The golden barrier shuddered.
Once.
Twice.
Then it began to flicker.
The Meridian Breaker slipped from Lin Canghua's grasp and struck the ground with a hollow CLANG that echoed through the ruined courtyard.
Lin's body followed a heartbeat later. He fell to his knees, then forward, collapsing beside the spear as the last fragments of his consciousness wavered—like a flame fighting a storm.
The golden glow around him pulsed once more, weak and uneven.
Then it, too, began to fade.
The barrier trembled, light rippling like water in its final breath—
and vanished.
Silence swallowed the courtyard.
Hovering amid the drifting dust, the lizard watched. Its golden eyes burned faintly, reflections of the dying light below. It stared at the motionless figure of Lin Canghua lying on the scorched stone, his face pale, his body still.
The storm was over.
And only the echo remained.
The lizard descended slowly, wings folding as it landed beside the fallen cultivator. The air trembled faintly with residual qi; smoke drifted in languid coils through the ruined courtyard.
It stood there for a long moment, staring.
Lin Canghua lay motionless, face pale, one hand still half-curled toward the fallen spear. The faint golden glow that had once surrounded him was gone—extinguished, leaving only the scent of scorched stone and blood.
The lizard's golden eyes narrowed.
> Dead.
It's really dead this time.
It could feel the silence pressing around them—the absence of spiritual resistance, the stillness where once there had been storm. No heartbeat. No qi flow. Nothing.
It lowered its head slightly, studying the body more closely. Its tongue flicked once, tasting the air. The human's spiritual aura had collapsed entirely; there was no spark left to rise again.
> I knew if I appeared beside it suddenly it would be startled and react by instinct, and at that moment I could attack its soul. If it hadn't turned and made eye contact… maybe it would have held on a little longer…
A quiet rumble built in its chest—something like amusement, or maybe respect.
> But in the end… it overreached. Its body was already breaking; its soul—fragile from my first strike. Had it not been so weakened, I wouldn't have stood a chance. That sealing art might have crushed me completely.
That golden current—he was using it to cage my lightning, to bind my very energy. No brute force could have broken free of that.
The lizard exhaled softly, arcs of faint blue lightning crawling across its scales, lighting the ruined courtyard in intermittent flashes.
> Had I not attacked its soul when I did… had I let it tighten that seal any further…
It would have been me lying here, not it.
For a moment longer, it simply watched—the predator and its fallen prey, bound in a strange stillness that felt almost reverent.
It glanced once at the spear lying beside the corpse, its golden veins now dull and silent.
> This spirit tool was different from the others I've seen, what's its rank? —the lizard asked.
{System}
It's a spirit tool of mid-tier, Earth-grade.
> Mid-tier and still Earth-grade, but different from the other tools. It pushed my energy back when it struck, and its talisman barrier was a different kind—way stronger.
> What rank was its defensive talisman? —it asked.
{System}
The defensive barrier wasn't a talisman. It was the manifestation of a defensive spirit tool of high-tier Earth-grade.
The lizard's wide glowing gold eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
> Hmm — a spirit tool and one at high tier of Earth-grade. So that's why it was so strong and I couldn't break through—
Its eyes widened before narrowing again. Slowly, the lizard raised its head toward the darkened sky.
Above, hovering, was a figure wrapped in spiritual energy, looking down at the lizard that stared up at it.
---
Far beyond the courtyard, where mist still drifted through the narrow eaves of the estate, the fox froze mid-step.
Its turquoise eyes flicked open, catching the faintest shimmer of qi collapsing somewhere deep within the inner grounds. The sensation was distant—like a candle snuffed beneath layers of silk—yet unmistakable.
A pulse.
Then nothing.
The fox's fur rose slightly along its spine. It exhaled once, slow, letting the lingering tremor of that spiritual resonance fade across its senses.
> That pressure… gone.
So the Sixth Layer has fallen.
Its tail swayed once—thoughtful, not surprised.
> I thought it would drag out longer. I didn't expect a Sixth Layer to fall so quickly, even to that beast. But I underestimated it, it seems.
Mist coiled around its legs as it lifted its head, gaze turning toward the faint shimmer of violet lightning still dying above the distant courtyard.
For a moment, it simply watched—the last echoes of the clash playing across the horizon.
> Impressive… and troublesome. If I can sense this, the others will too. The Lin elders won't stay still after a fluctuation like that.
Before they begin scrambling to confirm what happened—I need to make my move. Let's see how many I can take out.