Immortal Asura: Crushing the Heavenly Dao

The Broken Tool

"If you die today, trash, it just means you were too weak to serve as my footstool," Wang Chen sneered, planting his heavy leather boot directly onto Lin Feng's bloody face.

Blood tasted like copper and dirt, but Lin Feng had no choice but to swallow it. He lay flat on the cold stone of the training arena, his ribs aching with every ragged breath. Above him stood Wang Chen, the sect master's nephew, who was casually wiping Lin Feng's blood off his polished footwear. The daily torment was a routine by now, but today felt heavier, colder, and far more dangerous.

"Stand up, trash," Wang Chen barked, kicking Lin Feng squarely in the stomach. "I am not done warming up my fists. You are supposed to be my punching bag today, so act like it. Do not tell me that a single kick has broken your spirit already."

Lin Feng gripped the coarse gravel of the courtyard, trying to push his broken body off the ground. Every movement sent a jolt of pure agony through his spine. "My spiritual roots are shattered, Young Master Wang. I cannot take another strike. If you hit me again, you will kill me. I have no core to absorb your impact."

Wang Chen laughed, a cruel, mocking sound that echoed through the empty training grounds. "Kill you? Who cares about the life of an outer disciple dog? The sect pays you to take beatings, not to complain. Your entire family is gone, and you have nowhere else to go. Now get up before I break your legs too."

"Please," Lin Feng whispered, his forehead pressing against the cold dirt. "Just give me an hour to rest. My meridians are burning."

"You do not get to make demands," Wang Chen said, turning his back to walk away.

Two larger disciples stepped forward on his command, grabbing Lin Feng by his torn, gray robes. They dragged him across the dirt, laughing loudly as his boots scraped helplessly along the rough stone paths. They hauled him all the way to the absolute edge of the sect grounds, near the dark, overgrown woods, and tossed him into the thick mud like a piece of worthless garbage.

"Stay here and think about your useless existence," one of the disciples sneered, spitting on the ground near Lin Feng's face. "Do not come back to the main pavilions until tomorrow. If Young Master Wang sees your ugly face before sunrise, we will make sure you lose the other arm."

Lin Feng lay in the mud for a very long time, listening to their heavy footsteps fade away into the distance. The silence of the mountain evening settled around him, heavy and suffocating. Every muscle in his body screamed in protest as he finally managed to sit up. Night was falling fast, casting long, eerie shadows across the mountain path. He cradled his broken right arm against his chest, gritting his teeth to keep from screaming, and began the slow, agonizing crawl back toward his small wooden shack.

The path was steep, lined with jagged rocks and thick brush that tore at his clothes. As he neared the edge of the elder quarters, a low, urgent voice filtered through the thick leaves. Lin Feng froze instantly, pressing his battered body against a large stone structure nearby.

"The poison must be fast," a voice whispered from the darkness. "It must look exactly like a sudden cultivation deviation. If anyone in the grand pavilion suspects us, the entire plan fails and our heads will roll."

Lin Feng recognized that voice completely. It belonged to Elder Mo, the ruthless man in charge of the outer sect logistics, a man who had made Lin Feng's life a living hell for three years.

"Do not worry, Elder Mo," another voice replied nervously. "The poison is already inside Elder Zhou's private tea supply. By midnight, his meridians will burst from the inside out. The rival faction will have no leader left to guide them, and the entire outer sect will belong to you by tomorrow morning."

Lin Feng gasped, his heart hammering violently against his ribs. The sheer scale of the betrayal made his mind spin. He tried to take a careful step backward to escape into the shadows, but his foot caught a dry branch hidden under the leaves. The wood snapped with a sharp, loud crack that sounded like a thunderclap in the silent night air.

"Who is there?" Elder Mo roared, his voice cutting through the dark.

Lin Feng turned to run, but his broken body betrayed him instantly. He stumbled over his own feet, falling hard onto the rocky path. Before he could scramble back up to his feet, a heavy, calloused hand clamped around his throat like an iron vice. He was lifted entirely off the ground, his feet dangling helplessly in the empty air.

Elder Mo glared at him through the gloom, his eyes wide with murderous rage and panic. "You? The useless trash from the outer sect? How much did you hear, boy? Tell me the truth or I will tear your tongue out right now."

"I heard nothing," Lin Feng choked out, clawing desperately at the elder's thick, unyielding fingers. "I was just walking back to my shack after the training session. Please, Elder Mo, let me go. I am nobody. I do not care about sect matters."

"You think I am an idiot?" Elder Mo hissed, tightening his grip until Lin Feng's vision began to blur into dark spots. "You heard everything. Dead men tell no secrets, especially broken tools like you who have no value to this world."

"Please," Lin Feng gasped, tears of raw pain cutting through the thick layer of dirt on his face. "I swear on my life I will not say a single word to anyone. Just let me live. I want no trouble."

"Your word means less than nothing," the other voice whispered from the brush. "Kill him, Elder Mo. We cannot risk the plan for a piece of garbage."

Elder Mo dragged Lin Feng toward the absolute edge of the mortal cliff, where the heavy white fog rolled over the jagged rocks hundreds of feet below. The elder smiled cruelly, his white teeth gleaming in the faint moonlight. "Your life is worth less than the dirt under my boots, Lin Feng. Nobody will ever look for you down there. They will just think you finally decided to end your miserable life."

"No," Lin Feng wheezed, his hands losing their strength as his oxygen ran out.

With a powerful, ruthless jerk of his arm, Elder Mo flung Lin Feng over the edge of the mortal cliff into the foggy abyss.