The dense fog that covered the inner part of the secret kingdom moved slowly, like a living veil. The ancient ruins exuded an ancient energy, resonating with the spiritual flow of the place. Jun Tian walked calmly among broken columns and stones engraved with almost erased inscriptions.
"Strange…" he murmured, crouching before a partially destroyed circle of symbols. "Even after so much time, there is still spiritual energy flowing here."
The place seemed to have been a field of study for formations. The markings engraved on the ground were complex, the kind that few could decipher.
Jun Tian closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the rhythm of the energy flowing through the cracks.
Inside his mind, Yue Lian's soft voice sounded calmly:
"These formations were created by a high-level sect. They served both to seal and to conceal."
Jun Tian opened his eyes and ran his fingers over the broken energy lines.
"So they're still active, even if weakened."
"Yes," Yue Lian replied. "Although damaged, there is power in them. The interesting thing is that these formations aren't common… they seem to contain the principle of a forgotten Dao."
He raised an eyebrow.
"A Dao of formations, perhaps?"
Yue Lian didn't say a word. She knew it but said nothing.
Jun Tian, however, stuck to this pattern until he saw the formation of a faintly glowing light break through the cracks in the ground.
He sent a thread of Qi into the circle with a hand seal.
The broken inscriptions suddenly started glowing and showed a path leading underneath a big moss-covered boulder.
"Hm?" He slowly rose to his feet, observing the spiraling energy flow. "An underground chamber?"
Yue Lian felt the vibration of space.
—It looks like you have wakened something that was asleep. Be careful, Jun Tian.
He gave a slight smile.
"Always."
But before he could take a step toward the new path, his expression changed; his eyes narrowed.
"Somebody's coming."
The presence was clear: swift, aggressive, and filled with hostility.
Yue Lian saw it instantly.
"It's that young man… Li Ze."
Jun Tian didn't reply. For a few moments, he stood stock-still, staring into the mist surrounding him. Then a figure emerged from the darkness: a cold face, disordered aura, and a weird gleam in his hands.
"Jun Tian… I've finally found you," Li Ze said with an arrogant smile.
Jun Tian watched him in silence, the calm and deep gaze irritating him deeply.
"You've been hiding well, but now…" Li Ze raised a black spirit stone, and a sinister power emerged from it. ".not even your talent will save you."
Yue Lian immediately recognized the item.
This artifact contains a Nascent Soul cultivator's energy. His master interfered directly.
Jun Tian took a deep breath, expression unchanging.
"Hmph. So the coward decided to give toys to his disciple."
The darkness released by the artifact spread, distorting the space around it. The ruins began to react to that power-ancient formations began to glow faintly, drawing on the instability.
Li Ze raised the artifact, and the dark spiritual energy condensed behind him in the form of spiritual blades.
"Today you pay for everything, Jun Tian!"
Jun Tian stepped forward, his black cloak billowing in the wind as a silent aura emanated from his body.
"You don't understand." he said, in a low and cold voice. "The path that I tread cannot be measured by jealousy or envy."
Li Ze roared and launched the attack. The black blades cut through the air, shattering the ground and breaking the ancient stones. Jun Tian raised his hand, and the Qi around him instantly condensed, creating a crystalline violet barrier.
The impact shook the ground. Fragments of energy scattered, as if in a spiritual storm.
Yue Lian watched intently from within the spiritual space.
"He's still holding back…", she whispered.
When the dust settled, Jun Tian still stood tall and unhurt. His eyes were serene, but as sharp as a knife.
"Is that all?"
Li Ze gritted his teeth.
"I'm not finished yet!"
He injected more spiritual energy into the artifact. The black light grew larger and eventually filled half of the chamber. Something went wrong, however. The ancient formations around him started reacting unpredictably. Golden lines of energy lit up on the ground.
Jun Tian noticed instantly.
"The formations are absorbing the energy of the artifact!"
Yue Lian smiled slightly.
"It seems that the past of this sect has not been entirely lost yet."
From the depths came a spiritual roar, and with a suddenly surging pressure, Li Ze lost control over the artifact.
Jun Tian seized the moment and moved in the blink of an eye.
The artifact was thrown on the ground with a single blow and broke.
Li Ze recoiled in terror.
"It cannot be!"
Jun Tian approached slowly.
"You shouldn't have come."
The violet glow in his eyes flickered, reflecting the fear on Li Ze's face.
Outside, the elders and cultivators looked on as the artificial sky of the secret realm began to shake. Lines of spiritual energy crossed the air like silent lightning.
"What is happening inside?" whispered an elder.
But no one had any idea. They just felt that, in this secret place, something powerful had been awakened—something that would change the fate of these young people forever.