2026-06-06 02:30:54The alpha wolf didn't just run it launched itself like a heavy red-eyed boulder through the sheets of pouring rain. Its jaw split wide, long strings of thick saliva flying from its yellow fangs, aiming straight for Li Xuan’s exposed throat.
Lin Chen no, Li Xuan didn't flinch.
Inside his stomach, the sensation was pure, unadulterated hell. The ten thousand jagged shards of his ruined jade core were grinding against each other like a meat processor. It felt as if a thousand razors were trying to slice their way out through his skin from the inside. The sheer pain would have made a common cultivator faint instantly.
But Li Xuan’s mind was no longer common. It was filled with a toxic, burning ocean of absolute hatred for Mo Fan and Ning’er. That hatred acted like an anesthetic, numbing his nervous system and turning his agony into cold, focused focus.
"You want to eat a God?" Li Xuan whispered, his voice rattling with a metallic, layered echo.
He didn't have a sword. He didn't have a single drop of normal, liquid Qi in his channels. But as he flicked his index finger toward the lunging alpha beast, the dark emerald light inside his chest violently flared.
SHRREEEEEE!
A sound like a thousand mirrors shattering at high speed ripped through the stormy night.
A microscopic, razor-sharp shard of dark emerald energy invisible to the naked eye but carrying the absolute, condensed weight of his broken soul shot from his fingertip. It didn't just pierce the air; it literally tore a clean, empty line through the falling raindrops.
SQUELCH.
The alpha wolf didn't even get to bark. The invisible emerald razor struck its forehead, slicing through its skull, its spine, and its entire muscle structure so cleanly that the beast was instantly split into two perfect, symmetrical halves mid-air. The two bloody pieces of the wolf crashed uselessly into the mud on either side of Li Xuan's boots, its hot blood instantly washed away by the cold downpour.
The other two Abyssal Wolves stopped dead in their tracks, their paws sliding in the mud. Their primitive, monstrous instincts violently screamed at them to flee. The dying mortal they had come to eat had just turned into something infinitely more terrifying than any demon in the wasteland.
Li Xuan slowly dragged himself up from the mud. His tattered grey robes were soaked in blood, but as he stood upright, the hundreds of green cracks across his chest and torso began to glow even brighter, pulsing in sync with his ragged breathing.
Fractured Ascension: Level 1.
The natural laws of the heaven stated that a broken dantian could not hold energy that it would leak out like a sieve. But Li Xuan's broken jade shards didn't try to hold the energy. They reflected it. Every time the raw, chaotic spiritual energy of the stormy night tried to leak out of his wound, it slammed into the jagged surfaces of the shards, bouncing back and forth, multiplying in speed and cutting power until it turned into a lethal hurricane confined inside his flesh.
"My turn," Xuan murmured, his glowing white eyes locking onto the two remaining beasts.
He didn't wait for them to run. He simply took a sharp breath, pulling the freezing storm air deep into his lungs. He didn't use an intricate martial arts form. He just opened his palm and swept his arm forward in a wide, careless arc.
SWOOSH!
A violent wave of fifty dark emerald shards erupted from his palm, flying through the dark like a swarm of glowing green hornets. The razor-sharp energy blades minced through the rain, hitting the two wolves before they could even turn around to fly.
MINCE. CHOP. SLICE.
Within a millisecond, the two massive beasts were completely dismantled, turned into a fine, red mist of blood and bone that splattered across the dark tree trunks. Not a single scrap of meat remained whole.
Li Xuan stood alone in the dark, raining wasteland, surrounded by the minced remains of his first victims. He didn't feel happy; he felt a deep, dark hunger. The fractured jade pieces inside his stomach were still spinning, empty, demanding more energy to grind.
"This wasteland... it's a graveyard for thousands of rejected disciples and dead monsters," Xuan muttered to himself, looking deeper into the pitch-black valley where old bones and rusted weapons lay buried under the mud. "To anyone else, it is a hellhole of trash. To me... it is an infinite mountain of raw material."
Suddenly, the heavy sound of squelching boots came from the path behind him.
A tall man wearing the cruel, dark iron armor of an Azure Sky Sect Outer Warden stepped out from the trees, carrying a heavy iron lantern. He had been sent to verify that Li Xuan's corpse had been properly eaten by the wolves.
The warden stopped, his lantern light catching the bloody halves of the alpha wolf and the tall figure standing in the center of the clearing. His eyes widened in absolute shock as he recognized the wild black hair and the jade-cracked chest.
"Li... Li Xuan?!" the warden gasped, his hand instantly flying to the hilt of his iron sword. "You're still breathing?! Your core was destroyed by Young Master Mo Fan himself! How are you standing?!"
Shen Xuan turned his head slowly, his glowing emerald eyes locking onto the warden’s throat like a physical blade. A cold, bloodthirsty smile crept across his ruined face.
The warden’s heart hammered against his ribs. He was a Level 5 Qi Refining warrior—a trained killer of the outer peaks. But looking into Li Xuan’s white, soulless eyes, he felt an icy, primeval terror that made his fingers freeze against his sword hilt.
"You... you freak! You must have used a demonic forbidden art!" the warden screamed, trying to shake off his fear. He drew his iron blade, channeling his dull yellow Qi into the metal. "Young Master Mo Fan paid me twenty gold coins to bring back your severed fingers as proof of your death! If you're alive, I'll just have to chop them off myself!"
He lunged forward, his blade cutting a yellow arc through the heavy sheets of rain.
Li Xuan stood perfectly still, his tattered robes whipping around his bleeding chest as the dark emerald hurricane inside his stomach roared for its first human harvest.
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The Path to the Creek
The descending sun dragged long, indigo shadows across the eastern meadows, turning the pale green of the tall summer grass into a deep, rich jade. The air lost its midday bite, replaced by a refreshing coolness that smelled of damp river mud, crushed mint leaves, and the sweet resin of distant pines.Li Xuan walked a half-step ahead down the narrow, well-trodden footpath that led from the cabin toward the creek. His strides were long and unhurried, the garden shears tucked securely into his belt loop, their newly sharpened steel catching the final, slanting rays of golden daylight. Beside him, Elian matched his pace effortlessly, his hands shoved deep into his pockets, his shoulders completely relaxed.Behind them, the distant creak-scrap of Master Orem’s rocking chair slowly faded into the background hum of the valley—the buzzing of late-day insects, the rustle of the apple boughs, and the low, musical murmur of the wind weaving through the ravine."Do you think the mint survived th
The Afternoon Shade
The heat of the midday sun eventually mellowed, sliding past the zenith and casting long, comforting shadows across the eastern side of the cabin. The golden light of late afternoon turned the valley into a patchwork of deep emerald greens and warm, dusty amber, as if the very air had been brushed with oil and honey.With the midday meal cleared away and the wooden bowls washed and stacked on their shelves, the cabin settled into a drowsy, contented hush. The kind of quiet that didn't feel empty, but rather full—like a deep breath held and slowly released.Orem had retreated to his rocking chair by the warm western wall, the rhythmic creak-scrap of the wooden runners keeping time with the faint rustle of the wind outside. In his lap, the newly finished soup spoon rested beside the wooden owl, both gleaming faintly from the natural oils of his calloused hands. His eyes were half-closed behind his heavy lids, the lines of his weathered face smoothing out as the afternoon fatigue caught
The Midday Sun and the Wooden Spoon
The sun climbed steadily through the pale blue vault of the sky, burning away the last lingering wisps of valley mist until the entire landscape lay open and brilliant in the light of high noon. The air grew warm, carrying the thick, rich scent of sun-baked pine needles, damp loam, and the sweet, resinous perfume of the apple blossoms that blanketed the lower orchard.In the northern garden plot, the work of planting the squash seeds was long finished. The small mounds of dark, nutrient-rich earth stood in neat, orderly rows like miniature hills waiting for rain. Li Xuan stood up, leaning back to stretch his spine, his muscles loose and pleasantly warm from hours of physical labor. He wiped the back of his hand across his forehead, smudging a streak of dark earth across his temple."If those seeds grow half as stubborn as Master Orem's commentary," Li Xuan muttered with a dry smile, "we'll have enough squash by autumn to feed a small army.""An army marches on its stomach, my boy," Or
The Morning of the Squash Seeds
The dawn arrived without the dramatic fanfare of tearing portals or the heavy hum of celestial engines. It simply leaked through the gaps in the timber shutters—a soft, pearlescent grey that slowly warmed into the pale gold of an unhurried summer morning.Inside the cabin, the air was cool and smelled faintly of woodsmoke from the previous night and the sharp, clean scent of dew-drenched grass drifting in through a cracked window. Li Xuan was already awake, sitting on the edge of his narrow cot with his boots laced, watching the dust motes drift lazily in the first slanting beam of light.Across the room, Orem’s corner was quiet save for the rhythmic, whistling sigh of the old man’s breathing. On the small table beside his pallet, the newly finished wooden owl sat perched on a stack of old pamphlets, its blank, carved eyes staring serenely toward the hearth.Li Xuan stood up, his joints popping softly in the quiet, and walked over to the heavy oak door. He unlatched it and pushed it o
The Unwritten Hearth
The twilight deepened, pulling the violet-and-amber ribbons of the aurora tighter across the darkening sky. The garden tools were hung back on their pegs, their blades cleaned of earth and dew, and the cabin was settling into the deep, breathable quiet of a summer night.Inside, the hearth fire had burned down to a bed of glowing red embers that pulsed softly against the dark timber walls. Li Xuan added a final split of birch to the grate, watching the sparks catch and dance up the stone chimney before sliding into the shadows.Around the pine table, the three wooden bowls had long since been emptied and wiped clean. Orem sat in his corner rocking chair, the rhythmic creak-scrap of the wood keeping time with the low hum of the night wind outside. In his calloused hands, the wooden owl was finally taking shape, its round eyes staring blankly into the firelight with an expression of profound, comical wisdom.Elian sat across from Li Xuan, his hands wrapped around a cup of warm mint tea.
The Weight of the Ledger
The sun stood high and warm above the ridge, washing the cabin in a brilliant midday glow. Inside, the quiet was absolute. The leather-bound book rested squarely in the middle of the pine table, its heavy cover closed at last, save for a few stray wisps of dust dancing in the sunbeams that cut across the room.Elian stood up from the bench, his legs feeling strangely light without the weight of the journal pressing against his knees. He looked down at the dark leather binding, then across the room to the rough wooden shelf where Master Orem’s book already rested, side by side with a collection of whittled spoons and a spare jar of preserved plums."Well," Orem said, breaking the stillness with a soft chuckle as he hoisted himself out of his rocking chair. He tapped the floor twice with his walking staff. "The ink is dry. The covers are shut. If we stand around staring at furniture much longer, the sun’s going to set and we won't have gotten anything done.""He's right," Li Xuan agreed
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