"Shuangyan!"
The cry tore from Chi Yun's throat, a ragged sound suspended between despair and disbelief.
Li Shuangyan did not look back. She kicked off a shattered pillar, her figure transforming into a streak of chilling jade light that plunged straight into the heart of the enemy formation.
"Young Noble sent me," her voice drifted back, calm as a frozen lake yet carrying an unquestionable decree. "Nine Saint will not fall today."
Beside her, a wild, bell-like laughter rang out, shaking the very foundations of the Grotto.
Chen Baojiao stepped forward. The air around her immediately grew heavy, twisting under a torrential pressure. The Tyrannical Valley Immortal Spring Physique, now catalyzed by the alien Chaos Force, roared to life.
It wasn't just water that erupted from beneath her delicate feet; it was pure, unadulterated vitality. Springs of vicious, swirling power twisted through the air like enraged flood dragons.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Attacks slammed into her from all sides—flying swords wrapped in lightning, talismans burning with destructive fire, and arrows imbued with the penetrating Dao of the Heavenly God Sect. Yet, the moment these attacks touched her aura, they didn't detonate. They were dragged down, swallowed whole by the voracious vortex of her Chaos-touched Immortal Springs.
Chen Baojiao's eyes flashed with a fierce, intoxicating light.
"Tyrannical Valley Immortal Spring—Return Flow!"
Her saber carved a brutal, blood-red arc through the sky.
The laws of physics screamed. All the kinetic force and spirit energy she had just absorbed was not dissipated; it was magnified. It exploded outward, doubled in intensity, wrapping around her saber like a roaring river of annihilation.
The Heavenly God Sect disciples caught in the vanguard didn't even have time to regret their birth. The wave hit them, and their protective treasures shattered like dried clay. Flesh and bone were ground into a bloody mist mid-scream, swept away by the torrent.
"Monster! She's a monster! Run—!" a disciple shrieked, his Dao Heart crumbling in an instant.
"Too late."
Baojiao leaped from spring to spring, moving with the grace of a goddess of war and the brutality of a primordial beast. Her saber painted circles of death around the formation nodes, severing the ley lines of the enemy's offense.
"You dare touch this Princess's man's sect?" she shouted, her laughter wild and unrestrained, her beauty radiating a lethal charm. "Call your whole sect over! This Princess will cut them down all the same!"
While Baojiao was a tsunami of destruction, Xu Pei was the eye of the storm.
Her hands trembled, not from fear, but from the sheer density of power coursing through her meridians. The Violent Cloud Chant, usually a volatile and difficult art to master, was currently surging through her veins with frightening obedience.
"Feng…" she whispered, her eyes seeking assurance.
"I'm here." His voice brushed against her mind, lazy, warm, and utterly grounding. It was the voice of a man sitting on a couch watching a movie, not a cultivator in a life-and-death battle. "Let it rip, sunshine. Don't worry about control. I've already drawn the lines for you. Just connect the dots."
Xu Pei exhaled.
The storm answered her breath.
Dark clouds boiled into existence above the Grotto, blotting out the light of the stars. Layers of wind, lightning, and rain condensed into precise, terrifying loops. Where once her chant had been a wasteful explosion of elemental fury, now every droplet of rain was a blade, and every spark of lightning was a rune carved by the Chaos Force.
"Violent Cloud Chant—Heaven-Falling."
She reached up and pulled the sky down.
CRACK!
A pillar of absolute storm fell from the zenith. It didn't spread out; it punched directly into the forefront of the Azure Mysterious Ancient Kingdom's contingent.
It shredded their jade shields like wet paper. Chaotic lightning threaded through their bodies, ignoring their armor; wind blades microscopic in size carved through muscle into bone. The rotating pillar ground everything inside its radius into a grisly slurry of blood and broken artifacts.
When the pillar lifted, the indestructible spirit stone floor of the Grotto was scorched black, engraved with spiral grooves that radiated a terrifying heat.
Xu Pei's chest heaved, sweat beading on her forehead, enhancing her gentle beauty with a layer of martial valor. She straightened her back, her eyes fierce.
"The next one," she murmured, her confidence blooming, "will be better."
High above the chaotic melee, on the edge of a broken roof tile, Bai Jianzhen landed. She was a silent shadow amidst the screams.
The battlefield in front of her was a mess of sensory overload—blades clashing, spells detonating, the thunderous steps of a Divine Crest Golem.
She closed her eyes.
In her perception, the noise peeled away. The colors faded. The world became a monochrome sketch.
She saw only lines.
Lines of cause and effect. Lines of killing intent. Lines where the structural integrity of the world was weakest.
Her sword left its sheath. It was not a grand motion, nor was it flashy. It was absolute.
"Cut."
One word. One motion.
A clean stroke of sword light leaped out, thin as a silken thread, yet sharp enough to split the firmament. It bypassed space itself.
Thrum.
The sound was barely audible.
The Sword Qi sliced through the heavily armored legs of the Divine Crest Golem, severing its runic joints as if they were made of tofu. In the same breath, without losing momentum, the thread passed through the necks of three Heavenly God Sect Elders who were chanting a joint killing formation five hundred meters behind the golem.
The massive golem collapsed with a thunderous crash that shook the Grotto, dust billowing like a mushroom cloud.
Behind it, three heads fell in eerie silence. Blood sprayed in perfect, synchronized arcs.
Bai Jianzhen stepped forward into the carnage.
"You attacked his women and his sect," she stated, her voice devoid of emotion, stating a fact as immutable as the sun rising. "You are all enemies."
Every sword stroke after that was a lesson in efficiency. Point. Cut. Move. Where she walked, bodies fell neat and clean, as if reality itself was being edited to remove them.
And Ling Feng?
He floated above it all, hands tucked into his pockets, looking like a lazy god who couldn't be bothered to descend unless something actually interesting appeared on TV.
He watched Li Shuangyan turn a prestigious Enlightened Being into bloody mist with a single exchange of blows and nodded, looking like a proud boyfriend. He watched Baojiao's springs chew through three layers of enemy defense and let out a low whistle.
"Not bad. Form's looking solid."
However, his casual demeanor hid a terrifying control.
Every time an Ancient Saint or a particularly nasty Enlightened Being thought to use the chaos to launch a surprise attack—trying to slip through the melee to ambush Shuangyan, or aiming a life-burning blood technique at Xu Pei—Ling Feng moved.
He didn't shout. He didn't summon a treasure. He simply lifted a finger.
Tap.
A pinpoint of Chaos Energy—green, alien, and denser than the heaviest star—flashed across the Grotto. It moved faster than the perception of a cultivator's Spirit Sense.
Pfft.
There was no explosion. Just the sound of meat being punctured.
Neck bones shattered. Life Wheels popped like soap bubbles. Dao Hearts collapsed under a pressure that defied the laws of the Nine Worlds.
In the time it took the Heavenly God Sect's commanding elders to realize something was wrong, half their high-level combat strength had dropped dead, silently, without a mark on them save for a finger-sized hole.
"What… what demonic art is this?!" an Ancient Saint gasped, clutching his chest. Blood poured from a hole that hadn't been there a breath ago. He looked up at the floating man in gray robes with pure horror.
Ling Feng yawned, stretching his arms over his head.
"You guys are too noisy," he said, his tone sounding like someone complaining about construction work early in the morning. "Seriously, keep it down."
He flicked his finger one last time.
Snap.
The Ancient Saint's eyes rolled back, and he fell from the air like a puppet with its strings cut.
Below, Chi Yun stared, his mouth agape, half in horror, half in awe.
"…What realm… is this Junior, really?" he whispered to the wind.
No one answered. No one dared to.
The Heavenly God Sect's assault didn't just fail; it crumpled. Without their leaders, their morale shattered.
"Run! It's a trap!"
"The Nine Saint Demon Gate has hidden an Ancestor!"
Disciples turned, scrambling toward the spatial exits, their formations breaking into a chaotic stampede.
Ling Feng watched them run with a smirk, then snapped his fingers.
Chaos Control.
The space around the Grotto warped violently. The exits stretched away like mirages. The disciples ran with all their might, burning their Longevity Blood to boost their speed, but every step they took left them in exactly the same coordinates. It was a spatial loop, a cage made of distorted reality.
"Who said you could leave?" Ling Feng asked mildly, his voice amplified without any visible technique, echoing in everyone's ears.
He looked down at the four women returning to his side. They were bathed in blood and lightning, their auras terrifying, yet they looked at him with eyes full of brilliance.
"Anyone still feel like letting them go?" he asked, tilting his head.
Chen Baojiao grinned, her eyes gleaming with a dangerous light. "No."
Li Shuangyan's voice was calm as winter water, wiping blood from her blade. "If we let them escape, Nine Saint will bleed again later. To cut the weeds, we must dig up the roots."
Xu Pei swallowed, her gentle nature warring with the reality of the cultivation world, before she hardened her resolve. "They… they would not show mercy to us."
Bai Jianzhen cleaned her blade with a flick of her wrist.
"Cut," she said simply.
Ling Feng's smile was very gentle, very warm, and utterly terrifying to the onlookers.
"Then," he said, "clear the board."
What followed wasn't a battle.
It was a slaughter.
When the last Heavenly God Sect disciple fell, the Nine Saint Heavenly Grotto was a silent graveyard.
Blood soaked the stone paths, pooling in the grooves Xu Pei's storm had carved. Fragments of Divine Artifacts and broken Dao Runes drifted in the air like ash. The Divine Crest Golem lay shattered in three pieces, its glowing eyes finally dimming into oblivion.
Nine Saint disciples stood amidst the ruin, panting, weapons trembling in their hands. Some were crying openly—not from grief, but from the wild whiplash of despair turning into survival.
Chi Yun exhaled a long, shaking breath, aging ten years and then growing twenty years younger in a single moment.
"Ling Feng," he said, his voice hoarse. "This kindness… Nine Saint will never forget…"
"Don't get sentimental on me yet, old man," Ling Feng cut him off, waving his hand dismissively. "We're not done."
Chi Yun blinked, confused. "Not… done? The enemy is annihilated."
Ling Feng turned to his women, ignoring the elder's confusion.
"You four," he said, his eyes sweeping over them with genuine care. "How's the gas tank? Still got energy?"
Baojiao rolled her shoulders, the faint hum of power still vibrating around her. "This Princess is just getting warmed up."
Li Shuangyan nodded once. "I can continue. My foundation is untouched."
Xu Pei straightened, determination burning in her eyes. "Feng… I can fight. The Art… it replenishes me."
Bai Jianzhen sheathed her sword with a soft click. "…My sword is unsatisfied."
Ling Feng grinned, a boyish, adventurous look that clashed wildly with the carnage around him.
"Good," he said. "Then let's go ring the doorbell at the Heavenly God Sect's own Grotto. I hear they have a nice view."
He looked at Chi Yun.
"You," he said cheerfully, pointing a finger. "Pick a steady Elder. Someone with enough spine not to faint when we hand him a gift. I need a glorified janitor."
Chi Yun opened his mouth, closed it, and realized asking questions was useless. He signaled to an Elder who had been standing on the side, eyes still wide with shock.
"You… you will go," Chi Yun ordered.
The Elder staggered forward, bowing stiffly. "This Old One obeys."
"Perfect," Ling Feng said, walking over to him.
He grabbed the Elder by the collar of his robe, casual as if he were grabbing a buddy for a beer.
"Hold your breath," he advised. "Teleporting makes rookies puke."
"Tele—?"
The Elder didn't finish.
Ling Feng tapped into the Green Chaos Emerald within his Inner Void.
Chaos Control.
Space didn't just tear; it folded. Distance became irrelevant.
...
Heavenly God Sect's Heavenly Grotto — Ancient Sky City.
The disciples guarding the sect were in high spirits. They had heard the distant news via transmission jades earlier in the hour.
"We're pushing them back!"
"Nine Saint Demon Gate is almost finished!"
"The Elders say their Grotto will fall today!"
They laughed, relaxed, some even starting to discuss what treasures they might salvage from Nine Saint's treasury later. A few were already dividing the spoils in their heads.
Then, the sky tore open.
There was no formation activation warning. No trembling of the void. Just an instantaneous breach of their defensive perimeter.
Five figures and one pale-faced Nine Saint Elder dropped out of thin air into the center of the Heavenly God Sect's main plaza.
Ling Feng landed on one of their precious spirit stone platforms. He bounced on his heels, testing the surface.
"Hmm," he said, looking around at the majestic palaces and floating islands. "Nice place. A bit gaudy with the gold trim, but solid real estate. Shame about the owners."
The Heavenly God Sect disciples reacted a heartbeat too slowly. Their brains couldn't process that the enemy had bypassed the Ancient Defense Array that had stood for ten thousand years.
By the time someone shouted "Enemy invasion—!" four killing auras had already flared next to Ling Feng.
"Same plan," Ling Feng said, hands back in his pockets. "Go wild. Break everything. If it looks expensive, smash it."
"Yes," Li Shuangyan said.
"This Princess," Baojiao said, a cruel smile gracing her lips, "has been waiting for this."
Xu Pei quietly circulated her chant, the sky darkening instantly.
Bai Jianzhen simply stepped forward.
The massacre began.
Formations that should have required entire squads of Ancestors to break melted under Li Shuangyan's jade-bright sword. Her Pure Jade Physique, enhanced by Chaos, allowed her to slide through the gaps in their defenses as if she were made of light itself.
Defensive arrays hardened by generations of refinement cracked as Baojiao hurled their own redirected force back at them. She was a wrecking ball, smashing through palaces and pavilions.
Xu Pei's storms ripped through inner courtyards, tearing secrecy wards apart and exposing the sect's hidden vaults to the open air.
Bai Jianzhen cut down every Elder who tried to rally the forces, her sword flashing like a reaper's scythe.
Deep inside the Grotto, ancient presences stirred. Ancestors buried in Blood Era Stones, monsters from a bygone era, sensed the threat.
"WHO DARES—!" a roar shook the earth, originating from a forbidden meditation hall.
Ling Feng didn't even turn his head. He reached out with his senses, pinpointing the source of the aura.
Tap.
A focused beam of Chaos Energy punched through the earth, through the protective wards of the meditation hall, and through the skull of the awakening Ancestor.
The roar cut off abruptly.
Tap. A half-awakened Guardian Beast slumped mid-roar, its spirit erased before it could even manifest its true body.
Tap. An Elder trying to activate the Sect Destruction Formation fell with a hole in his forehead.
Ling Feng didn't bother to make it dramatic. He didn't monologue.
He just… removed pieces from the board.
Outside the Grotto, in the Ancient Sky City, onlookers who had been celebrating the Heavenly God Sect's supposed victory felt the ground tremble. They looked toward the sect's entrance and saw clouds of blood-mist blooming over its high walls.
"H-how…?"
"Did… did Nine Saint counterattack already?"
"Who could breach the Heavenly God Sect so quickly?"
The answer walked out of the collapsing gates a short while later.
Ling Feng, looking completely unruffled, strolled out.
Four breathtaking women walked at his sides, their clothes stained with the blood of their enemies, looking like Valkyries descended from the heavens.
One Nine Saint Elder stumbled behind them, his face so pale he looked like he'd left his soul somewhere inside the burning ruins.
Behind them, the Heavenly God Sect's glorious Grotto burned. Its formations had been shattered; its Guardian Golems lay in pieces. The disciples who survived had thrown down their weapons, kneeling in abject terror, their cultivation crippled.
Ling Feng turned and glanced at the ruin.
"Mm," he said, scratching his chin. "Messy. But good enough for government work."
He grabbed the still-shell-shocked Nine Saint Elder by the shoulder and gently turned him to face the burning Grotto.
"This is yours now," Ling Feng said pleasantly. "Congratulations on the promotion. Temporary management item rights."
The Elder's mouth opened and closed soundlessly, resembling a fish out of water.
"R-rights…?"
"Guard it," Ling Feng said, instructing him as if telling a junior to sweep the floor, rather than handing over the legacy of a Great Power. "Sort through the junk later. There are some decent things under all the trash and corpses. Don't sell anything without Shuangyan checking it first; she has a better eye for appraisals than you. If any remnants of the Heavenly God Sect have opinions—"
He smiled, showing teeth. It was a predatory, confident smile.
"—tell them to come find me."
The Elder swallowed hard, his throat dry.
"This Old One… understands," he croaked.
Ling Feng patted his shoulder. "Good man."
He turned back to his group.
Baojiao's eyes were sparkling with adrenaline and affection. "You know, watching their faces collapse from arrogance to despair? It never gets old."
Li Shuangyan's gaze was cool, but a faint, deep satisfaction rested in her eyes. She bowed her head slightly.
"Nine Saint owes you again, Young Noble," she said softly.
"Mm," he replied, shrugging. "Put it on my tab. I'll collect later."
Xu Pei looked back at the burning Grotto, then up at him, her eyes filled with complex emotions—worship, love, and awe.
"Feng," she asked quietly, "what… what will you do next?"
Bai Jianzhen's hand rested lightly on her sword hilt. Her eyes were calm, but there was a faint, anticipatory edge in them. She had tasted blood, and her Sword Dao was humming.
Ling Feng looked up.
In the distance, across the expanse of Ancient Sky City, another Heavenly Grotto loomed. It was grand, ostentatious, and radiated an aura of ancient nobility. Its walls were covered in imperial patterns, and its Dao Aura was thick and self-important.
The Azure Mysterious Ancient Kingdom.
He could still feel traces of their Qi on the Nine Saint battlefield. They had marched side-by-side with the Heavenly God Sect, attempting to swallow his territory. When the tide turned, their people had been the quickest to flee, abandoning their allies to die.
He chuckled. The sound was low and dangerous.
"What's next?" he repeated.
His eyes narrowed slightly. Amusement and killing intent mixed in a terrifying cocktail.
"Simple."
He lifted a hand and pointed straight at the distant Azure Mysterious Grotto.
"We're going to go break apart that so-called Ancient Kingdom. Let's go remodel."