The stadium was a tomb.
Ten thousand people held their breath. They looked at the center of the arena, where a young man stood over the crippled body of a genius, facing down a monster.
**Elder Frost.**
**Qi Condensation Stage 8.**
In Silver City, the Patriarch was Stage 5. The City Lord was Stage 6.
Stage 8 was a god walking among mortals. With a wave of his hand, he could turn a city block into a glacier.
Elder Frost didn't shout anymore. His rage had transcended noise. It had become a cold, suffocating pressure.
"You have destroyed my disciple," Elder Frost whispered. The air around him cracked. "You have destroyed the Dragon Vein plan. You have cost the Sect millions."
He floated five feet off the ground. Ice crystals formed a halo behind his head.
"Death is too kind for you, boy. I will extract your soul and freeze it for a thousand years."
Kaelen looked up. He rolled his neck.
*CRACK.*
"You talk too much," Kaelen said. "Are we fighting or dating?"
Elder Frost's eyes snapped wide.
"**Domain Expansion: Frozen Purgatory.**"
He spread his arms.
*WHOOSH.*
White mist exploded outward. It covered the entire arena floor instantly. The temperature dropped to -100 degrees. The stone floor shattered from the thermal shock.
The spectators in the front row screamed as their eyebrows frosted over. They scrambled back, terrifyingly aware that being too close meant death.
Inside the mist, vision was zero.
"He's gone," Jarek Vane muttered from the VIP box, shivering despite his warming talisman. "At that temperature, blood freezes instantly. His heart will stop in seconds."
Elder Frost floated in the white void. He sensed everything.
"Do you feel it?" Frost taunted. "Your limbs growing heavy? Your lungs turning to glass? This is the power of a High Cultivator. Brute strength means nothing against the Elemen—"
*THUMP.*
A sound cut him off.
It was heavy. Rhythmic. Like a war drum.
*THUMP. THUMP.*
Elder Frost frowned. "A heartbeat?"
He looked into the swirling mist.
A shadow appeared. It was walking.
The mist didn't freeze him. It *boiled* away from him.
Kaelen walked out of the white fog. His skin was glowing red. Steam poured off his shoulders like a locomotive.
**Body Refining Stage 9: Mythic Flesh.**
His blood was pumping so fast, with such density, that he was a walking furnace. The absolute zero cold touched his skin and evaporated.
"Is this the 'Purgatory'?" Kaelen asked, stepping onto a patch of ice that instantly melted into a puddle under his boot.
"It feels like a mild winter."
Elder Frost's composure broke. "Impossible! No mortal body can generate that much heat! What are you?!"
"I told you," Kaelen gripped his slab.
He disappeared.
**Speed: 100+**
He didn't use a technique. He just pushed off the ground.
*BOOM.*
The sound barrier broke.
He appeared in front of the floating Elder.
Elder Frost reacted on instinct. He raised a **Tier 3 Barrier: Diamond Ice Shield**.
"Block!"
Kaelen swung the **Nameless Slab**.
"**Smash.**"
*CRASH.*
The slab hit the shield.
The Diamond Ice, known to withstand siege weapons, didn't just crack. It disintegrated.
The slab continued. It hit Elder Frost's chest.
*CRUNCH.*
Elder Frost's robes—a defensive artifact worth 10,000 stones—shredded. His ribs collapsed.
He was batted out of the air like a baseball.
He slammed into the arena wall, burying himself ten feet deep into the stone.
The mist cleared.
The crowd saw Kaelen standing there, steam rising from his body, sword resting on the ground.
They saw the Elder embedded in the wall, coughing up chunks of frozen blood.
"You..." Elder Frost wheezed. He tried to summon his Qi to fly, but his channels were in chaos. Fear, cold and sharp, pierced his heart. "You are a Body Cultivator... at the Peak of the Mortal Realm?"
Kaelen walked toward him.
*Scrape. Scrape.*
"Stay back!" Elder Frost shrieked. He fumbled in his robe. He pulled out a talisman. A distress signal. "If you kill me, the Sect Master will come! He is **Foundation Establishment**! He will burn this city to ash!"
Kaelen stopped.
He looked at the talisman. Then he looked at the VIP box. at the Vane Patriarch.
"Father," Kaelen called out. "Did you hear that?"
The Patriarch was trembling. "Kaelen... please... let him go. We can negotiate..."
Kaelen looked back at the Elder.
"They want to burn the city if I kill you," Kaelen mused.
He smiled.
"Sounds fun."
Kaelen threw the slab.
It spun through the air.
Elder Frost tried to activate the talisman.
*SPLAT.*
The slab caught him.
It didn't just hit him. It took his head off.
The heavy iron blade buried itself in the wall, severing the Elder's head clean from his shoulders. The headless body slid down the wall. The talisman fluttered to the ground, unactivated.
Silence.
Absolute, terrified silence.
Kaelen walked over. He pulled his sword out of the wall. He wiped the blood on the Elder's pristine white robes.
He turned to the crowd.
To the thousands of people staring at him like he was the devil himself.
"The Frost Sect is disqualified," Kaelen announced calmly.
He looked up at the announcer box.
"Who's next?"
The announcer fainted.
Kaelen sighed. He looked at the System window floating in his vision.
> **[Achievement Unlocked: Sect Killer.]**
> **[Quest Updated: Survive the Retaliation.]**
> **[Reward for killing Elder Frost: 5,000 EXP (Level Up Pending).]**
Kaelen sheathed his sword.
He walked toward the exit tunnel. The crowd parted, scrambling over each other to get away from the aura of death.
As he walked into the darkness of the tunnel, a voice called out.
"Kaelen!"
He paused.
He didn't turn.
"Don't follow me, Jarek," Kaelen warned. "I'm not a Vane anymore."
"I know," Jarek's voice came from the shadows. "That's why I'm giving you this."
Jarek threw something.
Kaelen caught it.
It was a map. And a key.
"The Sect Master will be here in three days," Jarek said quickly. "You can't beat a Foundation Establishment expert yet. Go to the **Beast Wilderness**. The key opens an old Vane safehouse near the core."
Kaelen looked at the map.
"Why help me?"
"Because," Jarek let out a shaky breath. "You're the only one who can kill them all."
Kaelen smirked. He pocketed the map.
"Keep the throne warm, brother."
Kaelen walked into the dark.
The Tournament was over.
The War had begun.