[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-emperor-of-the-source":3,"chapter-emperor-of-the-source-emperor-of-the-source-chapter-66":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Emperor of the Source",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1713064,2188,"Chapter 65: Birth of the Seed","emperor-of-the-source-chapter-66",66,"\u003Cp>The humanoid monster staggered, clutching its chest. Its face twisted with desperation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No!\" it howled, voice like grinding stone. \"You cannot take what is mine!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the Stone had already chosen. Its light reached toward Adrian, abandoning the flesh that had housed it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Adrian raised his hand. Threads of white-grey energy unspooled from his palm, coiling through the air like chains of light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They pierced into the monster's chest, hooked around the glowing stone, and pulling it out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The monster screamed. Its veins burst with light, its body convulsing, but the Stone obeyed the call.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It tore free and shot into Adrian's chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Adrian gasped. The world disappeared.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside him, he saw the Source he had always known, a vast cosmic river of endless light, flowing without end. But the moment the Stone touched it, the river trembled, collapsed inward, folding upon itself like stars imploding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From infinite expanse to single point, it shrank… and shrank… until only a small, perfect seed hovered within him, pulsing with primordial light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Adrian didn't understand what had happened. He didn't even know how he had invoked this form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he felt calm. And right now, calm or not, he wanted the monster dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The monster lunged, reaching for the Stone that was no longer its own. Adrian merely shifted, stepping through its blow as if inevitability itself bent around him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its arm was already severed before it realized he had moved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It screamed, staggering back. \"What are you?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Adrian raised his palm skyward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Abyss itself cracked. The transparent domain around the abyss shattered like glass, and the real sky tore open.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From far away, the defenders at the outpost gasped, their eyes lifted skyward as they saw an impossible sight unfold. A colossal palm of pure white-grey mist formed in the heavens.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Commander Lyanna Frost stumbled backward from her observation deck. \"Dear gods...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And then it slammed downward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unlawfully taken from NovelBin, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The humanoid shrieked, frozen in place. The gravity it had once commanded betrayed it, locking its body in invisible chains.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its scream tore through the air as Adrian lowered his hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The palm descended.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Impact.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The blow annihilated half the Abyss. The earth split apart in chasms, spires toppled, fissures spewed mist like geysers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kael reacted instantly, blinking everyone to safety at the edge. From their refuge, they stared at the battlefield… and at Adrian.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There, Adrian stood alone, his Source form burning like an immortal flame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kael's throat tightened. This aura, this presence… it wasn't S-rank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not even close. This felt like standing before the Sentinel himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No…\"he realized with a chill. \"Even Sentinel's aura has never felt like this.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the outpost, every Defender who witnessed it collapsed to their knees, trembling. They would be written into history as the first to behold the birth of Adrian Blackwood's Source form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Adrian looked down at himself. This form… it was too much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could feel it draining him, devouring his reserves faster than anything he'd ever experienced. Twenty seconds at best, that was all he could sustain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he willed the form to end, the Seed within him stirred. All of the Source energy pulled back, collapsing inward like a star dying in reverse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His human form returned. From the outside, it looked as though glass fragments broke away piece by piece, shattering to reveal flesh and bone beneath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stood human once more, but everything had changed. He pressed a hand to his chest, feeling the strange new weight there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In that form, He hadn't even felt human in those moments. Not alive. Not mortal. He had felt blank, like he was the source itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The thought chilled him, even as it thrilled him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside him, the Source no longer stretched as a cosmic river, but curled into an impossible seed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now it was compressed, absolute, hidden in that single point.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn't have much time to think about this now. He blinked back to the others, his first thought not of power, but his mother.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Elara lay pale but breathing. His hands moved instinctively, casting Breath of Life. Emerald smoke flowed across the group, spilling into lungs and veins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time it was different. Powered by his liquefied mana for the first time, the smoke healed faster, deeper, stronger than ever before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Elara's wound sealed in an instant. Scars vanished completely. Everyone's bodies rejuvenated, youth restored, exhaustion purged, strength renewed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thomas embraced Elara tightly, both of them shaking with relief. \"I thought I'd lost you,\" he whispered against her hair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You can't get rid of me that easily,\" Elara managed, her voice still weak but warming with humor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ironwood stepped forward, eyes wide with something between awe and fear. \"That form… what was that?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Adrian shook his head, his voice quiet and uncertain. \"I don't know.\" It was the truth, and that bothered him more than he'd admit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kael stepped closer, his usual composure cracked. His eyes burned with something no one had ever seen in him before, reverence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even stripped of that form, Adrian's mere presence pressed against them like gravity itself. The air felt heavier around him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before, if Adrian was second to Sentinel, this moment felt like he was an equal to the Sentinel himself. The realization hit them all at once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kael went down on one knee. The strongest S-rank defender bowed his head, not in duty or politeness, but in reverence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Your presence is not merely of an S-rank,\" Kael said, his voice carrying like judgment across the broken landscape. \"You stand equal to Lord Sentinel himself.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thomas and Ironwood stiffened, the words hitting them. Neither moved to contradict Kael's assessment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Elara covered her mouth, eyes trembling with tears of pride and terror. Her son had become something beyond her understanding.\u003C\u002Fp>",969,"2026-06-06T15:05:27.002Z",1,"novelbin.me","0da585719009d703041990d2c92ae736165a8c4dddb8c79be7bfa3cf98679fc6","emperor-of-the-source-chapter-67","emperor-of-the-source-chapter-65",347,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Femperor-of-the-source-cover.jpg"]