The Sovereign Chronicles novel Chapter 10

Kaelen hoisted the massive stone vat onto his shoulders and began his delivery run. This time, Overseer Fargo didn't dare pull any blatant tricks with the cargo. Because he was late, Kaelen suffered no shortage of insults and mockery from the Upper Initiates. He completely ignored them, dropping the supplies and leaving immediately. He was desperate to get back and train.

He had crossed into the Fourth Phase overnight. His physical limits had shattered, his Aether reserves had expanded, and his overall combat power had surged. However, because it wasn't a natural breakthrough, his foundation was unstable, and the Aether within his meridians was severely depleted.

The fastest way to recover was to consume Aether-flora.

So, using the delivery route as an excuse, Kaelen circled back toward Mount Veridia to see if the Serpent's Heart Fruit was still there.

The towering cliff face was choked with thick, writhing green vines. Hidden within the chaotic overgrowth were countless venomous snakes and massive pythons. Unless one stared intensely, it was impossible to tell where the vines ended and the scales began.

The location of the Serpent's Heart Fruit was incredibly well hidden. If he hadn't accidentally spotted it the other day, he never would have found it.

"I'll come grab it tonight." Confirming the fruit was still there, Kaelen prepared to leave. Lingering was too dangerous.

But just then, The Netherward Blade resting in his Aether core violently trembled, exhaling thick plumes of black mist as if reacting to a sudden threat.

Kaelen instantly dropped into the brush, completely concealing himself.

What was going on?

Was someone nearby?

The blade vibrated harder, its black mist completely obscuring his Aether core.

Wait, what was that?

Kaelen narrowed his eyes at the cliff. From the exact cluster of vines housing the Serpent's Heart Fruit, a small golden snake slowly slithered into view. It tasted the air with a bright crimson tongue, its bead-like eyes darting around before locking dead onto the patch of brush where Kaelen was hiding.

A Spirit Beast?!

Kaelen's heart pounded. A legitimate Spirit Beast.

No wonder none of the surrounding pythons dared to swallow the fruit. There was an apex predator guarding it.

The Serpent's Heart Fruit didn't belong to the Mount Veridia Initiates at all. It belonged to this creature.

The golden snake slowly coiled its body around the glowing fruit, its eyes never leaving Kaelen's hiding spot. It was a blatant declaration of ownership.

"I knew it. You don't just stumble upon Lesser Aether-flora without a catch." Kaelen hesitated. Should he still risk coming back tonight? If it were just a horde of normal snakes, he could easily massacre them and slip away unnoticed. But that golden snake was undeniably a Spirit Beast. With his current strength, killing it quickly was highly unlikely. If a battle dragged out, he would definitely alert the Mount Veridia Initiates, and they would swarm him.

"I'll wait. I'll come back for it when I'm stronger!"

Swallowing his greed for the fruit, Kaelen silently retreated from the mountain and returned to the storehouse to train in peace.

Since he was starved of Aether, he had no choice but to slowly absorb it from the ambient atmosphere.

A minor setback wasn't enough to shake Kaelen's resolve. At the very least, he had confirmed the fruit didn't belong to the Sanctum's stockpiles; it belonged to a wild beast. He had no psychological burden about taking it and no fear of the Mount Veridia Initiates hunting him down for theft later.

...

*The Daevan Sword Tome* and *The Daevan Blade* lay before him.

The Martial Codex he had desired for years!

The weapon he had yearned for!

Kaelen grabbed the ancient sword and pointed it toward the heavens. Under the blazing sun, the blade erupted with blinding, freezing light. His blood boiled with suppressed excitement. Letting out a sharp war cry, he snapped his wrist, unleashing a flurry of lethal slashes into the air.

The blade appeared to be forged from a single, seamless block of divine iron. It possessed a crude, brutal elegance, yet its edge was horrifyingly sharp. Just resting passively, it bled an aura of pure destruction. When Kaelen swung it, violent shockwaves of Aether ripped through the courtyard, carving fine, razor-sharp lacerations into the stones and trees.

A divine artifact!

Kaelen tightened his grip, completely lost in the euphoria of the blade. But mere minutes later, the hilt grew freezing cold, the weight seemed to multiply exponentially, and his right arm began to scream in agonizing, numbing pain. He had absolute confidence in his physical strength and stamina, yet he could only wield it for a few short minutes.

"The Tome! The Blade! The Netherward Dagger! None of these are things the current me can use casually." But rather than feeling discouraged, Kaelen's spirit burned brighter, silently thanking the Old Man for the impossible gifts.

These treasures were far too immense; he truly felt unworthy of them.

"Sword of the Sundered Mountain!"

"One strike to sever the earth and sky!"

Kaelen sheathed the blade and sat in lotus position to decipher the sword manual. The tome actively fought his mind. To actually read the words and understand the meridian routing, he had to focus his mind with utterly fanatical intensity. If a single stray thought entered his head, the letters would smear, the diagrams would twist, and his interpretation would be fatally flawed.

Though he had never read a true Martial Codex before, he knew that studying one allowed absolutely zero margin for error. Misinterpreting a single word or routing Aether through the wrong meridian could result in catastrophic internal damage.

And if that was true for ordinary manuals, studying a mythic relic like *The Daevan Sword Tome* required absolute perfection.

Kaelen locked himself inside the storehouse, refusing to be interrupted by anything.

He read it word by word, tracing every single meridian line.

*Sword of the Sundered Mountain* was only the first stance, but it was backed by hundreds of words of archaic theory and highly complex Aether manipulation.

He was handed a massive iron barrel, easily over six feet tall, packed to the brim with excavation tools and hardtack.

The combined weight easily cleared seven hundred pounds.

Kaelen hoisted the iron behemoth onto his back, shifting it until it settled perfectly against his spine, and marched toward The Tenth Proving Grounds.

Over a hundred Initiates had already gathered in the arena. Roughly twenty of them were Mount Veridia Initiates. They wore pristine, silver-white robes embroidered with cyan herb crests on the chest—a blatant symbol of extreme wealth and status.

Within the Sanctum, almost no one dared offend an alchemist, and the alchemists rarely mingled with the combat branches to maintain their air of superiority.

The remaining seventy or eighty combatants were all Upper Initiates tasked with protecting them. Most were around twenty years old and firmly established above the Sixth Phase of the Spirit Warrior Tier.

Kaelen walked up the stone steps. The moment he stepped into the arena, he stopped dead.

Moria Vance?

What the hell was she doing in the escort team?

Moria stood at the center of the bustling crowd, her smile bright and flawlessly seductive. She was the absolute center of attention. A light breeze caught her silken hair and caused the slit of her dress to flutter, revealing flashes of perfectly sculpted legs. A horde of male Initiates swarmed around her, their eyes burning with undisguised lust. Even the usually aloof alchemists couldn't suppress their primal urges, eagerly crowding in to strike up a conversation.

"Oh? If it isn't Kaelen. What brings you out of your hole?" Moria feigned surprise as she locked eyes with him.

Kaelen? Dozens of heads snapped toward the entrance.

A pale-faced alchemist chuckled. "Kaelen is our logistics Attendant for this trip."

"An Attendant? What for?" Moria swayed her hips as she stepped out of the crowd. Her face was intoxicating, her aura completely magnetic, making the men's hearts pound. Her figure was explosive—full, incredibly tight, with curves that bordered on the lethal. Several of the Initiates couldn't help but gulp as they stared at her from behind. This expedition was definitely going to have some premium sights.

"Normally, we carry our own tools and rations. But since Kaelen is joining us, everyone can dump their heavy packs into his barrel. Overseer Fargo specifically recommended him to me. He said the Sanctum has produced a freak among the slaves—brave, inhumanly strong, and a Spirit Warrior to boot."

"Is that so? Well then, I won't be polite." Moria walked straight up to Kaelen and casually tossed her heavy travel sack into his iron barrel.

"We can finally travel light! Come on, everyone, dump your gear in there!" Following her lead, dozens of Initiates began throwing their heavy survival packs and unnecessary supplies into the barrel. The seven-hundred-pound load rapidly ballooned to over a thousand pounds.

Kaelen stood absolutely still, his expression carved from ice. He understood instantly.

Fargo was acting on Moria's orders again.

This vicious bitch had engineered this to murder him in the deep woods.