Three days later, early morning, in a secluded stretch of sea somewhere in the West Blue.
The sky was a pristine blue, and the sea lay calm. Two small speedboats were moored in the distance, carrying only a handful of elite Wind-Listening Guard members and Guan Yu's deputy general. Everyone held their breath and focused, looking up at the sky.
Guan Yu stood alone atop a massive reef, the sea breeze stirring his long beard and green battle robe. He slowly closed his eyes, yet the world around him changed before he did. The wind stopped. The waves stilled. For several miles around the reef beneath his feet, the sea became smooth as a mirror, reflecting the blue sky as though space and time had frozen there. Then a deep, majestic resonance arose-not from within his body, but from the heavens above and the void in every direction! It was the sky responding to its sovereign's awakening!
Blue-gold light did not erupt, but flowed like the first light of dawn from every pore, gathering before finally surging skyward! The pillar of light linked heaven and earth, dyeing sea and sky a sacred blue-gold. Within that radiance, his figure did not "expand." Instead, it seemed to shed its human form, revealing the more ancient, noble, and powerful essence beneath-Rayquaza, the dragon of the sky!
The instant his dragon eyes opened, even the midday sun seemed to dim for a moment. Between heaven and earth, only those molten-gold slit pupils remained, becoming the focus of the world. He did not roar, merely swayed his dragon tail gently and raised his head toward the heavens. As though subjects receiving a silent decree, the clouds across the entire sky began slowly revolving around him, forming a vast vortex more than ten kilometers across! At