A sea of people surged outside the ancient threshold.
The Xuan Wang Mansion loomed before them, its towering stone walls weathered by thousands of years of wind and dust, radiating an aura of profound mystery. There was only a single, massive iron gate leading inside.
Perched on a nearby cliff branch, Feng Kail observed the sheer mass of humanity. So many people have gathered here, he mused silently. I need to avoid the main crowds. To think a single ancient mansion could attract this many powerhouses... this is going to get interesting.
Suddenly, a suffocating weight dropped from the sky. The air grew dense as a literal void-hole tore open in the heavens. A massive, celestial flying ship sailed out of the rift. Five figures drifted down from the deck, landed gracefully on the earth.
The crowd instantly erupted into hushed, frantic whispers:
"Look! It's the Ming Clan!"
"The youth leading them... that's Ming Chen! He's the undisputed top genius of their younger generation. Word is he's already broken into the Spirit Realm (Tier 3)!"
Before the murmurs could die down, a second rift shattered the sky. A group clad in pitch-black robes and dark masks stepped into the valley. Only their leader flew barefaced, a cold, arrogant smirk plastered on his features.
"The Yin Clan..." Kail's eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. His fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white.
"Why did the Yin Clan come? They are already an apex power!" a rogue cultivator stammered nearby. "That barefaced youth must be Yin Dong, their strongest monster. He's a Spirit Realm cultivator too!"
Crack!
A thunderous sound echoed as a massive, jagged fissure ripped across the sky. An elderly man stepped through the cosmic tear, flanked by a vanguard of elite guards and two breathtakingly beautiful young women.
"They are from the Yun Clan! That old man... heavens, it's Yun Lao! A legendary King Realm powerhouse! And those must be his granddaughters!"
"Look, the elegant one is Yun Qin, a confirmed Spirit Realm master! The younger one beside her is Yun Lin. They are absolutely stunning."
Kail looked toward the Yun Clan vanguard and spotted a familiar face. So, she made it here after all, he thought. He looked at the wooden box tightly fastened to his belt. "Igneel, we must be exceptionally careful. Every single leader here vastly outranks us. For now, we remain ghosts."
On the other side of the valley, Yun Lin scanned the dense crowds of rogue cultivators. Did he not come? she wondered, her blue eyes darting from face to face.
Her older sister, Yun Qin, stepped beside her, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing, Lin'er? Where is your mind wandering?"
"Ah! Nothing, Big Sister," Yun Lin stammered, pulling her gaze away. "I was just amazed by how many people have gathered for this ancient mansion."
"Of course," Yun Qin said proudly, her hand resting on her sword hilt. "Xuan Wang was a legendary Supreme Ruler. He left his absolute peak techniques here before his demise. Everyone is here for scraps, but our primary objective is his core inheritance. If I can secure it, my strength will skyrocket."
"Inheritance?" Yun Lin blinked. "I didn't know an entire inheritance was sealed here."
Yun Lao stepped forward, his long white hair fluttering as his deep voice enveloped them. "Only the top clans possess this information, including the Yin and Ming clans. Their geniuses are here for the exact same reason. Both of you must keep your guard up."
"Don't worry, Grandfather," Yun Qin smiled confidently. "We will not return empty-handed."
Rumble ---
The massive iron gate began to grind inward. A blinding, prismatic light spilled from the opening, forming a colossal, swirling Teleportation Gate.
"The gate is open! Run! Enter the gate!" the crowd screamed, a frantic tide of thousands rushing blindly into the light.
"Move out," Ming Chen commanded, and the Ming Clan vanguard plunged into the portal.
"Let's go," Yin Dong sneered, leading the black-robed Yin forces inside.
Yun Lao nodded, and the Yun sisters disappeared into the light alongside their clan.
Watching the area finally clear, Kail patted the wooden beast box at his waist. "Igneel, hide inside this box for now. I got this from the merchant, and it can conceal your divine beast aura. We don't know what lies beyond that gate."
With a soft chirp, Igneel shrunk and hopped into the box. Kail drew a deep breath and stepped directly into the swirling vortex.
When Kail opened his eyes, he was standing in a strange, claustrophobic stone chamber filled with a thick, heavy purple smoke.
"Kail... come here, my son..."
A gentle, familiar voice echoed from behind him. Kail whirled around. His heart skipped a beat. Standing in the mist, smiling warmly, were his mother and father.
"Father? Mother?" Kail's voice trembled, a sudden rush of emotion blinding his judgment. "You're... you're alive?"
"Of course we are alive, son," his father said softly, extending his arms. "How could we ever leave you? Come, walk with us."
Kail took a step forward, but the moment his foot moved, a sudden, blinding pain pierced his brain.
"Boom!"
A vibrant, emerald-green fire suddenly erupted from his skin.
The Flame of Rejuvenation? Why now? Kail gasped.
The green fire aggressively surged outward, enveloping his body and instantly vaporizing the purple smoke around him. The moment the smoke vanished, the figures of his parents dissolved into ash.
Kail snapped awake, cold sweat pouring down his face. An illusion! The thick smoke was a hallucinogenic trap. If not for the life-force energy of the Flame of Rejuvenation breaking the array, I would have walked straight into my death.
He looked around. He was no longer in a small room, but a colossal, cavernous hall. Thousands of cultivators who had entered the gate were lying across the floor, slowly groaning and waking up from their own illusions. The geniuses of the Ming, Yin, and Yun clans were already on their feet, shaking off the mental fog.
"Roar!"
A bloodcurdling roar shook the foundations of the mansion.
Sprinting into the center of the grand hall was a monstrous, titanic Three-Headed Red Tiger. A grotesque, glowing third eye burned in the center of its middle head. Its claws were as long as greatswords, and thick, corrosive blood dripped from its salivating jaws.
"A Guardian Beast!" Yin Dong barked, drawing a gleaming silver spear. "We must slaughter this beast if we want to advance! Yin Clan, follow me!"
The black-robed Yin cultivators charged the beast like a swarm of shadows. But the Three-Headed Tiger raised its primary head and unleashed a torrential wave of primordial fire.
Yin Dong crossed his arms, channeling his Spirit Realm Qi to block the inferno, but the sheer force violently pushed him back across the stones. The tiger bounded forward, its massive claws tearing through the air. Yin Dong narrowly rolled out of the way as the stone floor shattered where he had just stood. The Yin Clan elders launched a barrage of sword strikes at the beast's flanks, but the blades struck the crimson fur with a dull metallic clang.
Not a single scratch was left behind.
"Damn it!" Yin Dong shouted to the rest of the hall. "We need a temporary alliance! If we don't combine our strength to kill this monster, it will pick us off one by one!"
Ming Chen stepped forward, his fire-attribute Qi flaring. "I agree. We put our differences aside until the beast is dead."
Yun Qin unsheathed her blade, her expression icy. "The Yun Clan agrees."
Yun Lin pulled her sister's sleeve, whispering urgently, "But Big Sister! The Yin and Ming clans are treacherous. We can't trust them!"
"We have no choice, Lin'er," Yun Qin replied coldly. "We destroy the obstacle first, then deal with the vipers later."
From the back of the hall, Kail watched the groups form a massive perimeter. They are scum, but they are right. That tiger is too fierce. This is the only way to bring it down.
"Attack"!
Thousands of cultivators unleashed their skills at once. The tiger roared, its left head crackling with violent purple electricity. It unleashed a chain-lightning storm that instantly incinerated dozens of lower-level cultivators into ash. It then fired a concentrated beam of blue energy from its right head.
"Block it!" Ming Chen roared.
Yin Dong, Ming Chen, and Yun Qin stepped into the vanguard together, their Spirit Realm auras exploding to form a combined barrier that barely deflected the blue beam. The three geniuses began channeling their absolute ultimate moves.
"[Poison Thunder Spear]! Die!" Yin Dong roared, thrusting his spear forward as a bolt of toxic, purple lightning streaked toward the beast.
"[Fire Dragon Burst]!" Ming Chen yelled, unleashing a roaring eastern dragon made of pure, destructive flames.
"[Sword Style: Ten Slices of the Ice River]!
" Yun Qin screamed, her blade carving ten massive crescents of absolute-zero frost through the air.
The Three-Headed Tiger perceived the lethal threat. All three of its mouths opened simultaneously, combining fire, lightning, and blue energy into a singular, apocalyptic cataclysmic beam.
Boom!!
The collision of the four ultimate techniques created a massive, grinding deadlock. The shockwave tore up the stone floors, but slowly, the three geniuses began to lose ground, their boots sliding backward against the stone.
Seeing them falter, Yun Lin screamed to the rest of the hall, "What are you all standing around for?! Attack and support them, or we all die here!"
The remaining hundreds of cultivators unleashed a barrage of ranged spells. The collective weight of their Qi slowly began to push the tiger's breath attack back. But the tiger's middle head suddenly flared. Its third eye snapped wide open, projecting a crimson beam of divine light that fused into its breath attack.
Instantly, the balance was restored. The deadlock froze. Neither side could push the other, their Qi locked in a lethal game of tug-of-war.
Kail's eyes flashed from his hiding spot. They are completely locked down. Neither the clans nor the beast can move a muscle. This is my only chance.
Kail burst from the shadows, sprinting toward the epicenter of the battlefield with explosive speed.
The sudden movement drew the eyes of the cultivators at the back.
"Who is that kid?!"
Yun Lin's eyes widened in recognition. "He... he actually came!"
Kail launched himself off a crumbling pillar, vaulting high into the air, hovering directly over the locked-down Three-Headed Tiger. He drew a deep, rhythmic breath, his meridians burning as he channeled every drop of his 2-Star Qi into his pitch-black blade.
"[Dragon Blood Art: First Style — Dragon Breath Strike]!!"
Roar--
A majestic, ghostly dragon materialized behind Kail. With a ferocious downward swing, a cataclysmic beam of lightning and fire struck the tiger directly in its glowing third eye.
"Critical blast!"
The third eye exploded in a fountain of black blood. The entire deadlock shattered. The sudden, violent disruption caused a massive explosion of compressed Qi that blew everyone in the hall backward, crashing into the walls.
As the dust settled, the massive Three-Headed Tiger fell heavily to the ground, entirely lifeless. As its divine blood pooled onto the floor, it rapidly crystallized, solidifying into a fist-sized, glowing Red Beast Core.
Yin Dong gasped, pushing himself up from the rubble. "That's... the core of a Guardian Beast! A priceless treasure!"
The atmosphere in the room instantly turned lethal. The alliance vanished in a heartbeat. Every cultivator began eyeing the core with ravenous greed.
At that moment, Igneel poked his head out of the box, his golden eyes locked onto the stone. "Kail! If I eat that red stone, my power will increase exponentially!"
Kail's eyes bypassed the core, landing on a massive, reinforced iron door positioned directly behind the tiger's corpse. The tiger wasn't just roaming; it was guarding that door. If I can seize the core and burst through that gate, I can lose these people entirely. But that door holds a strangely ominous aura... Whatever. I didn't come here to play it safe.
"Igneel, clear the path," Kail hissed. "I'm taking the core."
"Leave them to me!" Igneel roared.
The little bird flew into the air, instantly expanding into his massive, golden-winged Phoenix form. He unleashed a sweeping torrent of divine fire that forced the approaching rogue cultivators to scatter in terror, clearing a direct line for Kail.
Yin Dong, Ming Chen, and Yun Qin were already locked in a vicious three-way melee, their weapons clashing at supersonic speeds as they fought to reach the prize.
Kail exploited the chaos, sprinting like a shadow toward the glowing red stone. He reached down and snatched it.
"Look behind you!" a voice screamed.
Before his fingers could even fully close around the core, a lethal, condensed wave of Qi fired straight at his blind spot from behind. The attack was too fast, too close—Kail couldn't parry in time.
Clang!
A slender, frost-coated blade suddenly intercepted the attack. Yun Lin had dashed forward, her face pale but determined as she deflected the strike. "Go! Get the stone and run!" she yelled to Kail.
Kail didn't hesitate. "Thanks. I owe you one."
He grabbed the core, sprinting full speed toward the heavy iron doors.
"Stop that thief!" Ming Chen roared, noticing the theft. Abandoning his fight with Yin Dong, Ming Chen blurred across the room, thrusting his fist toward Kail's back.
Igneel dove intercepting the blow, but Ming Chen's Spirit Realm Qi was too dense. The impact sent the giant phoenix crashing into the ground, blood dripping from his feathers.
"Igneel! Get back into the box, now!" Kail roared in panic, recalling his injured companion into the spatial box.
Ming Chen sneered, preparing another strike, but Igneel used his remaining strength to spit a massive wall of fire, forcing the Ming genius to back away.
Kail slammed his palms against the massive iron doors, forcing them open just enough to slip through.
"You think you can steal from me, boy?!"
A terrifying, venomous voice hissed right behind his ear. Yin Dong had bypassed the fire. His silver spear lunged forward like a striking viper, piercing completely through Kail's side and exiting his abdomen.
"Gahh!
Kail vomited a massive spray of blood. Yin Dong violently ripped the spear out of his flesh, tearing the wound wider. Kail stumbled back, his vision spinning, his blood pouring onto the stone floor.
"Die, rat!" Yin Dong raised his blade to finish him.
Driven by pure survival instinct and agonizing rage, Kail channeled the remaining half of his Qi into his sword. "[Dragon Breath Strike]!!"
The ghostly dragon erupted from his blade at point-blank range. The sudden explosion of force blasted Yin Dong backward, giving Kail the split second he needed. He threw himself through the crack in the iron doors.
"He's getting away! He has the core! Kill him!" the mob of cultivators shouted, rushing toward the closing doors.
Kail was stumbling blindly down a dark corridor on the other side of the gate. Suddenly, the whistling sound of tearing air returned. Yin Dong, recovering from the blast, had thrown his Poison Thunder Spear through the closing gap.
Kail instinctively twisted his body. The spear missed his chest, but the jagged, toxic tip carved a deep, brutal gash across his right forearm.
Yin Dong's manic laughter echoed from the other side of the closing doors: "Hahaha! You're dead anyway, brat! My spear is coated in ancient corpse poison! There is no cure in the Lower Realm!"
"Slam!
The heavy iron doors locked shut, sealing Kail inside the dark corridor.
Outside, the crowd hit the unyielding doors. "Damn it, it's locked from the inside!"
Yin Dong sneered, wiping the blood from his cheek. "Don't waste your energy. The boy is a corpse walking. The poison will dissolve his heart in minutes. Let's find the secondary treasuries."
Ming Chen nodded coldly. "Wasting time on a dead man is pointless. Let's move."
In the back, Yun Lin was shaking, tears welling in her eyes. She stepped forward to run toward the door, but Yun Qin firmly grabbed her wrist.
"Sister, let me go! We have to help him!" Yun Lin wept.
"Look at the reality, Lin'er!" Yun Qin snapped. "He was stabbed through the abdomen and infected with Yin Dong's corpse poison. Even if I fought Ming Chen and Yin Dong together, I couldn't save him. There are thousands of people here who want that core. If we help him, the Yun Clan becomes the enemy of everyone in this room."
"So we just watch him die?!" Yun Lin said .
Yun Qin closed her eyes. "Stop worrying about a stranger. Remember why we are here." As they walked away, Yun Lin looked back at the locked doors, whispering in her heart, Please... don't die like this...
On the cold, damp stone floor of the inner corridor, Kail collapsed.
"Puah!
He threw up another fountain of black, coagulated blood. He looked down at his right arm. Veins of pitch-black, necrotic poison were rapidly creeping up his forearm, heading straight for his shoulder and his heart. The pain was like liquid acid melting his flesh.
Kail ground his teeth until they cracked, his bloodshot eyes burning with an terrifying, unhuman resolve.
I haven't avenged my parents yet... I haven't torn down the Yin Clan... I refuse to die in a hole like a dog!
With a guttural, feral scream, Kail raised his pitch-black sword with his left hand. He lined the blade up with his right elbow.
Slash!!!
A clean, brutal cut. His right forearm fell to the floor, black poison spurting from the severed limb.
Kail collapsed onto his back, his breathing ragged, his face completely pale from the massive blood loss and the sheer shock of self-amputation. But the black veins stopped advancing. The poison had been severed from his body.
He lay there in the dark, staring at the ceiling of the ancient mansion, his voice a hollow, chilling whisper:
"Yin Dong... Ming Chen... every single one of you... I will remember this day."
As his vision began to fade into unconsciousness, a soft, warm glow began to radiate from his chest. The emerald-green Flame of Rejuvenation burst forth, completely enveloping his bleeding stump and his pierced abdomen, slowly beginning the agonizing process of knitting his flesh back together in the dark.