It was like the world had been sealed in glass.
Wind still tugged at the ruined pavilions. Dust still drifted lazily down into the craters. But above Acacia Peak, across every floating island of the Seven Profound Valleys, even within the projection hanging over the Seven Profound Martial House—no one moved.
Not a single breath.
On the Martial House side, a hundred thousand disciples stared up at the floating image, faces turned white, then red, then bloodless again. Even the rowdy Human Hall brats who always whispered during lectures stood as if someone had nailed their shadows to the ground.
On the Seven Profound Valleys' islands, the Xiantian experts who had always looked down on Sky Fortune Kingdom did not even dare to circulate their true essence too loudly, afraid that even the faintest ripple might attract the gaze of the man standing at the center of the mountain.
The Ouyang clan were the worst.
The remnants—direct descendants in embroidered robes, side-branch disciples, servants who had followed their masters up the mountain like moths to a flame—hung stiff in midair or knelt on broken jade.
Every aura was soaked in terror.
The prestige that had supported their backs their entire lives—"Acacia Faction," "Ouyang Sovereign," "Divine Acacia Power"—had been cut off in a handful of breaths. The elders who had once seemed like gods in their eyes were now dust mixed into the mountain wind.
Near the center of the devastation, Ouyang Ming's lips trembled.
The "chief disciple," the future Sovereign of the Acacia Faction… couldn't even steady his own knees.
His eyes were bloodshot, fixed on the crater where Ouyang Shenxiu's body no longer even had a complete head. The Extreme Xiantian Sovereign who had always floated above the common rabble like a distant star now existed only as torn flesh and scattered bones pressed into the mountain.
Around him, the chosen geniuses of the Seven Profound Valleys stood in a ragged line.
Jiang Baoyun.
Jiang Lanjian.
Ouyang Ming.
Huo Yanluo.
Qin Wuxin.
Huan Xiaodie.
Fang Qi.
Mugu Buyu.
Each one was a monster among monsters—a core disciple of a Third-Grade Sect, standing at the peak of the younger generation.
Right now, not a single one of them could say a word.
They weren't just silent.
Their throats refused to work.
Inside, their proud hearts were shaking.
That was Sovereign Ouyang…
That was Highest Elder Jiang…
Acacia Peak's ruin reflected in their pupils. The sight of an Extreme Xiantian Sovereign being smashed into the ground with a single palm replayed again and again through their minds, overlapping with that quiet, almost casual sentence that had followed—So… for that, you die.
The words had been too simple.
The hand that delivered them was too absolute
High above Acacia Peak, safely wrapped in Ren's true essence barrier, the girls watched.
Murong Zi.
Qin Xingxuan.
Bai Jingyun.
Na Yi.
Na Shui.
Even their breaths weren't truly calm. Their hearts pounded, blood burned, nerves sang with adrenaline—but beneath the pounding, a different emotion was taking root.
Awe.
On Murong Zi's face, the shock had already begun to twist into fighting spirit, spear-heart screaming that this was the height she had to chase. Her fingers itched to grip a spear and thrust toward that unreachable back.
Qin Xingxuan's hands were white-knuckled on her skirt… but her eyes, clear as autumn water, shone with unshakable resolution. Her cultivation had always been steady, like a quiet river; now, that river had seen the ocean.
Na Yi's usually placid gaze had turned deep, as if she were trying to carve every detail of Ren's Dao into her soul. The modified Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians within her body hummed quietly, bones and tendons remembering the force he had displayed. Her Azure True Dragon bloodline swam restlessly, as if even it felt the urge to bow.
Na Shui's cheeks were faintly flushed, lips parted, her clear eyes sparkling with a hot, almost possessive pride. Her heart hammered like a drum—that's my teacher—and beneath the shock, a strange sweetness unfurled.
Bai Jingyun…
Bai Jingyun felt as if everything inside her had been taken apart and put back together.
The suffocating weight of those days under Acacia's shadow, the humiliation of being led toward that "wedding" like a lamb to slaughter… it had all shattered in the instant Ouyang Dihua turned into drifting mist under Ren's hand.
Her world had changed then.
Now, as she watched the sect behind him—the sect behind the sect behind him—tremble, that change carved itself deeper into her bones.
Up above Acacia Peak, the highest echelons of the Seven Profound Valleys finally began to "wake up."
Jiang Huan, Highest Elder of the Seven Profound Valleys—early Revolving Core, over five hundred years old, a man whose very name represented the sect's hidden foundation—stared at the youth in the sky, blood still seeping from the hole torn through his shoulder.
His Revolving Core spun painfully within his dantian, true essence surging and falling back like a tide that had struck an unseen reef.
Impossible… He had cultivated for centuries, guarded the sect through storms and internal disputes. He knew the weight of a Revolving Core master's strike. Yet just now, when that palm had fallen, his true essence had not even had time to fully erupt before being pierced.
Beside him, Shi Zongtian, Valley Master of the Seven Profound Valleys, an Extreme Xiantian master whose aura usually covered the entire Profound Sky Mountain Range like an invisible mountain, had both hands clenched so tightly behind his back that the veins bulged.
His gaze locked on Ren.
A youth who had stepped into Xiantian in front of their eyes.
A youth whose foundation, the moment his aura stabilized, had pressed down on Jiang Huan's Revolving Core realm without the slightest inferiority.
What kind of monstrous foundation is this…?
If he were allowed to grow according to common sense—if such a being were given hundreds of years—what would he become?
Jiang Wuji, the Sword Faction Sovereign, whose sword intent had always been as domineering as a tidal sea of blades, had one hand pressed hard over his bleeding shoulder, sword-heart trembling.
He could still feel it.
That moment when he had thrust out with sword intent condensed from decades of cultivation, blade-light sharp enough to slice apart hills—and that thin, colorless line had simply passed through it, as if cutting paper.
The other faction Sovereigns—Zither, Refiner, Array, Mirage, Puppet—stood with grave expressions.
On normal days, they would have been too busy calculating gains and losses, too busy glancing sideways at the other factions.
But right now, all the little contradictions and decades-old grudges had been driven into the same corner of their hearts by fear.
An entire Extreme Xiantian Sovereign of the Acacia Faction—dead.
A Revolving Core Highest Elder and the Sword Faction Sovereign pierced in a single instant.
If this had been any other enemy, if this had been a normal struggle between sects, the Seven Profound Valleys would already have drawn their blades to the last and fought until the mountains collapsed and the rivers ran backwards.
But the youth floating in the air was not "any other enemy."
He was someone who had stepped into Xiantian before their eyes… and immediately displayed a foundation that crushed theirs.
The storm in their hearts could not be calmed—or expressed.
Ren let that storm show in their eyes.
He met the gazes of Shi Zongtian, Jiang Wuji, Jiang Huan, then let his vision skim past the other Sovereigns and elders. The corners of his lips lifted very slightly, like he had just noticed a small, amusing detail on the side of the road.
"Now," he said lightly, "to drive the point home."
His voice wasn't loud. It didn't need to be. It slipped into every ear like it was whispered right beside them.
He raised his hand.
His movements weren't exaggerated. Two fingers extended, then three, then all five, as if he were simply feeling the texture of the air.
Heaven and earth stiffened.
The Dao-lines he had branded into this patch of sky during his earlier palm strike stirred. Invisible marks, hidden in the void and in the flow of true essence, woke up like coiled dragons opening their eyes.
Between his fingertips and the ground, the world seemed to… fold.
The Martial House disciples watching through the projection couldn't see the deeper structure of it.
They only saw thin, almost colorless lines appear around Ren's hand.
Like cracks in glass.
Like the edge of a blade that had no blade.
Like someone drawing lines in the world with an invisible brush.
Heaven-Piercing.
The moment those lines formed, every master present felt their hearts violently contract. Fire, wind, and thunder laws stirred in the air, compressed along that multi-hued thread of intention until they almost screamed. Violet arcs crawled along the unseen lines, earth-red flame sank into their core, and a transparent wind halo wrapped them, folding space along the shortest path.
Jiang Wuji's scalp prickled.
Again—
In the same instant, all of the Seven Profound Valleys' upper echelons reacted.
Shi Zongtian's aura exploded. His Extreme Xiantian true essence surged out as a colossal mountain shadow formed behind him, ancient and vast, pressing down as if he wanted to suppress the very heavens themselves. The sky over the Profound Sky Mountain Range dimmed, clouds twisting as if they were being swallowed into that phantom peak.
Jiang Wuji's sword intent roared. An ocean of sword shadows burst out, each wave of blade-light overlapping the next, a sea of brilliant arcs rushing toward the Heaven-Piercing lines. Every swing could have cleaved apart a small mountain; tens of thousands of such swings fused into one tsunami of sword intent.
Jiang Huan's Revolving Core spun wildly in his dantian, true essence boiling out like a volcano. In front of him, palm imprints formed one after another, each one containing faint shadows of mountains and rivers—the gathered destiny of the Seven Profound Valleys, compressed into a single blow. When he thrust them forward, it was like throwing the sect's six hundred years of heritage at a single target.
The Array Faction's Sovereign bit his tongue and spat a mouthful of blood essence.
Countless formation flags appeared around him, stabbing into the void. They anchored to hidden nodes in the sky, connecting to the great array that sealed the Seven Profound Valleys. Arrays overlapped like layers of shining nets, forming a heavenly prison meant to lock even Divine Sea masters in place.
The Mirage Faction's Sovereign's eyes flashed with strange light. Phantasmal lotuses bloomed around Ren, each one distorting space and soul. Illusory worlds opened and closed in their petals, trying to swallow the Heaven-Piercing lines and drown them in dreams.
The Puppet Faction's Sovereign flicked his sleeves. Rows of puppets stepped forward, their metallic bodies blazing with runes. Some were as tall as buildings, others slender and humanoid, each opening their mouths to spew beams of true essence light like a linked fortress.
The Refiner Faction's Sovereign, immersed for decades in flames and ores, raised both hands. Behind him, a giant furnace manifested. Its lid slammed open as a tide of purple-gold divine fire flooded forth, heat surging high enough to melt refined armors and spirit treasures.
The Zither Faction's Sovereign flicked her hands and plucked an invisible string.
Sound turned into waves—sharp, sorrowful, piercing straight at Heaven-Piercing's Dao, trying to disrupt its rhythm from the inside. Invisible blades of sound cut through the air, targeting the subtle harmony the multi-hued lines depended on.
In that instant, the Seven Profound Valleys' true apex power appeared for the first time in front of all their disciples.
Revolving Core.
Extreme Xiantian.
The complete, unhindered strike of every faction Sovereign.
The sky changed color. Heaven and earth origin energy howled as it was forcefully drawn into their techniques, clouds collapsing inward as if kneeling.
Behind the line of chosen disciples, Huo Yanluo's fiery eyes widened, the flames around his body instinctively rising in response, bloodline boiling.
Jiang Baoyun's sword-heart let out a roar, his inborn Sword Spirit sharpening until it felt as if it might fly out of his body and join the Sword Sovereign's ocean of blades.
Qin Wuxin's normally calm eyes widened, her ten slender fingers twitching, subconscious as she "heard" the Zither Faction Sovereign's sound waves and tried to follow their pattern.
Mugu Buyu's puppet threads shuddered, every hair on his body standing on end. The puppets he had always admired were mere toys compared to the steel titans now unleashed.
Even Ouyang Ming, half-collapsed in despair, couldn't stop his instincts as an Acacia core disciple from screaming at him that what he was seeing was the total, full-force eruption of the Seven Profound Valleys' highest combat strength.
All of that—
Rushed toward Ren.
Ren… smiled.
There was no ridicule in that smile, no anger.
Just calm amusement, as if he had been waiting for this.
The Heaven-Piercing sword-lights between his fingers fell.
They did not explode outward.
They simply dropped, like strokes of a brush, like someone drawing lines in the air with an invisible pen.
The moment they moved, all that terrifying power rushing toward him… blurred.
To everyone watching, it was like their vision suddenly lost focus.
The mountain shadow pressing down from Shi Zongtian's palm seemed to shift to one side. Jiang Wuji's sword-ocean split on its own, as if something had parted it from within. Jiang Huan's destiny-imbued palms struck… nothing.
Heaven-Piercing tore anything daring to stand in its path.
It took the shortest line between Ren's will and his targets, folding space and force along that path. It smashed head-on with their attacks, tearing through the very essence of the attacks.
Sword shadows that could overturn mountains snapped apart like paper cut by a razor. Palm imprints that carried the weight of an entire sect's fate crumbled without a sound. Array nets that could imprison heavenly materials and earthly treasures tore like rotting spiderwebs.
Sound waves that could shatter souls, flames that could melt refined metals, puppet beams that could pierce city walls—
All of it was completely smashed apart, scattered into wind.
From below, on the Martial House projection, it looked like the heavens themselves had been casually opened with a few strokes.
Shockwaves blasted out, raw force screaming as it looked for somewhere to go.
Ren's free hand flicked.
An invisible barrier, thin but impossibly firm, wrapped around the battlefield like a bowl being placed over a struggling insect. The rampaging power struck that barrier, was squeezed, compressed, then quietly dissolved, its remnants turned into harmless gusts of wind that scattered dust—nothing more.
On the Seven Profound Valleys' islands, many elders felt their hearts leap into their throats.
If not for that single, casual gesture… the Profound Sky Mountain Range might have had half its peaks shaved off.
The Heaven-Piercing strands didn't slow.
They were thin lines of almost colorless light, each one aimed not at the heart, not at the head, but—
—at joints, at cores, at the vitals of their cultivation.
"—Ah!"
Shi Zongtian's eyes shrank to pinpoints as something like ice pierced through his knee.
One Heaven-Piercing line emerged from the void just in front of his right leg and sank into the joint.
Protection formed by Extreme Xiantian true essence, bones tempered by six hundred years of heritage and countless resources—all of it shattered instantly.
Bone cracked.
Meridians around the joint tore.
His leg lost strength.
Shi Zongtian dropped out of the sky like a falling mountain. He barely caught himself before he smashed into the ground, landing heavily on one knee. The stone beneath his foot exploded into a spiderweb of cracks that crawled outward like shattered ice.
Blood trickled down his leg, dyeing his white robes red.
Another Heaven-Piercing line threaded through Jiang Wuji's left thigh.
He felt the sword intent he'd condensed into his bones be forcibly cut off in that region, the connection between his dantian and that limb slashed. His sword-world almost completely collapsed; he managed to stabilize only a thin thread of sword-heart by sheer will.
His body, too, descended.
With a heavy thud, the man whose sword had always pointed toward the heavens knelt on one knee atop a nearby floating island, sword arm trembling. The sword shadows behind him flickered like candles in a storm.
Jiang Huan's chest rose sharply.
The Heaven-Piercing line that came for him didn't go for his legs.
It pierced his waist, just above the dantian, slipping between ribs with deadly precision.
The Revolving Core spinning in his dantian roared, true essence shaking as countless fine cracks appeared in the defensive shell he'd maintained around it for decades. His protective true essence shattered, his robe exploded into bloody strips around the wound.
His body swayed.
Had he been any weaker, his Revolving Core would have been directly exposed to the outside world—shattered, his life's cultivation turned to smoke.
Even so, the pain was like someone had taken a blade and scraped it along the edges of his organ of Dao.
He dropped from the air, knees smashing into the ground.
A Revolving Core master—
Forced to kneel.
The other faction Sovereigns fared no better.
The Array Faction Sovereign, who had always controlled countless formation nodes with ease, swayed as a Heaven-Piercing line lanced through his shoulder, nearly severing his arm. The flags around him lost cohesion, formations collapsing like a broken spiderweb.
The Mirage Faction Sovereign clutched his chest, blood soaking through his robe as his illusions shattered around him like broken mirrors.
The Zither Faction Sovereign's slender fingers bled as invisible cuts opened along the joints; the sound of her zither Dao stuttered into silence, severed strings humming weakly.
The Refiner Faction Sovereign's furnace image shattered, a bloody hole torn in his side, true essence fire leaking uncontrollably and then being forcefully extinguished by Heaven-Piercing's ruthless compression.
The Puppet Faction Sovereign's puppets fell to the ground like cut marionettes, their strings severed. A thin wound, no wider than a fingertip, ran from his shoulder to his wrist, but within that line… every major meridian had been sliced. His control over his puppets was crippled in a single breath.
All of them staggered, then dropped.
Some clutched at their wounds; some just knelt there, faces pale, eyes wide, blood staining their robes.
The sky—
Was full of kneeling figures.
Silence fell again.
This time, it was deeper.
Among the disciples watching from the floating islands, several directly fainted. Their minds simply couldn't contain what they had just seen—the total eruption of their sect's peak power, and then… that power being casually shredded and its owners forced to kneel, all by a man who had just stepped into Xiantian.
Even many elders went pale, blood rising to their throats and then sinking back again.
On the Martial House's side, within the plaza under the projection, the scene drew a raw gasp from thousands of throats—then even that broke, swallowed down in terror.
Na Shui's hand flew to her mouth.
She had known, she had felt how terrifying Ren was during his time in Sky Fortune Kingdom. She had watched him temper their bodies, rewrite their meridians, casually erase a middle Xiantian Acacia Great Elder as if crushing an ant.
But seeing Revolving Core… seeing Valley Master Shi… seeing everyone the entire South Horizon Region regarded as an untouchable peak forced to kneel—
Her heart couldn't help but shake.
Beside her, Na Yi's lashes quivered once. Her Azure True Dragon Infinity Seed bloodline pulsed, instinctively recognizing a predator that stood higher on the food chain.
Murong Zi's blood burned even hotter, fire surging along her meridians, wanting to roar out of her body. She had to forcibly press it down, eyes locked on Ren, teeth clenched. One day…
Qin Xingxuan's breath caught in her throat. Her hands, which had never trembled even when facing Ouyang Dihua in the past, shook now. The Fire Martial Intent she had painstakingly cultivated seemed childish in front of that Heaven-Piercing line.
Bai Jingyun—
Bai Jingyun stared in a daze.
The man who had once entered Sky Fortune Kingdom with an Acacia envoy's token, who had placed a collar around her neck in the name of engagement, had died without even leaving a corpse.
Now, the sect behind him—
The sect behind the sect behind him—
Were kneeling.
Her heart felt oddly light, as if every small lingering, invisible chain had finally been shattered.
Ren lowered his hand.
On Acacia Peak, in the Seven Profound Valleys, in Sky Fortune's Martial House, no one dared to speak.
Only Ren's voice echoed calmly through the sky.
"This," he said, "is the best way for you to listen."
His tone was mild, almost conversational. In that quiet, it was more terrifying than a roar.
His gaze swept across Jiang Huan, Jiang Wuji, Shi Zongtian, then drifted past the other kneeling Sovereigns.
"You all got a little too antsy about me killing off Acacia filth," he said. "Understandable, I guess. But it made you all too tense."
He faintly smiled.
"And now that your bodies remember what it feels like to be cut down," he added, "your Dao hearts will understand faster."
He didn't gloat.
There was no vulgar triumph in his expression, no arrogance directed at the kneeling elders. His eyes were simply… honest.
To him, this was cause and effect. You barge in, you swing at him, you get cut down. Simple.
Ren paused for a breath.
"Now that the Acacia rats are gone…" he said.
His lips curved again, this time with a faint hint of mischief.
"I'm here to propose a challenge."
The words dropped into that suffocating silence like a stone tossed into still water.
A challenge?
At a time like this?
The hearts of every elder and disciple present shook in unison.
Even Shi Zongtian's eyes twitched.
Right now, every inch of his body screamed at him to negotiate, to stall, to find some way to draw this monster into the Seven Profound Valleys' web of politics.
A challenge sounded like a wild beast tossing down its own rules.
Ren continued as if he hadn't noticed their bewilderment.
"To be honest," he said, "I don't have any interest in how your faction meetings work."
His eyes slid lazily across the kneeling Sovereigns.
"Your internal politics, your little balances between seven legacies—tedious."
His gaze turned toward the projection, toward the Martial House plaza where the disciples still watched, frozen.
"But my people—my women, my disciples—are too far ahead of this place," he went on. "Their foundations are good. Their perception is good. Their Dao hearts are clean. What they lack…"
His eyes narrowed slightly, amusement turning sharper.
"…is experience trampling other so-called geniuses."
Every chosen disciple felt as if they'd just been slapped.
Even Jiang Baoyun, whose pride had always soared into the clouds, felt his jaw tighten.
Ren's tone remained relaxed, almost lazy.
"You've all heard rumors, I'm sure," he said. "Guest Instructor Ren. Heavenly Abode disciples reforged. Human and Earth Hall disciples stepping across great boundaries. Pretty words. But for those sitting at the top—"
His eyes swept lightly over the chosen geniuses' faces.
"—rumors are just rumors until you see the truth."
He lifted his hand again.
True essence flowed, not as a destructive wave this time, but as a gentle tide that enveloped the girls in the sky.
The very next heartbeat—
They were standing on the shattered Acacia peak, rubble crunching beneath their boots, dust and blood-scent filling their lungs.
Around them, hundreds of eyes locked on at once.
Murong Zi's heart skipped.
Qin Xingxuan's throat tightened.
Bai Jingyun, who had never stood on Acacia Peak before this day, felt a strange, cold echo stir in her chest—as if all those years of fear had brought her here instead of into a bridal chamber.
Na Shui's hands flew to the front of her clothes, smoothing them unconsciously.
Na Yi's slender fingers brushed once at the corner of her robe, long lashes lowering for a moment as she steadied herself.
Five young women.
None of them had stepped into Pulse Condensation.
Murong Zi—mid Altering Muscle, bodily strength tempered by the modified Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians, true essence circulating like a river of molten iron.
Qin Xingxuan—peak Altering Muscle, Fire Laws at the peak of first level, Fire Martial Intent at Small Success, her dantian burning with compressed true essence.
Bai Jingyun—early Bone Forging, Lantern-Heart Flame Diagram having carved the concept of "Fire" into every meridian.
Na Yi and Na Shui—mid Bone Forging, Azure True Dragon Infinity Seeds quietly rotating in their blood, their foundations heavier than their realms implied.
Yet at this moment, standing under countless gazes, they did not shrink back.
Ren's voice floated down behind them, warm with a faint teasing lilt that cut through the heavy air.
"These," he said, "are my proud, heaven-defying women that will broaden your horizons."
Murong Zi's ears turned red. Her spear-heart roared—then I'll show them—but her fingers were trembling slightly.
Qin Xingxuan's lips tightened, but the faint flush on her neck betrayed her. Being called "his woman" so openly in front of the entire Seven Profound Valleys made her heartbeat skip, half mortified, half secretly pleased.
Bai Jingyun's heart stuttered; under so many eyes, being claimed so straightforwardly made her fingers curl against her dress. The word "engagement" had once felt like a death sentence. Coming from him, felt like a promise.
Na Shui gave a tiny, strangled sound, half mortified, half bubbling with joy. Her clear eyes shone as if she'd just won the biggest bet of her life.
Only Na Yi's expression didn't change much—but the tips of her fingers, hidden in her sleeves, trembled. Her Dao heart, usually serene, rippled faintly.