The afternoon sun blazed over Imperial Sun City, casting harsh, elongated shadows across the sprawling avenues and white-cobblestone plazas. However, the usual bustling, vibrant rhythm of the city's western district was completely absent. An oppressive, suffocating silence hung over the streets, as if a massive, invisible hand had squeezed the breath out of the metropolis.
Heavy iron barricades had been erected across every major intersection leading toward the western hill district. Over three hundred elite disciples and martial captains of the Overlord Sect, clad in crimson-and-black armor, patrolled the streets with drawn weapons. Heavy iron-studded shields blocked the thoroughfares, and crimson banners bearing the mountain-crushing fist crest of the Overlord Sect fluttered aggressively in the dry wind.
The common merchants and local residents cowered behind locked doors, peering through small cracks in their window shutters. The entire western sector had been transformed into an isolated hunting ground.
Standing on the roof of a three-story tea house overlooking the main road to the hill district was Commander Meng Cang-Hai—the Head of the Overlord Sect's Shadow-Tracking Battalion and a Stage-3 Peak martial artist known for his ruthless tracking methods. He wore dark silver chainmail over his dark robes, his face cold and scarred, and his hand resting on the hilt of a broad saber.
Beside him, two specialized array masters were adjusting a large, bronze compass-like artifact known as the Blood-Seeking Celestial Disk. The needle inside the glass casing spun erratically, emitting faint pulses of pale crimson light.
"Report!" Meng Cang-Hai ordered, his voice sharp and impatient.
"Commander!" one of the array masters called out, adjusting a small silver crystal on the side of the compass. "The residual frost Qi left on the mountain pass last night carried a unique, high-density bloodline vibration. We have locked onto the exact spatial direction! The source is located less than half a mile up the western hill road—inside the Autumn Water Courtyard!"
A cold, cruel sneer twisted Meng Cang-Hai's scarred face. He looked toward the quiet, green pine-covered hill in the distance.
"Autumn Water Courtyard..." Meng Cang-Hai sneered, his voice filled with venom. "So the rat didn't even flee the city! He actually stayed in a quiet courtyard, playing house while believing he could hide from our Overlord Sect!"
He turned toward his two lieutenants standing behind him. "Send a messenger hawk to the Patriarch immediately! Tell him we have located the murderer's lair! Assemble the First and Second Execution Squads—one hundred elite disciples! Seal the entire hill from all four directions! Not even a fly is permitted to leave!"
"Yes, Commander!"
Within minutes, sharp, urgent bugle calls echoed through the streets of the western district. Heavy footsteps smashed against the stone paths as dozens of crimson-armored warriors converged on the mountain road leading up to the Autumn Water Courtyard. The surrounding air grew thick with the metallic scent of drawn steel and raw, bloodthirsty Qi.
Up on the serene slopes of the western hill, the Autumn Water Courtyard remained bathed in soft afternoon light.
The Grade-3 Spirit-Gathering Array kept the internal garden serene, filtering out the chaotic noise and harsh dust rising from the city below. The gentle rustling of the blooming plum blossom tree and the faint dripping of fresh spring water into the stone basin provided a soothing background melody.
In the center of the yard, Xiao-Yue was sitting on a soft wooden bench, holding a small bowl of sweet red-bean porridge that Li-Wen had prepared for her lunch. She swung her short legs back and forth, eating happily with a tiny silver spoon.
Li-Wen stood near the stone table, unhurriedly cleaning the simple wooden scabbard of his heavy blade with a soft piece of linen. His movements were slow, rhythmic, and perfectly balanced, like an ancient artisan tending to his craft.
Suddenly, Xiao-Yue stopped her spoon mid-air. Her sensitive ears twitched slightly, her dark eyes looking toward the heavy iron-wood gates of the courtyard.
"Brother Li-Wen..." she whispered softly, her voice small. "There are many loud footsteps coming up the hill. The bad people are here, aren't they?"
Li-Wen did not pause his wiping motion. He finished cleaning the wooden surface, tucked the linen cloth smoothly into his sleeve, and gently laid the heavy wrapped blade across his broad lap.
He turned his head to look at Xiao-Yue, his dark eyes warm and reassuring.
"Eat your porridge slowly," Li-Wen said softly, his voice low and calm. "Do not worry about the noise outside."
"Are they coming to break our gates?" Xiao-Yue asked, her small face showing a hint of annoyance rather than fear. "I like this garden. The flowers are pretty."
Li-Wen walked over, placing his broad palm gently on her head, smoothing her soft silver hair ribbons. "No one will break our gates. Finish your bowl. I will handle the dust outside."
Xiao-Yue nodded obediently, taking another big spoonful of porridge. "Okay! Brother Li-Wen, make sure they don't crush the grass!"
A faint, subtle smile touched the corner of Li-Wen's lips. He turned and walked steadily toward the heavy iron-wood entrance.
BOOM!
Just as Li-Wen reached the front steps, a violent explosion rocked the air outside the gates!
A massive surge of crimson Qi slammed against the outer defensive boundary of the courtyard! The defensive array shimmered with pale grey light, easily absorbing the impact, but the violent shockwave sent dust and loose pebbles flying in all directions.
Outside the gate, Commander Meng Cang-Hai stood in the center of the path, surrounded by one hundred heavily armed Overlord Sect warriors. The hillsides were completely choked with crimson armor, spears, and heavy iron shields. Four heavy crossbow ballistas, mounted on wooden carts and loaded with dark steel bolts designed to pierce spirit barriers, were pointed directly at the courtyard entrance.
"Brat inside!" Meng Cang-Hai roared, his voice amplified by heavy Qi, booming across the entire hill like a brass bell. "You slaughtered Elder Meng and our Iron-Blood Enforcers! You have nowhere left to run! Open the gates, kneel before us, and accept your execution! If you make us breach this array, we will tear this courtyard apart and slaughter everyone inside!"
Inside the courtyard, Li-Wen reached the heavy iron-wood gates. He did not call out, nor did he display any anger.
With a soft, unhurried motion, he unlatched the heavy brass bolt.
CREAK...
The massive, twin iron-wood gates swung open smoothly, revealing the towering figure standing on the stone threshold.
The bright afternoon sun fell upon Li-Wen's dark coat, casting his long, imposing shadow across the clean stone steps. His broad blade rested securely in his right hand, wrapped in thick dark cloth. His dark eyes were cold, abyssal, and completely motionless as he looked down at the hundred-strong army blocking the path.
The sudden, smooth opening of the gates took the Overlord Sect warriors by surprise. The loud, aggressive chants of the execution squads instantly died down into an uneasy, tense silence.
Commander Meng Cang-Hai stepped forward, his eyes narrowing as he glared at Li-Wen. He was shocked by the sheer, unyielding calm of the man before him. Standing before a hundred armed warriors and four ballistas, Li-Wen's expression was as indifferent as if he were looking at empty mountain air.
"So you are the rat from VIP Box Room 7," Meng Cang-Hai snarled, lifting his heavy broad saber and pointing it at Li-Wen's chest. "You carry a blade, yet you hide behind a little girl and a mountain courtyard! Hand over the Ancestral Northern Rune Slab and surrender your life! Our Patriarch is already on his way! If he arrives, you won't even have the luxury of a quick death!"
Li-Wen stood on the top step, his broad shoulders squared against the mountain breeze. He looked down at Meng Cang-Hai, then swept his gaze slowly across the hundred armed warriors surrounding the hill.
"Where is Meng Tian-Xiong?" Li-Wen asked smoothly, his voice low and steady, echoing with strange clarity across the silent hill.
Meng Cang-Hai's eyes twitched in fury at Li-Wen's casual mention of the Patriarch's full name!
"Insolent fool! You dare speak the Patriarch's name so lightly?!" Meng Cang-Hai bellowed. "You think you can act arrogant just because you killed a few unprepared enforcers with sneak attacks?! Ballista squads! AIM!"
CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK!
The four heavy wooden carts creaked as the operators locked the steel mechanisms in place. Four colossal dark-iron bolts, four feet long and glowing with destructive blood-red array runes, were aimed directly at Li-Wen's head and chest!
"Shoot him into meat paste!" Meng Cang-Hai screamed, swinging his saber downward!
RELEASE!
THWIP-THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!
Four terrifying streaks of black and crimson light tore through the air simultaneously! The sheer speed and momentum of the heavy ballista bolts created four visible vacuum tunnels in the atmosphere, shrieking with air-tearing screams as they closed the fifty-yard distance in a fraction of a millisecond! Each bolt carried enough kinetic and spiritual force to shatter a small fortress wall!
The Overlord Sect disciples sneered in cruel anticipation, expecting to see the arrogant man turned into a bloody sieve!
However, Li-Wen did not move his feet. He did not even raise his heavy blade to block.
He simply extended his broad left hand forward, his fingers spreading open naturally toward the incoming ballista bolts.
BOOM!
A translucent, barrier-like wall of pale blue, absolute frost Qi materialized two feet in front of his open palm!
The four lethal dark-iron bolts slammed into the frost wall simultaneously!
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The terrifying impact created a blinding flash of crimson and blue light, sending violent shockwaves outward that shattered the cobblestones beneath Meng Cang-Hai's feet!
Yet, to the utter horror of every single warrior present, the four colossal dark-iron bolts did not pierce the barrier! The moment their tips touched the pale blue frost Qi, the destructive blood-red runes on the metal were instantly extinguished and frozen solid!
The immense kinetic force, capable of leveling buildings, was completely absorbed and neutralized in less than a second!
The four heavy steel bolts hung frozen in mid-air, completely encrusted in thick, crystal-clear blue ice!
CLATTER!
With a light wave of Li-Wen's hand, the frost barrier dissolved, and the four frozen ballista bolts dropped uselessly to the dirt road, snapping like brittle glass upon hitting the ground!
"W-WHAT?!"
"He blocked four Imperial-grade Ballistas with one hand?!"
"Is he even human?!"
Gasps of terror and shrieks of disbelief erupted from the Overlord Sect execution squads! The disciples backed away frantically, their faces turning deathly pale as horror gripped their hearts!
Commander Meng Cang-Hai felt his throat go completely dry. A cold, suffocating wave of fear washed over his soul. To casually stop four array-reinforced ballista bolts with a bare hand required a level of physical density and Qi control that belonged exclusively to the absolute legends of the martial world!
"You..." Meng Cang-Hai stammered, stepping back involuntarily, his heavy saber shaking in his grip. "You... what realm are you in?!"
Li-Wen slowly lowered his left hand. His dark eyes rested calmly on Meng Cang-Hai, his voice devoid of any emotion:
"I asked you a question. Where is Meng Tian-Xiong?"
Before Meng Cang-Hai could formulate an answer, a terrifying, roaring voice filled with boundless, murderous Qi crashed down from the sky above like a falling meteor!
"I AM HERE, BRAT!"
BOOM!
The clouds above the mountain pass exploded outward in a massive ring of crimson shockwaves!
A colossal, fifty-foot-wide handprint made of roaring, blood-red flames tore through the sky, descending directly toward the Autumn Water Courtyard with apocalyptic pressure! The surrounding trees groaned and snapped under the sheer gravitational force, and the dirt road split open into deep fissures!
Patriarch Meng Tian-Xiong had arrived!
Driven by absolute fury, Meng Tian-Xiong did not bother with words or greetings. He launched his ultimate Stage-4 secret technique—the Blood-Heaven Overlord Palm—aiming to crush Li-Wen, the courtyard, and everything within a hundred yards into a crater of liquid magma!
The hundred disciples cheered in hysterical excitement, believing that the divine power of their Patriarch would instantly vaporize this terrifying demon!
Standing on the stone steps, Li-Wen looked up at the colossal falling fiery palm with absolute, motionless tranquility.
"Stay outside," Li-Wen murmured softly to the wind.
His right hand tightened around the dark cloth wrapping of his heavy blade.
SHING!
For the first time since entering Imperial Sun City, Li-Wen drew his weapon!
A three-inch sliver of the dark iron blade emerged from its rustic scabbard!
WOOSH!
It was not a flashy, golden light, nor was it a noisy explosion of power. It was a single, pure, dark-blue crescent arc of absolute Frost Blade-Intent that shot vertically into the sky!
The blade-arc was no wider than a finger, yet as it rose, the entire sky above the western hill seemed to split in two!
SLASH!
The finger-wide blue blade-arc intersected the fifty-foot-wide roaring fiery palm mid-air!
The moment the two attacks touched, there was no loud explosion, no earth-shattering roar.
The colossal Blood-Heaven Overlord Palm was neatly, effortlessly cut in half! The roaring blood flames were instantly frozen mid-burn into giant, glittering blue ice formations in the sky, before shattering into millions of sparkling frost crystals that rained down like a silent winter snowfall!
BOOM!
A figure in dark crimson robes was blasted backward out of the sky, tumbling violently through the air before landing heavily on the ridge three hundred yards away, coughing up a dark mist of frozen blood!
Patriarch Meng Tian-Xiong knelt on one knee on the rocky ridge, his sweeping crimson robes shredded and covered in thick frost, his right arm trembling uncontrollably as bone-chilling cold invaded his core meridians!
He looked across the three-hundred-yard gap at Li-Wen with eyes filled with absolute, overwhelming horror!
A single, partial draw of a blade!
A single, casual vertical stroke!
It had completely neutralized his peak Stage-4 ultimate attack and injured his core foundation in a fraction of a second!
The entire hill fell into an absolute, deathly silence.
One hundred Overlord Sect disciples, Commander Meng Cang-Hai, and the wounded Patriarch stood paralyzed in the mountain wind, staring at the tall figure in the dark coat standing quietly on the steps of the Autumn Water Courtyard.
Li-Wen slowly slid his heavy blade back into its scabbard with a soft, clean sound.
CLACK.
He stood with his hands resting on the hilt, his dark eyes looking calmly at the trembling Patriarch on the distant ridge.
"Your Overlord Sect has three days," Li-Wen's low, resonant voice carried across the frozen mountain pass, reaching every ear with terrifying clarity. "Pack your belongings and vacate Imperial Sun City. If I see a single crimson banner remaining when the spirit-galleon departs... your sect will cease to exist.
See you in next chapter...