Pain was a teacher. Kaelen was a straight-A student.
Inside the West Garden, the air was thick enough to chew. The **Nine-Hells Filtering Formation** had turned the pristine sanctuary into a pressure cooker of toxicity.
The **Blood-Rot Orchid** dissolved. Its essence—a violently corrosive red mist—ate at Kaelen's skin.
*Sizzle.*
His epidermis peeled away like burnt paper. Muscle fibers were exposed to the poisonous air.
Any normal cultivator would be screaming. They would be dead in seconds.
Kaelen didn't scream. He breathed.
*Inhale.*
The red mist was sucked into his lungs.
**Heaven-Devouring Scripture.**
The technique didn't just absorb the energy; it weaponized the damage. It took the concept of "destruction" and rewrote it as "reconstruction."
> **[Critical Damage Detected]**
> **[Rebuilding Tissue...]**
> **[Infusing Toxin into Bloodstream...]**
> **[Trait Acquired: Corrosive Blood (Stage 1)]**
His skin grew back.
It wasn't soft, human skin anymore. It was pale, cold, and possessed a faint, metallic sheen.
Kaelen opened his eyes.
The pupils were no longer round. They were vertical slits. Predator eyes.
He looked around.
The beautiful bamboo grove was gone. The trees had withered into black charcoal skeletons. The Koi pond was a pool of purple sludge. The fish were floating, dissolved to the bone.
"Charming," Kaelen rasped.
He stood up. He grabbed the **Nameless Slab**.
The heavy iron sword had been sitting in the poison array all night. The rust was gone. The metal was now a matte, gunmetal grey. It pulsed with a dull, rhythmic heat.
> **[Weapon Resonance]**
> **The Nameless Slab has absorbed the surrounding Miama.**
> **Weight Increased: 400 lbs -> 600 lbs.**
> **Effect Added: Poison Impact.**
"600 pounds," Kaelen tested the weight. His muscles bulged, tearing the sleeve of his robe. "Manageable."
*BANG.*
The wooden gate of the West Garden didn't just open. It exploded.
Splinters rained down on the dead grass.
A figure stormed in.
He wore the purple robes of an Elder. His white hair was wild. His face was twisted in fury.
**Third Elder Vane.** Thorne's uncle. And the head of the Disciplinary Hall.
Behind him were ten armored enforcers.
"KAELEN!" The Elder roared. His voice shook the dead leaves from the trees. "You dare cripple the guards? You dare seize the First Young Master's land?"
The Elder stepped into the garden.
Then he paused.
He looked at the black bamboo. The purple water. The red mist clinging to the ground.
"What is this?" The Elder covered his nose. "This stench... it's death. You... you are practicing Demonic Arts!"
The Elder's eyes lit up. Not with fear, but with glee.
He finally had a reason to kill the Patriarch's mistake legally.
"Demonic Cultivator!" The Elder pointed a trembling finger. "By the laws of the Azure Dragon Empire, I sentence you to immediate execution!"
He didn't wait for a trial.
"**Disciplinary Squad! Kill him!**"
The ten enforcers drew their swords. They were all **Body Refining Stage 5**. Elite killers.
They charged into the mist.
Kaelen stood in the center of the dead garden. He rested the massive slab on his shoulder.
He looked at them like a man watching ants march into a fire.
"You stepped into my house," Kaelen whispered.
"And you forgot to wipe your feet."
The first two guards reached him. Their swords flashed, coated in Qi.
Kaelen didn't block.
He swung the slab horizontally.
He didn't use Qi. He used pure kinetic energy. 600 pounds of metal moving at the speed of a car crash.
*CRACK-SPLAT.*
The sound was wet.
The slab hit the first guard. It didn't cut him. It obliterated his ribcage. The impact was so violent that the guard's body folded in half.
He was launched sideways, colliding with the second guard.
Both men flew into the stone wall of the pavilion. They didn't stand up. They slid down, leaving a smear of red paste.
The other eight guards froze.
"What..." one stammered. "What is that weapon?"
"It's a flyswatter," Kaelen said.
He stepped forward.
*Blur.*
**Agility: 55.**
He was faster than them.
He appeared in front of the third guard. The slab came down overhead.
The guard raised his shield.
*CLANG.*
The shield shattered. The arm holding it shattered. The slab continued down, driving the guard into the mud up to his knees.
"Formation! Defensive Formation!" the squad leader screamed.
The remaining guards clustered together, shields locking. A turtle shell.
Kaelen smirked.
"Good. Stay close together."
He spun.
He used the centrifugal force to swing the slab in a full 360-degree arc.
He slammed the flat side of the blade against the shield wall.
*BOOM.*
It was like a cannonball hitting a pile of bowling pins.
The formation exploded. Guards were sent ragdolling into the poisonous pond.
As soon as they hit the purple water, they screamed. The **Corrosive Blood** trait of the array ate through their armor.
In ten seconds, the elite squad was decimated.
Kaelen stood alone. Steam rising from his sword.
He looked at the Third Elder.
The Elder was pale. He was **Qi Condensation Stage 3**. He could fly on a sword. He could shoot fire.
But he was terrified.
Because Kaelen hadn't used a single spell. He had just... smashed them.
"You..." The Elder stuttered. "You monster."
"Your turn, Uncle," Kaelen said.
He dragged the sword tip through the mud, drawing a line toward the Elder.
The Elder gritted his teeth. "I am an Elder! I am an Ascended! Do not think brute force can defeat Dao!"
The Elder clapped his hands.
Blue flames erupted around him.
"**Spirit Fire Palm!**"
He launched a ball of blue fire the size of a wagon wheel straight at Kaelen.
It was fast. Hot enough to melt steel.
Kaelen's eyes narrowed.
*Dodge?* No.
*Dominance.*
Kaelen gripped the slab with both hands. He poured his black, poisonous Qi into the metal.
"**Heaven-Devouring Art: Void Bash.**"
He swung the slab *upward*.
He hit the fireball.
Physics said the fire should explode.
But the **Heaven-Devouring Scripture** said otherwise.
The slab bit into the fire. The black Qi on the blade acted like a mouth.
*SLURP.*
The fireball shattered. The energy was vacuumed into the sword.
The attack vanished.
The Third Elder stood there, hands still outstretched. Staring at empty air.
"My... my fire?"
Kaelen walked out of the smoke. His sword was glowing a faint blue now.
"You have a lot of energy, Elder," Kaelen said, raising the weapon.
"But your aim sucks."
Kaelen leaped.
He covered the twenty meters in a single bound. He brought the sword down.
The Elder shrieked. He scrambled backward, tripping over his own robes.
*CRASH.*
The slab hit the ground where the Elder had been standing a split second ago.
The earth split. A fissure opened up, three feet deep.
The shockwave knocked the Elder onto his back.
Kaelen landed. He placed a heavy boot on the Elder's chest.
He lowered the tip of the massive sword until it hovered an inch from the Elder's nose.
"Give me one reason," Kaelen said, his voice void of emotion. "Why I shouldn't add your head to my collection."
The Elder looked into those vertical, slit pupils.
He realized then.
This wasn't his nephew.
This was a beast wearing his nephew's skin.
"The... The Tournament!" The Elder squealed, his dignity gone. "If you kill an Elder, the Family will execute you! You won't make it to the Tournament! You won't be able to prove yourself to the Frost Sect!"
Kaelen paused.
He tilted his head.
"Valid point."
Kaelen lifted his boot.
"Get out."
The Elder didn't wait. He scrambled up, mud staining his purple robes. He ran. He didn't look back at his fallen guards. He just ran.
Kaelen watched him go.
He looked down at the carnage in his garden. The groaning guards. The blood.
"System," Kaelen said.
> **[Yes, Host?]**
"Cleanup on aisle one."
He placed his hand on the nearest guard.
"Let's not waste the nutrients."