A frown marred Shal Xin’s countenance, having received information about the Void Dragon’s interference with the trial. She had already noticed that a portion of her memories had been erased, for as the Wisdom Empyrean, such obvious manipulation of her mind would not go unnoticed. There was, however, no need to look for a culprit— her position entailed frequently coming into contact far beyond a being at her existence should be allowed, thus such measures were, while not frequent, but occasional. Her instincts, or perhaps her talent, or a melange of the two, told her that this time the situation was different.

Shal Xin did not know what would happen, and she did not know what the Heavenly Venerable’s Plan was— her gut told her that this integration would be one that went down in the annals of history, for better or for worse. It no doubt had to do with the abnormally high rate of high-tier talents being discovered upon planet Earth, but what alarmed her was that the Union had had already managed to leak the information, for she had received confirmation from multiple independent sources that should have been far too insignificant to come in contact with such classified knowledge.

And now Shal Xin had received news of the Void Dragon's interference, a discovery that filled her mouth with distaste. Many elements, phenomenon and even abilities had multiple talents that could take different paths to reach the same effects. Precognition was a frightening talent in the early stages, but not only were there many ways to achieve the effect, as the Wisdom Empyrean it was not difficult for her to mimic its effects. Similarly, Fire was both an essence that could be attuned, and a talent that could be inherited; albeit it came in many different forms. The most powerful fire cultivators were those with matching Fire Talents, giving them a natural affinity for attuning the element, their flames containing far greater intensity than that of a normal cultivator that had a neutral talent.

There were, however, a few exceptions to this observation. ‘Void’ was one of them. Since the three realms came into existence there was only one pathway, or talent, that manifested in cultivators with varying degrees of intensity. One would think that given its exclusivity, the talent promised power beyond imagination, but such was not entirely the case.

‘Void’ was an element that could not be cultivated, and that stood true for both the Three Realms and the Union. Historically, it is said that Void cultivators were notoriously difficult to fight, and killing one on the same level of existence was almost impossible. However when it came to raw power, there were far more talents that eclipsed it in sheer might. Sure, Void was versatile, and terrifying in its own way, but the three realms were vast and there and there was no lack of bizarre, chaotic and frightening talents— not that Shal Xin feared any of them, mainly because her talent was all of those things at the same time, but the point stood.

However, her master had once told her that Void was one of the keys to unlocking the secrets of the Ancients, and she did not have the clearance to know more. The Void Dragon was one of the few existences in this plane that she acknowledged as a rival, which was ironic since Shal Xin's accomplishments and prowess far eclipsed her own. Of course, that would change with time, but to think that the Void Dragon had been no more powerful than she was currently and still managed to steal a Pseudo-Divinity Artifact from the House of Yul.... it was almost beyond comprehension. But then again, defying expectations to be in nature with the Void element, so she could rule out nothing as impossible.

Azleri Yul, Traitor to the House of Yul, Void Empress of the Vast Expanse, was the primary reason why she understood so little about the element. For Azleri's existence could be defined as unremarkable and largely, untraceable, except for one recurring pattern— since the Fifth Divine War, which resulted in the death of their sole Divinity, the creation of the system by His Remnant Soul and the grand formation that shielded them from the Nether Divinity’s encroachment, she had obsessively repeated one set of actions: the last eight hundred and ninety six Void Inheritors had been slain by her, via the insidious mark Azleri had branded each inheritor with—crafted with the help of the Pseudo-Divinity Artifact the dragon had no qualms abusing.

Shal Xin had never been alive in the days the three realms were blessed by the presence of a living divinity, however she only had pride and admiration for the Divinity’s grand accomplishments in battle. Indeed, the three realms had lost their only remaining Divinity, but the Union originally had three. The Remnant Soul that had created the system was responsible for killing two Divinities, including the Divinity of Eternal Darkness, leaving behind only the Nether Divinity, injured, but alive.

That was the true reason why the System was so desperate for an inheritor, for the Divine Energy that guarded the three realms was not an infinite resource, the true day it would reach complete depletion unknown... But Shal Xin could see the signs, and she knew that calamity approached.

Azleri Yul clearly could not align herself with the Nether Divinity. That, however, did not mean that the dragon had any reason to align herself with the Three Realms. The Void may be mysterious, but it was not inaccessible. As long as her attack was powerful enough, Shal Xin could rend the space around her and tear an entrance to the void— some cultivators saw it as a final measure of escape, but that was foolish. The Void existed somewhere within the material plane, but its true coordinates could not be divined. Within the void, the laws of space seemed to have no effect. A few steps of travel within the void could take one to the far reaches of the third realm, or conversely, years of travel could result in absolutely no distance traveled in the outside world. That was, of course, assuming that one could survive the horrors that lurked within, the true depth and power of which was impossible to ascertain.

Azleri Yul was many things, but the scariest existence in the void… that, she was not. The mere fact that she had found a way to convince the native creatures born in the void that the dragon was one of their kin, was alone worthy of the title Void Empress. But that was not what made her truly frightening— no, the real reason why the system found it so difficult to stymie her actions was because Azleri had discovered a method to navigate the void, able to ignore all distance within the three realms, and wreak terrible chaos and havoc if the rogue dragon wished to.

If their divinity still existed, Azleri's actions would be detected instantly, the arrogant dragon instantly detected and eliminated— or at worse, restricting the dragon'sactions to within the void. The System too, had methods to deal with the ruthless dragon but it would come at a cost that the system, in its present condition, could not afford. Thankfully, Azleri had not broken all diplomatic ties, and as loathe as she was to admit, the dragon’s actions were almost harmless in the bigger picture. What really rankled Shal Xin was the Void Dragon’s monopoly over the element, Azleri's probably unintentional action of cutting off almost all sources of information related to her element.

The previous Void Inheritors had all been Tier Five or lower, none of them managing to manifest a high tier talent. The Void Dragon’s mark, for better or for worse, was a wager— if the system won, then it would receive both a peak void user with a bloodline that was terrifying, by all means and a diplomatic channel to Azleri Yul, since the dragon clearly required the Void Inheritor’s assistance for some desperate reason. The conditions of the Mark had long since been studied, only serving to reinforce this theory. Tier six and seven users would not be killed, since that would cross the system’s bottomline. Only a tier eight with a high compatibility ratio or a tier nine with any compatibility ratio would receive Azleri's gift, which in itself was a vexing matter.

The Mark indeed killed Void Inheriors, but their talent did not go to waste. The 23% Pure Void Bloodline detected within the mark was distilled from the blood of eight hundred and ninety six void inheritors, gruesomely enough. The why? Shal Xin had divined her reasons, but was unable to reach any conclusion. The Bloodline of a Divinity though, far exceeded the worth of all inheritors Azleri had killed in the past, its true value almost indeterminable.

But then again, why? The only reason Shal Xin could vaguely guess at was too frivolous for her to consider it longer than a few seconds.

Shal Xin sighed, knowing that she would not receive an answer within her lifetime. In her mind, she had already increased Azleri Yul’s kill count by one.

Jack Fletcher was a dead man walking.