Wu Jiang sat beside a dried-out firepit, sharpening a blade that no longer had an edge.
He was large—shoulders like mountains, arms coiled in scars. But he walked with a limp, and one eye was blind.
He looked at Li Fan without blinking.
"You don't look like much."
"You look like a corpse," Li Fan replied.
Wu Jiang smiled faintly. "Good. You've got a spine."
Li Fan knelt before him. "I've come to learn. Mu Qiu sent me."
The old warrior didn't speak for a long time. Then he tossed aside the blunt blade and motioned toward a patch of crushed stone.
"Hit that rock."
Li Fan moved. The Wind Cauldron surged. He struck.
The boulder cracked cleanly in two.
Wu Jiang grunted.
> "Too fast. Too light. That's not strength. That's wind showing off."
He picked up a larger stone, heaved it onto the cracked patch, and pointed.
"Again. But this time, with the Heaven Suppressing Palm."
Li Fan paused. "What's that?"
Wu Jiang leaned in.
> "The only body technique that dares defy a tribulation head-on. It's not about force. It's about intention. To make Heaven hesitate… because you struck with the will of someone who doesn't fear being erased."
Li Fan exhaled. Then struck.
Nothing happened.
Again.
Again.
Days passed.
His arms bled. His fingers cracked.
But slowly, something changed. His strikes grew heavier. Not in force—but in presence. When his palm landed, the air grew thick. His opponents (or the boulders) would feel as if the sky itself pressed down.
Wu Jiang finally nodded.
"Good. That's one step toward suppressing Heaven."
He stood, tossing Li Fan a scroll of faded parchment. "That's the first form. You'll need it before the Fifth Cauldron. If you survive that long."
Li Fan stared at the scroll. "And if I do?"
Wu Jiang's voice turned cold. "Then maybe you'll find the door I couldn't open."
> "The Cauldron beyond Cauldrons."
---
🌌 Scene Break – Elsewhere…
In a marble temple above the clouds, a girl with white robes and silver pupils traced a rune across an obsidian table.
> "Li Fan… Fourth Cauldron completed. Survived lightning tribulation. Wind-type variant."
Her voice echoed into silence.
A low whisper responded.
> "Observe. And if he reaches the Fifth… bring him to us."
She bowed. "Yes, Elders of the Moon Sect."