The mountain path leading toward the secluded peak of Ice Mystic Peak was wrapped in a dense, perpetual frost-mist. High above, the jagged grey cliffs of the mountain range blocked out the weak sunlight, casting long, eerie shadows across the narrow stone trail. The wind here did not merely blow; it howled through the narrow mountain passes like a mournful spirit, carrying with it the scent of frozen pine needles and damp earth.
Railin walked with quiet, unhurried steps. The soles of his black cloth boots made almost no sound against the damp, ice-slicked stones of the trail. His navy-blue robes, woven from specialized spirit-silk, fluttered gently in the cold draft. His hands remained tucked neatly inside his wide sleeves, his posture relaxed, as if he were merely taking a leisurely stroll through a quiet garden rather than navigating the treacherous mountain paths of a grand martial sect.
Yet, despite his outer calmness, Railin's refined Spiritual Sense was fully active, extending outward like an invisible, thread-fine web that covered a radius of over three hundred paces. Every rustle of a pine needle, every whisper of the freezing mountain air, and every minor variation in the local ambient elemental energy was registered clearly within his mind.
Having reached Early-Stage Four Foundation Establishment inside the Secret Realm of the Ancient Sun-Moon Abyss, Railin's divine sense was no longer comparable to ordinary cultivators of his age. His spiritual core was vast, solid, and refined—forged through the terrifying trial of surviving the spatial collapses and fighting off primordial void entities within the abyss.
'Six signature readings...' Railin thought silently, his dark pupils reflecting no emotion whatsoever. 'Two positioned high on the upper rocky overhangs holding long-range silent crossbows. Two concealed within the frozen earth beneath the path using shadow-concealment talismans. And two heavy-hitters blocking the narrow pass directly ahead.'
A faint, cold smirk flickered at the corner of Railin's lips, so fleeting it vanished almost instantly.
He knew precisely who had sent these men. Up on the VIP balcony of the Sun-Moon Plaza, the murderous intent radiating from his father's official wife—the mother of Hao-Lin and Shu-Lin—had been as glaring as a torch in pitch darkness. To that woman, Railin's very existence was a threat, a stain, and an unacceptable obstacle to her children's future dominance over the clan's legacy. She knew that if the family elders witnessed Railin's terrifying growth rate—surpassing Hao-Lin's Green-Rank Talent with ease despite his suppressed origins—the balance of power within the family would shift irrevocably.
'She moves quickly,' Railin reflected internally, continuing his steady walk forward without altering his breathing or pace. 'The portal sealed barely an hour ago, yet her covert network has already mobilized dark handymen to intercept me before I can reach the protection of Ice Mystic Peak's primary array. How predictable.'
Fifty paces ahead, hidden beneath the camouflage of a dense, frosted thicket, two men clad in unbranded, midnight-black leather armor held their breaths. Their bodies were covered in specialized shadow-concealment talismans that suppressed their heartbeat, body heat, and spiritual fluctuations to near-zero levels.
"Is that him?" one of the handymen transmitted via a tightly compressed spiritual voice-line to his partner crouching beside him on the icy ledge. "He moves too casually. Are you sure this kid just survived a month in the Sun-Moon Abyss and killed off the entire inner elite?"
"It's him," the partner replied coldly, his eyes narrowed as he adjusted the tension on a heavy, obsidian-black arbalest loaded with a poison-coated armor-piercing bolt. "Don't let his appearance fool you. Madam gave explicit orders—he must not leave this trail alive. His dantian must be shattered, his meridians severed, and his body tossed into the deep ravine below to look like an encounter with wild spirit beasts. Make sure your shot aims for his lower spine the moment he enters the spatial trapping circle."
"Hmph. He's just an illegitimate worm who got lucky inside a secret realm," the first handyman sneered quietly, his fingers hovering over the trigger mechanism. "No matter how strong his luck is, he is still just an Early-Stage Four brat who hasn't even had the time to consolidate his foundation. Against six trained Stage Four shadow-assassins equipped with clan-grade killing formations, he doesn't stand a chance."
As Railin's left boot stepped onto a grey, frost-covered cobblestone marked with a barely visible, intricate rune, the hidden trap was sprung.
BOOM—!
The quiet mountain trail suddenly exploded in a flash of dark crimson light!
A heavy, suffocating killing formation—the Six-Directional Blood-Lock Array—erupted from the ground! Crimson light-beams shot upward like blood-red spears, interlocking above the trail to form a dome-shaped barrier that isolated a hundred-foot zone from the outside world. The air within the barrier instantly turned heavy, filled with a sickening metallic stench that weighed down on a cultivator's spiritual energy flow like molten lead.
SWISH! SWISH!
Simultaneously, from the high rocky ledges above, two obsidian crossbow bolts tore through the fog! The bolts were coated in a dark, corrosive spiritual poison that hissed as it cut through the cold air, targeting Railin's heart and throat with lethal, terrifying speed!
From the frozen earth beneath the path, two black-robed figures burst upward like leaping vipers, their short daggers gleaming with dark blue light as they aimed for Railin's lower ribs and spine from behind!
And from the front, two heavy-armored shadow handymen stepped out of the mist, their massive broadswords radiating dense, dark crimson Qi as they swung downward in a coordinated, decapitating strike!
Six directionally perfect attacks, fully synchronized, striking at the exact millisecond the trapping array restricted his movement. It was a textbook execution layout designed by seasoned clan assassins who had slaughtered dozens of high-tier targets in the dark.
Against such a flawless, suffocating ambush, an ordinary Early-Stage Four cultivator would have panicked, their spiritual energy disrupted by the blood-lock array, leading to instant death or severe mutilation within the first breath.
Railin, however, did not even blink.
His pitch-black eyes remained completely calm, reflecting the incoming crimson light of the array without a single flicker of emotion.
'A Third-Grade Blood-Lock Array combined with mid-grade shadow assassins...' Railin thought, his mind operating at a terrifying, hyper-focused speed. 'Their coordination is decent, but their execution lacks absolute domain control.'
SHOOSH—!
Instead of drawing a weapon, Railin simply raised his left hand from his wide sleeve. His long, slender fingers spread slightly, and a faint, golden-hued energy—so subtle that it was almost invisible beneath the crimson glow of the array—began to circulate through his inner meridians.
It was not the standard icy-elemental Qi taught at Ice Mystic Peak, nor was it the shadowy energy utilized by Shadow Moon Peak. It was the pure, compressed, and terrifyingly dense energy born from his innate Golden Aptitude—the ancient, regal foundation that belonged exclusively to the Emperor-level qualification!
BOOM!
A soft, low hum echoed from deep within Railin's chest, like the awakening of a primordial dragon beneath a mountain!
Without moving his feet an inch, Railin casually swept his left sleeve in a circular motion!
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!
An invisible, dense spatial shockwave erupted from his body in a full 360-degree radius! The air around him distorted violently, as if space itself were being compressed and violently released!
The two incoming obsidian crossbow bolts shattered into fine black dust mid-air before they could even get within ten feet of his robes! The toxic poison coating on the bolts was instantly incinerated by the sheer heat generated by the compressed energy shockwave!
"WHAT?!" the two assassins on the upper ledge gasped in absolute horror!
Before they could reload, the shockwave expanded upward! The rocky overhangs beneath their feet fractured violently, exploding into thousands of sharp stone splinters! The two long-range snipers were blasted backward, their bodies slamming into the mountain wall behind them with sickening cracks as their chest armors caved in!
Simultaneously, Railin did not even turn around as the two daggers aimed for his back drew near.
He simply stepped half an inch to the side, his body gliding through the air like an intangible phantom—a high-level movement technique known as the Void-Gliding Step.
MISS!
The two daggers stabbed through empty air! The two subterranean assassins stumbled forward from the sheer momentum of their missed strikes, their eyes wide with disbelief as they realized their target had vanished from their line of sight!
"Too slow," a calm, chilling voice sounded directly behind them.
Before either assassin could turn their heads, Railin's right hand emerged from his sleeve like a phantom claw. His fingers, wrapped in a thin layer of golden spiritual Qi, struck out twice with lightning speed!
THUMP! THUMP!
His fingertips tapped precisely on the back of their necks—hitting the primary meridian nodes where their spiritual energy connected to their central nervous systems!
BANG! BANG!
The two subterranean assassins stiffened instantly. Their eyes rolled backward, blood spurted from their ears and noses, and their dariantian structures inside their abdomens violently ruptured under the sheer weight of Railin's injected golden Qi! They collapsed onto the frozen stone trail like lifeless puppets whose strings had been abruptly severed.
In less than three seconds, four of the six high-tier shadow assassins had been completely neutralized!
The remaining two heavy-armored handymen, who were in the middle of bringing down their massive broadswords from the front, froze mid-strike! A cold, paralyzing dread washed over them from head to toe. Their foreheads were instantly covered in cold sweat despite the freezing mountain air.
"H-How is this possible?!" the leader of the handymen stammered, his arms trembling as he held his broadsword. "He didn't use a talisman... he didn't even draw a spiritual weapon! How can an Early-Stage Four Foundation cultivator possess such terrifying physical force and spatial reaction?!"
Railin stood amidst the crimson glow of the blood-lock array, his navy robes unblemished. He casually withdrew his hands back into his wide sleeves, his dark gaze resting upon the two remaining handymen.
"Who instructed you to ambush an inner disciple on the mountain trail of Ice Mystic Peak?" Railin asked softly. His voice was smooth, melodic, and entirely devoid of anger, yet it echoed inside the minds of the two assassins like the chiming of a funeral bell.
The handyman leader gritted his teeth, suppressing his instinctual terror. As trained clan operatives, they were bound by strict blood-oaths; revealing the identity of their employer meant instant soul-destruction via the clan's controlling seal.
"Die, you arrogant bastard!" the leader roared, channeling every drop of his Stage Four spiritual energy into his broadsword! The blade erupted in fierce, blood-red flames as he lunged forward with a desperate, suicidal decapitation technique! "Do not think you can survive the clan's reach!"
Beside him, the second handyman also charged forward, his broadsword sweeping low to chop Railin off at the knees!
Railin shook his head gently, a trace of pity lingering in his dark eyes.
"Faithful dogs... but utterly blind," Railin murmured.
SWISH—!
Instead of dodging or parrying, Railin took a single step forward. The space around his right foot rippled, and in the span of a single millisecond, he bypassed the range of both swinging broadswords, reappearing directly between the two charging assassins!
His right hand shot out like a golden lightning bolt, gripping the throat of the handyman leader with iron-like strength!
GRAB!
The leader's momentum was instantly halted. He hung in mid-air, his broadsword dropping from his hand and clattering onto the stones as Railin lifted his heavy, broad-shouldered frame with a single arm!
At the same time, Railin's left foot delivered a subtle, whip-like kick to the second handyman's chest!
BOOM—!
The second handyman's heavy iron armor shattered into pieces upon impact! He flew backward like a cannonball, crashing through the crimson barrier of the blood-lock array and tumbling down the steep, dark ravine beside the mountain trail, his screams dying out in the foggy abyss below.
Now, only the leader remained, gasping for air as Railin's iron grip tightened around his neck.
"Ghh... k-kill me..." the leader choked out, his eyes bloodshot, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "You... you think you can escape... Madam's shadow? You... you are just a servant's bastard... a worthless stain on the bloodline..."
Railin looked up at the choking man, his expression remaining completely placid.
"A servant's bastard?" Railin repeated softly, his tone thoughtful rather than offended. He leaned in slightly, his face inches away from the dying assassin. "Is that what she told you? Is that what Hao-Lin, Shu-Lin, and the rest of the clan truly believe?"
The leader struggled to breathe, his consciousness beginning to fade as Railin's golden Qi slowly invaded his internal organs.
"Listen closely," Railin whispered, his voice so quiet that only the dying man could hear it beneath the howling mountain wind. "The clan patriarch hides my origin not because I am low-born... but because he fears what would happen if the world discovers whose blood truly flows within my veins."
The assassin's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated shock! A sudden wave of existential terror washed over him—not from the threat of death, but from the terrifying truth implied in Railin's words!
CRACK—!
Before the assassin could process the revelation, Railin casually snapped his neck with a flick of his wrist.
The leader's body went limp. Railin released his grip, allowing the corpse to drop heavily onto the cold stone path.
With the deaths of the assassins, the Six-Directional Blood-Lock Array lost its energy source. The crimson light-beams flickered violently before shattering like fragile glass, dissolving into harmless red sparks that drifted away in the mountain mist.
The mountain trail returned to its quiet, eerie stillness. The howling wind washed away the faint smell of blood, leaving only the crisp, freezing mountain air.
Railin stood alone in the center of the quiet trail. He glanced down at his navy robes, ensuring that not a single drop of blood had stained the fabric. Then, with smooth, unhurried steps, he continued walking along the frost-covered path toward the upper peaks of Ice Mystic Peak.
He knew that this failed ambush was merely the opening salvo of a much larger, darker war. His father's official wife would soon realize that her secret handymen had failed, and her desperation would only grow stronger. She would push Hao-Lin and Shu-Lin to use their political influence within Sword Peak, Shadow Moon Peak, and the Central Council to corner him through official sect channels.
Furthermore, Railin knew that he could not remain inside the sect forever. To reach the ultimate height he sought, he needed to progress from Stage Four through to the Quasi-Saint (Half-Saint) realm. Only when he consolidated his strength at the Quasi-Saint level would he finally take the official leave granted by the sect elders to return to his family estate after years of absence.
And when that day came... the carefully guarded secrets of his true bloodline, the hypocritical hierarchy of the clan, and the debt owed to his mother would all be settled in blood and gold.
'First, I must consolidate my Stage Four foundation and enter secluded cultivation at Ice Mystic Peak,' Railin thought as the tall, frost-covered gates of his peak appeared through the dense mist ahead. 'Let Hao-Lin and Shu-Lin play their little political games. In the face of absolute strength, all schemes are merely dust.'
His figure slowly disappeared into the white fog of Ice Mystic Peak, his pitch-black eyes gleaming with an unwavering, predatory light.
SEE YOU IN NEXT CHAPTER!