The courtyard held its breath as Zhao Rui's gaze pinned Celestial Master Jingyang like a dagger. Sweat streamed down the Daoist's ashen face, his earlier arrogance now dissolved into the acrid stench of fear. Time stretched like molten glass - each passing second etching deeper lines of terror into Jingyang's twitching features.
"Go," Zhao finally spoke, the word cracking like thunder across frozen silence. "But mark this: should your shadow ever darken Yun territory again..." The unspoken threat hung heavier than Shu Mountain's sacred bells.
Jingyang's knees hit marble as he scrambled backward, golden Daoist robes tangling around legs still trembling from Zhao's earlier lightning strike. "This unworthy one swears upon his golden core! Never—"
A meaty slap echoed as Dun Che cuffed the fleeing cultivator's head. "Weakling's oath reeks of cowardice!" The fox demon's claws unsheathed with a metallic shing. "Let me pluck that lying tongue, Brother Zhao!"
Zhao stayed the demon's arm, his voice cutting through the courtyard's tension like his fabled lance. "Dead men draw vengeance. Living cowards... deter it." His gaze swept the gathered Yun clan, lingering on Sun Xiaolan's pale face. "Dragon-Tiger Mountain values face over fools. They'll abandon this cur."
Whispers in the Ruins
Patriarch Yun Xiong's jade teacup shattered unnoticed. For sixty winters he'd commanded respect from Beijing's elite, yet now found himself bowing to a youth he'd once patted on the head. "You... you truly slew Hua Yang Zhenjun?" The clan elder's whisper carried the weight of upended realities.
Across the courtyard, servants hurried to erase battle scars - mending shattered moon gates, scrubbing ichor-stained tiles where Jingyang's summoned tiger spirits had dissolved. Sun Xiaolan's gentle hands already glowed with healing energy, tending guards who hours prior had barred Zhao's path.
"Mercy!" Liu Zhongnan's porcine shrieks shattered the fragile calm. The merchant prince crawled through debris, jowls quivering as Yun retainers descended like vengeant cranes. "I'll give deeds! Shares! The Shanghai—"
A Yun clansman's boot silenced him mid-bribe. "Your corpse will fertilize our peony gardens," the guard growled, hemp ropes biting into flabby wrists.
The Healer's Crossroads
Sun Xiaolan's cry pierced the violence. "Uncle Yun! Must death answer death?"
The courtyard stilled. All eyes turned to Zhao Rui - stormcaller, slayer of fifth-ranked cultivators, now caught between a lover's compassion and the unspoken laws of jianghu.
In the heavy silence, Zhao's fingers found Sun's. "The viper you spare today," he murmured, tracing the scar across her palm from last winter's clinic fire, "bites your heel tomorrow."
Tears glistened as she pressed his hand to her cheek. "Then let heaven judge him. Not us."
Ascension's Price
Dawn painted Shu Mountain's floating peaks when the trio returned. Golden mist swirled around Zhao's boots as Sword Saint Li Lingfeng emerged from the Hall of Severed Reflections, sleeves still smoking from alchemical fires.
"Early, Stormcaller." The Paramount cultivator's gaze dissected Sun Xiaolan like an anatomical chart. "This mortal vessel... curious."
Li's disciple Li Jingyan stumbled, jade assessment tools clattering to the floor as Sun's blush illuminated the chamber. The young cultivator's cheeks burned twin suns. "Apologies, Master! The... the floor tiles—"
"Silence, fool." Li Lingfeng's chuckle carried millennia of amusement. "Prepare the Cleansing Cauldron. We brew destiny today."
Baptism by Starlight
Five threads of argent qi pierced Sun's meridians as Li Lingfeng's fingers danced. The healer gasped - her body lifting in a nimbus of swirling constellations.
"Fascinating..." The Sword Saint's eyes narrowed. "Her wood-aligned spirit rejects violence. The Marrow-Cleansing Elixir must—"
Zhao's grip tightened on the Nine Heavens Thunder Lance. "Will it work?"
Li Lingfeng's smile revealed teeth filed to dragon fang sharpness. "Oh, she'll cultivate. Whether heaven permits such purity to survive..." His trailing words hung like executioner's blades.
Beyond the chamber windows, stormclouds gathered - dark counterparts to the luminous mist enveloping Sun's floating form. Somewhere in the thunder's rumble, Zhao Rui heard the laughter of fates being challenged.