Chapter 9: The Ancient Covenant

Su Ziye issued a sparring request to the Chasing Shadow standing before him.

Observing the young man, whose seemingly slow-moving yet scorching domain expanded in a heartbeat to fill the hundreds of meters within sight, Chasing Shadow finally dipped its majestic head.

The next moment, a domain as white as snow unfurled from the creature, resembling a blown-up soap bubble manifesting within Su Ziye’s domain and shattering it from within. In the blink of an eye, the two domains stood neck and neck, each claiming half the sky.

A domain is the exclusive power of a Heaven-realm powerhouse. Through an understanding of the world’s laws and the growth of one's own strength, one could cross the threshold into the Heaven realm once a certain limit was reached. According to the rules established by Saint Yueyi, the world’s power levels were divided into thirty-one grades, representing the twenty-eight mansions and the three enclosures of the starry sky. The first fourteen levels were known as the Human realm, a stage reachable by any ordinary person with sufficient aptitude. The latter fourteen were the Earth realm, accessible only to those with exceptional talent.

As for the Heaven realm, it was actually referred to as the God realm in ancient times. Once one entered the Heaven realm and possessed a personal domain, one could draw power directly from the world, virtually eliminating the risk of physical exhaustion. This meant that for a Heaven-realm powerhouse, whether in group combat or a war of attrition, they remained invincible; as long as they stood within their domain, those without one had almost no way to threaten them.

Throughout history, geniuses capable of cross-level combat within the Human realm were plentiful, but those who could challenge the Earth realm from the Human realm were rare. As for challenging the Heaven realm from the Earth realm, only two people in recorded human history had ever achieved such a feat: the Saint Xiao, heralded as the strongest human to ever live, and the second, Xing Xi.

If you were to ask Su Ziye if he could do it, he would say it depends on the specific circumstances. This was because Su Ziye possessed the Blade of Phantasm-Extinction.

The greatest feature of the Blade of Phantasm-Extinction is that its wielder can activate its unique domain—the very "Domain of Destruction" Su Ziye frequently employed. This spiritual artifact allowed those who had not yet reached the Heaven realm to wield Heaven-realm capabilities, which is why it was honored as the world’s premier spiritual artifact.

Therefore, armed with the Blade of Phantasm-Extinction, Su Ziye at least possessed the strength to defend himself against the Heaven realm. As for killing one, it remained a possibility if the opponent was in a weakened state. If one were to set aside the blade and consider only Su Ziye’s own power—derived from his Ster imperial bloodline and the inherent power of the Hidden Clan—he sat at roughly the twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth level. He stood right at the threshold of the Heaven realm, yet lacked the opportunity to cross that final step. He was undoubtedly a genius in the absolute sense, but if he were to challenge any true Heaven-realm powerhouse, he would be annihilated in an instant, with no chance of survival. Su Ziye knew this clearly. Even the elders of the Dark Star understood that such a task was a death sentence for the boy; his only variable was the blade he held.

The problem, however, remained: the blade was not his own power. He could rely on the Domain of Destruction to protect himself, but killing a genuine Heaven-realm powerhouse through external force was nearly impossible. After all, only two people in all of history had achieved such a feat—or, ignoring the Saint, only one: Xing Xi.

If Xing Xi didn't mind, Su Ziye would love to ask for her secret to slaying a Heaven-realm opponent. But that was clearly impossible, nor was it within the scope of Xing Xi’s current orders.

Settling for second best, Su Ziye had to find a sparring partner. He chose Chasing Shadow. In truth, he had no intention of handing over the Pegasus's magic core to complete his mission. On one hand, he genuinely wanted to forge a contract with the creature; on the other, he knew his odds against it were at best three to seven—three for him, seven for the beast. Defeating it was a fantasy.

A key prerequisite to killing a Heaven-realm powerhouse is familiarity with their power. For most, this is an insurmountable difficulty. The Dark Star would have their weapon prototypes spar with several Heaven-realm masters so they could learn the properties, strengths, and weaknesses of different domains, preparing them for the day they might face one, thus granting them a slim chance of victory. Even Xing Xi did not rely on Earth-realm brute force to crush the Heaven realm; she relied on grueling training and familiarity.

Unfortunately, Su Ziye lacked this opportunity. It was not that the Ster Empire lacked Heaven-realm powerhouses—there were many—but Su Ziye had never been qualified to spar with such figures. After obtaining the Blade of Phantasm-Extinction and fleeing the empire, he had spent a long time testing its power in private as his final trump card. His first real combat experience was the battle against Xing Xi, and even then, she had nearly killed him on the spot. Simply put, Su Ziye had never had the chance to fight a Heaven-realm master. During his escape from the Yeye Academy, he had crossed paths with one, but it was merely a fleeting encounter; he couldn't win a head-on fight, which was why he had to run.

Su Ziye truly needed Chasing Shadow as a sparring partner. Xing Xi could not fill this role—she was unwilling, and even if she were, her attacks were too sharp and lethal. One slip, and he would be dead. He dared not take that risk.

The only question was why Chasing Shadow would agree to cooperate with a human. Su Ziye knew the reason, though he feigned ignorance, and Chasing Shadow understood that he knew. Neither party chose to pierce the veil.

The root cause lay in the Blade of Phantasm-Extinction. It had been the personal blade of the First Emperor, who happened to ride a Chasing Shadow Pegasus. That pegasus was no ordinary mount; it was a beast of Taiwei-realm strength, standing at the pinnacle of the world. As the leader of the few remaining Chasing Shadow pegasi, it had signed a contract with the First Emperor: all future Chasing Shadow pegasi would be protected by the wielder of the blade. In exchange, the wielder held the right to form a master-servant contract with one of them.

Tragically, after the First Emperor died, the blade vanished. Even though the old pegasus remained, no one in the Ster Empire could command it to serve as a mount again. Naturally, once it died, no one could find and tame a new one.

Now, Su Ziye had arrived in this forest with the blade, drawn by fate to encounter this pegasus. The creature thought he didn't know, and Su Ziye pretended he didn't. Though he didn't know when the truth would finally be laid bare, it certainly wouldn't be today.