Soulbound: Dual Cultivation

Chapter 267: Empress’s Qi explosion

Something in the intricate weave of the celestial runes shifted. The moment was so subtle that even Seraphina, who had been watching with desperate intensity, almost missed it...but Lucas didn’t. His hands moved faster now, guided by instinct and reason working in perfect, feverish unison. A faint tremor ran through the restraint glowing around the Empress’s neck, and then came the smallest flicker of change...a rune dimmed, its light sputtering like a candle deprived of air.

Lucas’s breath caught, a sharp exhale of realization breaking through the pressure choking the air. "I’ve got it," he murmured, the words barely audible. Beads of sweat rolled down his temple, his veins thrumming with Qi as he channeled spatial threads into the lock’s intricate pattern. Slowly, agonizingly, the celestial bindings began to yield. Eight parts of ten...he was already past the threshold that most would have deemed impossible.

The Empress’s eyes fluttered open, their dull glaze giving way to a faint shimmer of life. A ripple of her old strength returned, faint yet undeniable, pulsing beneath her skin. The faintest trace of her aura spread through the dungeon like a breeze that made the very torches tremble. Ken’s eyes widened. His smug composure faltered. The amusement drained from his expression as he felt that familiar pressure..a Celestial’s Qi...beginning to stir within the dungeon.

"No..." he hissed, his calm breaking into a snarl. "You insolent little fool!"

Seraphina turned sharply toward him, her senses flaring, but before she could even draw breath to respond, Ken moved. His figure blurred, vanishing from sight in a sudden gust of force. He was fast...so fast that even Seraphina, a seasoned Ascendant, couldn’t trace his movement. One heartbeat he was standing still, the next he was streaking toward Lucas, eyes filled with murderous intent.

Lucas felt it...the crushing wave of killing intent that came before impact...but he didn’t flinch. His eyes met the Empress’s through the fading barrier of the cell, and in that instant, words were unnecessary. He gave her a single, almost imperceptible nod.

The Empress understood. She had been a ruler too long not to recognize the language of sacrifice. Her fingers curled into fists as she steadied herself. She could feel her Qi stirring now, fragments of her Celestial core cracking open beneath the weakening seal. If she let it flow...if she forced it to erupt...it would shatter the restraint entirely. Her freedom would be instant. But the wave of unleashed energy... it would be devastating.

She looked at Lucas...young, determined, standing there with his hands still pressed to the golden lattice of celestial runes, defying forces no mortal should ever challenge. For a moment, she wondered if he truly understood what he was inviting. Perhaps he did. Perhaps he didn’t care.

The Empress drew in one slow breath, her heartbeat syncing with the tremor of power returning to her veins. The faint glow beneath her skin brightened until it looked as though she were carved from light itself.

The realization hit her with a hollow ache...if she unleashed this, it would break her restraint... but it might very well destroy the boy who had given her that chance. A Grandmaster, no matter how talented, could not withstand the detonation of a Celestial’s Qi. Not even a fragment of it.

Still, Lucas’s gaze remained steady...calm, resolute, unwavering. He had already accepted it. He had already known what was coming. He had seen the fire building in the Empress’s eyes, felt the slow rise of her celestial Qi growing wilder with every breath. There was no stopping it now. Whatever was bound inside her was about to erupt, and if he did nothing, he would be reduced to nothing but ash. So he gathered everything within him...all the endless Qi in him and the reserved ones, and forged a barrier, layer upon layer, each thicker and denser than the last. The light from his barrier shimmered faintly, like a cocoon made of raw willpower and desperation. He did all this at an unimaginable speed.

The entire dungeon seemed to grow still in those final seconds before the storm. The air felt heavy, charged with power that did not belong to the mortal world. The faint light emanating from the Empress’s form had become blinding, her once frail figure now radiant with pure celestial energy. The chains of divine restraint glowed in agony, their runes flickering erratically under the force building inside her.

Then came the sound...a crack that split through the dungeon like great thunder. The restraint shattered first, and the explosion that followed was beyond anything Lucas had ever experienced. It was not flame, nor wind, nor ice. It was raw celestial force, a flood of divine power unleashed without restraint.

The blast hit Lucas with unimaginable fury. His defensive barrier screamed against the pressure, glowing brilliantly before it began to fracture under the immense weight of her Qi. He barely had time to register the sight of the Empress’s chains bursting apart before he was thrown across the dungeon like a rag doll. The force of the impact sent him crashing into the opposite cell wall, breaking stone as if it were paper. The world around him exploded in dust and ringing sound.

Pain flooded every nerve in his body. His bones cracked, his muscles tore, and the meridians running through his arms and chest burned like molten iron. Even his dantian quivered, shaking violently under the backlash. His Qi, once steady and flowing, recoiled chaotically, lashing out inside him in wild disarray. It felt as if every cell in his body had been shattered, his entire being coming apart from the inside out.

He gasped for breath, his body trembling as blood ran down from the corner of his lips. He could barely move, but even through the haze of pain, he forced himself to look toward the Empress. Her power still rippled through the air, radiant and terrible, bright enough to pierce through the dust that filled the dungeon. The cell she had been trapped in no longer existed....only scorched fragments of stone remained, still crackling with residual Qi.

The impact of the explosion had not spared anyone. Even Ken, who had rushed forward with his killing intent moments earlier, had been caught in the blast. He was thrown violently against the dungeon wall, his celestial robes torn apart, his hair disheveled, and blood marking his lips. His once calm, superior gaze was gone, replaced by the raw disbelief of someone who had felt the power of a true celestial and lived to tell of it.

Beside him, the white-haired woman who had entered with him suffered the same fate. Her celestial aura flickered wildly as she struggled to stabilize it. The entire dungeon groaned beneath them, cracks spreading across the ceiling and the ground alike.

Even Seraphine was blasted away, the shockwave tearing through her defenses like they were paper. She pressed a trembling hand against the ground, gasping for air as the immense pressure forced her down. The weight of the Empress’s Qi was unbearable, even at its fading edge. It pressed against the very soul, demanding submission from everything weaker than itself.

And yet, through the storm of destruction and the burning pain, Lucas managed to lift his gaze once more. He saw the Empress standing amidst the ruins of her cell, her chains shattered, her aura flickering in the air like a flame reborn after centuries of suppression. She looked weakened, yet magnificent. Her presence alone seemed to command the space around her, forcing even the air to bow.

Lucas’s body refused to move, every attempt sending waves of agony through him, but a faint, broken smile crept onto his face. He had done it. The restraint was gone. The Empress was free.

The dungeon, however, was in ruin. The air stank of burned Qi, stone dust, and blood. No one was left standing unscathed. Not Ken. Not Seraphine. Not the Celestial woman beside him. The Empress’s power had ripped through all of them, reducing strength and arrogance alike to silence.