"You are... too late."
That desolate voice, neither male nor female, was not loud, yet it acted as an invisible sledgehammer slamming directly into Tran Kien's Divine Soul. The eerie, emerald-green spatial portal—nourished by the entirety of the Marquis of Vinh An's life force and his Golden Core Realm cultivation base—expanded and contorted unceasingly. From within, an ancient, malevolent, and unimaginably powerful aura poured out in a torrential flood.
Tran Kien felt the Primordial Chaos Qi within his body freeze solid. This was no longer the power of the Golden Core Realm. This was the coercive pressure of an entirely different realm, an existence he had never faced before!
From within the portal, an ethereal silhouette formed of emerald light and shadow slowly stepped forth. It possessed no fixed form, yet it exuded a sinister majesty, akin to a demon god of ancient antiquity. This was the descent of a sliver of the Dharma Body belonging to one of the true old monsters of the Sacred Dynasty—a Sacred Envoy.
The Marquis of Vinh An, his life force completely drained, leaving nothing but a desiccated husk, collapsed to the ground with a dull thud. Yet, his eyes remained wide open, brimming with fanatical zeal and profound satisfaction. He had fulfilled his ultimate destiny as a sacrificial pawn.
"Descendant of Lac Viet," the Sacred Envoy looked at Tran Kien, its voice stripped of its previous desolation, replaced by a chilling, emotionless void. "Surrender the legacy and the Dragon Veins. I can grant you an intact corpse."
Simultaneously, the battle outside had reached a fever pitch. Though formidable, Uncle Sword, Shangguan Van, and Ly Tin were besieged by a suicidal horde of Shadow Guards, rendering them temporarily unable to break free. Sensing the terrifying aura emanating from the secret chamber, their hearts burned with raging anxiety.
Tran Kien knew he could rely on no one else. He had to face this chessboard alone. His injured Divine Soul still throbbed with agony, yet his will blazed more fiercely than ever before. "You want my legacy?" he roared. "Then let us see if you possess the capability!"
He held absolutely nothing back. He no longer merely defended. He launched a proactive assault!
"Lac Viet Heavenly Cycle Array - Three Layers Unified!"
He did not deploy them layer by layer. He utilized the entirety of his comprehension, fusing all three layers of the array into one! An illusory sun manifested behind his back. His movement technique became ethereal and unfathomable. The Lac Hong Saber in his grasp surged with an overwhelming, boundless vitality. Three wills, three powers, fused into one in a single heartbeat. This was his most devastating strike to date!
"The meager light of a firefly dares to compete with the radiance of the sun?" The Sacred Envoy merely flicked its hand. A colossal hand of black qi, bearing the laws of spatial manipulation, effortlessly crushed the entirety of Tran Kien's saber-light and sword-shadows.
"Pugh!"
Suffering a fierce backlash, Tran Kien coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood. He was blasted backward, slamming heavily against the wall.
A desperate situation! An absolute disparity in realms! Yet, Tran Kien felt no despair. The very moment he was blasted away, the most insane idea flashed through his mind. He could not defeat this entity. But there was something that could! The Dragon Veins of this very land!
He ceased his futile resistance. Closing his eyes, he used the last dregs of his Divine Sense to connect with the heart of the dragon, to link with the wounds of the Dragon Veins groaning beneath the capital. He did not borrow its power. He was "awakening" it! He used his own Lac Viet bloodline, the indignation of a thousand years of history, to ignite the wrath of a slumbering true dragon!
"Oh, Souls of the Viet Land!" he roared within his Sea of Consciousness. "Oh, Heroic Spirits of our Ancestors! The heretic stands right here! Seeking to defile your bloodline! How much longer do you intend to slumber?!"
"ROAAAAAARRRRRR!!!"
At that exact moment, it was not merely the Marquis's Estate, but the entire Thang Long Imperial Capital, the entirety of Dai Viet, that seemed to quake violently. From deep beneath the earth, beneath the imperial palace, an unimaginably majestic, awe-inspiring, and colossal aura of golden light abruptly erupted! A dragon's roar—emitted by no mortal throat, but the bellow of the very mountains and rivers themselves—reverberated through the Nine Heavens!
The black dragon, symbolizing the stolen portion of the Dragon Vein, trembled in sheer terror upon sensing this aura. The emerald-green spatial portal also began to waver unsteadily. For the first time, panic crept into the Sacred Envoy's voice.
"The Soul of the Dragon Vein?! Impossible! It should have remained in slumber for ten thousand years!"
It dared not linger. The entity turned to flee back into the portal. But would Uncle Sword and the others grant it that chance? Having shattered the encirclement, they stormed into the secret chamber.
"Where do you think you are going?!"
And Tran Kien, the one who had awakened the dragon, was now entirely enveloped in a golden dragon aura. He was no longer a Golden Core cultivator. He was the very incarnation of the Dragon Veins! He hoisted the Lac Hong Saber high.
"In the name of the ancestors," he spoke, his voice no longer his own, but the echoing chorus of an entire nation. "RETURN THIS REALM TO ME!!!"
A saber strike—no longer mere saber intent, but a manifestation of "Dragon Might" carrying the power of an entire country—slashed straight toward the spatial portal. The battle determining the destiny of all Dai Viet had finally reached its conclusion.