The atmosphere within the black stone cave grew thick and suffocating. The frigid killing intent radiating from over thirty Sacred Gate disciples, combined with the venomous aura of the Foundation Establishment Protector, formed an invisible net that completely enveloped the solitary youth. The exit was sealed. The path of retreat was gone. This was a deathly impasse.
Yet, facing this terminal situation, the person at the center of it all harbored not a single shred of fear.
"Kill him!"
The Protector, his hair disheveled and wild, issued the command. His shrill voice carried both ruthlessness and a hint of sadistic amusement. He was in no hurry to strike personally. He wanted to see exactly how much this prey—who had so foolishly delivered himself into the snare—could struggle.
The thirty-plus disciples, all at the Qi Condensation Realm, let out a collective roar as they channeled their demonic arts. Wisps of black mist erupted from their bodies, carrying the stench of blood and profound malice. These wisps transformed into small black snakes, coiling and lunging toward Tran Kien.
This was a joint-attack array, simple yet incredibly insidious, specifically designed to grind down an opponent's spiritual energy and corrode their sanity.
But they had chosen the wrong opponent.
Tran Kien did not dodge. He stood with his feet shoulder-width apart, as steadfast as a primordial mountain. He did not use his Primordial Chaos Qi to form a defensive shield. Instead, he did something no one expected.
He closed his eyes and began to breathe.
His breathing was neither hurried nor slow, but incredibly deep and long, carrying a strange, rhythmic law. He was circulating the "Great Heavenly Cycle Qi Guiding." The Primordial Chaos Qi within his body, after three months of bitter cultivation in the Seven Mountains, had become peerlessly pure and majestic.
When the black mist snakes were less than a foot from him, his eyes snapped open. Within his profound gaze, there was no killing intent—only an unshakeable majesty.
He drew the Army-Breaker Saber.
The pitch-black great-saber—ancient and heavy—seemed to have fully awakened after being nurtured by his Primordial Chaos Qi for so long. It was no longer a mindless magical artifact. It was roaring—a roar of indignation from a war-commander who had spent his life defending the borders, directed at these heretical demons.
Tran Kien did not perform complex forms or intricate maneuvers. He used only a single strike, one he had comprehended by fusing the collective will of the Tran Bac Army with his own Saber Intent—A Thousand Hammers, A Hundred Refinements.
He raised the Army-Breaker Saber, and instead of a slash, he slammed it violently into the ground!
"Army-Breaker: Stabilizing the Mountains and Rivers!"
"BOOOOOOMMMMM!!!"
An explosion, not of spiritual energy but of "Momentum" and "Intent," reverberated throughout the cave. From the point where the saber's hilt met the earth, a golden ripple—carrying the righteous, luminous aura of the Solar Essence Guardian and the iron-clad will of thirty thousand border soldiers—surged outward.
It was not a destructive strike. It was a "Suppression"!
Every single black mist snake, upon touching that ripple, let out a miserable shriek before disintegrating into black smoke. The thirty-plus Sacred Gate disciples simultaneously coughed up mouthfuls of fresh blood, their spirits shaken and the spiritual energy within their bodies thrown into utter chaos. Their joint-attack array had been shattered with effortless ease!
"WHAT?!"
The Foundation Establishment Protector, who had been leisurely watching the play, felt his entire frame tremble violently. He looked in horror at the great-saber in Tran Kien's hand, then at the righteous, luminous aura radiating from the youth.
"This aura... it belongs to the military! You... you are a man of the Imperial Court?!" he roared. "Impossible! Why would the Imperial Court know of this place?!"
He did not understand. He could not understand. How could someone harboring the righteous qi of the military also utilize the concealment and tracking methods of a professional assassin? What kind of monster was this youth before him?
Tran Kien gave him no time for contemplation.
"To kill a wretch like you," he said, his voice as cold as glacial ice, "hardly requires the grand army of the Imperial Court."
He no longer played defense. He launched a proactive assault. His body resembled a loosed arrow as he lunged toward the Protector. The Army-Breaker Saber in his hand lost its steady composure, becoming as frenzied and violent as a fierce tiger escaped from its cage.
"Arrogant!" The Protector roared in fury. Though startled, he was nonetheless a mid-stage Foundation Establishment expert. He swung his white-bone staff, and countless demonic skulls flew out from it, shrieking as they lunged toward Tran Kien.
But facing the Army-Breaker Saber—a weapon tempered by the righteousness of the battlefield and the killing intent of tens of thousands of enemies—these demonic entities were no different from moths flying into a flame.
"BREAK!"
Tran Kien let out a thunderous roar. He did not evade. He delivered a direct, overbearing frontal slash. The golden saber-qi, manifesting the image of a roaring tiger, easily tore through every single demonic skull.
"How can this be?!" The Protector was terrified. His demonic arts were being neutralized so easily?
He frantically retreated, attempting to widen the distance. But would Tran Kien grant him that opportunity?
At that exact moment, another aura—yin-soft and treacherous—suddenly erupted from Tran Kien's body. This was what he had comprehended from the Asura Blood-Slaughter Saber.
His movement technique suddenly became ghostly and unpredictable. He glided like a phantom, closing the distance to the Protector in an instant. The Army-Breaker Saber in his hand was no longer overbearing; it became sinister and lethal, tracing an unimaginable arc.
Puchi!
An arm, still clutching the white-bone staff, went flying into the air.
"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!" The Protector shrieked in agony, clutching his blood-spurting shoulder, his eyes filled with disbelief and despair.
He had lost. He had lost without even understanding how. He had fallen to a youth with a lower cultivation base than his own—a youth who could freely switch between righteous and demonic, between luminous and ruthless.
Tran Kien did not halt. He raised his blade, intending to deliver the final blow.
But just then, the entire cave shook violently. The black stone egg upon the altar suddenly erupted with a sky-piercing black aura.
A raspy, ancient voice—not belonging to the Protector—echoed from within the egg.
"Quite capable, little boy. To think someone could actually disrupt my plans."
"But the game... ends here."
CRACK!
Cracks began to spread across the shell of the black stone egg. An aura ten times more terrifying, carrying ancient wickedness, was about to break through its cocoon.