Elder Huo coughed up a thick spray of crimson blood mixed with fragments of his own shattered teeth. He collapsed forward out of the broken masonry, clutching his useless, splintered right arm against his chest. The supreme, unshakeable dignity of a Gold Core ancestor had been entirely pulverized in a single exchange."Mon... monster..." Huo wheezed, his remaining left eye dilating with raw, primal terror as he stared at the approaching prince. "Your body... it’s not refined by Qi. It’s pure mass. You are a natural-born Asura!""Call me whatever helps you sleep, Elder," Yan Zheng said smoothly, stopping three paces away. His shadow stretched long across the fractured courtyard, completely enveloping the broken old man."Wait! Don't kill me!" Elder Huo scrambled backward, his boots sliding frantically in the blood-stained slush. "The Silver-Frost Sect... we are only a subordinate branch of the **Grand Northern Heavenly Alliance**! If a Gold Core master vanishes here, the Alliance will