Spirit's Awakening: The Path of Lightning and Water-Chapter 380: Surprising the Sect Master

Deep beneath the Lightning Sect’s Headquarters, where the endless desert stretched beyond sight and the array created defensive eternal storm raged overhead, Volten sat in absolute stillness.

The chamber was fairly dark, illuminated only by the pulsing arcs of lightning coursing through the underground veins of the sect’s leyline formations that managed the power of the storm and all of the power throughout the sect’s buildings.

At the heart of the room stood a single, enigmatic structure—a gate, an archway, a device of some kind—its frame inscribed with runes he had never seen before, radiating an unsettling, but slightly familiar power.

It had been half a year since it was installed by Rlyis and that personal disciple of his that he’d sent away on a series of missions to find his own fighting style.

He was barely the beginning of the Spirit Ascension stage when he’d left and when he visited 6 months ago he saw his cultivation was in the middle stages. Quite insane progress that put even the best talents in all of Nexaria to shame a thousand times over.

However, in all the time since then—Volten had barely moved from this spot.

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At first, he had thought little of it on the day it was installed down here. He’d only later asked Rlyis to learn that she and Eno, the sect’s most skilled Lightning Construct Array Masters, had worked alongside Lassim’s vision to create this thing.

They were still keeping a secret, even when pressed on what exactly it was. He had assumed it was just another construct device of some kind—perhaps an advancement of their array formations to help with the storm that required a later activation, but definitely not a failed experiment. It was clearly fully functional and waiting for an activation.

Alas—while trying to be respectful and not destroy or tamper with the controls—he had tried to decipher it.

And for the first time in centuries, he had been met with absolute mystery.

The runes on the archway were like nothing he had ever seen before.

They were not Lightning runes seen on constructs throughout the sect’s many training grounds.

They were not Water runes that could be seen powering the many fountains or plumbing systems that generated fresh water here in the sect.

No, they were not even anything remotely adjacent to any constructs in the traditional sense.

This was something else—something even he was still at a loss of words to figure out.

Volten had sat before the gateway for months, letting his Spirit Prince stage cultivation interact with its presence, waiting for the moment it would reveal its secrets to him as there was something about the runes that drew his attention.

He had ignored every distraction.

The endless petitions from elders seeking favors.

The requests from disciples begging for his personal guidance.

Even the approaching Elder Summit, the grand gathering held every five years, meant to determine the future and the direction of the Lightning Sect.

None of it mattered.

He was on the verge of something.

He could feel it.

And yet—

BZZZT!

The communication disk in his robe buzzed.

Volten’s expression remained impassive, but an irritated twitch flickered in his brow.

BZZZT!

Another message.

Then another.

Then another.

A deep exhale left him, his patience thin. He could already guess what they were saying.

—Sect Master, the Summit is about to begin.

—Sect Master, the Elders are waiting.

—Sect Master, where are you?

—Sect Master, stop ignoring us!

Volten’s eyelids twitched.

Did these fools truly think the Summit couldn’t begin without him?

He rubbed his temple, considering—just briefly—electrocuting the damn communication disk into oblivion.

But then—

A ripple tore through the chamber.

Not the subtle shift of wind. Not the slow build of an array activating. This was space itself being ripped apart and then connected to some far off place.

Volten’s eyes fully widened, his Spirit Prince cultivation surging as his instincts roared into overdrive.

His body moved before thought could even register—his right fist crackled with his unique [Defiance Lightning Law], the chamber flooding with its oppressive orange sparks and glow.

A portal was forming—

A portal.

The archway lit up, the unknown runes—those damn unfamiliar runes he’d studied—flaring with a deep iridescent and holographic azure glow, lighting up the feather and scale looking carvings and designs that ran its curves. The halberd at the top fully lit up as the energy reached every part of the device.

The middle of the gateway was folding the fabric of reality inward, the familiar sight of a type of event that occurred just before—

Volten’s heartbeat slowed.

For a split second, his mind recalled two moments in memory that this felt exactly like.

The Gods’ Trial, when they activated their sect’s doorway to Famthar’s Lightning God Trial, the portal to a distant and unfathomable arena for the disciples to advance and achieve divine blessings and gifts.

And the other…

The Abyss. The ever-hungry rifts that spewed corruption in the shape of a demonic eye, tearing and blinking into existence with grotesque power.

But this—

This portal was neither divine nor corrupt. It was pure, but unfathomable.

Danger.

Volten’s grip tightened. His entire Spirit Prince stage, level 1 cultivation ignited, flooding the chamber with enough raw might to shatter the continent.

The ground began to rumble as a series of questions occupied his mind, "Was the sect being invaded? Had something slipped through while he had been too preoccupied with his own comprehension of the runes?"

He was already in the motion of releasing a catastrophic strike, prepared to attack the moment anything stepped through—

And then—

A figure emerged.

Not a god descending from the heavens.

Not a creature of the Abyss, reeking of the unnatural otherness feeling of corruption.

Not an enemy.

A boy.

A seventeen-year-old, velvety blue-haired, storm-eyed teenager.

His personal disciple, Lassim.

The portal tunnel behind him pulsed for a mere instant before reaching for the control panel and hitting the power down button, snapping the tunnel shut and leaving only the lingering remnants of spatial distortions in the air.

Volten’s body froze mid-strike, his mind coming to a grinding halt as his disciple casually stepped forward towards him.

Lassim’s storm-filled gaze met Volten’s, his golden-embellished violet martial robes seemingly freshly laundered and clean, the orange Lightning bolt insignia on his chest crackling softly with the aura of [Defiance Lightning].

The chamber, still supercharged from Volten’s near-attack, buzzed with static electricity, but Lassim…

Lassim just looked mildly curious. He was fully unbothered by his Master’s readiness and bloodlust to protect the sect. The electricity in the air left him completely unbothered as the rumbling of the earth came to a halt.

There was no hesitation or worry in his eyes.

No reaction to the fact that he had just stepped through a spatial portal of his own creation into the most secure underground chamber in the entire Southern Continent.

Instead—

He exhaled, scratching the back of his head with a smile as he knew he fully surprised the Sect Master with his "unveiling". He only wished Rlyis could be here to see the same look on Volten’s face that he was seeing as he asked, "Am I late for the Elder Summit?"

Silence.

The weight of the room pressed down as Volten’s Spirit Prince pressure retracted back into him.

Volten’s brows twitched.

His entire body, which had just been prepared for potential divine warfare or combat with the abyss, remained rigid, unable to process what had just happened.

This little bastard had just torn open the fabric of reality, walked through it, and casually arrived in the heart of the Lightning Sect’s most sacred underground chamber—

And his first concern was the Summit?

Once again, for the first time in centuries, Volten’s mind went completely blank.

Lassim stared at his empty-headed master.

"Well?" Lassim tilted his head, arms crossed. "What do you think of the teleportation device?"

Volten stared at him.

Then at the archway.

Then back at him.

Slowly, his brow furrowed, golden-orange lightning eyes narrowing as he took a long, slow breath, as if processing something that fundamentally should not exist. His expression darkened.

"…This," he gestured vaguely at the device, "is your creation?"

Lassim smirked, "Well, I had help from Rlyis and Eno, of course. But the core design, creation of the Spatial Rune Alphabet, and array inscriptions? That was all me."

Volten’s gaze flickered back to the dormant archway, the strange iridescent runes gleaming faintly in the dim chamber as the container next to the array was slowly absorbing the ambient mana in the air for whatever reason.

His fingers twitched, feeling the lingering traces of spatial distortion from the tunnel.

"…Space. It was space," he muttered, a flicker of realization flashing across his features. A path. A direction. The missing piece he had been searching for. The next step in his cultivation and how to take more universal concepts and advance himself as he now knew why his inner heart world had made the changes it had when he advanced to Spirit Prince stage.

He unclenched his fists, exhaling deeply, setting the thought aside for later. This was not the time for personal breakthroughs.

Instead, he turned his full attention back to Lassim. "Explain. All of it."

Lassim brightened, clearly eager to talk about the project. "It started as an idea when I was searching for my own fighting style like we last talked about—which I’ve now begun calling the concept of [Void Storm] by the way. I wanted to figure out ways to further fight with my now fused lightning, space, and water mana more effectively, and in doing so I developed a movement technique [Storm’s Dance] that was a natural extension of that. Why waste time traveling when you can fold space and just step through?"

Volten’s expression remained unreadable, but the faintest glimmer of intrigue flashed across his eyes.

Lassim continued, gesturing toward the archway. "Anyways, I’m getting slightly ahead of myself. After I started getting serious about arrays and constructs, Rlyis and Eno took me as their Array Apprentice. The combination of learning how to build a construct, developing the [Storm’s Dance], and my desire to see my family, caused this idea to fall into my lap. They helped refine the blueprints, and after a lot of trial and error, we managed to make a prototype."

His grin widened. "And we didn’t stop there. We’ve already built several more," he said. "The warehouse is full of ready-to-install gateways, and Rlyis has likely sent the first batch to the designated locations she had in mind."

Volten’s brow rose. "Designated locations?"

"Yeah. The first installations will be within the Southern Continent—major Lightning Sect strongholds and points of interest that she thinks work best. Once those are in place and I go activate them, we’ll start expanding outward. I want this to be more than just an internal network for the sect. This could revolutionize travel between cities, kingdoms, even continents." Lassim’s eyes gleamed with excitement.

"Imagine merchants, traders, nobles, diplomats—anyone being able to cross the world in seconds. No more dangerous expeditions, no more supply lines being cut off by rogue cultivators or bandits. And in the future—"

His voice lowered slightly, a flicker of something more in his tone. "We could even use this to fortify against the Abyss."

Volten stilled at the mention of the Abyss.

Lassim continued. "The random portals, the sect war and even a vision I saw of the future in Ava’s God’s Trial taught me something—our world is too vulnerable. The Abyss can open portals wherever it pleases. If we can master this safe, controlled teleportation, we could counter them. Instant reinforcements. Evacuations. Entire cities could be saved."

Volten watched him silently, absorbing the weight of those words.

Lassim grimaced slightly. "Well, there is one downside. I have to be there to enter the spatial coordinates and identifier code manually for each gateway. Each gate requires precise spatial alignment, and for now, I’m the only one who can do it."

Volten’s eyes narrowed. "That’s indeed troublesome."

"For now," Lassim admitted. "Hopefully the goddess Khaalseru starts to gift [Space] elemental companions at the Spirit Awakening ceremonies in the near future, but we’re probably still several years away until they reach cultivation levels strong enough to determine the spatial coordinates. We’ll, I’m not entirely sure about that, but they’d most likely need to be at least Spirit Growth stage before they can see the spatial fabric."

Volten closed his eyes briefly, taking in everything Lassim had said.

When he opened them, a rare expression of genuine pride flickered across his face.

"Good work," he said simply.

Lassim’s grin widened slightly, pleased with the rare praise.

Volten exhaled again, this time in a more relaxed manner, reaching out to pat Lassim’s shoulder. "Anyway, we have a Summit to—"

The moment his palm made contact—

Volten’s entire body froze.

A violent jolt of stormy spiritual pressure surged through his senses. The sheer raw power beneath his fingertips made his skin prickle, his instincts scream—

He yanked his hand back instinctively, eyes going wide.

His gaze snapped to Lassim—his storm-filled eyes—now recognizing and taking full attention to the feeling of the tempest radiating from Lassim’s very being. The violent [Law of Storm] that felt much stronger than his own [Defiance Lightning Law] and even more importantly—

He had surpassed his hopeful estimation for what stage of cultivation he would reach, and dare he say it… surpassed even the wildest estimation.

Lassim was no longer Spirit Ascension.

Lassim was not even Spirit Transcendence level 1…

For the second time in a few minutes, Sect Master Volten’s mind went blank again.