Limitless Cultivation: I Can Master Every Profession!-Chapter 243: Calamity 12

The voice seemed to shake him to his very core, as if it had crossed endless layers of darkness just to reach him.

And he wasn’t the only one to react.

The corrupted creature, still in the midst of regenerating, suddenly trembled. The dark filaments stretching out from its body hesitated for a brief moment, as if something had disrupted the very flow of its existence.

But that change was not limited to just the two of them.

In that instant, the entire Qinglan Empire seemed to quiver.

A shiver ran through the land, the air, the hidden energy veins beneath the ground, as though something unimaginably ancient was finally opening its eyes after a slumber that had lasted millennia.

Toward the imperial capital, something drew the attention of its inhabitants even before the origin of the phenomenon became clear.

Elves of every age suddenly stopped, lifting their gazes.

Conversations died out, footsteps slowed, and a silence filled with awe settled over the capital’s streets. Merchants, guards, artisans, nobles, everyone froze, as if a shared instinct had compelled them to look.

A sense of unease and reverence spread through the crowd.

Then they saw it.

The enormous sacred tree, where the residence of the Elven Queen was located and which stood as the very symbol of the race, began to glow.

A golden radiance, tinged with green, burst forth from its colossal trunk, spreading slowly but surely, like a breath held for far too long.

And it didn’t stop there.

Luminous veins, interwoven roots and subterranean branches connected to that ancient tree, lit up one after another, not only within the capital but far beyond it, extending like a living network that embraced the entire Empire.

It was as if the whole Qinglan Empire itself was coming to life.

For a long, interminable instant, everything stopped.

The elves, the warriors locked in battle, the corrupted beasts in the midst of their charges, even the wind seemed to stand still, as countless gazes lifted toward that sudden, incomprehensible phenomenon.

Among the crowd, a young elf girl, held tightly in her mother’s arms, watched the scene with wide eyes full of wonder.

Without even realizing it, she whispered,

"The Guardian Spirit..."

The Guardian Spirit was a legend told to children, a story passed down from generation to generation.

According to those tales, it was the Guardian of the Elven race, a primordial being that, in the distant past, had prevented the Empire from falling during the Great Calamity that struck the entire continent.

It was said to have been planted and personally nurtured by the First Elven Empress, a legendary figure whose deeds were still celebrated in songs and the most ancient texts.

Yet, as the millennia passed, that story had been relegated to the status of a fairy tale.

Too much time had gone by.

Thousands of years, without a single sign of that supposed guardian ever manifesting. Even during the great wars between the three empires, the Guardian had never shown any sign of life.

And so, slowly, the legend had faded.

For many, it had become little more than a bedtime story, told to spark the imagination of the young.

And yet now...

Now they were seeing it with their own eyes.

Not far from the capital’s borders, an elven warrior at the peak of the Mortal Realm was advancing at full speed with her squad.

Their destination was the northwestern borders of the Empire, where waves of corrupted beasts were pushing the defensive forces to their limits.

She had already completed her preparations and was ready to depart when that sudden phenomenon caught her attention.

For a moment, she completely forgot her duty.

She stood still, her gaze fixed on the enormous tree shining as it never had before, disbelief clearly etched across her face.

She, too, had never believed in that legend.

Yet in that instant, everything she thought she knew wavered.

It was only then that she noticed something even more unusual.

Above the sacred tree, suspended in the sky, there was a figure.

At first she barely noticed it, the distance was considerable, and the person’s stature surprisingly small. But as an expert at the peak of the Mortal Realm, it took only a moment for her perception to sharpen.

And what she saw... made her frown.

A figure was floating in the skies above the capital.

Her initial annoyance quickly turned into irritation. Flying over the capital was strictly forbidden for security reasons; only imperial guards and expressly authorized personnel were allowed to do so.

And that person clearly belonged to neither of those categories.

Worse still, doing so at a moment like this, while such a sacred phenomenon was unfolding, felt almost like an insult to the elven people and their protective divinity.

She was about to move, to intervene personally...

...when she stopped.

Because she finally managed to clearly make out the features of that figure.

She was just over one meter and sixty tall.

A slender, young figure, wrapped in a long, simple white robe, almost austere. At first glance, she looked like a young elf.

And yet...

Something about her struck the warrior deeply.

The girl’s expression was calm, so calm it felt almost unreal, as if nothing in the world could disturb her. Her eyes, a deep emerald green, were fixed on the sacred tree, while her body remained suspended in the air without the slightest visible effort.

That scene alone was already strange enough.

To fly, one needed to have reached at least the fourth stage of the Mortal Realm.

And that girl... was far too young.

It was almost impossible to believe that someone so young had reached such a level.

But what struck the warrior even more was the presence emanating from that figure.

A golden glow enveloped the girl, radiating an invisible yet powerful pressure, a presence that could be clearly felt even from a great distance.

And above all...

Above her head, there was something.

A suspended ring of light, like a circle of pure radiance.

But upon closer inspection, it became clear that it wasn’t a simple halo,

it was composed of numerous crystals of light, arranged in a perfectly circular formation, floating above the girl’s head.

That seemingly bizarre sight made the elven warrior’s face turn pale.

Because she knew what it was.

Everyone in the Qinglan Empire knew.

From children to the elderly, it was impossible not to recognize it.

The Crown of Light.