Chapter 28: The Leap That Opened the Gate
Yun Ren tore his spear free from the Frost Leopard's skull.
Blood sprayed across the frozen stone.
The beast slid lifelessly from the battlement.
His hands trembled.
Not from fear.
From exhaustion.
The battle had barely begun.
Yet already his breathing burned, his muscles screamed, and his armor had cracked across one shoulder where the leopard's claws had struck.
Blood trickled from a cut along his forehead.
It slipped into one eye.
He wiped it away impatiently.
There was no time to care.
Then—
"Move!"
The voice cut through the battlefield.
His mother's voice.
Yun Ren spun instantly.
Below him, near a shattered staircase leading down the wall, Yun Mie had become trapped.
Three Foundation Establishment beasts surrounded her.
A Frost Boar scraped one crystalline tusk against the stone, frost spreading beneath its feet.
Behind her, an Ice Leopard prowled silently, waiting for the perfect moment.
And before her...
A Snow Wolf the size of a carriage lowered its head.
Its icy breath drifted through the air like winter itself.
For the briefest heartbeat...
Yun Ren stopped seeing a veteran hunter.
He stopped seeing the Foundation Establishment expert who had trained him since childhood.
He saw only...
His mother.
The woman who had taught him to string his first bow.
Who had carried him home after his first failed hunt.
Who always made sure he ate first.
The Snow Wolf crouched.
Then lunged.
"Mother!"
Yun Ren moved.
There was no thought.
No strategy.
No calculation.
Only instinct.
His body had already chosen before his mind understood.
He leapt from the upper battlement.
Someone shouted behind him.
Another guard reached out instinctively.
Too late.
Wind roared past his ears.
The stone courtyard rushed upward.
Both hands locked around his spear.
The point aimed directly toward the charging wolf.
And then...
Something inside him shattered.
No.
Not shattered.
Opened.
For months...
For years...
His Ki had pressed endlessly against an invisible gate.
He had cultivated.
Trained.
Waited.
Believing that one more lesson...
One more battle...
One more year...
Would eventually be enough.
Now...
As he fell toward the beasts threatening his family...
He finally understood.
Not every step forward came from patience.
Some...
Were taken because the heart had already leapt before the body could hesitate.
His Ki exploded.
The invisible wall inside him dissolved.
The world changed.
He heard the wind flowing around every stone.
He sensed the heartbeat of the wolf.
The movement of snow.
The trembling of the wall.
The circulation of Ki inside his own body.
His spear no longer felt like wood and steel.
It felt...
Alive.
Like an extension of his own arm.
Foundation Establishment.
Blue Ki erupted around him.
Unlike before...
It no longer remained trapped inside his body.
It flowed outward.
Wrapped itself around the spearhead.
Extended beyond the blade itself.
Creating a shining spear of pure energy.
The Snow Wolf looked up.
Too late.
Yun Ren crashed down like a falling meteor.
BOOM!
The spear pierced straight through the beast's shoulder.
The enormous wolf was driven violently into the battlement.
Stone exploded outward.
Deep cracks raced across the wall beneath the impact.
The force should have broken every bone in Yun Ren's body.
Instead...
It merely forced him back one step.
His breakthrough had transformed him completely.
"Ren!"
Yun Mie reacted instantly.
There was no surprise.
Only trust.
Wind Ki burst beneath her feet.
"Wind Steps!"
She vanished.
Appearing beside the pinned wolf.
Her twin hunting daggers became wrapped in compressed streams of wind.
The blades lengthened.
Their edges almost invisible.
She crossed both arms.
The wind flashed once.
The wolf's throat opened.
Blood painted the snow crimson.
The beast collapsed without another sound.
High atop the watchtower...
Yun Che had already shifted targets.
The Mountain Piercer thundered.
The first bullet struck the Ice Leopard squarely in the ribs.
The explosion threw it sideways.
Almost simultaneously...
The second round smashed into the Frost Boar's shoulder.
The massive beast stumbled.
Bruised.
Bleeding.
But still alive.
It didn't even slow.
The Frost Boar lowered its head.
The ground beneath Yun Ren and Yun Mie froze solid.
Ice spread beneath their feet in an instant.
The beast charged.
Like an avalanche.
Yun Che cursed beneath his breath.
"They're unbelievably tough..."
Had these creatures retained their normal intelligence...
They would have attacked together.
Used their elemental techniques.
Surrounded isolated defenders.
Instead...
They simply threw themselves forward in mindless rage.
It made them easier to predict.
Yet somehow...
Harder to stop.
Pain meant nothing to them.
Wounds meant nothing.
Only death halted their advance.
Yun Mie moved first.
She hurled one dagger.
It spun through the air.
The Ice Leopard twisted to avoid it.
Exactly as she intended.
Yun Ren smiled.
"Got you."
He accelerated.
Blue Ki surged around his legs.
Instead of thrusting...
He gripped the spear near its center.
The shaft began spinning.
Faster.
Faster.
Until it resembled a gigantic drill.
"Piercing Dragon Spiral!"
The rotating spear slammed into the leopard's foreleg.
The force didn't simply pierce.
It twisted.
Bone shattered.
Muscle tore apart.
The entire leg ripped free from the beast's body.
The leopard screamed as it collapsed into the snow.
The Frost Boar was already upon them.
Yun Ren planted one foot upon the wounded leopard.
Leapt.
His body soared over the charging beast.
At the peak of his jump...
He reversed his grip.
His spear swept downward in a massive arc.
The blue Ki extending beyond its blade stretched nearly two meters.
Like a miniature naginata.
"Azure Crescent!"
The glowing blade carved across the boar's back.
A deep wound opened through thick hide.
Below him...
Yun Mie calmly drew three arrows.
Each shaft shimmered with green poison.
Wind gathered around the bowstring.
"Wind's Blessing."
She released.
Three arrows became three streaks of emerald light.
Each struck the bleeding wound Yun Ren had just opened.
The poison immediately entered the creature's bloodstream.
The Frost Boar roared in agony.
Still...
It refused to fall.
Then...
Something enormous crashed into its side.
"Out of my family's way!"
Yun Jian.
The blacksmith charged like a living battering ram.
His heavy shoulder smashed into the boar.
The impact alone sent the massive beast stumbling sideways.
Before it recovered...
His forging hammer descended.
Flames erupted around its head.
"Forgebreaker!"
The burning hammer struck with terrifying force.
The Frost Boar...
And the crippled Ice Leopard beside it...
Were both hurled from the battlement.
They vanished beneath the tide of charging monsters below.
Moments later...
Their bodies disappeared beneath countless trampling beasts.
Silence lingered for only a heartbeat.
Then the battle resumed.
High above the battlefield...
Yun Che slowly lowered his rifle.
A smile crept across his face despite the chaos surrounding him.
His brother had broken through.
His mother had fought with the precision of a veteran hunter.
His father had charged into danger without a moment's hesitation.
Looking at the three of them...
He couldn't help thinking—
...My family is terrifying.
-----------------------------------
While the defenders of Mistforge bled upon the walls...
And the Frost Wolf Cavalry searched every street for hidden enemies...
Another battle had already begun.
One fought in silence.
Deep within the City Lord's Mansion.
The mansion remained under heavy guard.
Elite warriors patrolled every corridor.
Formation runes glowed faintly beneath the floors and walls, overlapping one another like an invisible fortress.
Every entrance.
Every window.
Every roof.
Every underground passage.
Protected.
Even a Foundation Establishment assassin would struggle to cross those defenses unnoticed.
Ordinarily...
It would have been impossible.
But the assassin carried something that did not belong to this world.
Hidden beneath his cloak...
Rested a small black sphere.
Barely the size of a walnut.
It absorbed light instead of reflecting it.
Looking directly at it made one's eyes ache.
An Abyss Orb.
A rechargeable treasure born from the darkness beyond the world.
It specialized in only two things.
Breaking boundaries.
And erasing presence.
The moment the assassin activated it...
The formation barriers quietly opened before him as though they had never existed.
No alarms sounded.
No runes reacted.
The mansion itself failed to notice his existence.
Even so...
This infiltration had not been accomplished overnight.
No.
It had taken patience.
The assassin had entered Mistforge nearly a week earlier disguised as a servant attached to one of the merchant caravans.
Since then...
He had observed.
Learned patrol routes.
Counted guards.
Memorized the mansion's layout.
Every hallway.
Every staircase.
Every blind corner.
He knew exactly where his target slept.
His master had been perfectly clear.
"The son."
"Nothing else matters."
"The wife is merely a woman."
"The little girl changes nothing."
"Kill the heir."
"The city will destroy itself."
The assassin had never questioned the order.
He silently opened the chamber door.
Not a single hinge creaked.
Inside...
Everything remained exactly as expected.
Shen Tianyu lay motionless upon the bed.
His breathing remained shallow.
His face was pale.
The poison still lingered.
Perfect.
The assassin slowly drew his weapon.
An obsidian dagger.
Its blade seemed carved from condensed night.
Tiny crimson veins pulsed across its surface.
An Abyss Dagger.
A weapon created to extinguish both flesh...
And soul.
He stepped forward.
One step.
Two.
Three.
No hesitation.
No unnecessary movements.
Only the final strike remained.
The dagger descended.
Straight toward Tianyu's heart.
At that very instant...
Within endless darkness...
Tianyu opened his eyes.
He stood inside an endless frozen wilderness.
Snow drifted endlessly around him.
No sky.
No ground.
Only white.
Far away...
A howl echoed across eternity.
He instinctively looked upward.
Something enormous watched him.
Two golden eyes.
Older than mountains.
Colder than winter itself.
The great wolf lowered its head.
Its voice shook heaven and earth.
"Will you yield?"
Tianyu answered immediately.
"No."
"Will you flee?"
"No."
"Will you surrender your life?"
A grin slowly spread across Tianyu's face.
"...I'm going to win."
The wolf stared at him for a long moment.
Then...
It laughed.
A howl filled the frozen world.
The snow exploded outward.
The endless ice shattered.
And the blood sleeping within Tianyu finally awakened.
Reality returned.
The dagger had almost reached his chest.
Then...
Everything froze.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
An overwhelming frost burst outward from Tianyu's body.
The room's temperature plummeted.
The curtains froze.
The wooden furniture became coated in white crystal.
Even the air itself seemed to solidify.
The assassin's movements suddenly slowed.
As though invisible ice clung to every limb.
His eyes widened.
Impossible—
Tianyu's eyes snapped open.
They no longer resembled human eyes.
His pupils had become narrow golden slits.
Silver-white fur spread rapidly across his arms and shoulders.
His fingernails lengthened into curved black claws.
Sharp canine teeth protruded from his lips.
A powerful white tail burst through the blanket behind him.
Beneath the skin of his forehead...
Two small ridges pushed upward.
Not yet horns.
But the beginnings of them.
The bloodline...
Had awakened.
The blood of the Heavenly Frost Wolf.
Ancient.
Diluted.
Yet undeniably real.
To Tianyu...
Time almost stopped.
His senses sharpened beyond anything he had ever experienced.
He could hear the assassin's heartbeat.
Smell the poison lingering upon the dagger.
Feel every current of air moving through the chamber.
The assassin appeared impossibly slow.
Like someone trying to fight beneath deep water.
Without a word...
Tianyu disappeared.
The bed exploded beneath him.
The assassin barely had time to widen his eyes.
Tianyu's jaws closed around his throat.
CRACK!
Bone shattered.
Blood sprayed across the frozen room.
At the very same moment...
His right claw drove straight through the assassin's chest.
Flesh.
Bone.
Heart.
All pierced in a single movement.
The man's eyes filled with disbelief.
His mouth opened.
No words emerged.
Only blood.
Tianyu slowly released him.
The corpse collapsed onto the frozen floor with a dull thud.
Silence returned.
Snow continued drifting through the shattered window.
Blue Ki surged through Tianyu's body.
The final barrier inside him dissolved.
The Ki that had once remained trapped within his flesh burst outward into the world.
Foundation Establishment.
His aura expanded dramatically.
The poison that had nearly claimed his life froze solid before shattering into tiny black crystals beneath the overwhelming frost.
The blood his father had given him completed its work.
Not merely healing him.
Awakening him.
Tianyu slowly looked down at his clawed hands.
A grin appeared.
"...I told you."
"I wasn't planning to lose."