The hotel was obscene.

Kael had stopped being surprised by Guardian-funded luxury after the Ashford Suites on Morir, but this place made that look like a budget motel. Crystal chandeliers in the lobby. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Hevaria’s red desert landscape. Staff in pristine uniforms.

Evening light painted everything amber through the glass walls. The twin suns were setting, casting long shadows across the sand dunes visible in the distance, and the effect made the hotel’s interior glow like something from a painting.

"Rest tonight." Lyra’s voice broke the moment of quiet appreciation. "We move tomorrow morning."

The group dispersed—Silas following Lyra toward the premium suites, Aria and Rue heading for their assigned rooms, Kael took a keycard from the receptionist with flashy smile.

His room was on the fourth floor at the corner suite with a private balcony. A bed large enough to sleep six. Bathroom with a tub that could probably qualify as a small swimming pool.

Kael closed the door and exhaled as he jumped on the bed.

[QUEST GENERATED — SURVIVE PLANET HEVARIA]

Objective: Survive

Duration: Until departure

Rewards:

Dark Summoning (Technique — Grade TBD)

10,000 Shadow Points

Unknown

Failure Condition: Death

Note: Additional parameters classified until conditions met.

Kael stared at the notification.

Survive.

"Heh." He rubbed the back of his neck. "System. What’s with the sudden quest? Is something major going to happen?"

Silence.

Then—

"It seems host’s luck is not as good as I said before." The System’s voice carried a mocking edge. Something almost playful. "Ensure to survive, host."

"Come on, System." Kael’s frown deepened. "Don’t leave me hanging."

Silence.

"Come on, don’t be such an asshole."

Silence.

"System darling."

Nothing.

"Ooh, System."

Nothing at all.

"Come on, you fucker."

The System didn’t respond.

Kael stood in the middle of his luxury suite, staring at empty air, frustration building behind his eyes like pressure behind a dam. The quest notification still hung in his vision, taunting him with its vagueness.

Survive.

What did that even mean? Survive what? The mission was supposed to be about Seraphina—tracking her, confronting her, getting revenge for the humiliation on Morir. A dangerous mission, certainly, but not the kind of thing that required a generic survival quest with classified parameters.

Something else was happening.

Something the System knew about and wasn’t telling him.

Kael growled low in his throat and dismissed the notification with an aggressive flick of his fingers.

Fine.

If the System wouldn’t give him answers, he’d prepare for the worst. That was what he did. That was what he’d always done—take the information available, assume the remaining gaps contained bad news, and build accordingly.

He opened the Shadow Shop.

The upgraded interface spread before him—sections upon sections, categories upon categories, more options than he’d ever had access to before. Cultivation resources. Combat techniques. Defensive techniques. Weaponry. Armor. Pills. Clothing. Runes. Alchemy. Special items.

Kael scrolled.

His eyes moved methodically, processing each option, weighing costs against benefits, discarding anything that didn’t immediately present itself as useful. The thirty thousand shadow points he’d accumulated felt massive until he started actually looking at what high-tier items cost.

He scrolled past techniques he didn’t need. Past pills he already had equivalents for. Past weapons that were inferior to what he currently carried.

Then he stopped.

[SHADOW GOD TECHNIQUE — MYSTIC GRADE]

Classification: Shadow Manipulation (Advanced)

Requirements: Shadow Manipulation Expert III minimum, Soul Integrity 85%+

Cost: 18,000 Shadow Points

Kael’s finger hovered over the details.

He tapped.

The technique information expanded—lines of text describing mechanics, requirements, applications, limitations. His eyes moved across the words, absorbing information, processing implications.

His expression didn’t change.

But something shifted behind his eyes.

He purchased it without hesitation.

[PURCHASE CONFIRMED — SHADOW GOD TECHNIQUE]

Shadow Points: 30,100 → 12,100

He kept scrolling.

The next item caught his attention almost immediately—practical, useful, something he’d wanted since his first encounter with aerial combatants on Athelas.

[CLOAK OF FLIGHT — TIER 1 EQUIPMENT]

Classification: Defensive/Utility 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Effect: Grants sustained flight capability for up to 2 hours. Speed scales with wearer’s cultivation base. Concealment features active during flight.

Cost: 7,000 Shadow Points

Another purchase.

[PURCHASE CONFIRMED — CLOAK OF FLIGHT]

Shadow Points: 12,100 → 5,100

One more thing.

His current short blades were Tier 3—good, reliable, runed with stabilization and amplification patterns. But they were reaching the limit of what Tier 3 equipment could handle. His techniques were getting stronger. His mana output was getting denser. The blades would start degrading if he pushed them much further.

He needed an upgrade.

[TWIN FANGS OF ECLIPSE — TIER 2]

Classification: Dual Short Blades

Special Properties: Shadow conductivity +150%. Edge regeneration (minor). Compatibility with shadow-based techniques enhanced.

Cost: 4,000 Shadow Points

[PURCHASE CONFIRMED — TWIN FANGS OF ECLIPSE]

Shadow Points: 5,100 → 1,100

Kael stared at his remaining balance.

The Shadow God Technique alone had consumed sixty percent of his hoard.

Worth it.

Probably.

Hopefully.

He dismissed the shop and moved to the bed. The mattress was ridiculous—soft enough to sink into, firm enough to support, the kind of comfort that made staying awake difficult.

Morning came too fast.

Kael was already dressed and alert when the knock came at his door. He opened it to find Rue in the hallway, white kimono already in place, tails neatly groomed, expression bright despite the early hour.

"Lyra wants us."

They gathered in Lyra’s suite—a larger version of Kael’s room with a central table covered in documents and a holographic map projected above it. Aria was already there, leaning against a wall. Silas stood beside Lyra with a neutral expression.

Lyra pointed at the map.

A red dot pulsed on the holographic display—located at the edge of a city marked "Xylos," surrounded by desert terrain.

"We’re going here." Her finger tapped the dot. "That’s where their base currently is."

She lowered her hand.

"There’s a Peak Mana Heart Rank 9 cultivator stationed there. But don’t worry." A smile tugged at her lips. "Grey and one of your professors at the Spirit Soul realm will be joining us. Either on the way or at the location itself."

Kael’s brow furrowed.

Professor?

He barely knew any of the instructors at Heaven’s Gate Academy. Most of them treated first-year students like background noise—present for lectures, absent for anything meaningful. The only professor he’d had any real interaction with was—

"Which professor?" he asked.

Lyra’s smile widened.

She didn’t answer.

"Alright, kids." She turned toward the door. "Time to go. Hope you’re all ready."

Kael followed the group out of the suite, mind still chewing on the mystery professor and the vague survival quest.

Xylos City was bustling.

A thriving, chaotic, beautiful mess of humanity and cultivation and commerce that sprawled across the desert floor. Streets wound between buildings of pale stone and dark wood, their architecture unlike anything Kael had seen in the Skyfall Galaxy. Lanterns hanging from every eave, glowing with soft amber light even in the daytime.

Kael had read about cultural variations across planets—thousands of worlds meant thousands of societies, each developing along different lines based on history, resources, and the particular whims of whoever had colonized them first.

People filled the streets. Not just cultivators—normal people too, merchants hawking goods from stalls, children running between adults, elderly men playing some kind of board game in a shaded courtyard. The mix was unusual. Most cultivation-focused cities segregated by power, the weak pushed to the margins. Here, everyone seemed to exist in the same space.

The group moved through the crowds in the native dress.

Kael adjusted the collar of his black kimono. The fabric was silk—real silk, not synthetic—dark as midnight with subtle silver thread patterns that caught the light when he moved. It fit perfectly, tailored to his measurements, presumably acquired through Guardian resources.

That wasn’t the problem.

The problem was the four women walking with him.

Lyra led the group, her green kimono cut in a style that was simultaneously elegant and devastating. The fabric clung in places that drew the eye, fell open in ways that suggested rather than revealed, and moved with her like it had been designed specifically to make people forget how to breathe. The mask was absent—presumably too conspicuous for a crowded city—revealing features that were somehow more striking without it.

Rue walked beside Kael, her white kimono pristine and simple, the contrast against her golden hair and fox features almost ethereal. She looked like something from a legend—a spirit given human form, wandering through mortal streets with innocent curiosity.

Silas was behind them, her black kimono severe and practical, the silver-haired woman moving with the particular stillness of someone who could kill everyone around her before they realized they were dying.

And Aria—

Kael’s eyes drifted.

Aria wore a deep crimson kimono that matched her shadow element perfectly. The fabric was darker than blood but lighter than night, and it highlighted everything about her figure that her usual combat gear concealed. Her black hair was pinned up differently, exposing the line of her neck, and the way the kimono fell from her shoulders made his thoughts go places they definitely shouldn’t in the middle of a mission.