The next two months were the most productive of Rhen's hundred-and-twelve-year life.
He trained sixteen hours a day. Not continuously — the Heavenly Heart Unfettered Art worked best in intervals, periods of intense cultivation followed by rest that let the divine energy settle. But even the rest wasn't rest. He sparred with Mingxue. He studied formations with Suyin, who'd discovered an aptitude for pattern analysis that her Dao Body enhanced into something approaching genius. He consulted with the Ancestor on cultivation theory, absorbing four centuries of practical knowledge in compressed sessions that left his mind buzzing.
The cultivation tracker told the story:
Week one: Pure Yang fifth level. The foundation he'd built in the Primordial Star Realm and the battle with Chen Zhongqing stabilized.
Week three: Pure Yang sixth level. The bond with Suyin deepened further. Not through grand gestures — through accumulated days. Morning tea together. Evening walks. The gradual, organic deepening of two people who chose each other and kept choosing.
Week five: Pure Yang seventh level. The breakthrough came during a sparring session with Mingxue. She'd pushed him hard — harder than usual, using her Domain at full capacity, forcing him to integrate Future Vision, Time Slash, and raw combat in real time. He hit the breakthrough in the middle of a combination. His qi surged, his sword glowed, and Mingxue had to activate full Domain defense to avoid taking a real hit.
"That's new," she said, breathing hard, golden light fading from the air around her.
"Seventh level."
"I noticed." She lowered her sword. "Your Time Slash output has doubled since sixth level. At this rate, you'll be hitting Pure Yang peak within the month."
She was right. The Oath bonds were accelerating his cultivation in ways that defied normal progression. Each deepening of trust, each genuine moment of connection, fed power into the system. And the system was hungry.
Suyin's growth was equally dramatic. Her Supreme Yin Dao Body consumed qi at a rate that made veteran cultivators uncomfortable. By the third week, she'd surpassed Chi Sea entirely and entered Pure Yang — the same realm as her sister, who'd been training since childhood.
The moment it happened, Mingxue walked into the training hall, sensed Suyin's new aura, and stopped.
"Pure Yang," Mingxue said. Flat.
"Third level," Suyin confirmed. She was standing in the center of the hall, silver-streaked eyes glowing faintly, yin qi swirling around her in patterns that were too complex for a cultivator of her experience level. The Dao Body did half the work for her — structuring qi, optimizing pathways, accelerating comprehension. What would take other cultivators years, she accomplished in days.
"I've been training since I was eight," Mingxue said. "Fourteen years. You've been cultivating for six weeks."
Suyin's glow dimmed. "Jiejie, I—"
"Don't apologize." Mingxue's voice was rough. "Don't you dare apologize for being strong." She crossed the hall, grabbed her sister's arm, and pulled her into a stance. "Your cultivation is pure but your technique is garbage. You haven't learned to fight yet. We fix that now."
They trained. Mingxue taught Suyin the basics of combat — footwork, guard positions, qi channeling for offensive and defensive applications. Suyin learned fast. Too fast. Her body, enhanced by the Dao Body, absorbed physical training the way her core absorbed qi. Within an hour, she was executing combinations that had taken Mingxue months to learn.
"She's going to surpass me," Mingxue told Rhen that night, standing in the courtyard after Suyin had gone to bed. The War Goddess's voice was even, controlled, the way it always was when she was processing something that hurt. "Within the year, she'll be stronger than me. The Supreme Yin Dao Body doesn't have a ceiling — it's one of the four highest physiques in existence. My Lesser Yin Sacred Body is strong, but it's not that."
"Does that bother you?"
"It should. I've defined myself by strength my entire life. Being the strongest in the family, the strongest in the kingdom. If Suyin takes that from me..." She trailed off. Looked up at the night sky. "But it doesn't. Or — it does, but not in the way I expected. I thought I'd resent her. I don't. I'm..." She searched for the word. "Proud. She spent sixteen years dying, and now she's going to be one of the most powerful cultivators in the world. I'm proud of her."
"That's not resentment."
"No. It's complicated, and I don't like complicated." She looked at him sideways. "The bond is doing this. Making me feel things that aren't simple. I was perfectly happy with simple."
"Simple is a luxury for people who don't love anyone."
"I didn't say love."
"You didn't have to."
The bond between them pulsed. Warmer than it had been a month ago. Deeper. Still not love — but the foundations were laid, and they both knew it.
---
The Ancestor provided intelligence on the Celestial Altar Assembly.
"Each of the Seven Mortal Kingdoms sends one representative team," he explained during a briefing in his underground chamber. "Each team consists of one prodigy under twenty-four and one guardian. The Five Sacred Sects each send their own teams as well. Additionally, independent cultivators who obtain entry tokens can participate."
"The age limit," Rhen said. "My rejuvenation — does it count?"
"Your physical body is approximately twenty-eight years old at current rejuvenation levels. The Assembly's detection formations measure biological age, not chronological age. You qualify." The Ancestor paused. "But there's a complication. You also qualify as a guardian."
"Both?"
"The formations are designed to classify entrants. Prodigies are young cultivators under twenty-four. Guardians are older, stronger cultivators who protect their team's prodigy. Your biological age puts you in the prodigy category. Your actual age, combined with your Pure Yang cultivation, puts you in the guardian category." He allowed himself a thin smile. "You'll be classified as both. A loophole nobody anticipated, because nobody has ever entered the Assembly as a rejuvenated century-old man."
"What does being both mean?"
"Prodigies hunt desolate beasts for points and compete against each other. Guardians protect their prodigies and can engage other guardians, but cannot directly attack prodigies. As both, you can do everything — hunt beasts, compete with prodigies, fight guardians, and protect your team. Nobody else in the Assembly will have that flexibility."
**[Assessment: the dual classification provides significant tactical advantage. Rhen can engage any target in the Assembly without restriction. This is unprecedented and will draw attention from all factions.]**
"Who do we bring?" Rhen asked.
"Mingxue as your primary prodigy. Her Sovereign's Domain is a game-changer in group combat. Suyin stays behind — her cultivation is explosive but her combat experience is negligible. Sending her into the Assembly would be reckless."
"Suyin won't agree to stay behind."
"She'll have to. The Assembly is a warzone disguised as a competition. Prodigies die every cycle. Suyin is the Supreme Yin Dao Body — the one thing the Sacred Sects are actively hunting. Bringing her is painting a target on her chest."
Rhen felt the truth of it. But he also felt Suyin's resolve through the bond — fierce, uncompromising, the determination of someone who'd been left behind her entire life and wasn't going to accept it again.
He'd have to talk to her. It wouldn't be a pleasant conversation.
---
It wasn't.
"I'm coming," Suyin said. No preamble, no negotiation. She'd been cultivating in the training hall — Pure Yang fourth level now, a new breakthrough every few days — and her yin qi crackled in the air around her like static.
"The Assembly targets special spiritual bodies. You're the rarest body type in existence. If the Sects identify you—"
"They'll target me whether I'm at the Assembly or at home. At least at the Assembly, you'll be there to protect me. Here, the Ancestor is the only defense, and he can't leave his position."
"Suyin—"
"Don't." Her voice dropped. The near-whisper that silenced rooms. "I spent sixteen years in a room while other people decided my fate. The curse, the treatment, the marriage — all chosen for me. The one choice I got was whether to accept the Oath, and I chose yes. Now I'm choosing this."
"It's dangerous."
"Everything is dangerous. Standing in a courtyard at dawn while your husband fights a Sacred Sect Holy Son is dangerous. Sleeping in a compound that Azure Heaven knows the location of is dangerous. At least the Assembly has rules."
Rhen looked at her. Pure Yang fourth level, Supreme Yin Dao Body fully awakened, Heaven's Eye foresight extending to a week ahead. She wasn't the girl in the chair anymore. She was a cultivator, a seer, and she was asking to fight.
"The Ancestor won't approve," Rhen said.
"The Ancestor doesn't control me. You don't control me. The Oath connects us — it doesn't make me subordinate." She softened, slightly. "I'm not asking for permission. I'm asking for your trust."
The trust bridge. Always the trust bridge.
"If things go wrong," Rhen said, "you run. No arguments, no heroics, no trying to save me. If I tell you to run, you run. Promise me."
"I promise," she said, and the Oath locked it in.
---
The final month of preparation crystallized the team.
Rhen reached Pure Yang seventh level. His combat abilities were sharp — Future Vision, Time Slash, and a growing mastery of the Heavenly Heart Unfettered Art's advanced forms. He wasn't the strongest cultivator in the Assembly, but he was the most versatile.
Mingxue had broken through to Chi Sea ninth level, peak — the threshold of Pure Yang, held back by a bottleneck that frustration alone couldn't crack. Her Sovereign's Domain had evolved: broader range, stronger amplification, and a new ability to selectively buff specific allies within the zone. She was a force multiplier.
Suyin reached Pure Yang fifth level. Her Heaven's Eye could now project a week ahead with clarity, and she'd learned to focus the visions on specific people or locations. Her combat technique was rudimentary compared to Mingxue's, but her yin qi attacks were devastating — bolts of cold energy that could freeze an opponent's meridians on contact.
They were as ready as three months could make them.
On the morning of departure, the Ancestor met them at the compound gates. He looked at the three of them — the century-old storyteller, the war goddess, and the girl who'd been dying three months ago — and said nothing for a long time.
"The Celestial Altar Assembly is a slaughterhouse disguised as a competition," he said finally. "The Sacred Sects use it to identify cultivators with special spiritual bodies. The prodigies who enter as contestants exit as targets. Some don't exit at all."
"We know," Rhen said.
"You think you know. You've read texts and heard stories. But you don't know what it feels like to watch someone you trained with get pulled into a side chamber and never come back." His amber eyes were hard. "Keep your Oath bonds concealed if you can. The Eternal Vow's signature is unique — if a Sect elder recognizes it, they'll know what you are. And what you are, Rhen Jorik, is a threat to a ten-thousand-year-old system."
"How do I conceal it?"
"You don't. I'm telling you to be careful, not invisible. Invisible isn't an option for someone who killed a Holy Son in his first month as a cultivator."
Fair point.
They left Qinghe City at dawn. Three riders on the road north, toward the Celestial Altar and whatever waited inside it.
Behind them, the Lian compound shrank against the horizon. Ahead, the sky stretched wide and clean.
Through two bonds, Rhen felt his partners — Suyin's quiet excitement, Mingxue's focused tension. Through the Eternal Vow, a pulse that might have been anticipation. Or warning.
The road to the Assembly was three weeks long.
He'd have to use every day of it.
