absolute shock.

She had never witnessed a phenomenon of this magnitude. Under normal circumstances, a disciple would remain submerged for just a few brief minutes, absorbing a minimal amount of energy before reaching their limit and having to be pulled out in a hurry. But...

Priam was acting like a starving primordial beast. He was devouring massive amounts of the pool’s energy every second.

"Let him absorb as much as he wants!"

While the Central Elder hesitated, unsure whether she should intervene, an ancient, solemn, and imposing voice resounded directly in her mind.

Recognizing the authority behind that voice, she sighed, nodded silently, and simply continued watching.

One minute passed...

"?"

She noticed something deeply peculiar. Even while unconscious, Suien began to slowly writhe at the bottom of the pool.

The young girl moved her body and arm through sheer instinctive effort until she managed to reach Priam.

At that very moment, Priam also stirred slightly at the bottom of the pool, his fingers closing around his little sister’s hand.

Then... the vortex of energy that had been converging exclusively on his body expanded, redirecting part of its flow toward the girl beside him.

The Central Elder grew even more confused and astonished.

Were those two really unconscious?

How the hell was he able to manipulate the power of this pool?!

With every passing second, the enormous vortex on the surface grew larger and more powerful, churning the multicolored mist.

An expression of pain was etched across Suien’s face, as if she were reaching the absolute limits of her physical capacity.

Nevertheless, she continued inching closer until she firmly wrapped her arms around Priam’s, pressing it against her chest.

At that exact moment, her expression relaxed. Something had changed, making everything feel much gentler and easier for her.

The energy flowing into the pair didn’t diminish in the slightest—instead, it became even more violent.

Time flowed on unhurriedly.

For the two at the bottom, it was as if they had returned to the primordial state of fetuses in their mother’s womb. They naturally absorbed the pool’s energy, merging every drop of power into their bodies.

It wasn’t just their fractured bones and Magic Runes that were being nourished. Their muscles, meridians, and entire bodies began undergoing a profound mutation, becoming exponentially stronger.

If their physical constitutions had previously been comparable to mud, this brutal tempering process had elevated them to the level of solid rock. The difference was as vast as the gap between heaven and earth.

The Central Elder watched the scene, growing more and more astonished. That was because she’d noticed an incredible detail: Priam’s body wasn’t devouring everything for himself. At least a third of all the energy was being transferred directly to Suien.

He was acting as the core that conducted the entire process, ensuring that his little sister received the greatest possible benefit without her body collapsing.

"Now that’s a true anomaly..." The Central Elder shook her head and let out a long sigh.