Ryker clasped his hands behind his back, tilting his nose into the air and taking deep breaths.

As he sensed the auras converging onto his location, a light smile played his expression and his aura began to flicker.

However, after some thought, he slowly suppressed it. His Spirit Energy fell into a deep slumber and his soul reflected like a clear lake.

“I’m back.”

These words were spoken softly and for no one other than himself.

He smiled lightly. His steps came to a stop, and he slowly opened his eyes.

A powerful array of cultivators stood before him, each one mighty enough to shake the world with their name alone. This was the array only a Clan on the level of the Valorians could match up to.

At the front, there were three Glory Mythics.

Hugo Valorian. Helios Valorian. Geffrei Valorian.

These were next in line for the Patriarch position of the Valorian Clan, and the youngest of them, Helios, was, of course, Ryker’s father.

Ryker gave his dad a cheeky grin but didn’t say much else. Other than him, he treated the other two Glory Mythics as though they were nothing more than air.

To the left of the Glory Mythics was the security hall. Or, as they were more well known as…

The Sealing Core. Further split into the Chain Corps. The Divined Corps. And the Cloud Corps.

They, too, had a thunderous name that resounded across space and time. It could be said that the uniform of the Seal Core, regardless of which Corps you were a part of, had the capability to strike fear and elicit obedience.

They were led by Soren Valorian, Thora Valorian and Sage Valorian, a pair of men and women who all wore stern and staunch expressions. It seemed as though they hadn’t smiled in decades.

To the left were the Spiritual Core of the family, separated into the Divined Scholars, the Divined Cooks, and the Divined Smiths.

The leader Divined Scholars, Bovara Valorian.

The leader of the Divined Cooks, Violet Valorian.

The leader of the Divined Smiths, Isabo Valorian.

All were women with varying temperaments.

Bovara seemed to always wear a caring, but uninterested smile, as though she might stop on the road to ask if you were thirsty, but only get a bottle of water for herself.

Violet was silent and reserved. She spoke not a single word, and she seemed to be the only one who didn’t look at Ryker, not out of disregard, but because she was always lost in her own world.

Isabo was the largest of the three women, looking more like a valiant buddha than anything else. She had arms that rippled with power, and she seemed to be the only one amongst this nigh army of elites that seemed to be holding back a laugh.

She kept winking at Ryker, but it was hard to tell if it was because she found all of this hilarious, or if she was trying to coax him into her bed.

The woman truly had no shame.

Standing directly behind the three Glory Mythics was the pride and joy of the family. They were known as the Glory Path Core, youths that had managed to maintain their standing in the Valorian Clan through all their trials and tribulations.

From the moment they completed their first Spirit Beast Contract at the age of seven, they had been thrown into a highly competitive environment. In fact, Ryker had been in the Glory Path Core despite his weaknesses until he was 12 years old.

Unfortunately, after his 13th birthday, he could no longer continue to meet the cutoff mark.

This cut-off mark was decided by combat prowess, and there was only so much his Pure Soul could do to make the numbers when his Silver Mirror was entirely useless.

Looking at them standing there tall and proud, a wild grin spread across his face.

He could see it in their eyes, the trepidation, the memories.

There wasn’t a single one of them standing so pridefully now that he hadn’t beaten into the dirt at some point in the past.

He saw Geffrei’s sons, Errelius and Piker.

He could see Hugo’s sons and daughters, Mia, Isla, Thorne and Soren.

Without fail, every time he met one of their gazes, a fire lit in their depths.

However, Ryker was unmoved.

He could tell the difference between real confidence and bravado. He wouldn’t be shaken by a mere false sense of security and superiority.

They probably thought that he would never be able to catch up to them in this lifetime. The Enlightenment Realms were one thing, but the Ascension Realms were another entirely. The difficulty was too high. Once you had fallen behind, it was likely that you would always be behind.

At that moment, a lane was formed through the crowd and a slowly moving group of elders made their way forward.

This was the last faction of the Valorian Clan and one that could hardly be considered that at all. They were the Elder’s Council, a group of behemoths who had lived long lives as Mythics…

And the one leading them was the God of the Valorian Clan.

Leopold Valorian.

Leopold moved with slow steps, his white robes fluttering as he appeared before Ryker. Despite how unhurried his steps seemed, somehow the walk ended in the blink of an eye.

He stood before Ryker silently for a long while and Ryker looked back at him, calm and composed.

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There was nothing in this city… no, on this planet that was outside Leopold’s purview. He could see exactly what had happened, so he didn’t need to ask any questions.

“You killed the guards of the Valorian Clan.”

Hugo and Geffrei showed no reaction to this line of questioning, but Ryker’s father couldn’t help but frown. However, Helios chose to relax. He knew how intelligent his son was—.

“And?”

Helios’ pupils constricted.

This time, it wasn’t just him. Even Ryker’s uncles, who thought they would like where this was going, couldn’t believe Ryker’s response.

The air of the entire region seemed to have been sucked out.

Ryker was smarter than this. Unless he had returned during one of his episodes? But he didn’t seem to have entered such a state at all.

Was he maybe trying to use his episodes as a pretext to say and do whatever he wanted?

A cool wind spread.

“Unacceptable.” The one to speak was an old man in an equally white robe behind Leopold. He was a retired member of the Sealing Cores, so it wasn’t a surprise that his love of the rules was likely among the most veracious here.

“Shut up, Old Crow. Is it your place to interfere in the conversation between a grandson and his grandfather?”

Old Crow was certainly his nickname, but it was only something that his closest friends would dare to call him. Since when was it Ryker’s turn?

“What did you just call me?” Old Crow’s aura rose.

Ryker directly ignored him. From start to finish, he never looked away from his grandfather.

In truth, Ryker didn’t have very close feelings for this grandfather of his. He was always cold and detached, not caring for much in this world at all.

Ryker could count on a single hand the number of times he had had a “heart to heart” conversation with this man, and all of them were about trying to convince him to give up the Silver Mirror, and every time he refused.

He had never been bothered by this man’s pressure, and he certainly wouldn’t be bothered now.

Leopold could tell that Ryker had reason on his side, and he had been planning to give Ryker a way out through a line of questioning. But what he didn’t expect was that Ryker wouldn’t want that way out.

It wasn’t that Ryker wasn’t smart enough to understand his intentions. Leopold knew well that Ryker was the most intelligent of his descendants. So, there were only two explanations, one far better than the other, but neither very good.

The first was that Ryker’s judgment was being clouded by his hatred. Now that he had power, he felt no need to withstand even the smallest of grievances, even if it meant taking one step back to take two forward.

If this was the case, it meant that Ryker had no patience and his heart had long since been warped. In this sort of state, no matter how talented he was, he had no chance of ever entering the God Realm, so it was useless to waste any time on him at all.

The second was similar. In this case, Ryker was still clear minded enough to understanding Leopold’s intentions, but he just didn’t care. In this case, the problem wasn’t his judgment, which was slightly better. But it was still a problem that could not be ignored.

In this case, Ryker’s chances of entering the God Realm would still be much lower than usual, but at least there would be a chance.

The way Leopold saw things, it didn’t matter how talented Ryker was if he could never enter the God Realm. The gap was too large, far larger than any gap beneath it.

There were many stories of those with top tier talent never entering the God Realm, and there were just as many stories of those with talent weaker than the 4th Circle managing to reach that stage with patience.

If Ryker’s temperament was truly warped beyond repair, then he would have just as much of a chance as any one of the youths standing behind him to enter the God Realm.

“You lack patience…” Leopold suddenly said.

He weighed his words very carefully, but he didn’t expect that Ryker would answer immediately and seemingly without the slightest thought.

“Wrong.”

Ryker swept his gaze over everyone present.

“If any one of your precious descendants can withstand 18 years of ridicule, 18 years of suppression, 18 years of… patience… Then you can talk to me about what I lack. Until then, I’ve long grown past the age of needing guidance.”

Every one of Ryker’s words was firm and resolute. He didn’t care about the optics of the situation. As he had told Sofia all those months ago, he had long grown tired of having patience.

“Boy!” Old Crow had had enough, his pinnacle Third Mythic aura rising like a tide. “You took 18 years to do something you should have in the first place, and you want to take pride in that?! You’re just a fool!”

Leopold waved a hand and the rising aura fell just as quickly as it ramped up.

Ryker’s grandfather shook his head. He looked toward the Sealing Cores.

“According to the Clan rules.”

With that, he turned to leave.

At that moment, there was a sudden commotion near the back of the formation of people.

“Let me through! I will see my son!”

Ryker’s emotions showed the first ripple since he began to face these figures.

His figure flickered.

“Stop right there!” Old Crow had just been given license to deal with Ryker. How could he let him leave as he pleased?

But Ryker’s figure was like a slippery loach. He weaved out of Old Crow’s aura as though he wasn’t even there at all, and in a blink he had passed by Leopold’s slowly walking figure.

When he saw that it was a group of Glory Path youths blocking his mother’s path, Ryker’s gaze became malevolent.

“SCRAM!”

His voice clapped like thunder, and yet was so perfectly controlled that not the slightest trickle of hair moved on his mother’s head.

Both the group of youths were all in the Ascension Realm, and yet they might as well not have been. A few fainted directly and the ones that managed to stay on their feet were directly blasted away by Ryker.

Ryker landed on the ground, his gaze soft and his heart aching. He knew how weak his mother’s body was. He should have been the one to come to her. But these people had insisted on blocking him.

A malevolent aura shrouded him as he stopped her from falling. Her breathing was weak, but feeling Ryker’s warmth, a bright smile spread across her face.

Joanna seemed to have only had the strength to come this far. After she laid eyes on her baby boy, she collapsed, her body giving away and her consciousness slipping into a deep sleep. It seemed that she had pulled out all the energy she had just to make it out here.

Ryker held onto his mother and closed his eyes.

If they hadn’t blocked him, the first person he would have gone to see was his mother. How could things have ended up like this?

But not only did they waste his time, forcing her to come out into the cold, they had even blocked her in the end, forcing her to use the last of her strength just to stay upright.

The fluctuations around Ryker felt dangerous and deadly. The Dao seemed to respond to his wrath as though it might mobilize at any time, but he forced himself to slowly calm down.

If he really started a massacre here, if he let his episodes get the best of him, there would truly be no turning back.

“Touch me, old man, and there really will be no going back.”

Ryker didn’t open his eyes at all, but he could practically see Old Crow’s hand reaching for his shoulder. It seemed that even now they wanted to rip him away from his mother.

They trusted his patience far too much. Ryker knew that if the Old Crow really did try to do something like that, he wouldn’t have any willpower left to resist.

Old Crow didn’t know why, but he froze, his hand stopping in the air.

Ryker bent down and scooped his mother up. Feeling how light she was, his rage almost erupted, but he took a breath that sent a howling wind through the Valorian family compound.

“Two weeks from now, I will challenge the Glory Path. Prepare yourselves.”

Ryker didn’t say another word as he walked into the distance.

This had been his plan from the very beginning.

According to the Clan rules, there was a special circumstance for those that had fallen off of the Glory Path and wanted to get back onto it. Doing this was obviously far more difficult than just staying on the Glory Path to begin with.

The standards were decided by combat prowess versus age. At Ryker’s age, the best on the Glory Path were already First Elevateds, and the worst were still Second Ascendeds.

If he wanted to make it back onto the Glory Path after falling off, he had to challenge them all and come out with at least a 50% win percentage after continuous battles.

As for two weeks… according to the Clan rules, this was the minimum time he had to give the Glory Path participants to prepare. Many would be on missions or not on Planet Valorian and would have to rush back.

The maximum time you were allowed was three months…

The fact that Ryker had directly gone for the shortest time frame only meant one thing.

He was confident.

He had come here and directly killed those that offended him, ready from the very beginning to trigger this challenge because he knew it would give him immunity.

If his grandfather really thought that it was because he lacked patience, he was sorely mistaken.

What was that the Old Crow had said? He had waited 18 years just to make a decision he should have long ago?

Is that so?

They really thought he had given up on the Silver Mirror, huh?

In that case, he would be sure to give them a great surprise.