Bloodline Plant Lord: Rise of the World Sovereign

The next day’s training was uncomfortable for everyone.

Selene ran paired energy drills — circulation exercises where two cultivators stood opposite each other and cycled energy back and forth through a shared formation link. It was a standard technique for improving control and reading another person’s energy patterns. Normally it was routine. Today it was a problem, because the rotation put Ren across from Kaelen for the third set.

They stood two meters apart on the formation grid with the link humming between them. Ren could feel Kaelen’s energy the moment the connection opened — cold, heavy, controlled, and running harder than it needed to for a basic circulation drill. Kaelen wasn’t attacking. He didn’t need to. He was just letting Ren feel exactly how much power sat behind the composure.

Ren kept his own energy even and steady. No reaction. No escalation. Just the calm, clean output of a student doing his drills.

But underneath it, both of them knew what this was. A preview.

— • —

The rest of the group felt it immediately.

Cassian was paired with Lin Yueying two spots down the line, and he kept glancing over at Ren and Kaelen. ”They’re doing it again,” he muttered.

Yueying didn’t look. ”Yes.”

”Should we be worried?”

”Not yet.”

Lyra was paired with Yuelan, but her attention kept drifting to the center of the grid where Ren and Kaelen stood. She could feel the edges of their energy from three meters away — the cold weight of Kaelen’s output pressing against Ren’s steady warmth. Her hands tightened on the formation link.

Iris watched from across the room with sharp, quiet attention. She didn’t look worried. She looked like someone taking notes for a report she would write later.

Even Vesper, sitting near the wall with Mistwhisker in her lap, had noticed. The void-cat’s violet eyes were locked on the center pair, her ears tracking the energy patterns the way she tracked threats in the corruption zone.

— • —

The paired drills ended without incident. But the next exercise was worse.

Selene set up a competitive energy-capture drill — the same kind of formation-node exercise from the assessment, except this time with field-level intensity and no team structure. Free-for-all. Seven nodes on the grid. Claim as many as you can in five minutes.

It took about thirty seconds for the exercise to become the Ren and Kaelen show.

They went for the same center node at the same time. Neither backed down. The node flickered between their energies — Kaelen’s cold silver and Ren’s steady blue — while the rest of the group claimed the outer nodes without contest because nobody wanted to get between them.

Kaelen pushed harder. His energy output climbed, the cold pressure thickening around the center of the grid. Ren matched it with efficiency, the same approach that had won the node during the assessment — less raw power, cleaner channeling, better precision.

The node kept flickering. Neither claimed it.

Cassian, who had already grabbed two outer nodes, leaned against the wall and watched. ”This is going to end in a fight,” he said to Yuelan.

”Good,” she said. ”About time.”

— • —

Selene ended the drill at the five-minute mark. The center node was still unclaimed. Everyone else had two or three nodes each. Ren and Kaelen had zero between them because neither had been willing to abandon the center to claim anything else.

Selene looked at the results on her screen, then at the two of them.

”Valis. Voss. Stay after the session.”

The room went quiet. Cassian gave Ren a look that said good luck. Iris packed her gear without expression. Lyra hesitated at the door, caught Ren’s eye, and left when he gave her a small nod.

The room emptied. Ren and Kaelen stood on opposite sides of the formation grid. Selene stood between them with her arms folded and an expression that was equal parts annoyance and something harder to read.

— • —

”I’m not blind,” she said. ”The tension between you two has been building since the assessment, and it’s starting to affect group training. Today’s drill was supposed to test individual node-capture speed. Instead, I got a five-minute staring contest over one node while the rest of the class worked around you.”

Neither of them said anything.

”Voss. You requested a sanctioned spar. I received it this morning.”

Kaelen nodded once.

Selene looked at Ren. ”Valis. Do you accept?”

Ren looked at Kaelen across the grid. Cold eyes. The same expression from the corridor — someone carrying a question he couldn’t answer any other way.

”Yes,” Ren said.

Selene nodded. ”Tomorrow. After the morning session. Full-power spar, controlled setting, my rules. You fight until I say stop. No permanent damage allowed. No techniques above your current stage.” She looked at both of them. ”This is not a grudge match. It is a training exercise that I am sanctioning because the alternative is you two exploding during a group drill and hurting someone else. Am I clear?”

”Clear,” Kaelen said.

”Clear,” Ren said.

”Good. Go home. Rest. Be ready.”

— • —

Ren walked out of the annex into the evening air. The sun was going down over Orien, painting the sky in orange and gold. He could feel his heartbeat in his chest — steady, but faster than normal. Not fear. Something closer to anticipation.

Tomorrow he would fight Kaelen Voss. Full power. No sandbagging. Selene watching every second. The whole group watching through whatever wall or window they could find.

He would have to show more than he wanted to. There was no way around it. Kaelen was too strong and too disciplined to beat with half-measures. If Ren held back too much, he would lose. If he showed too much, every question Selene had about him would get louder.

The narrowest line yet.

Kaia pulsed in his chest. Warm. Steady. Ready.

’Tomorrow,’ he thought. ’Let’s find out.’

— • —

Author’s Note: The pressure finally has a release valve. Tomorrow: the first real spar between Ren and Kaelen. Full power, Selene’s rules, no holding back. Thanks for reading!