Luo Tian stood amidst the smoldering ruins of the auction house, the stolen Heavenly Spirit Herb pulsing in his grip like a second heartbeat. The screams had faded, replaced by an eerie silence broken only by the crackle of dying flames. He brought the herb to his lips and swallowed it whole.
Fire exploded through his meridians.
His blood—sealed and dormant since birth—ignited with power. Visions flashed before his eyes: a dragon of void-black scales shattering mountains with its roar, its eyes burning with the same blue light that now coursed through Luo Tian's veins.
[BLOODLINE AWAKENED: VOID-SHATTERING DRAGON.]
[WARNING: HOST DETECTED. HEAVENLY SWORD SECT ELIMINATION SQUAD INBOUND.]
Luo Tian grinned. "Let them come."
Elder Bai had seen countless battles in his three centuries of life, but nothing prepared him for the scene at the auction house. Charred corpses. Frozen bodies mid-scream. And at the center of it all—Luo Feng, barely alive, his cultivation shattered.
"Luo Tian did this?" The elder's grip tightened around his Frostblade. "A cripple?"
"H-he's not human anymore," Feng whimpered, his eyes hollow. "He—he stole my qi. Like a demon!"
Elder Bai signaled his disciples. Twenty of the sect's finest, each at least at the late Qi Condensation stage. More than enough to handle one rogue disciple.
Or so he thought.
They found Luo Tian waiting for them in the forest, leaning against a tree as if he had all the time in the world.
"Elder Bai," Luo Tian said, nodding. "I remember you. You once told me I'd never be worthy of the Luo name."
The elder's blade gleamed. "And I was right. Whatever demonic arts you've learned won't save you today."
Luo Tian pushed off the tree. "Let's test that."
Elder Bai struck first, his Frozen Cloud Palm technique turning the air to ice. Luo Tian didn't dodge.
[TECHNIQUE ANALYZED: FROZEN CLOUD PALM. FLAWS DETECTED: 7.]
Luo Tian's own palm met the elder's—but where Bai's technique merely froze, his shattered.
The shockwave ripped through Bai's arm, bones splintering. Before the elder could scream, Luo Tian grabbed his throat.
"Your technique is flawed," he whispered. "Let me show you how it's done."
Blue light erupted from Luo Tian's hand. Ice crawled up Bai's body—not just freezing him, but reconstructing his cells into jagged crystalline structures. When Luo Tian released him, the elder's body collapsed into a pile of glittering shards.
The disciples broke. Some fled. Some attacked in blind panic. None survived.
Only one remained—a young woman in white robes, her sword trembling in her hands.
"Y-you monster!" she spat, tears streaming down her face. "The Sect Master will—"
Luo Tian appeared before her in a blur, his hand closing around her wrist. "Tell him I'm coming," he said, then released her.
She stumbled back, confused.
"Run," he ordered.
And she did.
[STRATEGIC ANALYSIS: SURVIVING WITNESS INCREASES SECT'S FEAR BY 89%.]
The Heavenly Sword Sect had stood unshaken for a thousand years. Its grand hall, carved from celestial jade, had witnessed the rise of emperors and the fall of dynasties.
Now, it witnessed panic.
Sect Master Luo Zheng stared at the trembling disciple—Mei Ling—as she recounted the massacre. His eldest son, crippled. Elder Bai, dead. Twenty elite disciples, slaughtered like common bandits.
"Impossible," he whispered.
Grand Elder Hong, the sect's most cunning elder, stroked his beard. "Not impossible. Inevitable."
All eyes turned to him.
"That boy was always special," Hong continued, his voice dripping with dark amusement. "Buried potential. And now something has awoken it." His eyes gleamed. "I want him alive. His secrets will be mine."
Far from the sect, atop a crumbling watchtower, a hooded figure lowered a bronze telescope.
"Fascinating," he murmured.
A mechanical wristband hummed to life, projecting a hologram of a ruined cityscape. A distorted voice crackled: "Report."
"Echo Unit located," the figure said. "Host is unstable... but promising."
"Recover it. The Sky Empire's legacy belongs to us."
The figure vanished in a ripple of light.
Luo Tian stood before a bandit fortress, its gates already broken, its former owners now his unwilling followers. They knelt before him, their foreheads pressed to the dirt.
"The Heavenly Sword Sect has three treasures," he mused aloud. "The Soul-Refining Cauldron. The Sky-Severing Sword Manual." His eyes darkened. "And my father's head."
A scout burst into the hall. "My lord! The sect—they're mobilizing their forces! Five elders, led by Grand Elder Hong himself!"
Luo Tian's smile sent chills down every spine in the room.
"Good," he said. "Let's give them a war they'll never forget."