The Old Plan Awakens

Ronan's eyes narrowed, the pale moonlight slashing across the clearing in serrated, uneven lines that grazed the edges of his wide shoulders and etched the tense lines of his face. Every step he took seemed to bear down on the quiet, the soft crunch of leaves under his boots sounding artificially loud, as if the night air were holding its breath. Shadows clung tenaciously under his eyes, lending a darkening cast to his look that chilled the air about him. He paused, turning with deliberate, slow poise to Loret, his voice falling into a hard, low edge that lanced the stillness. "What do you mean, Loret?" The words were contained, measured, but tension rippled under them, an intimate tremor betraying the weight of unspoken past. Loret, always the picture of calm command, didn't blink. Rather, that half-hidden, calculated smile creased his face—the one which had unsettled friends and foes, the sort of smile that indicated he knew things they could not possibly envision. It wasn't frantic or carefree; it was a slow, teasing movement, measured and deliberate, the sort of smile that might beguile and disturb in equal part. He nodded his head slightly, hardly at all, as if the joke was all his, a private joke hidden behind that alarming calm.

His words followed then, smooth and slow, measured and deliberate, with the quiet gravity of a man who never threw away a word.

"Old man… do you really forget?" Loret's black eyes reflected the silver of the moonlight, shimmering with subdued challenge. His voice was tranquil, near to teasing, but there was steel beneath the words. "Ten years ago, our scheme to conquer the Lionheart Kingdom was foiled… by no one other than the Terra Dragon Empire."

Ronan's face grew dark in an instant. A shadow appeared to fall across his lean face, etching deeper lines along the edges of his eyes and mouth. His jaw grew so tight the tension in his face was practically palpable. The memory again surged back into all its force—the rage, the anger, the all-encompassing weight of frustration at being powerless as his scheme was unraveling.

"I remember that goddamn time," Ronan snarled, his voice rough, splintered, still bearing the traces of a decade-long anger. "When that fool from the Terra Dragon Empire jumped in… saved the Lionheart Kingdom… and to repay the favor, asked for half of the territory. Half of what had been rightfully ours!" The words were hurled out, bitter, as if pushing the recollection into the air would relieve the pain it left behind.

Loret's smile remained unwavering. It was slow, deliberate, a predator lingering over the smell of possibility wafting up from the past. He leaned his head once, purposefully, as if every gesture balanced the history between them, every recollection a knife to be honed and kept.

"Yes," Loret said softly, almost as if speaking to himself. His tone was contemplative, but the fire in his eyes betrayed the thrill of knowing that the wound of the past could still be reopened. "You remember correctly. That land… it was ours by right." Ronan exhaled sharply, the air leaving his lungs in a hiss as his nostrils flared. Anger coiled tight in his chest, raw and suffocating, mingling with a bitter memory he had tried—and failed—to bury. He took a step closer, each footfall heavy against the forest floor, shadows stretching around him. His voice carried in the darkness, low but cutting, edged with disbelief. "Yes… yes, and now, tell me… what do you mean?

How do you expect us to have another chance? " Loret's smile stretched wider, teeth glinting faintly under the moon's cold glow. He leaned casually against the rough bark of an ancient oak, his posture easy but his presence commanding. The light traced the sharp planes of his face, highlighting angles that felt almost predatory, like a wolf assessing its prey. "Ah, Ronan, my old friend… you'll see. I've advanced.

My command of the Tempering Realm has reached unprecedented levels we could never have imagined.

I've pushed beyond in ways even we ourselves could never have anticipated ten years past."

Ronan stood stock still, the words stuck in his throat. His black eyes, usually so steady and unshakable, went wide with wonder, shining like the silver light that spread across the clearing. "What… the hell?" he growled, each syllable biting with disbelief, a shiver of tension running through his usually disciplined body. Loret smiled softly, a low, intentional sound that bordered on amusement, on knowing something Ronan was not yet ready to know. "Do you recall the way you used to look at me when I was still a novice? Even then you did not trust me. And now?" His eyes were steady, nigh teasing, as if the years of competition, the grudges and challenges, had been only a game to him. Ronan's lips compressed into a thin line, irritation flashing across his face like an eclipse across the moon. He could sense the weight of time, of battles lost and plans postponed, yet the older man's self-contained calm, arrogant demeanor kindled in him a flame that would burn fiercely. His tone dropped, roughened by years of commanding, with the authority of one who had stared death in the eye and come back.

"Old… now don't sulk.

Just accept my victory as a victory, okay?" The air between them was charged, the night itself holding its breath. Every word, every slight movement weighed a decade of rivalry and unspoken past, of wins and loss woven in a tapestry that neither could unfurl completely. The woods beyond were still, the moonlight glinting in the eyes of two men tied by common history, one probing the boundaries of strength, the other poised to defy them. Loret's smile remained unwavering. His black eyes sparkled with amusement and calculation. "Don't worry, my friend. I am aware of the gossip in the Lionheart Kingdom. Their lightning spirit… it will serve you, bind you, take your cultivation to a higher level. You don't have to worry when I am around. You smile because you believe in me, yes?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.