Elder Celadon stared at Markus's extended hand, the faint hum of space-time energy reflecting in his emerald eyes. The weight of his decision pressed heavily upon him, but looking at the holographic projection of his dying sentinel tree, he knew there was no other path.
"The heavens have brought us a savior who speaks in terms of trade," Celadon said, his voice carrying a quiet, solemn acceptance. "Follow me to my private office, Markus. If we are to bind our fates, we shall do so under the oldest laws of the primordial wilds."
The elder's private office was a small, circular study deeper within the heartwood trunk. Unlike the grand archive, this room was filled with the warm scent of dried cedar and parchment. Celadon approached a heavy ironwood desk that grew directly out of the floor and pulled a lacquered wooden box from a hidden drawer.
When he opened the box, a soft, golden-green light illuminated the room. Resting inside was a pristine sheet of Mana Parchment—a rare, semi-translucent material woven from the dried fibers of a primordial world-tree and saturated with ancient soul-binding laws.
"This is an official mana document," Celadon explained, gently spreading the parchment across the wooden desk. "It is not signed with ink, but with the very essence of our cultivation. Once we imprint our mana signatures upon it, the laws of the universe will officiate the pact."
The elder looked up, his expression deeply serious.
"Should either party wrongfully terminate or violate the terms of this agreement, the contract will violently rupture. The resulting backlash will strike the violator's mana core, causing a permanent regression in cultivation tier, if not total meridian collapse."
Markus stepped up to the desk, his expression entirely unbothered by the warning. For a cultivator of his caliber, a contract was only a risk if he had any intention of failing his end of the bargain—and Markus always delivered.
"An elegant mechanism," Markus murmured, his eyes scanning the runic terms woven into the margins of the page. "Let us begin."
Celadon closed his eyes and channeled his emerald Wood-and-Wind mana into his right index finger. He pressed his hand to the bottom-right of the parchment. A brilliant green leaf-shaped sigil flared to life, burning into the fibers of the paper.
Markus smiled faintly. He raised his hand, his finger tip swirling with a dense, violet-silver spatial energy. The moment his finger touched the bottom-left of the page, the parchment violently shuddered. The golden-green light of the contract momentarily turned a deep, majestic purple as his space-time mana effortlessly integrated with the world-tree fibers, carving a sharp, flawless spatial rune into the sheet.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: CONTRACT OFFICIATED]
>> Document Class: Primordial Mana Covenant (Grade A)
>> Signatory A: Markus (Space-Time Lineage)
>> Signatory B: Elder Celadon (Emerald Canopy Elves)
>> Status: Locked / Active Soul-Binding Force
With a soft snap of spatial energy, the parchment divided itself into two identical, glowing jade-like mana slips.
Markus swept his hand over the desk, sliding his copy of the document into his spatial inventory, while Celadon carefully placed his copy back into the lacquered box.
"The pact is sealed," Celadon declared, bowing his head in deep respect. "The forest awaits your return, Markus. Whenever you are ready to stabilize our roots, the path is clear."
Markus left the treetop village in a silent flash of spatial displacement. He had no intention of rushing. The dimensional gate he had stabilized in the eastern mountains would remain open for several more days, giving him ample time to explore this sector of the primordial world.
For the next forty-eight hours, Markus traveled deeper into the uncharted valleys of the primordial continent.
He mapped the terrain, establishing hidden spatial coordinates along key leyline intersections. Along the way, he harvested an incredible abundance of rare resources:
Primordial Mana Stones: He located a subterranean crystal vein, extracting over ten thousand high-grade stones that thrummed with raw, uncorrupted elemental energy.
Unique Specimens: He gathered rare flora, including Sunsoul Lilies and Glacial Root Ginseng—the perfect counter-agents to train his academy students against the Solarian and Borealis elemental laws.
Every item was neatly sorted into his spatial rings, destined for the vaults of the new academy.
Having thoroughly mapped the sector and secured a massive haul of primordial wealth, Markus finally stood atop the high mountain ridge where he had first arrived. Nagini coiled comfortably around his neck, her dual crimson eyes watching the swirling lavender nebula fade as the sun began to rise.
"It is time to head back," Markus said softly.
He activated his spatial anchor, wrapping his body in a dense cocoon of violet-silver light.
His destination was the newly built Valerian-Aurelian Sovereign Academy back in the Central Plains of the Aurelian Empire. It was time to deliver these primordial resources to the alchemical labs, check on the progress of his grandparents' training regimen, and most importantly, make his way toward the girls who were currently studying at the academy, ready to see how much they had grown under the school's brutal new foundations.
With a silent, thunderless flash of dimensional folding, Markus vanished from the primordial sky, leaving the ancient forest behind.