By the time Wei Feng and Lin Yue reached the outer edges of the Flame Ridge, the atmosphere had changed. Not just the air, but the silence—it was too quiet.
The kind of silence that meant someone was watching.
Wei Feng stopped. "Three shadows. One on the tree ahead. One by the rocks. One in the wind."
Lin Yue didn't question him. She placed her hand on the hilt of her blade and waited.
From behind the boulders, a young man stepped forward. He wore black robes embroidered with silver threads, his eyes the color of smoldering ash.
"We meet at last," the stranger said. "Heaven-Breaker."
Wei Feng tilted his head. "You seem familiar."
"I should," the man said. "My name is Shen Wu. The one they call the Ghost of the North Wind."
Wei Feng's expression hardened. He had heard that name in old stories. A rogue cultivator who had once been destined for greatness—until he chose exile over submission.
"I don't kill easily," Shen Wu continued, "but I do test those who threaten balance. You've stirred things far beyond this realm, Wei Feng. The heavens are listening."
"Then let them hear me roar," Wei Feng said.
Without warning, Shen Wu attacked.
The speed of it was unreal—he moved like mist and shadow, his strikes hitting from angles that shouldn't exist. Wei Feng met him blow for blow, the Rootless Flame weaving around his arms, forming spears of heat and barriers of light.
Lin Yue tried to enter the fight, but a storm wall rose between them.
This was personal.
Minutes passed like lifetimes. But when the dust cleared, Shen Wu stood…smiling.
"You're not ready to break heaven yet," he said. "But maybe… soon."
And just like that, he vanished—no scent, no sound, no trace.
Wei Feng fell to his knees, breathing heavily.
"They're watching," he said to Lin Yue. "But not just to kill me."
"Then for what?" she asked.
"To see if I'm truly worthy of the name… Heaven-Breaker."