The Elders did not have to wait long for a challenge. From the back of the crowd, a young man stepped forward. He was Feng Jian, the top disciple of the Inner Court, eighteen years old and already at the peak of the Golden Core Realm. His aura was like a burning sun, radiating a fierce, golden Qi that pushed back the freezing mist surrounding Yun.
"Sect Master, let me test this 'Void' myself," Feng Jian said, his voice brimming with arrogance. "A pile of ash and a cold breeze do not make a sovereign. He destroyed our sacred stone; he must prove he is not just a broken vessel."
Zhao Cang nodded slowly. "A duel of three strikes. No more."
Yun Caos didn't even take a combat stance. He stood with his arms hanging loosely at his sides, his translucent skin shimmering under the winter sun. "One strike is all you will have, Feng Jian."
Infuriated, Feng Jian drew his Radiant Sun Sword. The air ignited. He unleashed his strongest technique: The Heaven-Shattering Solar Flare. A massive wave of golden fire, shaped like a dragon's maw, surged toward Yun, threatening to melt the very snow on the mountain peak.
The disciples watched in awe, expecting Yun to be incinerated. But Yun simply raised a single finger.
As the golden fire touched the space around his finger, it didn't explode. It didn't even sizzle. The fire began to swirl, turning from gold to a sickly gray, before being sucked into the tip of Yun's finger like water down a drain. Within seconds, the massive solar dragon was gone, leaving only a faint violet spark on Yun's nail.
"My turn," Yun whispered.
He didn't move his feet. He simply flicked his finger toward Feng Jian. A tiny, needle-thin beam of violet frost shot out. Feng Jian raised his sword to block it, but the moment the beam touched the blade, the Radiant Sun Sword—a high-grade spiritual tool—shattered into millions of frozen shards.
Feng Jian was sent flying back, his golden Qi completely extinguished. When he hit the ground, his body was covered in a thin layer of violet rime. He wasn't dead, but his cultivation had been temporarily sealed by a cold that his solar fire couldn't touch.
The plaza fell into a deathly silence. Yun Caos hadn't used a technique; he had simply consumed his opponent's existence.