Chapter 185, Celestial Slave Mark Released!
Level 249
Lin Yi noted the notification.
The Dragon Knight Guardian appeared at the cluster’s east edge as he cleared the last island on the west side, the two patterns having met at the formation’s center. The guardian did not acknowledge his presence in the way that a person would. Its behavioral directive processed him as not a threat and continued scanning the terrain for the next engagement point.
He looked at it briefly.
The golden armor was the same. The full height and bearing were the same. Years of career that had produced the most capable guardian he had yet converted, operating on a single instruction that had nothing to do with what Long Tianyu had been or what he had cared about.
Jianghe City. Don’t let it go to ruin.
He activated Heaven Step and crossed to the next cluster.
---
The volcanic basin was on its third respawn cycle since he had first cleared it in the days before the slave mark. He arrived at the rim and the population below had respawn to somewhere approaching the original density, not quite thirty thousand but close enough that the Celestial Sword Qi release would cover the majority of the population simultaneously.
He descended.
The shared combustion field activated as the population registered his presence, the familiar temperature spike of thirty thousand fire-attribute entities responding to an intruder.
Celestial Armor and Iron Body Fortification absorbed them. Celestial Absorption ran at its saturation rate in the basin’s high-energy concentration, the Guardian’s Undying Core’s enhanced Eternal Spirit Core multiplier pushing the recovery rate higher than it had been before the assimilation.
He activated Absolute Domain and released Celestial Sword Qi in All-Points mode.
---
[Furious Flame Lion ×26,840 Defeated]
[EXP Gained: +20,200 × 26,840 = +541,768,000]
[Amplification: ×10,000]
[New EXP Gained: +5,417,680,000,000]
[EXP Transferred to: Cang Yutian]
[Your level: 230 — No change]
[Notification: Cang Yutian — EXP Progress Updated]
[Cang Yutian Level 249 — EXP Accumulated: 38,400,000,000 / Threshold Unknown]
---
The Dragon Knight Guardian had followed him to the basin and was working the edges of the cleared area, engaging the surviving populations that the All-Points release had not covered at the outer ring. Its kill notifications added to the accumulation.
---
[Furious Flame Lion ×840 Defeated — Guardian Kill]
[EXP: +20,200 × 840 = +16,968,000]
[Amplification: ×10,000]
[New EXP: +169,680,000,000]
[Redirected to: Cang Yutian]
---
He stood at the basin floor near the central pool where the spiritual energy column had once risen. The pool still burned. The channels still ran. The space where the halo had been before he took it was empty and had been empty since.
He waited for the next respawn cycle to begin.
---
The hours passed.
Cluster zone clearing. Volcanic basin respawn cycles. Two streams of generation running continuously, his own direct output and the Dragon Knight Guardian’s sustained engagement. The notifications accumulated. Cang Yutian’s EXP grew.
Six days into the final approach.
---
[Notification: Cang Yutian — EXP Progress Updated]
[Level 249 — EXP Accumulated: 82,400,000,000 / Threshold Unknown]
---
Four days later.
[Notification: Cang Yutian — EXP Progress Updated]
[Level 249 — EXP Accumulated: 134,000,000,000 / Threshold Unknown]
Three days remaining in the event.
The pace had been producing steady accumulation but the level 249 to 250 threshold was the largest he had encountered in the entire slave mark period. Whatever the Deity-class required for the final threshold before the Middle Domain was substantially larger than the 248 to 249 gap had been.
He pushed the output rate higher.
He stopped resting entirely. The Eternal Spirit Core’s enhanced regeneration rate meant the energy reserve recovered faster than it had before the Guardian’s Undying Core integration, and the recovery during transit and traversal was sufficient to maintain continuous output without the intervals he had previously built into the schedule.
Celestial Absorption ran at maximum intake everywhere the atmospheric energy concentration was high enough to support it.
The Dragon Knight Guardian worked without ceasing.
Two days remaining.
[Notification: Cang Yutian — EXP Progress Updated]
[Level 249 — EXP Accumulated: 198,000,000,000 / Threshold Unknown]
One day remaining.
Lin Yi was in the volcanic basin for the fifth respawn cycle since the final push began, the All-Points release clearing the respwaned population, the EXP numbers in the notification large enough that reading them had become a matter of checking the direction of progress rather than the specific value.
He stood at the basin floor after the clearing and looked at the accumulation notification.
[Notification: Cang Yutian — EXP Progress Updated]
[Level 249 — EXP Accumulated: 242,000,000,000 / Threshold Unknown]
Close. The accumulation had been moving faster in the final days as he pushed the output rate above the sustained pace he had maintained through the weeks before. The threshold was not known. He did not know how close 242 billion was to the actual requirement.
He activated Heaven Step and moved to the next cluster.
[Celestial Dreadhorn ×14 | Level 158 — Rare Elite]
[Celestial Dreadhorn ×14 Defeated]
[EXP: +54,800 × 14 = +767,200]
[Amplification: ×10,000]
[New EXP: +7,672,000,000]
[Transferred to: Cang Yutian]
[Heaven’s Warden | Level 176 — Cluster Guardian]
[Heaven’s Warden Defeated]
[EXP: +172,000 — All Bonuses]
[Amplification: ×10,000]
[New EXP: +1,720,000,000]
[Celestial Jade ×1000]
[Transferred to: Cang Yutian]
The Dragon Knight Guardian’s kill notifications continued alongside his own, the two-stream accumulation running as it had run since the conversion three days after the binding.
Then the notification arrived.
----
[NOTIFICATION: CANG YUTIAN — THRESHOLD CROSSED]
[Cang Yutian: Level 249 → Level 250]
[MIDDLE DOMAIN THRESHOLD REACHED]
[Celestial Slave Mark — Release Condition Met]
[Slave Mark releasing...]
-----
The warmth on his forehead changed.
Not gradually. The Celestial Slave Mark, which had been a constant background presence since the binding, settled into a different quality for approximately two seconds, a transitional state between active and released, and then it was gone.
Not reduced. Gone. The forehead was simply his forehead again, without the mark’s warmth, without the redirection notice that had appeared on every EXP notification since the binding activated.
He stood on the island surface and felt the absence.
A second notification appeared below the release confirmation.
[Celestial Slave Mark — Released]
[EXP redirection to Cang Yutian: Terminated]
[Your EXP generation: Restored to standard function]
[Note: EXP accumulated during binding period has been fully credited to Cang Yutian.]
He looked at his own EXP bar for the first time since the binding activated.
[Level 230]
[EXP: 0 / 36,200,000,000.]
Zero. The weeks of clearing and the guardian’s output and the volcanic basin cycles and everything else produced by two streams of maximum-output hunting, none of it had accumulated for him. The slave mark had taken all of it and routed it to its intended destination, and the release notification confirmed that the routing was terminated, that what came next would go where it was supposed to go.
Somewhere in the upper atmospheric layer, Cang Yutian was at level 250.
The middle domain threshold reached.
The agreement’s terms met.
Lin Yi looked at the Allheaven Expanse around him.
Less than one day remaining in the event. One day to do what he had been unable to do for the entire period the slave mark was active.
His EXP bar showed zero.
His level showed 230.
His skills were fully integrated. His attributes were at the post Cataclysmic integration values. His weapon was Abyssal grade. Five guardian slots remained in the halo.
He drew the Celestial Lord Blade.
The runes along its Abyssal surface were active without being activated, the weapon’s grade responding to what held it.
He then looked at the expanse.
One day.
He activated Heaven Step.