Chương 114: Chapter 5: Commotion and Healing

The Hanshui Sect. Since returning from the Golden Core Ascension Ceremony at the Xuanxiao Sect, the Sect Master, Daoist Feng Han, had remained in secluded cultivation for half a month. Today, he had abruptly emerged, summoning his disciples to the grand plaza before the main hall. He had opened a public forum, offering to resolve any cultivation bottlenecks or doubts his followers might be facing.

On the raised lecture platform, Feng Han sat cross-legged, his voice resonating across the square as he addressed a specific query from a senior disciple.

"The Gilded Water Sword Scripture is a Mid-tier Profound-grade manual, a dual-element technique of Water and Metal. To master it, one must harbor the intent of both elements simultaneously—finding the rigidity within the fluid and the grace within the sharp. You cannot force this through brute strength alone. However, when the moment of breakthrough arrives, you must charge forward with unstoppable momentum.

Only by harmonizing the soft and the hard can you achieve twice the result with half the effort, accelerating your cultivation speed exponentially." As Feng Han finished his explanation, he noted the looks of enlightenment dawning on the faces of his disciples. He nodded with quiet satisfaction. But in that very instant, his expression twisted into a mask of pure terror. His eyes fixed onto the southeastern horizon, trembling with an instinctual dread.

Two streaks of blinding radiance tore through the clouds like falling stars. Even from hundreds of meters away, the sheer, oppressive weight of their spiritual pressure made the air turn leaden. The disciples' faces drained of color, their breaths hitching in their chests as they stared at the sky in shock. The lights did not slow down. They shrieked over the Hanshui Sect, heading straight for the northwest with a thunderous roar that shook the very foundations of the buildings.

Only after the lights had vanished into the distance did the tension in Feng Han's face begin to thaw, though his brow remained deeply furrowed.

"Qingxiaozi and Dan Chenzi..." he whispered to himself, his voice shaking.

"Those two old monsters were radiating a murderous intent so thick it was palpable. What in the heavens has happened? Is there anyone left in the North Yue State who would dare provoke them to such a degree?" Whish! Whish! Whish! Before his thoughts could settle, a barrage of sonic booms erupted in the sky. The sound grew from a distant hum to a deafening cacophony. Feng Han looked up again, his heart sinking. Hundreds of streaks of light—a rainbow of spiritual energies—were following the first two.

He felt no admiration for the spectacle; instead, his lips trembled uncontrollably. He watched in stunned silence as a literal army of murderous cultivators swept across the sky.

"The sky over North Yue State... it's about to change," Feng Han muttered, his face ashen. He looked down at his confused and frightened disciples and let out a heavy sigh. He waved his hand dismissively.

"All of you, disperse! From this day forward, no disciple of the Hanshui Sect is permitted to step foot outside the mountain gates. Anyone who defies this order will be punished with the utmost severity!"

At Beiming Mountain, an elder from a minor sect was overseeing a field trial for several high-aptitude disciples. He watched with a critical eye as his students struggled against a Level 1 Demon Wolf. Occasionally, he would lean in to offer advice to the respectful young men and women standing beside him.

"Observe your Senior Brother Feng's footwork carefully," the elder lectured.

"As a cultivator, raw power is important, but combat experience is indispensable. Back when I was a mere Qi Condensation practitioner, I witnessed a rogue cultivator at the Early Foundation Establishment stage slaughter a descendant of a prestigious clan who was at the Middle stage. He won because of his relentless momentum and his wealth of battle-hardened experience." The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Yes, Martial Uncle!" the juniors replied in unison, their eyes filled with awe and reverence. The elder nodded, prepared to continue his lecture, but the words died in his throat. His eyes widened in sudden horror. From the southeast, two streaks of blinding light roared overhead. The violent fluctuations of spiritual power and the bone-chilling killing intent caused the elder's body to lock up instantly. He didn't dare move a muscle.

Behind him, his disciples collapsed to the ground, their robes instantly soaked through with cold sweat. The streaks passed in a matter of heartbeats, vanishing over the horizon.

"Golden Core cultivators!" The elder's face darkened with grim realization.

"This place is no longer safe. We must leave immediately before things turn for the worse!" Without waiting for a response, he struck his forehead, summoning a flying sword artifact. The blade expanded in the air until it was several yards long. Once the trembling disciples scrambled onto it, he pinched a mudra and shouted, "Go!" A flash of azure light erupted, and the sword shot into the distance at maximum speed.

As the two Golden Core masters of the Xuanxiao Sect led their disciples on a warpath across the province, they left a trail of terrified cultivators in their wake. Once the initial shock wore off, the local practitioners grew somber and hurried back to their respective sects. When the news finally broke, the entire cultivation world of North Yue State was shaken to its core. The tension reached a breaking point when word arrived that the Earth Fiend Sect had officially entered a state of total lockdown.

An undercurrent of chaos began to surge through the province, casting a dark shadow over the hearts of every cultivator. Meanwhile, the man responsible for this massive upheaval lay unconscious in a remote mountain cave, completely oblivious to the storm he had unleashed. Reyn slowly regained consciousness. His body felt like it had been crushed and reassembled poorly. He sat up with agonizing slowness and swept his Divine Sense through his internal organs, only to let out a bitter, self-deprecating laugh.

The battle to slay Ancestor Ming Diao had been brief, but Reyn had been forced to exhaust every card in his hand. Using that high-grade Dan Treasure to pin the old monster within the range of the Hundred-Beast Poison Pill had subjected him to a devastating backlash.

"I lost several artifacts and ended up with these heavy injuries... but to put that old bastard Ming Diao in the ground, it was worth it," Reyn thought, a flicker of grim satisfaction crossing his eyes. With Ming Diao dead, the Lei Clan was finally safe from that particular threat.

"I wonder if Lei Tianqi made it back to the sect... and what the situation is like outside." Reyn frowned, a trace of worry clouding his face, but he quickly dismissed it. He was in no condition to move.

"No matter. I must focus on my recovery. Mo Yu! The day I return will be the day you pay your debt in blood!" A flash of killing intent sparked in Reyn's eyes before he reached into his storage bag. He pulled out several jade bottles and lined them up. Opening one, he poured out a fragrant, milky-white ointment and began applying it to his mangled flesh. The medicine was absorbed instantly, and his bloody wounds began to scab over at a visible rate. Within minutes, the external damage was mostly stabilized.

With the surface wounds tended to, Reyn swallowed several spirit pills and began the arduous process of refining their medicinal potency to heal his internal meridians. Time blurred. As the pills in the jade bottles dwindled, Reyn's erratic aura began to smooth out. A vibrant, surging vitality slowly radiated from his body, filling the small cave. Several days later, a strange fluctuation of spiritual power began to ripple outward from the cave.

To any experienced cultivator, this was a telltale sign—the phenomenon of a practitioner's internal energy being purified and condensed during a breakthrough.

"Hmm? This ripple... could someone be breaking through a bottleneck here?" Several miles away, a middle-aged man with a gloomy, sunken face snapped his head toward Reyn's direction. A glint of predatory greed flashed in his eyes. Without a word, he transformed into a streak of light and sped toward the source of the fluctuation.

"It's right here. The person must be inside this cave." The gloomy man approached with practiced caution. He tapped his storage bag, summoning a semi-circular shield that hovered protectively in front of him. He then layered several spiritual energy shields over his body before drawing a gourd-shaped treasure into his hand.

"Go!" he hissed, pointing a finger. A fireball condensed instantly and hurtled toward the cave entrance, intended to flush out his prey.