Elijah Langston had barely reached the edge of the area when something entered his body with his first breath.The foreign energy rushed through his nostrils and descended rapidly towards his lower abdomen. The energy sustaining his life allowed him to follow its movement as it searched beneath his navel, attacking the place where a practitioner’s energy core should have been.It found nothing.The strange force moved around the empty space several times before surging back upwards and escaping through Elijah’s nostrils.Only then did he properly notice the chaos before him.The Zenith women were attacking one another with no restraint, while Rowan launched repeated waves of spiritual energy at the five senior disciples struggling to hold her back. Around them lay the bodies of dead animals. Elijah did not need anyone to explain where this would end.They would continue changing opponents and slaughtering one

Such knowledge was not widely shared among martial practitioners.Elijah had learned it through the study of acupuncture, where the same pathways could be stimulated to restore circulation, reduce internal damage or redirect unstable energy during treatment. A needle meant for healing could serve an entirely different purpose when placed with the correct understanding.Knowing where to strike was only half the difficulty.Reaching such a point on a trained practitioner was almost impossible. Experts reacted to danger before ordinary people completed their movements, and Rowan could have killed him several times before the needle touched her skin.That was why Elijah had allowed her to believe he had accepted her desire. His fingers were already close to her neck when her attention returned to the other women, leaving her no time to recognise the attack.The remaining senior sisters didn't even reacted to Rowan’s collapse. With the strongest rival removed, they simply turned their swo

The first person to rise was Rowan.Her fingers closed around the sword lying beside her before she pushed herself upright with a low groan. She tilted her head from one side to the other, trying to clear the stiffness in her neck while the other Zenith women began standing.Iris immediately turned to continue the escape she and Elijah had started, but his hand held around her shoulder before she could move.“Don’t.”She looked back at him in alarm.It was already too late to run. Any sudden movement would draw the attention of the women, and neither of them could outrun Rowan once she decided to pursue them.At that exact moment, the eldest senior sister raised her head.Her eyes found Elijah immediately.“You!” The rage in her voice traveled through the clearing with such force that Iris flinched.“Senior Sister Rowan, is that truly you?” she asked, staring at her in disbelief.The hostility was unmistakable. It was the same contempt Rowan had shown Elijah before entering the fores

The women held their breaths for a moment before the presence of their sect leader fully settled upon them. Their earlier anger vanished and every disciple bowed immediately towards the palanquin.“Mother.”Only Elijah remained standing beside the cave entrance, his eyes fixed upon the open panel with a questioning look.Rowan had claimed that the Grandmaster was asleep, yet she was awake now. Elijah could not help wondering why she had remained silent while her disciples rampaged through the forest and nearly slaughtered one another.No matter how deeply a person slept, the collision of spiritual techniques and the destruction at that moment should have awakened them. More importantly, the dark energy carried by the mist had reached directly into the cultivation pathways of every practitioner nearby.A Grandmaster should have sensed it long before anyone else.There was no way for Elijah to tell whether the enclosed palanquin had somehow shielded her from the mist or whether the co

Silence settled over the disciples as they lowered their heads once more.Even if any among them had considered accepting Mother’s offer, the casual display of power they had just witnessed was enough to remind them who stood at the head of the Zenith Sisterhood.A Grandmaster.No disciple present could mistake the distance separating her from everyone else.When no one stepped forward, Mother spoke again.“Very well. What happened within the forest will not be mentioned again, nor will I tolerate further accusations against Elijah. He is our guide to the tomb, and that arrangement will remain unchanged.”The women were clearly dissatisfied with the final part of her judgment, but none dared object after she had already absolved them of everything they had done under the mist’s influence.“Young man,” Mother called, turning her attention towards Elijah without looking back at him. “What is wrong with this forest? You appear to understand something the others do not.”Elijah remained q