The stone lion statue—my contracted beast—the one that usually lay there with dead eyes,pretending to be noble and lazy—
stood up.
On two legs.
Like a drunk old man rising from sleep.
Then it shook.
Violently.Aggressively.As if trying to eject a lung.
"UURRRRK—!!"
Its stone throat bulged.
Everyone stared.
"Is… is it choking?" Feng Qingzi whispered.
"No," Yan Ruyu said, horrified."It's… it's vomiting."
The lion's body convulsed—
HURRRKKK!!!
—and with a wet grinding sound of stone scraping against stone—
it spat out a spear.
A full spear.
My spear.
I spun it once.
The clouds above distorted.
Then—
Its weight settled into my palm like a sleeping dragon exploding awake.
I didn't pause.
I simply lowered my stance, let qi coil around my legs—
and jumped.
The world blurred beneath me.Rain tore apart around me.Wind screamed past my ears.
In a single breath, I shot into the sky, spear trailing starry arcs behind me like the tail of a heavenly comet.
Below, my four cultivator companions shouted in panic:
"WHY IS HE ANGRY AGAIN?!"
"HE SHOT THE HEAVEN-CLEAVING SPEAR IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE—!!"
Yan Ruyu grabbed the smallest of their group by the collar and tossed him up.
The monk cupped his hands in prayer and leapt.
Lin Chao shouted,
"THE STONE LION—!!! HURRY!!!"
The stone lion statue roared awake, its body expanding with golden light.
Before the prince could even say a word, all four cultivators leapt onto its back—slamming into place like they'd trained for this moment their whole lives.
The lion surged forward.
Its paws ripped through earth, qi bursting under each step.
It chased the starry trail streaking across the sky—
Rain dripping from my hair.My clothes fluttering from the lingering surge of qi.The prince staring wide-eyed.
Lightning cracked far behind the clouds where my spear vanished.
"She thinks a glare can scare me?"
But far above—
I didn't care.
My eyes were fixed on the direction my shadow had died.
My voice rumbled like distant thunder:
"Ningyue…you think a demon's threat will make me step back?"
The spear flared.
"I'll show you how a Hero fights a demon."
He descended as lightning itself.
Thunder spiraled beneath his feet, each crackle of electric qi launching him forward in blinding bursts. Every shift of his silhouette erased a portion of the storm clouds—as if the sky itself feared to stand in his path.
From below, the four cultivators riding the stone lion watched the figure in the air with trembling hearts.
That was no human.
A single bolt of lightning coiled around his arm, condensing along his spear like a celestial dragon curling around its chosen weapon.
Then—
Han Tianci unleashed a spear wrapped in the wrath of heaven, a streak of white-blue lightning that tore open the clouds from one horizon to the other. The sky cracked. Mountains quaked. Rain distorted mid-fall, turning to steam around the weapon's passage.
The spear screamed downward—a divine decree aimed at a single point on earth.
The cave.
Hidden beneath a crumbling ridge.A place where sunlight refused to step.Where Ningyue—demoness, devourer of life—waited.
BOOOOOM—!!!
The spear struck the cave mouth with annihilating force.
Stone shattered like brittle paper.Fire exploded outward in rings.The ridge trembled, dust erupting in roiling clouds.
And from within the falling rubble—
Han Tianci appeared.
One moment the sky held thunder.The next, thunder was standing inside the cave.
His arrival wasn't flight—it was teleportation.Flash to flash.Bolt to bolt.Each movement an insult to the laws of nature.
His boots hit the ground with a shockwave that forced the dust back from him in a perfect circle.
Sparks danced across the cavern walls.
The spear was embedded in the earth, still quivering from the force of its descent—like a beast panting after devouring prey.
Han Tianci reached forward.
Gripped the haft.
Pulled it from the ground in one fluid, merciless motion.
Lightning trailed from the blade, dripping like molten stars.
Only then did he look up.
At the throne of stone in the center of the cavern.
At the demon sitting upon it.
Ningyue.
She reclined casually on her throne, one leg crossed over the other, white fingertips playing with a small spider that skittered obediently across her palm like a pet.
Her golden eyes lifted.
A smile touched her lips.
Not fear.Not surprise.Mockery.
Han Tianci's jaw tightened.Veins rose along his neck and temple, pulsing with suppressed fury.
He raised his spear.
The entire cavern trembled as if anticipating the strike.
His voice was low—calm only in the way an earthquake is calm before it swallows a city.
"Demon," he said, thunder echoing behind the single word."Today… meet justice."
Ningyue blinked once.
Then laughed.
Soft.Light.Cruel.
Like a blade being sharpened on bone.
Her eyes turned dark.
The spider danced.Shadows thickened.The cavern darkened as if the night itself exhaled.
Han Tianci took a single step forward.
Lightning roared.
And the battle began.