Earth's Greatest Magus

Vorn Hollow was not a single planet.

It was an entire sector.

Fifteen galaxies lay within its borders, containing more than a hundred inhabited worlds, all now under the rule of the Occulus Faction.

According to the Alliance’s old intelligence, the Occulus had once been a formidable power, boasting seven Supreme beings, more than three hundred Grand Magus, and tens of thousands of the cultivators known as dark magus, all organized under thirty-two great clans. But those records were decades old, compiled before the faction’s betrayal and disappearance from Alliance space.

A power that had hidden itself for so long was certain to possess far more than the Alliance knew.

The Occulus had occupied Vorn Hollow only a few decades earlier, and signs of the transition still lingered. Vast wildernesses remained infested with wandering orc tribes and other remnants of the previous inhabitants that had yet to be completely eradicated.

As for the dark elves, despite their alliance with the Occulus, they maintained only a handful of military outposts throughout the sector, scattered among the many worlds under Occulus control.

In theory, that simplified Emery’s search.

If Kieran truly remained within the dark elf domains, then only a few locations among more than a hundred worlds needed investigating.

Reality proved far less cooperative.

Much of Vorn Hollow bordered the active frontlines against the scourge, and security had reached extraordinary levels. Patrol fleets constantly crossed the void, planetary formations remained active around the clock, and every major settlement was monitored by layers of surveillance.

Yet none of that proved to be the greatest obstacle.

The true difficulty lay with the dark magus themselves.

One of Emery’s shadow clones quietly infiltrated a settlement—not a military fortress, but an ordinary civilian town.

The moment it entered, Emery immediately realized something felt... wrong.

The settlement did not appear to have been built.

It looked as though it had grown.

Buildings rose from the ground in smooth organic curves, their pale chitinous walls faintly translucent beneath the dim light. Shadows shifted beneath their surfaces as though something still lived within them. There were no straight walls, no carved stone, no forged steel. Every structure resembled something secreted by a gigantic insect before hardening into place.

At the center of the settlement stood a colossal monument nearly ten meters high.

It resembled both an enormous centipede and a living internal organ, its segmented body spiraling upward beneath a vast dome of living chitin.

Several of dark magus knelt silently before it.

Through his clone’s eyes, Emery watched them offer quiet prayers to their god.

As the clone blended naturally into the gathering, one nearby dark magus inclined his head in greeting. The clone returned the gesture without hesitation before watching the man continue on with the same measured, deliberate movements shared by everyone in the settlement.

Emery understand why.

Every one of them carried something beneath their skin.

A living presence.

Dormant, yet unmistakably alive.

It coiled within their flesh, shifting ever so slightly with each breath and every step they took.

That was what truly distinguished the dark magus.

Rather than cultivating alone, they nurtured parasitic lifeforms known as gu.

Host and parasite existed in complete symbiosis, cultivating together, advancing through each realm as a single existence.

To an outsider, it might seem a crude, even grotesque, method of cultivation.

Yet this very path had elevated the Occulus into the ranks of the Grade Five powers.

The Nephilim possessed their divine gods.

The Imperium relied upon its machines.

The Arcanum mastered the arcane arts.

Arkaland revered its saints.

And the Occulus...

...had their gu.

###

Deeper within the settlement, the clone wandered into the marketplace. Alongside the usual artifacts, medicines, and cultivation resources, the vendors here traded their specialty.

Gu.

Rows of sealed jars and humming crystal containers lined the stalls, each housing a living creature that writhed, crawled, or fluttered restlessly within. Emery guided the clone closer, quietly studying the wares through its eyes.

Every container bore a distinct mark, and an elderly dark magus woman—whose wrinkled throat shifted unnervingly with the movement of three separate presences beneath her skin—introduced her merchandise to a passing customer.

"Ash Moth, for those cultivating the fire path," she rasped, tapping a jar where a gray-winged insect beat sluggishly against the glass. "Stone Tick, for strengthening flesh and bone. And this one..." She carefully lifted another container, revealing a many-legged creature that darted frantically in endless circles. "...Swiftweave. It grants incredible speed, but only bodies strong enough to withstand its strain can nurture it. Expensive... but worth every coin."

Emery moved the clone on, the image of the Occulus cultivation system becoming increasingly clear.

Different gu granted different gifts—enhanced sight, greater strength, supernatural speed, resilience, elemental affinity, or countless other specialized abilities. Even an ordinary specimen, patiently cultivated over decades, could evolve into something extraordinarily powerful, while the rarest bloodlines were treasured clan inheritances, guarded more fiercely than any legendary artifact.

The seemingly ordinary settlement, Emery realized, was little more than an enormous breeding ground.

Beneath the living city stretched vast cavern networks, warm, humid, and filled with an endless chorus of chittering that echoed through the darkness without pause. Massive breeding pits and cultivation pools spread throughout the underground complex, each teeming with hundreds of gu larvae and mature specimens carefully tended by specialized caretakers.

Deeper still lay the true heart of the operation.

Workshops.

There, dark magus in stained robes worked with the concentration of master alchemists, carefully feeding their gu rare spiritual herbs, refined beast cores, and specially prepared medicines. Others experimented with crossbreeding different strains, patiently guiding generations of evolution in pursuit of ever stronger variants.

Emery watched one elderly cultivator spend nearly an hour nurturing a single translucent grub. Drop by painstaking drop, the old man fed it refined spirit medicine while softly murmuring to the creature. Gradually, its body darkened, hardened, and began to transform before Emery’s eyes.

It was a cultivation system that was both fascinating...

...and deeply unsettling.

That same cultivation system also explained why the Occulus domains had always proven nearly impossible for Magus Alliance agents to infiltrate.

Within their territory, anyone channeling spirit energy would immediately attract attention, because every true dark magus carried the corresponding gu resonance beneath their skin. A spy could imitate appearance, clothing, even mannerisms—but the absence of a living gu would expose them the instant they fought or cultivated.

Because of that, Emery was forced to keep his shadow clones disguised as nothing more than ordinary travelers. They could not freely draw upon their strength without risking exposure, a limitation that drastically reduced both their mobility and usefulness.

Even so, Emery refused to give up.

Infiltrating the Occulus was no longer just about finding Kieran.

For him, it was somhow personal.

The Occulus had been the hidden hand behind the Supreme Serpent incident in Faulen City, infiltrating the Grand Council and playing a central role in Shinta’s abduction.

The Occulus had also been found lurking behind any number of half-blood incidents.

And worst of all was the truth that tied everything together: the Occulus cultivation shared a lineage with the scourge.

Emery could not believe the resemblance between a seeded gu and a scourge parasite was mere coincidence.

It was precisely because of discoveries like these that the Magus Alliance had placed an enormous bounty on any intelligence concerning the traitorous Occulus faction.

For Emery, that was plenty reason to continue.

More clones were dispatched throughout the sector, spreading into dozens of settlements. Some lingered in taverns and gambling halls, quietly listening to drunken conversations. Others mingled with merchants or slowly cultivated friendships with locals who occasionally dealt with the scattered dark elf enclaves throughout Vorn Hollow.

It was painstaking, dangerous work.

Within the first week alone, two clones were discovered and destroyed. Fortunately, a shadow clone left nothing behind to interrogate once it dispersed, preventing anyone from tracing the intrusion back to Emery. Still, every loss made the remaining operation increasingly dangerous, forcing the survivors to act with even greater caution.

At last, after more than a month of patient investigation, Lyanna’s intelligence network intersected with information gathered by the clones.

The answer was not what Emery had hoped to find.

In hindsight, however, it perfectly explained why Kieran had remained impossible to locate for so long.

The drow had not merely sought refuge within the Occulus.

He had risen to become one of the faction’s highest-ranking advisors.

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