The Immortal Heir; The Absolute Cheat

Chapter 5

The high elder’s face turned an ugly shade of purple. The terrifying, draconic pressure that had just leaked from Kai vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving the elder wondering if his own senses had played a trick on him.

"Arrogant dog! You think you can walk out of the Iron-Blood Sect after murdering my disciples and crippling my grandson?" The high elder roared, his Tier 5 spiritual energy exploding outward. The marble tiles beneath his feet cracked as he launched himself into the air, his palms glowing with a heavy, oppressive earthen light. "Die!"

"Kai!" Meiling cried out, the sheer pressure of a Tier 5 cultivator making it hard for her to breathe.

Kai didn't panic. The golden warmth of the Divine Dragon God Bloodline Fragment was still settling into his veins, rapidly mutating his inner anatomy.

[Ding! Warning: Tier 5 combatant approaching at high velocity.]

[System Notice: Divine Dragon God Bloodline Fragment successfully integrated. Activating unique trait: Dragon Scale Armor (Passive/Partial).]

[Current Power Level insufficient for a direct clash. Utilizing combined traits: 'Shadow Veil' + 'Lightning Root Aptitude' to execute tactical retreat.]

"Hold onto me," Kai commanded, wrapping a powerful arm around Meiling’s waist.

As the high elder’s crushing palm strike descended from the heavens, Kai didn't try to block it. He infused his newly acquired lightning energy into his legs, combining it with the shadows of the falling night.

BOOM!

The elder's palm slammed into the stage, completely obliterating the structure into a cloud of dust and flying stone shrapnel. The shockwave knocked several nearby guests off their feet.

"Did... did he get him?" an inner disciple whispered, squinting through the dust.

"Of course he did! Nobody below Tier 5 survives the High Elder’s—"

"Look! Over there!" someone screamed, pointing toward the outer perimeter of the plaza.

The dust cleared, revealing an empty, cratered impact zone. Kai and Meiling were gone. Dozens of yards away, a blur of crackling blue static and dark mist was streaking across the sect's rooftops with impossible speed.

Kai's feet barely touched the roof tiles as he ran, his agility stats pushed to their absolute limits. The lightning energy made him explosive, while the shadow energy made him weightless.

"Chaser squads, move out!" the high elder’s furious roar echoed across the entire mountain. "Seal the mountain gates! Bring me his head!"

Alarms blared throughout the Iron-Blood Sect as flaming torches began to illuminate the mountain paths. Kai didn't head for the main gates; he knew they would be heavily guarded. Instead, he steered directly toward the treacherous back cliffs—the very edge of the Abyss he had been thrown into.

He skidded to a halt at the edge of the chasm. Behind them, the sounds of shouting guards and barking spiritual hounds were drawing closer by the second.

Meiling looked down into the pitch-black, bottomless void, her face pale. "Kai... we're trapped."

"We're not trapped," Kai said, a cold, confident smile cutting through the dirt and blood on his face. He turned around, facing the direction of the approaching torches. "They think this mountain is their fortress. To me, it's just a cage they're locked in with a dragon."

He looked at the glowing blue interface floating in his vision.

[System Notice: Escape route calculated. Host has successfully broken through the inner perimeter.]

[New Region Discovered: The Whispering Wilds (Danger Level: High).]

[New Quest Triggered: The Path of the Sovereign.]

Objective: Cultivate in secret, hunt spiritual beasts to evolve your bloodline, and reach the Great Cultivator Realm (Tier 10) within 30 days.

Failure Penalty: Death by the Sect's grand pursuit.

Reward: Unlock Level 2 Extraction & Fusion (Ability to extract traits from inanimate objects and ancient relics).

"Thirty days," Kai muttered under his breath, his eyes reflecting the cold blue light of the status panel. "In thirty days, I won't just crash a wedding. I will erase the Iron-Blood Sect from the map."

With a tight grip on his sister's hand, Kai stepped backward, vanishing into the shadows of the mountain as they descended into the wild, lawless lands beyond the sect’s reach. The hunt was on, but the hunters had no idea they were chasing an apex predator.