The edge slipped between his ribs with a quiet, sickening slide.There was no grand clash of martial arts, no honorable duel under the moonlight.Long Zhentian simply looked down at the hilt protruding from his side, his mind refusing to process the image right away.The wind howled across the freezing precipice of Lingyun Cliff, violently whipping his dark hair across his eyes.He traced the handle of the weapon up to the hands gripping it, and finally to the face of the man standing in front of him.Mo Wudi stared back at him.His adoptive brother was breathing heavily, his chest heaving under his fine silk robes.Zhentian opened his mouth to ask if this was some kind of twisted joke, but his vocal cords refused to work.A terrifying numbness was already spreading from the puncture wound, turning his blood to ice."Don't look at me like that," Mo Wudi whispered, his voice trembling slightly before he forced it to steady.Zhentian tried to raise his arm to push the older boy away, bu

The wind roared past his ears, drowning out the lingering echoes of Mo Wudi's laughter as the cliff face rapidly disappeared into the dark.He fell through the freezing night air with his eyes wide open, watching the jagged silhouette of Lingyun Cliff shrink against the starry sky above him.Gravity yanked him downward toward the churning black expanse of the Forbidden Demon Ocean with terrifying speed.Every disciple of the Azure Dragon Hall knew the horrifying stories about these cursed waters that bordered the edge of their territory.The elders claimed the ocean was a vat of living acid that stripped skin from bone in a matter of seconds, erasing any trace of life.He braced himself for the burning agony of dissolution as the dark waves rushed up to swallow his broken body.The impact hit him like a solid wall of bedrock rather than a yielding body of liquid.A sickening crack echoed through his right shoulder as the blunt force of the water shattered his collarbone upon entry.Th

Ye Canghai delivered the warning with a casual indifference that made the freezing ocean currents feel warm by comparison.Zhentian glared at the old man sitting on the throne of leviathan skulls, refusing to let his vision blur.He pushed his uninjured hand deeper into the thick mud, forcing his trembling muscles to support his weight.His right shoulder slumped at a sickening angle, the shattered collarbone grinding against itself with every microscopic shift."I told you," Zhentian ground out through clenched teeth, tasting fresh blood on his tongue."I am not going to die in the dirt."He managed to lift his chest another inch off the seabed, aiming to drag his knees beneath his body.The moment he shifted his center of gravity, a blinding flash of agony ripped through his hollowed torso.The stab wound Mo Wudi had left behind was not just a puncture in his flesh.It was a gaping, ragged tear that led directly into the empty space where his cultivation foundation used to reside.H

He did not try to summon a glowing shield or strike back with the elegant martial arts of his former life.Instead, he surrendered to gravity and let his failing knees give out to drop backward into the freezing mud.The Abyssal Crawler sailed right over him with terrifying speed, its sheer bulk displacing enough water to create a turbulent downward current.Zhentian landed hard on his back, his shattered right collarbone screaming in protest as he slammed against the scattered debris of the ocean floor.He reached his uninjured left hand blindly into the dark muck beside his hip while the water above him churned violently.His fingers closed around the smooth curve of the ancient petrified ribcage he had rested against just moments ago.Panic threatened to freeze his lungs as the massive shadow of the beast blocked out the faint bioluminescence drifting from the trench walls.He channeled every ounce of his terror and rage into his grip, twisting his wrist to snap a jagged shard from

Ye Canghai’s threat lingered in the freezing water long after the actual words were spoken.Zhentian stared up at the old man from his place in the mud.He did not argue or offer empty promises about doing better next time.He simply nodded once."Good," Ye Canghai said, stepping backward into the shadows of the trench."Now fix your shoulder before it sets wrong and cripples you forever."Zhentian shifted his weight, biting back a groan as the broken collarbone ground against itself."Without Qi to numb the nerves, you are going to feel every single movement," Ye Canghai added from the dark."I know," Zhentian replied, his voice barely a rough rasp.He reached his good hand across his chest to feel the jagged lump protruding under his cold skin.The bone had snapped cleanly in two when he initially hit the surface of the ocean.He needed to push the overlapping pieces back into proper alignment immediately.He took a shallow breath, filling his lungs with the tiny amount of oxygen fi