Chapter 786 Three Thousand Heads
“Icarus!”
Kael’s composure broke beneath a surge of emotion.
“Heh. I was beginning to think you’d forgotten me.”
Icarus stepped forward, and the two men pulled each other into a fierce embrace. They pounded each other on the back three times, the blows landing hard enough to echo through the banquet grounds.
Neither man held back. Those three resounding blows carried all the joy of two friends reunited after far too many years apart.
Rook edged away from them.
“Kael doesn’t have some... unusual tastes I never knew about, does he?”
It was a long moment before the two men finally separated.
Kael and Icarus had forged a deep friendship in the Eastern Sea. Afterward, however, Icarus had entered secluded cultivation and vanished from the world. Kael had tried more than once to discover what had become of him, but he had never found any reliable information.
“Icarus, I can’t believe you’ve already reached the True Origin Realm. Congratulations.”
Kael spoke with genuine feeling.
“I’m far more surprised by you,” Icarus replied. “You’ve already reached the Great Ascension Realm, yet the pressure I sense from you is far greater than anything I’ve ever felt from another Great Ascension cultivator.”
Icarus knew nothing of the realms beyond Great Ascension.
As far as he was concerned, Great Ascension cultivators already stood at the absolute pinnacle of the world.
“By the way, did you ever settle your grudge with the Lo family?” Kael asked.
His thoughts turned to Caspian Lo and the others.
“I stopped caring about that years ago.” Icarus sighed. “Most of the Lo cultivators I knew died after exhausting their lifespans. What would be the point of holding a grudge against the dead?”
The joy faded from Kael’s features.
For a moment, Seraphine’s face rose clearly in his memory.
If she were still alive, she would have needed to reach at least the Spiritual Metamorphosis Realm.
The chances of that were slim.
Kael’s companions had survived this long only because of the enormous quantity of cultivation resources he had provided, along with the far denser spiritual energy available throughout the star regions they had visited.
For Seraphine, who had remained on the Heavenfall Continent, reaching the Spiritual Metamorphosis Realm had likely been impossible.
The banquet continued.
After several rounds of spirit wine, Kael finally made his way through every table and personally acknowledged all the guests who had come to celebrate his wedding.
Only then did he head toward Calla’s bridal chamber.
The room was silent.
Calla sat upright on the edge of the bed in her crimson bridal robes. Her red veil concealed most of her face, leaving only the delicate curve of her chin visible.
Kael finally understood why the ancients had counted one’s wedding night among the greatest joys in a man’s life.
A beautiful bride sat waiting beside the bed, her face hidden beneath a veil meant for her husband alone to lift.
There was something uniquely intoxicating about the anticipation.
Kael reached out and gently raised Calla’s veil.
She had dressed carefully for the occasion, and the bridal makeup made her features even more radiant than usual. Her skin looked impossibly smooth.
“Master...”
Calla raised her head, her eyes glistening.
“Don’t call me Master anymore.”
Kael rested a hand on her shoulder.
Calla parted her lips.
“M-My husband.”
A deep blush spread across her pale cheeks.
“My wife.”
Kael swept her into his arms and lowered her onto the bed.
...
Much later, after seven exhausting rounds, Calla lay against Kael’s shoulder, her bare body nestled close to his.
Tonight had felt different.
The pleasure had been overwhelming, but somewhere amid it all, Kael had also experienced something absent from their previous nights together.
He had been deeply moved.
The realization made him tighten his arms around Calla and draw her even closer.
Deep into the night, after Calla finally fell asleep, Kael quietly left her room and made his way to Seraphyne’s bridal chamber.
As a Stellar Realm powerhouse of the Heavenly Phoenix Race, Seraphyne could have remained perfectly still beside the bed for days without experiencing the slightest discomfort.
Yet the instant Kael opened the door, her slender figure trembled almost imperceptibly.
Kael drew a slow breath as he gazed at the graceful woman dressed entirely in crimson.
He stepped forward and lifted her bridal veil.
Seraphyne did not immediately look at him.
She kept her head lowered for a moment, maintaining the reserved dignity that seemed ingrained in her very bones. Only then did she slowly raise her eyes.
The movement was demure, yet it possessed a quiet allure all its own.
When their gazes finally met, Kael felt as though the woman before him were a celestial maiden descended from the highest heavens—beautiful, distant, and almost too noble to touch.
His remaining restraint vanished.
He gathered Seraphyne into his arms and carried her to the bed.
Kael had spent seven rounds with Calla, so in the interest of fairness, he gave Seraphyne the same attention.
...
Kael was about to lie down and rest when his brow furrowed.
An Astral Compass appeared in his hand.
“Kael, forgive me for missing your wedding.”
It was Amir.
His voice was unusually grave, making it clear that something serious had happened.
“What is it?”
“Sunlance Academy sent us a puppet. It brought something with it.”
Kael immediately understood.
“How many humans did Valerius kill?”
“What happened?”
Seraphyne rested her head against Kael’s leg and looked up at him.
“Three thousand,” Amir said through the Astral Compass.
“Every one of them was at least a Deity Transformation cultivator. The puppet also delivered a message. For every day you refuse to return to Sunlance Academy, Valerius will kill another three thousand humans and send their heads to Skyfire Planet.”
Agitation strained Amir’s voice.
Lower-ranked humans rarely experienced the full brutality of the competition between races.
Once a cultivator reached the Great Ascension Realm, however, it became impossible to ignore the pressure humanity faced from the countless stronger races throughout the universe.
That was why ordinary low-level cultivators could often live cheerful, carefree lives while humanity’s strongest cultivators spent every day carrying the weight of their entire race.
“I already need to go somewhere tomorrow,” Kael said. “Sunlance Academy happens to be along the way. I’ll deal with this while I’m there.”
He severed the connection.
“What happened?” Seraphyne asked again.
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
Kael smiled and gently stroked her hair.
With his current cultivation, he was more than capable of dealing with any trouble that arose beyond their home.
He had no desire to bring those troubles back to his family.
Let them live happily.
Let them enjoy the peaceful lives he had fought so hard to give them.
To Kael, that was a greater accomplishment than reaching any realm of cultivation.
...
Early the next morning, Kael told his family and friends that he had several matters to handle.
After saying his farewells, he traveled to the stellar teleportation array connected to the Guborne Continent.
White light engulfed him.
A moment later, Kael returned to the Human Oasis on Skyfire Planet.
Outside the tower, Kael stood beside Amir and several other senior human cultivators.
Countless severed heads covered the ground before them.
A grim silence hung over the gathering.
“If we continue refusing to retaliate, more people will die every day,” Amir said bitterly. “Humanity is already among the most heavily oppressed of the myriad races throughout the universe.”
“Give them a proper burial.”
Kael had barely finished speaking when he sensed something overhead.
He looked up.
A blazing mass of heavenly fire was descending from the sky.
“Move.”
Kael vanished.
After several spatial shifts, he reappeared at the edge of the oasis.
The heavenly flames gradually dispersed, revealing a rigid figure standing at their center.
Its features had been deliberately sculpted in Valerius’s likeness.
“It’s a puppet,” Amir said.
“I know.”
Kael stared at it.
“Valerius, are you certain you want to make an enemy of me?”
The puppet neither nodded nor shook its head.
Instead, it produced a spatial ring and flicked it forward.
A low hum filled the air.
Thousands of severed heads spilled onto the ground at its feet.
Men and women.
Old and young.
Then the puppet opened its mouth, and Valerius’s voice emerged from within.
“Kael, if you refuse to return to Sunlance Academy, this will be humanity’s future. I guarantee that within a thousand years, not a single human will remain anywhere in the Sunlance Galaxy.
“As for those hiding on distant planets, I will hunt them down one by one.”
Kael scoffed.
A series of harsh creaks immediately sounded from within the puppet’s body.