The Great Hall of the Azure Cloud Sect was a masterpiece of architectural intimidation. Twelve
pillars of obsidian, carved with dragons, held up a ceiling painted to resemble the starry night. At
the far end, raised on a dais of white marble, sat the Sect Master's throne.
For three hundred years, Sect Master Zhang had sat there. He was a man of the mid-stage
Nascent Soul realm—a formidable cultivation, but one he had achieved in his four hundredth
year. He was old. His vitality was waning.
Today, the hall was full. Every Elder, every core disciple, and every deacon stood in rows, heads
bowed. The silence was so absolute that the sound of a fly buzzing would have sounded like a
war drum.
Li Wei stood in the back corner, hidden in the shadows of a pillar. He wore his gray servant
robes, which were stained with soot from his night in the cave. He clutched a broom, pretending
to sweep dust that didn't exist. It was his camouflage.
The doors boomed open.
Su Mei entered.
She didn't walk. She glided, her feet hovering an inch above the polished stone. She wore new
robes—not the white of a disciple, but the deep, imperial purple of a ruler. The fabric shimmered
with protective enchantments that hurt the eyes of weaker cultivators.
Behind her, the air distorted. The pressure of her newly consolidated Nascent Soul aura flooded
the hall. It wasn't the warm, ocean-like pressure of Sect Master Zhang. It was a glacier. It was
the weight of a collapsing mountain.
Disciples fell to their knees instantly, gasping for air. Elders trembled, circulating their Qi
desperately to remain standing.
Only Sect Master Zhang remained seated, though his knuckles were white as he gripped the
armrests of his throne.
"Su Mei," Zhang said, his voice steady but strained. "You have successfully advanced. The sect
rejoices. A new Ancestor is born."
"Rejoices?" Su Mei stopped in the center of the hall. She looked at the old man. Her eyes were
devoid of respect. "Then why do I smell fear, Sect Master?"
"We fear the heavens," Zhang replied diplomatically. "And we respect power."
"Respect is earned," Su Mei said. "Power is taken."
She took another step forward. The temperature in the hall dropped. Frost began to creep up
the obsidian pillars.
"I have reviewed the sect's records," Su Mei announced, her voice amplified so it reached every
corner of the room. "We are stagnant. We hoard resources for the old, while the young starve.
We fear the Blood Fire Sect, we fear the Spirit Beast Tide, we fear conflict. This is the path of
the turtle, hiding in its shell."
She looked at the Elders. "I am not a turtle. I am a Phoenix."
Sect Master Zhang stood up. "Su Mei! You are talented, yes. But you are young. You do not
understand governance. You do not understand the delicate balance of the cultivation world!"
"Balance?" Su Mei laughed. It was a chilling sound. "Balance is a lie weak men tell themselves
to justify their lack of ambition. There is no balance. There is only the strong eating the weak."
She raised her hand.
"I challenge the seat."
The hall erupted in gasps. To challenge the Sect Master was a right written in the ancient laws, but it hadn't been invoked in a millennium. It usually meant a death match.
"You dare?" Zhang's aura flared. "I took you in! I gave you resources!"
"You gave me nothing I did not take for myself," Su Mei countered. "And you gave my husband
a broom."
Li Wei gripped the broom handle tighter. She had mentioned him. For a second, hope flared.
Was she doing this for him? To avenge his humiliation?
Su Mei continued, "You wasted his potential as a logistical manager by forcing him to sweep
floors. It is inefficient. It offends my sense of order."
Li Wei's hope died. It wasn't love. It was efficiency. She was mad that a good calculator was
being used as a doorstop.
"Fine!" Zhang roared. "If you want the throne, come take it!"
He summoned his Dharma Treasure—a massive golden bell. He struck it, sending a sonic wave
of destruction toward her.
Su Mei didn't move. She didn't summon a weapon. She simply glared.
Mental oppression.
The sonic wave hit an invisible wall of will ten feet in front of her and shattered.
Su Mei pointed a finger. "Kneel."
It wasn't a spell. It was the raw application of the Soul Hierarchy. Her soul, refined by the
System and the Ice Sutra, was of a quality far surpassing Zhang's aging spirit.
CRACK.
The golden bell split down the middle.
Sect Master Zhang vomited blood. His knees buckled. He tried to fight it, his face turning purple,
veins popping on his forehead. But the pressure was absolute. It was the difference between a
candle and the sun.
He crashed to his knees.
The hall went silent.
Su Mei walked past the kneeling, broken man. She ascended the stairs to the dais. She turned
around and sat on the throne. It was too big for her slender frame, yet she filled it completely.
"From today," she declared, "The Azure Cloud Sect is dissolved. We are now the Frozen
Heaven Empire."
"Hail the Empress!" a quick-witted Elder shouted, dropping his forehead to the floor.
"Hail the Empress!" The rest joined in a chorus of terrified obedience.
Li Wei stood in the back. He didn't bow. He just watched.
Su Mei looked out over the sea of bowed heads. Her gaze swept over the corner where Li Wei
stood. She paused for a microsecond, then moved on.
She reached up to her hair. She pulled out a simple wooden hairpin—a cheap thing Li Wei had
carved for her on their first anniversary. It was the last piece of mortal clothing she wore.
"This thing," she muttered, looking at it with disdain. "It is brittle. It cannot hold my hair in the
wind."
She crushed it.
Splinters of wood fell onto her lap. She brushed them off as if they were dandruff.
From her spatial ring, she pulled out a Phoenix Blood Jade hairpin, glowing with red and gold
light—a treasure she had likely looted from the Blood Fire Sect. She slid it into her hair.
"Perfect," she whispered.
Li Wei looked at the broom in his hand. He looked at the splinters on the floor near the
throne—too far away to reach, too small to save.
The wooden hairpin had been imbued with a simple mortal prayer he had carved into the inside:
'May we grow old together.' She hadn't even looked at the inscription before she crushed it.
[System Alert: Emotional Anchor Destroyed.] [Item: 'The Promise Hairpin' - Status:
Deleted.] [Support Points Gained: 0.] [Reason: Trash has no value.]
Li Wei leaned the broom against the pillar. He turned and walked out of the Grand Hall, leaving
the new Empress to her adoring subjects. The sun was shining outside, but Li Wei felt cold. He
realized he was no longer the husband of the Sect Leader. He was just a ghost haunting the
palace of a god.