Ling Feng yawned.
"Annoying," he said. "Did that clown really think I was going to sit there and listen to him talk about selling Xiaodie like some discount treasure on clearance?"
His voice was lazy, almost bored—but the echo of what he'd done still shook the palace hall.
Sima Longyun's body was still embedded deep in the far wall, a human-shaped crater surrounded by fractured jade bricks and spiderweb cracks. The elder who had been blowing hot air about "marriage alliances" and "benefits for Lion's Roar" had already been slapped across the hall and kicked out like trash.
The air still trembled with the remnants of Ling Feng's strike. The suppressed power of an Ancient Saint-level blow, delivered by a Named Hero, lingered like a bruise on reality.
Chi Xiaodie's breath hitched.
She looked at Sima Longyun, limp. At the empty space where the elder had stood moments ago. At Ling Feng, who stood in the center of the throne hall with his hands in his pockets, not even winded.
Her expression was a storm.
Shock that someone had actually struck the Furious Immortal Saint Country's people inside Lion's Roar's ancestral hall. Relief so sharp it hurt, like a knot in her chest finally sliced open. And underneath it all, a warmth she didn't dare name—sharp, incredulous, dangerous.
The Lion's Roar Royal Lord exhaled slowly on his throne.
"The Saint Country will not take this lightly," he murmured, half to himself. His voice carried the weight of a man who'd been balancing a country on his shoulders for a lifetime. The shadow of the Furious Immortal Progenitor and his Tyrannical Physique had hung over the Hundred Cities for countless generations; their Saint Country was not a power to offend lightly.
Ling Feng just shrugged.
"They were already going to be trouble," he said. "This just puts everything on the table sooner. Better than letting them scheme in the dark and sell your daughter like some bundle deal."
His gaze slid toward the Lion's Roar Heavenly King—Chi Xiaodie's grandfather, the pillar of the Chi Clan whose legend had once shaken the Hundred Cities.
"When they come back with more Heavenly Kings," Ling Feng added casually, "just let me know. I'll help squash them. No charge. Consider it interest on Xiaodao and Xiaodie."
The Heavenly King's eyes narrowed, a flicker of dangerous amusement glinting beneath the ancient steadiness. Once, the path of his Tyrannical Physique had been flawed, inferior to the Furious Immortal line despite Lion Monarch Ba Xian's superior legacy. Only recently, with Ling Feng's guidance and correction, had he perfected it, stepping once more above his old rivals.
"For someone so young," the Heavenly King said slowly, "Dao Friend Ling truly dares to speak."
"I've seen worse," Ling Feng replied, unbothered. "People stronger than that gaggle tried to step on me. They're gone. I'm still here."
He said it lightly, but Chi Xiaodao, standing off to the side, shivered.
The Royal Lord looked at his father, then at Ling Feng, then at his children.
He saw:
A Heavenly King who had re-lit his youthful fire, Physique now stronger than even in the stories of his prime.
A daughter whose Dao Heart had been chained since childhood, now broken free in one ruthless, clean stroke.
A son whose Heavenly Turtle Fate had been ignited by Ling Feng's hand.
And the man at the center of it all—an anomaly who could casually flick away an Ancient Saint and talk about Heavenly Kings as if they were neighborhood thugs.
Finally, the Royal Lord laughed.
It was not the polite laughter of court banquets. It was deep and genuine, from the chest, like a lion finally remembering how to roar.
"Good," he said, looking directly at Ling Feng. "Since Dao Friend Ling is willing to stand with us, then my Lion's Roar Gate will not kneel so easily."
His gaze shifted to his daughter.
"The marriage with the Furious Immortal Saint Country," he said softly, "will not be forced upon you."
Chi Xiaodie's throat tightened.
For so many years, the marriage contract had been a chain around her neck, one she had never been allowed to acknowledge or reject. It was simply there, like a decree from the heavens.
Now, in one sentence, her father cut it.
She bowed deeply, fist pressed against her chest.
"Royal Father," she said, voice low, trembling just enough to betray what she felt. "Daughter thanks you."
She did not say it aloud, but in her heart, another name lingered.
And you.
...
In the days that followed, Ling Feng and his women did not leave Lion's Roar.
True to his word, he did not treat his earlier promises to Chi Xiaodie and Chi Xiaodao as empty talk.
He worked.
He brought the Chi siblings into secluded courtyards where ancient lion statues watched with stone eyes, into the Ancestral Divine Temple's hidden chambers that still carried the incense of past Monarchs, into fields where the golden turtle earth vein's influence was strongest and the ground itself breathed slowly beneath their feet.
Every day, he used his Chaos-refined sense—something far beyond ordinary divine sense—to adjust their circulation, refine their comprehension, and gently, relentlessly push their limits.
Chi Xiaodao's Heavenly Turtle Fate grew deeper and broader. Before, it had been like a sluggish, clumsy beast that occasionally showed its shell. Under Ling Feng's hand, the turtle's shadow in his True Fate grew vast and ancient. Its shell thickened with runic patterns of earth and water, and his Saber Dao slowly aligned with that steady, unyielding will.
His sabre intent, once wild and overeager, became calm and heavy. Each slash was no longer a simple outburst of power, but a grounded, inevitable cut—like a mountain deciding to move.
Chi Xiaodie's new Fate Palace, forcibly opened by Ling Feng when he burned away her chains, stabilized. The palace's once-frantic glow settled into a bright, steady radiance. Its foundations spread downward like tree roots, integrating into her True Fate instead of floating above it.
Then, under Ling Feng's relentless guidance, another layer began to open.
He stood behind her in the Ancestral Temple's quiet hall, fingers resting lightly on her back.
"Breathe," he said. "Slow. Don't chase the energy. Let it circle you first."
Her eyes were closed, lashes trembling. Inside her body, fate palaces turned, life wheels hummed, blood energy surged.
"This… is already outside the norm," Chi Xiaodie whispered, feeling another faint "door" in her True Fate start to crack open. "At my realm…"
"Yeah," Ling Feng said. "At your realm, this is ridiculous. That's the point. If we walked the same road as everyone else, we'd end up in the same ditch."
His tone was casual, but his hands were precise. Every time her meridians strained, his energy flowed in—warm, firm, and impossibly gentle for someone who could slap Ancient Saints into paste.
By the end of that "short stay," both siblings had reached five Fate Palaces in their True Fates, their foundations unnaturally deep for their realms. Elders who quietly probed their internal worlds fell silent, faces complicated.
Cultivation was supposed to be a long process. Progress came drop by drop, year by year, with one small breakthrough paid for in blood and sweat.
Under Ling Feng's hand, long roads folded.
His own women also benefited.
Li Shuangyan's Pure Jade Physique—which had already been extraordinary—approached another qualitative shift.
Chen Baojiao's battle instincts sharpened further. Her Tyrannical Valley Immortal Spring Physique responded more fiercely to impact. When Ling Feng tested her with sudden strikes, the force crashed into her body like boulders into deep springs—only to re-emerge as terrifying counterforce, more violent than before, feeding back into her cultivation.
Xu Pei's storm–qi grew more controlled. Her violent energy no longer just exploded outward; it rotated, compressed, and then released in controlled bursts like thunder layered within clouds, her lightning more precise and focused.
Bai Jianzhen's Sword Dao quietly integrated faint threads of chaos and unpredictability. Where her sword had once been cold and utterly straightforward, it now hid tiny shifts and broken rhythms that made her strikes less predictable and more lethal—even she could feel the difference when she practiced alone under the old trees.
In the quiet moments between training, Ling Feng and Chi Xiaodie spoke often.
Sometimes on palace balconies in the evening, with the lion banners fluttering in a golden dusk.
Sometimes walking along the city walls, watching the distant lights of the markets flicker like scattered stars.
Sometimes beneath the old trees of the Ancestral Temple, where ancient lion carvings watched in silence.
Their conversations started with practical matters—famine relief, taxation, borders, neighboring powers—then slid into cultivation paths, the Heavenly Dao Academy, stories of the Desolate Era and War God Temple.
And, slowly, into simple, almost mundane topics.
Favorite foods.
The best vantage points to view the city.
Embarrassing moments from their youth.
Chi Xiaodie remained reserved and sharp-tongued on the surface, but the lines at the corners of her eyes gradually eased. The chains that had bound her heart had been burned; now she had to learn how to walk without them.
Ling Feng did not push.
He teased, commented, and occasionally reached out to flick her forehead when she overworked herself reading reports late into the night.
One night in her study, piles of memorials and land surveys stacked around her, she was still reading by lamplight when he leaned in the window.
"You're going to fix a country by staring at paper until you pass out?" he asked. "Bold strategy. Not very effective, but bold."
"Our country's future cannot simply be left to chance," she retorted, not looking up. "If I do not read these, who will?"
"Who said anything about chance?" Ling Feng walked in uninvited, plucked the scroll from her hands, and rolled it up, ignoring her glare. "You've got a Heavenly King grandfather, a Royal Lord father, a little brother with a turtle that likes him, and me. Use us."
She was silent for a long moment.
Then, unexpectedly, she smiled. Small, sharp, but real.
"…Very well," she said quietly. "Then I will be greedy."
"That's more like it," Ling Feng said, flicking her forehead lightly. "If you're going to be princess of Lion's Roar, don't act like a beggar in your own house."
Her cheeks flushed, but she didn't pull away when he gently nudged her to stand and dragged her outside to walk under the night sky, away from the suffocating smell of ink and paper.
...
Eventually, the inevitable happened.
The Furious Immortal Imperial Advisor came.
He did not sneak in like a thief. He arrived in full regalia.
He appeared in the sky above Lion's Roar at noon, when the sun shone brightest, as if daring the world to watch. Lower Tyrannical Immortal Physique Law surged around him, blood energy twisting into a towering, furious figure that seemed to trample the clouds. Behind him hovered an entourage of experts, their combined aura pressing down like a heavy lid over the entire country.
His voice boomed across Lion's Roar like a divine decree.
"Lion's Roar Royal Lord!" he thundered. "This advisor has come to ask for an explanation. Your juniors humiliated our elder, killed our disciple Sima Longyun, and dared touch the prestige of the Furious Immortal Saint Country. Do you intend to break the balance of the Hundred Cities?"
Before, such a scene would have shaken the entire country to its core. Common cultivators would have prostrated on the ground, unable to breathe under that tyrannical pressure.
Now…
The Lion's Roar Heavenly King stepped out of seclusion.
He rose into the air above the imperial capital, simple robes fluttering. His newly perfected Tyrannical Saint Physique flared, blood energy roaring upward like a lion awakening after a long sleep. Each breath shook the clouds. The golden shadow of a Lion Monarch loomed behind him, fused with the land's lion veins.
The Advisor's voice faltered mid-sentence.
"You—" he started.
The two old monsters faced each other across the sky.
Tyrannical aura against tyrannical aura.
The Furious Immortal Imperial Advisor's physique was born from Furious Immortal Progenitor's legacy, Lower Tyrannical Immortal Physique Law—once the pride of his country. But Lion Monarch Ba Xian's path had always been superior; and now, with Ling Feng's correction, the Heavenly King's Tyrannical Saint Physique had completed its missing pieces and stood higher yet.
They clashed.
It was not a long fight.
At first contact, the void screamed. The sky dimmed as their blood energy collided, turning into howling beasts that bit and tore at each other. Waves of tyrannical force rolled out in all directions, making weaker cultivators bleed from their noses and ears even through the palace formations.
The Furious Immortal Imperial Advisor swung his arm. A tide of furious laws, condensed from generations of Saint Country heritage, came crashing down like a red ocean, intending to drown Lion's Roar's capital in one go.
The Heavenly King roared.
His voice merged with the lion's shadow behind him. The phantom lion opened its maw and leaped into the red tide, ripping it apart like paper. At the same time, the Heavenly King stepped forward in the air—a simple, heavy step—and punched.
It was not a fancy technique.
Just a punch.
But his perfected Physique merit law gathered the power of heaven and earth, the strength of the lion veins, and the weight of his own Dao, compressing them into that fist.
From the palace balcony, Ling Feng watched with his women and the Chi siblings. The shockwave rippled toward them—then smoothed out and dispersed as it touched an invisible layer of power around them. Ling Feng's Chaos energy quietly protected his own people even as he stood with arms folded, observing.
Emp history current
"That old man's road really got polished up," he said, half to himself. "Good."
In mid-air, the punch landed.
The Advisor's defenses detonated like flimsy paper screens. His blood energy was torn apart, his physique merit law suppressed and shattered by a superior path of the same type. The mighty Imperial Advisor, who could have dominated a region by himself, was sent flying out of Lion's Roar's borders like a comet, blood trailing behind him.
One blow.
The Advisor's entourage scrambled to catch him as he crashed down beyond the country's protective formations, his aura flickering, face pale with disbelief and humiliation.
Silence fell over Lion's Roar.
Then, slowly, like a tide turning, cheers and relieved sobs began to rise from its cities and temples.
On the balcony, Chen Baojiao leaned forward on the railing.
"That's it?" she muttered, genuinely disappointed. "I wanted to hit him."
Ling Feng nodded, watching the distant speck of the Advisor being carried away.
"That should shut them up for a while," he said.
Then he glanced at Baojiao, lips curving.
"I'll save you a few next time."
Chi Xiaodao exhaled, shoulders finally relaxing. For days he had been carrying a knot of anxiety in his chest, imagining armies marching from the Furious Immortal Saint Country, imagining his sister dragged away in chains.
Beside him, Chi Xiaodie's gaze followed the distant clash until it ended, cool eyes reflecting the receding tyrannical aura. Then she turned to Ling Feng.
"Furious Immortal Saint Country will not forget this," she said. Her voice was steady again. "They will bear this grudge."
"They don't have to forget," Ling Feng replied. "They just have to learn to be afraid."
He stretched lazily, as if his bones were a little stiff from standing too long.
"Well," he said. "We've fixed your brother's bottleneck, given your country a proper backbone, and scared off one annoying neighbor. Feels like a good time to move."
Chi Xiaodao blinked.
"Move… where?" he asked.
Ling Feng grinned.
"Heavenly Dao Academy."
Chi Xiaodao blinked a few more times, then laughed, half-excited, half-nervous.
"The Heavenly Dao Academy… that Heavenly Dao Academy?"
"The one with the Realm God, a bunch of old monsters hiding in courtyards, and too many geniuses stuffed into one place," Ling Feng said lazily. "Yeah. That one."
Li Shuangyan's eyes flickered. "The academy founded in the Desolate Era," she murmured, voice turning distant. "The pillar of the human race, standing side by side with the War God Temple… and home to countless Immortal Emperor alumni."
Chen Baojiao snorted. "Sounds noisy," she said, but a warlike gleam already lit up her eyes. "A bunch of geniuses in one place means a bunch of faces to step on."
Xu Pei's storm-qi stirred faintly around her, then slowly settled as she took a deep breath. "A place that gathers the Eastern Hundred Cities' hopes," she said softly. "And a Realm God that can sweep through ancient kingdoms by itself…"
Ling Feng's smile tilted.
"This Academy…" he said, eyes drifting toward the distant east, where invisible currents of fate already swirled around that ancient institution. "Let's just say it won't be boring for long."
Bai Jianzhen rested a hand on the hilt of her sword.
"Heavenly Dao Academy," she repeated, voice flat. "A school of Dao. A stage for swords." After a beat, she added, "Not bad."
Ling Feng turned to the Chi siblings.
"So," he said. "You two. Want to come?"
Chi Xiaodao almost jumped.
"Can we?" he blurted. "I mean—of course I want to! The Heavenly Dao Academy is… I've dreamed about it since I was little. But our cultivation…"
Chi Xiaodie's hand pressed lightly on his arm, steadying him.
She met Ling Feng's gaze.
The princess of Lion's Roar had always carried herself with measured restraint, like someone walking across thin ice. Now, there was a new steadiness in her eyes—a light born from broken chains and newly opened Fate Palaces.
"The Heavenly Dao Academy is where our ancestors once studied," she said. "Lion Monarch Ba Xian, Grandfather himself… their footsteps are left there."
She paused, then bowed—not as a princess to a guest, but as a junior to a senior she had chosen.
"If Fellow Daoist Ling is willing to bring us along," she said quietly, "then this Chi… will follow."
Ling Feng waved a hand.
"No need to be that formal," he said. "I said I'd help you walk further, didn't I? The Academy's the next step. Pack your things. We'll head out soon."
Chi Xiaodao's grin threatened to split his face. Chi Xiaodie's lips curved—just a little, but enough that the palace maids who saw it nearly rubbed their eyes.
...
They didn't get the chance to leave immediately.
On the day they planned to depart, as Ling Feng and his group made their way toward the outer courtyards of the Lion's Roar capital, his steps slowed.
The air ahead of them rippled, as if someone were drawing a blade through water.
He lifted his head, eyes half-lidded. His Chaos Sense spread out like an invisible net, touching every breath, every hostile glance, every concealed killing intent within a hundred li.
Hostility—sharp, restrained, threaded with arrogance—brushed against his perception from the city gate.
He smiled faintly.
"…Huh," he said. "Seems like we've got some noisy neighbors at the door."
Chen Baojiao cracked her knuckles, her blood energy stirring eagerly.
"Already?" she said, eyes bright. "Who is it this time?"
"People who think they're very important," Ling Feng said. "Let's go say hello."
He didn't hurry.
Space did not twist in some flashy display; he simply walked, steps seemingly casual, and yet in a few breaths the palace district blurred behind them. When the world focused again, they were at the approach of Lion's Roar Gate.
There, beneath the towering lion banners, a group of cultivators in tiger-emblazoned robes stood in tidy formation.
Their auras ranged from Royal Noble to Enlightened Being, blood energy surging like caged beasts. Even while standing still, they gave off the oppressive sense of roaring tigers waiting to pounce.
Tiger's Howl School.
The leading middle-aged man wore a robe embroidered with a roaring tiger whose eyes seemed almost alive. His cultivation had already stepped into the Enlightened Being realm, fate palaces deep and heavy, Dao foundation dense and ferocious. Behind him stood several younger elites, their chins tilted arrogantly, the scent of demonic beast blood thick around them.
They had clearly come in "peace." Their smiles were thin. Their backs were very straight.
"Envoys from Tiger's Howl," Chi Xiaodie murmured, face tightening.
As Ling Feng's group appeared, a ripple passed through the Tiger's Howl envoys.
"That's him," one whispered, not quietly enough. "The one who overshadowed Mei Suyao…"
"The Dao fragrance that shook the city… it was his…"
The leader of the envoys took a step forward, smoothing his expression into formal courtesy. His voice boomed politely toward the city.
"This humble one greets the Lion's Roar Heavenly King and Royal Lord," he began. "Tiger's Howl School has always respected—"
"Ah," Ling Feng said, cutting across him lazily. "So you're the ones barking the loudest outside the city."
The man's words died in his throat.
The watching Lion's Roar disciples nearly choked.
The envoy's smile twitched. "Dao Friend is…?"
"The nosy guy," Ling Feng said cheerfully. "Didn't you see what I did some days ago? I thought you'd at least recognize my face."
Several Tiger's Howl juniors flushed in anger and embarrassment. The leader's eyes cooled.
Chi Xiaodao stepped in hastily, voice low. "Brother Ling, they're from Tiger's Howl School—"
"Yeah, I know who they are," Ling Feng said without looking at him. "They're loud."
The envoy's expression finally cracked.
"Tiger's Howl School stands side by side with many ancient lineages," he said coldly. "Our school's prestige shakes the Hundred Cities. Our Princess is a student of the Heavenly Dao Academy's Zenith Era Hall, and our proud genius Hu Yue—"
Ling Feng tilted his head.
"Hu Yue?" he repeated. "Some so-called top five genius? Or really some top five loser?"
A vein pulsed visibly on the envoy's forehead.
"Hu Yue is a peerless genius of our school," he said, voice sharpening. "A student of the Sacred Era Hall, famed in the Academy. It would be wise for Dao Friend not to—"
"I don't care," Ling Feng said, still smiling. "If that brat comes barking over here, I'll stomp him flat. Simple."
He flicked his fingers dismissively.
"And you lot," he added, gaze sweeping over the envoys, stripping away their polished etiquette and revealing the fear and calculation beneath. "You come here right after your side tried to sell Xiaodie's marriage and got slapped. You're not here to 'respect' anyone. You're here to puff up your status and see if Lion's Roar is scared."
The envoy's face turned truly ugly.
"Tiger's Howl School and Lion's Roar Gate are both pillars of the Hundred Cities," he said coldly. "Our school came with goodwill. But if a random junior from nowhere dares speak like this about our geniuses, then—"
"Random junior?" Chen Baojiao laughed aloud, voice bright, eyes cold.
Xu Pei's storm-qi flickered around her like faint mist, then steadied as she smiled slightly. Her gentleness did not reach her eyes when they rested on the envoys.
Li Shuangyan simply looked at them as if they were already corpses she was too lazy to bury.
Ling Feng yawned.
"You know," he said, "I'm getting annoyed just looking at your faces."
The lazy warmth in his eyes cooled into something that cut.
"You want to use your school's name to pressure Lion's Roar?" he asked quietly. "Alright. I'll help you shut up first."
For a heartbeat, the envoy hesitated. He could feel the Heavenly King's gaze on him from the distant palace, and the weight of Lion's Roar's lion vein. But he had come with a mission: test Lion's Roar's courage, measure this "Ling Feng," carry back news to Tiger's Howl's School Master and princess.
Arrogance and fear battled in his chest.
Before he could step back or forward, Ling Feng turned his head slightly.
"Yan," he said. "Baojiao."
Li Shuangyan pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, expression tranquil. "En."
Chen Baojiao grinned, teeth flashing like a hungry predator. "Finally."
They moved.
To the Tiger's Howl envoys, it was as if the world blurred.
Li Shuangyan stepped forward once. Her Pure Jade Physique flared, jade-like aura becoming crystal-clear and cold. All redundant fluctuations in her energy vanished; everything funneled into a single, smooth current. Her palm gently brushed through the air, fingers slightly curved.
It looked soft.
It was anything but.
The Enlightened Being envoy felt an invisible force seep into his life wheel and fate palaces—a silent, invasive power carried on laws that had been refined by both her own sect and Ling Feng's foreign comprehension. Pillars of his grand dao, built over a lifetime, suddenly cracked.
Outside, nothing flashy happened.
Inside, his dao foundation shattered.
Bones snapped in rapid succession. His blood energy collapsed like a building with its beams cut. His legs twisted at grotesque angles as the meridians in them ruptured under the backlash.
He hit the ground, screaming, his cultivation base crumbling like a sandcastle caught by the tide.
At the same time, Chen Baojiao's fist descended like a falling mountain.
Her Immortal Springs roared within her body. The Chaos-refined water force compressed into a single, brutal impact. The Royal Noble behind the envoy barely managed to circulate his merit law and raise his life treasure when her fist crashed down on his knees.
There was a wet, sickening crack.
His knees didn't just break; they exploded under the weight. The impact force did not dissipate. It dropped into Baojiao's Tyrannical Springs, turned over, and surged back out as pure destructive backlash, racing up his legs and into his fate palaces.
Intricate Dao patterns shattered one after another. Fate palaces shook violently, walls crumbling, their light dimming.
He vomited blood and passed out, legs ruined, dao foundation in tatters.
It all happened within a few breaths.
The remaining envoys froze, faces bleaching.
They had come standing tall, backed by Tiger's Howl School's reputation and their alliance with other powers. They had expected to pressure a shaken Lion's Roar, perhaps force an apology, maybe even leverage this into a better position at the Heavenly Dao Academy.
Instead, before they could finish their opening speech, their leading Enlightened Being and strongest junior had been crippled—cleanly, precisely, without even a flashy technique or a visible life treasure.
Ling Feng lifted his hand.
Chaos power wrapped around the two like invisible ropes, pulling their limp bodies up into the air as easily as picking up discarded robes. He dragged them to the edge of Lion's Roar's protective formations, where the lion banners met the sky.
"Lion's Roar doesn't welcome barking from your side," he said mildly. "Take them back. Tell your princess, tell Hu Yue, tell whoever you like."
He flicked his wrist.
The two crippled envoys shot across the border like tossed rubbish, streaks of miserable light arcing through the sky before crashing into the distant road.
"If they want to scream," Ling Feng added, voice turning cold, "they can do it from outside."
Tiger's Howl's remaining men trembled.
For a heartbeat, anger flared in their eyes. The tiger on their robes seemed to snarl, urging them to pounce.
Then survival instinct—and the remembered image of the Heavenly King punching the Furious Immortal Imperial Advisor out of the sky—strangled the anger.
They bowed stiffly, faces pale, and retreated without another word.
Only when they passed beyond the range of Lion's Roar's formations did they dare to look back at the city.
On the walls, Lion's Roar disciples stood straight-backed, blood boiling with pride. The rumor would spread through the Hundred Cities before the day ended:
Lion's Roar had refused to bend to Furious Immortal Saint Country.
Lion's Roar had slapped Tiger's Howl envoys in the face.
And at the center of it all was a young man named Ling Feng—an anomaly whose cultivation base was "only" Named Hero.
On the road leading away from the city, one of the envoys clenched his teeth through the humiliation.
"…Inform the School Master," he rasped. "Inform Princess Huangfu. Inform Hu Yue. This Lion's Roar… and that Ling Feng… will be our greatest obstacles at the Heavenly Dao Academy."
...
Back at the gate, the tension dispersed slowly.
Ling Feng rolled his shoulders once, relaxed again.
"Well," he said, turning to his group. "That's that. Anyone else planning to drop by and yap at the front door?"
No one answered.
Li Shuangyan walked back to his side, Pure Jade aura retracting, her expression once more cool and distant—but there was a faint, unmistakable pride in her eyes when she glanced at him.
Chen Baojiao bounced back to his other side, practically glowing with satisfaction.
"That was fun," she said. "Next time, let me handle two."
"You can have three," Ling Feng said easily. "I'll just sit and watch."
Xu Pei exhaled a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Her fingers were still slightly numb from the killing intent that had filled the air moments ago, but she smiled, the tension in her shoulders easing.