The next morning cracked open with a kind of tension that clung to the air like static. Kirin felt it the moment he stepped out of his quarters. The sky above the Central City was washed in pale gold, but instead of peace, the light just made every shadow sharper. Every corner buzzed. Every cultivator moved like they were preparing for war.And, in a way, they were.The main rounds of the Faction Competitions began before the sun fully settled into the sky, the arena already roaring with restless energy. Thousands were packed into the stands again; merchants had hauled in their early morning carts; nobles sat in private balconies acting like their silence made them more important. The officials stood tall with banners of all six factions hanging behind them.As Kirin walked with the Indra group toward the staging area, he noticed the way people reacted to him now. No more whispers of “the weak one.” No more mocking glances. Now they moved out of his way. Now they stared too long, too

The moment the officiator’s shout vanished into the air, the arena broke open like a storm that had been waiting far too long to breathe, and every direction around Kirin exploded with killing intent, roaring techniques, and desperate movement, the kind that meant nobody was here to play anymore, nobody here to test skill or compete for honor, no, this was a battlefield disguised as a tournament, and Kirin stood at its center like the core of a lightning storm that had been provoked one time too many.The first wave came exactly as expected, shadows surging across the arena floor like a living carpet, stretching and twisting and sharpening into spears, blades, and grasping hands, each one heavy with cold murderous Qi, the type that seeped into bone and left hesitation behind like poison. Three Hades cultivators lunged at him at once, their movements sharp and silent, their faces carved with grim intent as if killing him was not only a mission but a sacred duty.Kirin didn’t step back,

The air snapped as the Hades elder moved, one instant standing still like a carved statue, the next ripping across the arena in a streak of darkness that bent the light around him. The crowd didn’t even gasp, they just clutched the edges of their seats with white knuckles as the elder’s fist crashed into Kirin’s raised guard, the sound bursting outward in a low, concussive boom that shook dust loose from the ceiling.Kirin felt the impact everywhere, felt his bones shudder as if they were being played like drums, felt his arms sting under the massive force delivered by someone whose cultivation was several steps beyond him. His barrier of lightning cracked instantly, flickering in thin strands before vanishing completely.He staggered backward across the broken ground, his boots skidding along deep fractures carved by the earlier fight. The Star Sword trembled in his grip, the metal humming wildly as if even the blade understood how outmatched he was.The elder didn’t wait. He never e

The moment Kirin placed his hand on the chain, a pulse unlike anything he had ever felt before tore through him, not soft or welcoming, but violent, unstoppable, like a storm crashing into every corner of his being, the Primordial Qi roaring through his veins, filling every artery, every sinew, every thought with a pressure so immense that it was almost unbearable, and for a second, he thought he might shatter under its weight, but the surge didn’t stop, it grew, and with it came a warmth that felt both seductive and terrifying, a whisper of power that promised freedom and annihilation at the same time.Kirin’s vision blurred as his body screamed in response, muscles twisting in ways they were never meant to, bones stretching, reshaping, forming grotesque angles and impossible lines, his skin darkening and gleaming with energy, his eyes flickering with both lightning and something older, something primordial that watched from within with cruel amusement. His chaos lightning flickered

Kirin’s body had transformed fully, every contour, every sinew, every flicker of his presence consumed by the Primordial demon, the chaos that had once lived in whispers and shadows now made flesh, made spirit, and made terror incarnate. The arena and surrounding city trembled as if reality itself hesitated at the magnitude of the transformation, and the air thickened with a static charge that raised the hair on the backs of every mortal and cultivator present. The once-calm battlefield became a theater of absolute fear; the ground cracked, the sky seemed to darken, and even the elements themselves bent subtly to the corrupted will that pulsed within him. Kirin’s eyes glowed with a sickly, radiant light, the chaos and divinity merging into an intensity that defied understanding, a storm of power that could not be measured by mortal or even Rank 5 standards. Every being in the Central City felt it before they saw it, a tremor in their soul, a warning, a premonition that this was no lon