The sun had barely begun to crest the horizon, casting long, jagged shadows across the frost-laden paths of the Inner Estate, when the silence of the morning was shattered. The low, guttural drone of the Dragon-Serpent horn echoed three times—a signal of a High Council emergency.
At the gates of the Glacial Moon Residence, the air grew heavy, saturated with the overlapping auras of the family's most powerful figures. Leading the procession was Matriarch Yin Mei, her violet robes trailing behind her like a regal shadow. Beside her strode Elder Feng, his expression a mask of guarded curiosity, and Elder Zhao, the Law-Keeper, whose eyes were fixed on the scorched earth near the residence's boundary.
Bringing up the rear was a phalanx of thirty Shadow Serpent Guards. These were the elite of the elite, each a veteran of the Qi Condensation realm, their obsidian halberds humming with a low, rhythmic vibration. However, the most prominent figure was Elder Yuan. His dark-red Qi was flared to its limit, pulsing with an erratic, violent energy that spoke of a man pushed to the brink of his patience.
"Open these gates!" Yuan's voice boomed, amplified by his cultivation until the nearby silver-leafed trees shed their frost in fear. "Yin Xue, I know he is in there! The 'Calamity of Nine Thunders' was centered precisely over your residence. If you are harboring a demonic practitioner, you are complicit in treason against the bloodline!"
The heavy ironwood gates of the residence groaned and slowly swung open. Yin Xue stepped out, her white silk robes fluttering in the cold morning breeze.
To an outsider, she appeared as the indomitable "Ice Queen," but the sharpest eyes—like those of the Matriarch—could see the slight tremor in her fingers and the paleness of her lips. Her Spirit Sea was nearly dry, exhausted from the harrowing task of shielding the residence from the heavens.
"Elder Yuan," Xue began, her voice a chilling, level rasp. "You are screaming at the gates of a direct descendant's private residence. Have you forgotten the laws of decorum, or has the fire-poison in your veins finally consumed your senses? An investigation requires a warrant, not a mob."
"Decorum?!" Yuan stepped forward, the marble beneath his boots cracking. "Decorum died when nine strikes of Heavenly Thunder tried to erase this hilltop! That is not a sign of a genius; it is a sign of a monster that the Heavens themselves wish to extinguish! Move aside, girl. If you continue to obstruct the Council, I will assume you have been bewitched by his demonic arts."
Yin Xue didn't flinch. "I warn you, Yuan. Watch your tongue when speaking of my brother. You are making accusations without a shred of—"
"I don't need a shred of proof to see what is right in front of my face!" Yuan interrupted, gesturing wildly at the lingering ozone in the air. "He was a cripple three days ago! Now he triggers planetary-level tribulations? It is a farce! He is a puppet of the Void, a demonic rot that has infected our house!"
"Is that so?"
The voice was quiet, yet it carried a resonance that seemed to vibrate in the very marrow of everyone present.
From the shadows of the residence's entrance, a figure emerged. He moved with a grace that was no longer human—it was predatory, efficient, and hauntingly silent. Yin Shen stepped into the pale light of dawn.
The collective breath of the Council hitched.
Gone was the sickly, hunched youth they had ignored for nearly two decades. Standing before them was a young man whose silver hair shimmered with an ethereal luster, and whose golden eyes held a depth that felt like staring into the heart of a dying star.
But it wasn't his appearance that froze the Shadow Serpents in their tracks—it was the unmistakable, dense vortex of Qi swirling within his Dantian.
"Qi Condensation..." Elder Zhao whispered, his stoic face finally shattering into a mask of pure disbelief. "Early 1st Stage... but the density... it's as heavy as that of a 5th Stage expert."
A wave of murmurs erupted among the guards. Reaching the Qi Condensation realm from the peak of Body Tempering was a hurdle that usually took months of stabilization. To do it in days was unheard of. To do it with such raw, heavy power was an impossibility.
"Demonic!" Elder Yuan screamed, his finger trembling as he pointed at Yin Shen. "Look at him! Look at that aura! It's too fast, too perfect! He has traded his soul for this power! Matriarch, look at the traitor in your midst! He must be executed immediately before the demonic rot spreads to the rest of the Inner Estate!"
Yin Shen stopped five steps behind his sister, his hands clasped behind his back. He didn't look at the guards, and he didn't look at the Matriarch. He fixed his gaze solely on Elder Yuan.
"Elder Yuan," Yin Shen said, his voice as sharp as a glass shard. "You are remarkably fixated on my 'demonic' nature. Tell me, is it truly the safety of the family you are concerned about? Or is it simply that your fragile ego cannot accept the fact that the 'trash' you spent years stepping on has already surpassed the expectations of your narrow world?"
"You... you arrogant whelp!" Yuan's Qi flared into a towering pillar of dark-red flame, the heat causing the nearby frost to hiss into steam. "I am a Third Elder of the Yin! I have learned more about cultivation than you will ever know! To reach this stage so quickly, you must have used a Soul-Burning Sacrifice! You are a walking corpse, a puppet of the heretics!"
"Yuan, enough!" Elder Feng stepped forward, his heavy, earthy aura slamming down to dampen the flames. He walked toward Yin Shen, his eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the youth.
After a moment, he turned back to the Matriarch and the Council. "I have fought demonic cultivators at the border for ten years. I know the scent of their Qi—it is jagged, rotting, and foul. Yin Shen's Qi is... different. It is cold, vast, and incredibly pure. There is no demonic rot here. He has reached this stage legitimately."
The Matriarch, Yin Mei, remained silent. Her violet eyes were fixed on Yin Shen, unreadable and terrifyingly still. She watched the exchange like a predator watching two lesser beasts fight over territory.
"Legitimately?!" Yuan scoffed, his desperation reaching a fever pitch. "Then explain the Nine Thunders! Explain how a boy with withered meridians suddenly triggers the Calamity of the Heavens! He is a traitor! He is a main problem that will lead us to ruin!"
Yin Shen let out a short, dry chuckle. "The Heavens don't strike down the weak, Elder. They strike down those who threaten their order. Perhaps the Heavens are just as afraid of my potential as you are."
"You dare... you dare compare yourself to the Heavens?!" Yuan's face turned a grotesque shade of purple. The humiliation of being mocked by a 1st Stage fledgling in front of the Matriarch was more than his pride could bear. "I will beat that arrogance out of you! I will search your soul myself!"
Without waiting for the Matriarch's command, Yuan lunged. He didn't use a weapon; his hand transformed into a massive claw of red energy, aiming straight for Yin Shen's throat. A Foundation Establishment expert attacking a Qi Condensation novice was a slaughter, not a fight.
Yin Xue tried to move, but her dry Spirit Sea made her stumble. "Shen, move!"
Yin Shen didn't move. In that split second, the world seemed to slow down. His internal interface flickered to life.
{Warning: Hostility Detected!}
{Current System Points: 55}
{Requirement for [Absolute Domination] Unity Proficiency: 50 SP}
{Confirm Upgrade? Y/N}
'Confirm,' Yin Shen thought with a cold, singular focus. 'Let them see the weight of a King.'
{Ding!}
{50 System Points consumed.}
{Martial Art [Absolute Domination] has reached: UNITY PROFICIENCY.}
{The Sovereign's Zone is now active.}
The transformation was silent. Within Yin Shen's Dantian, the violet-gold liquid Qi didn't just swirl—it solidified into a gravitational anchor. The information of a thousand years of dominance flooded his mind, settling into his bones.
Elder Yuan's claw was inches from Yin Shen's neck when the "Absolute Zone" expanded.
WHOOM.
It wasn't a sound, but a physical and spiritual shockwave that rippled through the Glacial Moon Residence. The air didn't just grow heavy; it turned to lead.
The Shadow Serpent Guards, veterans of a hundred battles, suddenly felt their knees buckle. Their obsidian halberds became too heavy to hold, clattering to the marble floor.
Elder Yuan froze mid-air, as if he had run into a wall of solid diamond. His dark-red Qi, which had been a raging inferno, was instantly snuffed out, suppressed into his own pores. He hung in the air for a heartbeat before being slammed into the ground by an invisible, crushing weight.
"What... is this...?" Yuan wheezed, his face pressed into the frost. He tried to circulate his Qi, but he found his meridians were unresponsive—frozen by a will that was fundamentally superior to his own.
The effect wasn't limited to Yuan.
Elder Zhao and Elder Feng both took instinctive steps back, their own Qi shields flickering as they struggled to remain upright. Even the Matriarch's eyes widened, her violet aura flaring defensively as the "Absolute Domination" washed over her.
It wasn't cultivation pressure. It was something far more ancient—the weight of a soul that had survived the end of a world and refused to bow to the laws of this one.
Yin Shen stood in the center of the zone, his silver hair unaffected by the crushing gravity he was projecting. He looked down at the groveling Third Elder, his expression one of bored indifference.
"You wanted to search my soul, Elder Yuan?" Yin Shen asked, his voice carrying the authority of a mountain. "I suggest you worry about your own first. Because from where I'm standing, you look remarkably like the 'trash' you've been shouting about."
The silence that followed was deafening. The Shadow Serpent Guards were on their knees, not by choice, but because their bodies refused to stand in the presence of such a sovereign aura.
The Third Elder of a Top Five family was pinned to the dirt by a boy who had reached Qi Condensation only hours ago.
Matriarch Yin Mei stepped forward, the marble beneath her feet glowing as she resisted the suppression. She looked at her son—not as a disappointment, not as a resource, but with a flicker of genuine, primal fear.
"Yin Shen..." she whispered, her voice barely audible over the hum of the Absolute Zone.
Yin Shen turned his gaze toward his mother. The golden light in his eyes was blinding, swirling with the violent specks of starlight.
"Two days, Matriarch," Yin Shen stated, his voice echoing across the hilltop. "In two days, I will stand before the Major Awakening Stone. But know this: I am no longer asking for a place in this family. I am simply deciding whether this family is worthy of a place in my future."
He took a step forward, and the pressure increased. The cracks in the marble spread toward the Council like a spiderweb.
"The inspection is over," Yin Shen declared. "Leave. Before I decide that the 'demonic rot' you're so afraid of is actually the smell of your own cowardice."
Elder Yuan coughed up a spray of blood, his spirit completely crushed by the weight of the [Absolute Domination].
He couldn't even speak; he could only stare at the ground in a state of shattered reality.
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