The flagstones of the Azure Cloud Sect's outer martial court were carved from blue mountain granite, but to Chu Yuan, they felt like slabs of glacial ice.A sharp, coppery stench filled his throat. Every breath tasted of iron and dirt. Across his back, three lacerations torn open by barbed copper whips burned as though dipped in boiling oil, soaking his tattered hemp tunic with dark, fresh blood.A wave of dizzying agony pulsed behind his temples, accompanied by fragmented memories that did not belong to this cold mountain dawn.Earth. The pinnacle of Mount Tai. An ancient stone stele glowing beneath a thunderhead, followed by a searing pain through his ribs—a blade of pure starlight plunging through his chest...And then, another life. A grand, golden cauldron standing between the heavens, surrounded by nine supreme divine stars, and a voice that roared with cosmic pride: The Desolate Star Tyrant Body Art defies all heavenly law; even if the heavens shatter, the nine stars shall neve

The pressure descending from the marble pavilion was not wind. It was not sound. It was the terrifying, physical weight of an earth-grade martial will, condensed by thirty years of blood and slaughter into a single crushing field.Boom!The blue mountain granite groaned. Hairline fractures raced across the courtyard like frantic centipedes. Ten paces away, three outer disciples who had been standing upright collapsed as though an iron slab had been dropped upon their shoulders, their foreheads slamming into the flagstones with wet thuds. Blood trickled from their noses and ears.Beside Chu Yuan, Meng Rou gasped, his scrawny frame flattening against the stone, eyes rolling back as the suffocating gravity threatened to crush his ribcage."Elder Chen!" Meng Rou choked through blood-flecked foam. "Mercy... please..."Elder Chen did not look at him. His cold, slate-grey eyes remained locked upon Chu Yuan, unblinking, devoid of warmth. To a Stage 7 Martial Path expert—an elder whose single

The mountain pass was so quiet that the drip of condensation from the cliffside sounded like stones striking water.Forty crossbow strings were drawn taut to their iron notches. The bolts were forged of refined black iron, grooved along their spines, and soaked in the bile of Corpse-Eating Vipers. A scratch would blacken a man's veins within ten breaths; a lung shot would turn his blood to thick, bubbling tar.Zhou Chen stood five paces ahead of the line, his scarlet outer-disciple coat billowing gently in the rising mountain draft. He looked relaxed, almost bored, like a hunter waiting for a trapped rabbit to make its first futile twitch."Brother Han is currently lying on a medicine cot having his crushed knuckles set by third-rank bone-surgeons," Zhou Chen said, his tone conversational. "He screamed for three hours before the medicine kicked in. Uncle Chen was quite displeased."Chu Yuan did not stop walking. His worn straw sandals made a quiet crunch against the gravel."He should

The world turned red.The Blood Demon Ape descended like a collapsing mountain, its shadow swallowing the entire clearing. Twelve feet of knotted muscle and crimson fur, its landing cratered the earth, hurling stone shrapnel in a deadly halo. The ancient pines at the clearing's edge groaned and snapped like dry kindling.Chu Yuan moved.Not a heartbeat sooner. Not a heartbeat later. The instant the beast's feet touched the earth, before its massive arms could sweep outward, he threw himself into a slide across the shattered ground, the rusted dark-iron blade singing a single, razor-thin note.The starlight edge carved a line across the ape's shin.Blood welled—then stopped. The flesh around the wound writhed, and the cut sealed itself with a sound like sizzling fat.Chu Yuan's eyes narrowed. "Corrupted blood essence. It heals as fast as steel can cut.""Chu Yuan!" Meng Rou's voice cracked with terror. She was on her feet now, pressed against the boulder where they had hidden the herb

The third dawn broke cold and gray over Medicine Mountain.Chu Yuan emerged from the back cavern path as the morning mist lifted, his steps unhurried. Behind him, the mountain's depths held their dead secrets—broken chains, emptied cauldrons, and the corpse of a Blood Demon Ape that had fed on hundreds.The twelve disciples he had freed had been sent ahead with Meng Rou in the dead of night. They were hidden now, safe in the bamboo groves beyond the outer gate, waiting for his signal.Which meant that when Chu Yuan walked alone onto the great stone platform at the mountain's foot, he walked onto it with nothing to protect.The exit was not empty.Elder Chen stood at the platform's center, his gray robes immaculate, his hands folded into his sleeves. Behind him stood more than forty enforcement disciples, sabers drawn, faces pale. Beyond them, separated by a rope of silver silk, hundreds of outer disciples had gathered to watch, drawn by a rumor that had spread through the sect like fi