The two of them stood in dead silence, staring each other down in a long, sharp moment. Mu Chen tensed up. He could clearly see the disappointment written across Su Qingyue's face.
"Master Su... I can explain about..."
BLAST!
Su Qingyue thrust her hand forward, firing a bolt of white qi lightning straight at Mu Chen. He was caught completely off guard, and on instinct directed his cauldron to block the attack.
But with Mu Chen's strength still so weak, his body had no real control over the Ancient God Cauldron, an artifact carrying the full power of heaven and earth.
He was thrown backward, blasting through the bedroom wall and sent flying with the golden cauldron still at his side.
Mu Chen tumbled off the hillside cliff with no ability to fly, no ability to manipulate qi. He panicked, terrified he was going to hit the ground and die.
His mind moved fast. He turned to the side and grabbed the golden cauldron. By focusing on controlling it, Mu Chen was able to manage his fall.
He landed safely on the hillside below, his golden cauldron having made all the difference.
"Mu Chen!"
"You lied to me!" Su Qingyue snapped.
Her fury shook every corner of the sect. Disciples stopped their training and instinctively looked to the sky, specifically toward the sky above Jiuxiao Mountain.
Sect Leader Yun saw it too and looked visibly worried. The other elders were the same. They were deeply curious about the cause of the thunderous rumbling coming from the peak of the ancestors' mountain.
"Did something happen to Mu Chen?" Han Lao asked.
Yun Tian turned and saw Elder Wang Wei coming out from his residence. He looked just as startled by the large-scale event unfolding that night.
"The power of that thunder is immense. Su Qingyue's fury in full force could destroy the entire sect."
The Tianyin Sect Leader turned and told Han Lao and Wang Wei to lead the sect in activating the grand protective array. Both core elders nodded in understanding.
Yun Tian flew alone from Yunhai Mountain to Jiuxiao, trying to find a way to calm Su Qingyue's rage. He understood clearly that nothing in the Tianyin Sect could match her power.
Back where Mu Chen stood, he was trying to explain what had actually happened. Su Qingyue listened, though his words did nothing to bring her fury down from its peak.
"I had no choice but to hide the truth to protect myself!" Mu Chen said firmly.
"If you had been honest from the start, maybe I wouldn't be this angry, Mu Chen!" Su Qingyue shouted.
Su Qingyue formed a hand seal, sending white qi energy shooting into the sky and the black clouds above.
Yun Tian arrived at the safe boundary of Jiuxiao Mountain, unable to see clearly without activating his cultivation sight.
His eyes lit up white. Yun Tian saw Mu Chen standing with the golden cauldron floating at his side. The sight stunned him.
"The Ancient God Cauldron? But how could he possibly have it?!"
Yun Tian's attention shifted to Su Qingyue. The immense power gathering in her hands was calling down her strongest technique from the sky.
He watched wide-eyed as the heavens split apart, the black clouds parted, and the projection of a massive full moon appeared and began descending.
"This can't be right!"
"Grand Sect Leader Su is trying to kill Mu Chen with the Moon Dao Conception?! This is going too far!"
"This is dangerous! Extremely dangerous for Tianyin!"
Yun Tian tapped his bag of holding and brought out a white plate with a gold pattern, letting it hover before him for a few seconds.
His fist clenched hard. His mind ran wild wrestling with the decision. But taking too long could cost the Tianyin Sect everything.
"I have no choice!"
He directed his qi forward and shattered the white-gold plate. The response was five pillars of white qi light appearing around Yun Tian.
The five pillars faded to reveal five people in Tianyin Sect robes, three men and two women.
"Yun Tian brat! Haven't I told you not to disturb our closed-door cultivation?!" one of the men snapped, a Soul Formation cultivator.
"I'll explain later. Help me protect the sect!" Yun Tian said firmly.
The five people near Yun Tian were the sect's ancestors, cultivators who had long let go of worldly affairs to dedicate themselves to seeking true dao enlightenment. All of them were at the Soul Formation stage.
They looked ahead and watched Su Qingyue, a friend and senior to all of them, pouring her best power into killing a Qi Condensation ant.
"It's not worth killing a Qi Condensation cultivator with the peak ability of a dao conception!"
"Senior Su! Calm your heart. Don't do something you will regret!"
Su Qingyue didn't care and wasn't listening. Her heart had been completely blinded by deep disappointment over Mu Chen's lie. He had betrayed her.
If she couldn't have the Ancient God Cauldron, then no one else was allowed to have it either. Not even Mu Chen.
The five Soul Formation cultivators united, combining their strength and forming a heaven-grade array to counter Su Qingyue's Cold Moon Over the Northern Snow.
Elsewhere, Mu Chen collapsed to his knees and coughed up blood as a wave of cultivation pressure hit his body with enormous force, far stronger than anything Wang Wei had ever managed.
So all this time... she was holding back?
COUGH!
Mu Chen had completely run out of tolerance for this. His life had been crushed under the weight of powers trying to use him. And now that same power was no longer just shackling him. It was trying to kill him.
He hadn't come to this world to be oppressed, humiliated, tortured, used, or killed.
Mu Chen had come to write his own destiny, one that no one had any right to interrupt.
"I... will not give up!" Mu Chen shouted.
"Using great power to crush the weak! That is bullshit!" Mu Chen snapped.
"Great power... is meant to protect those who are weak!"
Su Qingyue narrowed her eyes, sensing something strange coming from Mu Chen's body. An enormous amount of Primordial Origin Qi was pouring into his body, his veins and meridians lighting up gold.
His strength surged. His body was tempered to a near-perfect state. The pulse of pure golden qi from Mu Chen caught everyone completely off guard.
The sect's ancestors turned, stunned. "Primordial Origin Qi?!"
Su Qingyue's fury grew more out of control than ever. She swung her hand downward, unleashing the peak power of her moon dao conception, Cold Moon Over the Northern Snow.
The blue-white moon fell from the sky and shaved across the top of Jiuxiao Mountain, pressing enormous cultivation pressure down onto every person in the Tianyin Sect.
Han Lao, Wang Wei, and the other elders worked to hold the sect's protective array together, fighting to keep the tens of thousands of disciples alive.
Yun Tian and the five Soul Formation ancestors attacked the blue-white moon with everything they had. But an explosion went off and their attacks failed. All of them coughed up blood at once.
"There is no one... who can stop Senior Su!"
What none of them expected was for Mu Chen, a Qi Condensation cultivator, to launch himself upward, his body wrapped in Primordial Origin Qi.
"What is that Qi Condensation kid doing?!"
Mu Chen's eyes blazed bright gold. His arm swung hard and fast toward the sky. The Ancient God Cauldron shot forward and expanded to its full size. Yun Tian and the five sect ancestors were stunned speechless.
BLAST!
A massive qi energy explosion erupted when the Ancient God Cauldron collided with the power born from a dao conception.
The qi shockwave struck in every direction, shattering buildings, calling down heaven lightning that struck the earth and trees, and wounding the souls of every sect member.
The two forces kept clashing without end, the unmatched power of the Ancient God Clan against the complex force of dao comprehension.
Cracks appeared across the surface of the moon, catching Su Qingyue off guard. She looked at Mu Chen's Ancient God Cauldron. It wasn't damaged at all.
Is this... the power of an Ancient God Clan descendant?
Yun Tian and the five Soul Formation ancestors realized Su Qingyue's moon dao conception attack was about to crack apart and explode. They immediately formed their strongest formation to protect the sect.
"A Qi Condensation kid... shattering the dao conception of a Soul Transformation cultivator?!"
"This is insane!"
Yun Tian narrowed his eyes and saw that the power wasn't entirely Mu Chen's own. It was the resonance between his body and the ancient artifact.
They had no objection to Jiuxiao Mountain being destroyed, but they couldn't stand by and watch tens of thousands of lives lost and the Tianyin legacy wiped out simply because of Su Qingyue's obsession.
BLAST!
A second explosion went off with devastating force, shattering Cold Moon Over the Northern Snow, collapsing Jiuxiao Mountain, and sending a powerful qi shockwave spreading across the entire surrounding area.
The shockwave was strong enough to be felt by cultivators in the cities nearest to the Tianyin Sect.
Mu Chen, with nothing protecting him, was sent flying far from the sect complex, badly wounded and unconscious.
The Ancient God Cauldron flew toward Mu Chen and entered his body, giving one last burst of strength to keep him from dying on impact when he fell from the sky.
Su Qingyue jolted, her body aching, especially deep in her chest. She coughed up blood and immediately wiped it from the corner of her mouth.
She looked down and saw that Mu Chen had vanished from her sight. The Jiuxiao Lotus Residence had been reduced to rubble. The trees of Jiuxiao Mountain were burning in blue flames from the blast.
"Mu Chen!"
"MU CHEN!"
Su Qingyue kept calling out for him, desperately trying to determine his condition. But through her cultivation sight, she couldn't find any trace of Mu Chen within the Tianyin Sect's territory.
"What... have I done?" Su Qingyue said, both hands trembling.
"I... threw away my most precious chance to advance my realm. I... threw away Mu Chen?"
Yun Tian flew toward Su Qingyue, one hand pressed to his aching chest, his soul wounded by the blast. When he arrived, Su Qingyue turned and flew quickly to meet him.
"Mu Chen! Where is he?"
"I don't know, Grand Sect Leader Su," Yun Tian said.
"Order all the elders out immediately. Launch an expedition to find Mu Chen. Bring him back to me alive!" Su Qingyue demanded, frantic.
"Grand Sect Leader Su Qingyue!" Yun Tian shouted, catching her off guard.
Su Qingyue went completely still, looking clearly at the anger and disappointment on Yun Tian's face. The five Soul Formation ancestors flew closer to Yun Tian, all of them in nearly the same wounded state.
"The Tianyin Sect has suffered enormous losses because of this disaster. We will search for Mu Chen and bring him before you, but we must first prioritize the sect's recovery," Yun Tian said.
The woman was clearly unhappy watching Yun Tian put the Tianyin Sect's damage ahead of Mu Chen's life being in danger.
"The sect can be rebuilt. Mu Chen only has one life!" Su Qingyue said firmly.
"If none of you will help me, then I will find him myself!"