The atmosphere around the Blood-Mist Lake was suffocatingly heavy, thick with a crimson vapor so dense it resembled microscopic droplets of blood suspended in mid-air. The wind here did not blow; it crawled, carrying a pungent, metallic stench of ancient iron, decaying spirit herbs, and subterranean sulfur. At the center of the dark red water, barely visible through the swirling scarlet fog, stood a towering, jagged stone pillar known as the Crimson Trial Altar. Atop this natural pedestal, three high-grade trial tokens floated inside a sphere of translucent blue array light, pulsing rhythmically like a dying heart.
Surrounding the muddy banks of the lake was an elite hunting perimeter painstakingly established by the noble faction of the Imperial Dragon Peak.
Twelve inner disciples, all possessing formidable Ninth Level Spirit Refining cultivation bases, were strategically positioned along the perimeter in a precise geometric pattern. They were maintaining the Nine-Dragon Blood-Lock Array—a high-grade suppression spell designed to seal the central altar and lock down spirit qi fluctuations within a half-mile radius.
At the eye of this defensive formation stood a tall, broad-shouldered youth dressed in immaculate, silver-and-gold trimmed inner disciple robes. This was Senior Disciple Zhao Kang—the right-hand man of Senior Disciple Lu and a recognized powerhouse who had achieved the Half-Step Foundation Establishment realm six months prior. He stood with his hands folded behind his back, his posture rigid and arrogant, while a massive black steel broadsword rested against a red karst boulder beside him.
"Senior Brother Zhao," a thin-faced disciple reported, stepping out of the red mist with a respectful bow, his breath condensing into faint white vapors. "Our scout teams along the eastern ridge and the western ravine have not sent their scheduled spiritual transmissions for over an hour. Should we send a squad to investigate the perimeter?"
Zhao Kang's lips curled into a cold, contemptuous sneer. He did not even bother turning his head to look at the reporting disciple.
"No need," Zhao Kang replied, his voice echoing with heavy, resonant spirit qi. "The scouts are likely just sweeping up the remaining commoner rats who managed to crawl out of the outer forest. Senior Brother Lu's orders are absolute: seal the trial altar, execute anyone who approaches the shoreline, and force that commoner trash Railin to come straight into our trap. If he stays hidden in the woods like a frightened dog, he fails the trial and loses his inner disciple status anyway. And if he dares to show his face here..."
Zhao Kang reached out, his long fingers lightly tapping the ornate hilt of his broadsword. His eyes flashed with a lethal, crimson glint.
"...he dies on this bank, and his blood will serve as the primary fuel for our blood-lock array."
"Is that so?"
A voice suddenly cut through the heavy, stagnant silence of the lake shore. It did not come from the western forest path where the nobles expected an attack, but from the frozen, frost-laden boundary of the northern ridge.
The voice was quiet, calm, and utterly void of human emotion, yet it vibrated with a dark, pressurized aura that sent a violent jolt of cold terror straight down the spines of all twelve disciples.
Zhao Kang snapped his head toward the northern mist, his hand instantly wrapping around his sword hilt. "Who's there?!"
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Before the echo of his roar could fade, a blinding wave of razor-sharp frost energy ripped through the crimson fog!
Su Chen, the icy Core Disciple of the Ice Mystic Peak, materialized out of the red mist like a vengeful winter phantom. Her frost-white robes fluttered violently as her slender, translucent rapier danced in fluid, lethal arcs. With every flick of her wrist, three-foot-long blades of pure glacial ice erupted from the frozen air, slamming directly into the eastern flank of the noble formation!
"Enemy attack! It's the Ice Mystic Peak!" the thin-faced disciple shrieked, pulling his saber from its sheath in a panic. "Maintain the formation! Reinforce the eastern array eye!"
Four Ninth Level disciples immediately broke from their designated positions, charging toward Su Chen to intercept her barrage. The vibrant blue ice energy collided violently with their aggressive, flame-infused dragon-style qi, unleashing a chaotic shockwave that sent red mud and freezing lake water flying thirty feet into the air.
"Stupid girl," Zhao Kang barked, a vicious, cruel smile stretching across his face as he observed her attack. "You lost your squad in the forest and came here alone to seek death? Break her limbs! Keep her alive so Senior Brother Lu can deal with her later!"
As the remaining eight disciples shifted their focus and spirit sense to support the defensive line against Su Chen, none of them noticed the shadow detaching itself from the muddy bank directly behind their western flank.
Railin had entered the battlefield.
He did not use flashy movement arts, nor did he unleash a burst of noisy spirit qi that would alert his prey. Channeling his newly condensed Half-Step Foundation Establishment core to its absolute, silent peak, Railin moved like an invisible phantom across the mud, his dark navy robes blending seamlessly with the swirling red mist.
His targets were the two disciples maintaining the western array eye—the critical power node sustaining the Nine-Dragon Blood-Lock Array.
The Eclipse Soul Scripture — Twin Soul Needles!
Buzz!
From the dark, polished soul sphere hovering inside Railin's upper dantian, two invisible needles forged of razor-sharp mental force shot forth. Moving at speeds that defied physical perception, they pierced through the crimson fog and slammed directly into the backs of the two disciples' skulls.
THWACK! THWACK!
The two Ninth Level disciples did not even have time to register an enemy's presence. Their eyes instantly rolled into the back of their heads, blood spurting wildly from their nostrils as their seas of consciousness were torn to shreds from the inside out. They collapsed like puppets with their strings severed, dropping face-first into the bloody mud without making a single sound.
"What?!" Zhao Kang's eyes widened in sudden shock as he felt the array's energy surge violently. "The western node collapsed! How could it—"
Before the sentence could leave his mouth, Railin erupted from the red mud like a starvation-crazed beast rising from the abyss.
He drew no steel. His fingers curled into dark blue talons wrapped in swirling, pitch-black devouring energy.
The Ashen Devouring Technique — Shadow Claw!
SPLUP!
Railin's right hand stabbed forward with terrifying precision, punching straight through the heavy chest plate of a third disciple, plunging his fingers deep into the youth's sternum. Without a millisecond of delay, Railin activated the dark gravitational vortex inside his palm.
VRRRRRR!
"AAAGHHHH!" The disciple let out a blood-curdling, guttural scream that echoed across the entire lake basin, freezing the hearts of his comrades.
In full view of the horror-struck Imperial Dragon Peak disciples, their companion's athletic body began shriveling up at a visible, terrifying speed. His skin turned gray and leathery, his eyes dried into hollow sockets, and his rich Ninth Level spirit qi and vital blood essence were violently ripped from his body, flowing up through Railin's arm and pouring into his lower dantian.
Within three seconds, the shriveled husk collapsed into a pile of fine black powder, scattered by the mountain wind.
"Demonic technique!" a nearby disciple screamed, his face turning as pale as a corpse as he stumbled backward. "He's a demonic cultivator! KILL HIM! KILL HIM NOW!"
"PANIC IS DEATH!" Zhao Kang roared, his broadsword erupting with blinding golden flames as he leaped high into the air. "I'll chop you into pieces myself, commoner trash!"
Zhao Kang brought his massive broadsword down with the crushing weight of a falling mountain. A twenty-foot crescent blade of golden dragon fire cut through the air, burning away the red fog and aiming straight for Railin's head!
CRASH!
Railin did not dodge, nor did he retreat an inch.
He raised his left hand flat into the sky, establishing the Void Wall. The black gravitational whirlpool erupted from his palm, expanding into a three-foot barrier of dark blue, churning energy.
BOOM!
The explosive kinetic force blew open a ten-foot crater in the muddy shore beneath Railin's feet, but his left arm remained completely rigid, unbending under the immense pressure. The black vortex churned violently, swallowing the golden fire qi whole, grinding it down, and converting it into raw spirit essence that Railin instantly funneled into his leg meridians!
"What?!" Zhao Kang's heart skipped a beat, his mind reeling in absolute disbelief. His full-force strike, backed by a Half-Step Foundation Establishment base, had been completely devoured without leaving a single scratch on the commoner youth!
Swoosh.
Before Zhao Kang could pull back his broadsword, Railin vanished from his sight.
"Behind you!" Su Chen's crisp voice echoed from across the muddy shoreline, where she had successfully immobilized four other disciples under a heavy blanket of icy needles.
Zhao Kang's battle instincts saved his life for a fraction of a second. He spun his body violently, swinging the heavy flat side of his broadsword back to shield his chest.
CLANG!
Railin's right fist—encased in a dense layer of dark blue lightning and devouring qi—slammed directly into the broadsword.
The violent shockwave snapped the high-grade iron blade in half like a dry twig! The residual kinetic force smashed into Zhao Kang's ribs, shattering three bones and sending him skidding fifty feet across the mud, coughing up a mouthful of dark crimson blood.
"Half-Step... Foundation Establishment?!" Zhao Kang gasped, staring at Railin with absolute, unadulterated terror as he clutched his bleeding chest. "Impossible! You were only at the Eighth Level three days ago!"
Railin stepped forward slowly through the red fog, his black eyes deep, calm, and utterly devoid of mercy. The dark blue lightning crackling around his hands cast a sinister, ethereal glow across his sharp features.
"Senior Disciple Lu sent you here to wait for a rat," Railin said softly, his flat voice cutting through the chaotic sounds of slaughter around the lake. "He miscalculated. You didn't set a trap for a rat. You built an altar for your own execution."
Swish! Swish!
Two remaining disciples tried to flee into the deep crimson water of the lake, thoroughly broken by the horrific sight of their Half-Step leader being crippled in a single exchange.
Railin did not even turn to face them. He flicked his left wrist twice in quick succession.
THWACK! THWACK!
Two refined Soul Needles pierced their skulls instantly. Their lifeless bodies splashed face-down into the bloody water, floating motionless on the surface.
Within less than three minutes, ten of the twelve elite disciples of the Imperial Dragon Peak lay dead—their vital essences reduced to gray dust or floating in the crimson lake. The remaining two were completely trapped by Su Chen's absolute zero frost array, frozen to their chests in solid glacial ice.
Zhao Kang struggled frantically to stand up, his blood-covered hand reaching into his robes to pull a high-level spiritual signal flare. "If I die... Brother Lu will hunt you to the very ends of the sect—"
Swoosh.
Railin blurred forward, appearing directly over Zhao Kang like a shadow of death.
Before Zhao Kang could pull the cord of the signal flare, Railin's leather boot came down like an iron press, crushing Zhao Kang's right wrist into a sickening mess of shattered bone and torn flesh!
"AGHH!" Zhao Kang screamed in agony, his face contorting in pain.
Railin leaned down, grabbing Zhao Kang by the collar of his golden-trimmed white robe and lifting him off the ground with one hand.
"Tell me," Railin murmured into Zhao Kang's ear, his dark blue devouring vortex already beginning to hum against the youth's chest. "Where is Senior Disciple Lu right now?"
Zhao Kang's eyes were bloodshot, filled with a mixture of excruciating pain and pure horror as he felt his vitality slowly draining into Railin's palm.
"He... he is inside the... Crimson Core Cavern... beneath the central altar..." Zhao Kang choked out, his voice reduced to a broken, wet whisper. "He is... using the ancient spirit vein... to break through to the true... Foundation Establishment Realm... You're... already too late..."
Railin's dark eyes narrowed slightly.
"I see," Railin whispered flatly. "Then I won't keep him waiting."
VRRRRRR!
The devouring vortex exploded with full power. Zhao Kang's body twitched violently as his Half-Step Foundation Establishment cultivation base, vital blood essence, and soul remnants were ruthlessly extracted in a thick stream of golden and blue energy.
Within ten seconds, the proud right-hand man of the noble faction was reduced to a withered, brittle skeleton that shattered into fine black dust as Railin released his grip.
BOOM!
The massive influx of Half-Step spirit essence surged into Railin's lower dantian. The liquid core inside him churned violently, expanding his meridians to their absolute limit. The dark blue lightning around his body grew visibly denser, wrapping around his forearms like crackling serpents.
Railin turned around slowly.
Su Chen stood twenty feet away, her slender ice rapier dripping with dark blue blood. The last two disciples lay completely frozen at her feet, their life signs extinguished. She stared at Railin, her pale face tight, her breathing slightly uneven as she witnessed the total annihilation of the Imperial Dragon Peak's elite squad.
She had known he was dangerous, but seeing him slaughter a Half-Step Foundation Establishment cultivator and eleven Ninth Level disciples in under three minutes was beyond anything she had imagined.
"He's in the Crimson Core Cavern," Su Chen said, breaking the heavy silence. "If Senior Disciple Lu completes his breakthrough into the true Foundation Establishment realm, neither of us will leave this mountain alive."
Railin looked toward the jagged stone pillar at the center of the lake, where a dark subterranean tunnel entrance was partially visible beneath the water line.
"Then we make sure he doesn't complete it," Railin said coldly, his voice echoing over the silent, blood-soaked lake.
He stepped into the red water, heading straight for the cavern entrance.
See you in next chapter.....