The golden lotus petals from the Heavenly Bell's nine rings were still drifting through the air, settling on the cobblestone streets of Cloud Mist City like a divine benediction. To the commoners, it was a day of miracles. But to Lu Chen, the air tasted of rot. His Architectural God-Interface was no longer showing him the beauty of the city; it was flashing a violent, rhythmic crimson.
[WARNING: HOSTESS SU LAN IN CRITICAL DANGER.]
[LOCATION: SUBTERRANEAN VOID – CITY LORD'S MANSION.]
[THREAT LEVEL: ABYSSAL SHADOW SECT – RANK 5.]
Lu Chen stood at the gates of the Blue Lotus Estate, his midnight-blue robes fluttering in a wind that shouldn't have existed. Behind him, Han Feng leaned on his wooden sword, his eyes sharp with awakened Sword Intent. Yue Qi stood with her hands glowing with blue light, her Void-Spirit Constitution vibrating in sync with her Master's anger. Mo Xiao, the recently healed disciple, stood ready, his frozen Qi now a weapon of pure frost.
"Master," Han Feng whispered, his voice trembling—not with fear, but with the effort of containing his killing intent. "The Lightning King is ready."
Beside them, the Heavenly Lightning King cub let out a low, guttural growl. In a flash of silver lightning, its body expanded, fur bristling as it grew into a majestic, house-sized beast. Its eyes were twin storms of white electricity.
"Mount up," Lu Chen commanded. His voice was quiet, yet it carried the weight of a collapsing mountain. "Today, we do not teach. Today, we deconstruct."
The Siege of the Crimson Gate
The City Lord's Mansion was a sprawling fortress of obsidian and reinforced steel, protected by the 'Triple-Layered Earth Shield'—a formation said to be impenetrable by anyone below the Saint Realm in this Rank-1 territory.
As the Heavenly Lightning King thundered through the streets, citizens dove for cover. They had never seen a beast of this caliber, nor a teacher with such a terrifying aura. When they reached the mansion's gates, the City Lord's son—the same arrogant youth who had been humbled at the auction—stood atop the battlements, flanked by five hundred elite guards in silver-scaled armor.
"Lu Chen! You madman!" the youth screamed, his voice cracking. "This is the City Lord's residence! To attack us is to declare war on the Empire! Our formation can withstand even a Rank-4 Beast!"
Lu Chen looked up. To his Sovereign Eye, the 'impenetrable' shield was nothing more than a series of poorly connected lines.
[Architectural God-Interface: Analyzing Defensive Array...]
[Detection: Triple-Layered Earth Shield. Faults: 842.]
[Primary Flaw: Energy Node #4 is misaligned by 0.04 degrees. Feedback loop possible.]
"Han Feng," Lu Chen said, his eyes turning a blinding, metallic gold. "Strike the North-West pillar with your Sword Intent. Yue Qi, reverse the flow of the spirit-well at the South gate. Mo Xiao, freeze the air in the center."
The three disciples moved with the precision of gears in a grand clock. Han Feng's wooden sword drew a line of pure white light through the air. Yue Qi's hands plunged into the earth, her Void-Spirit pulling the very energy out of the mansion's foundation.
"Deconstruct," Lu Chen whispered, raising his Origin Spirit Pen.
He drew a single, sharp 'X' in the air.
BOOM!
The Earth Shield didn't just break; it imploded. The energy that was supposed to protect the mansion turned inward, shattering the obsidian gates and sending a shockwave that leveled the first three rows of guard towers. The elite guards were tossed like autumn leaves in a storm.
"The gate is down!" Han Feng roared, leading the charge. "Protect the Master!"
The Shadow in the Deep
While his disciples handled the guards in a flurry of sword-light and frost, Lu Chen walked through the chaos like a ghost. No blade could touch him; his Halo of Protection deflected every arrow and spear before they came within an inch of his skin.
He descended into the subterranean dungeon. The air grew cold and putrid, thick with the smell of sulfur and Abyssal Energy. At the end of a long, dripping corridor stood a massive black door sealed with a Blood-Lock.
A man in tattered black robes, his face covered in shifting obsidian shadows, stood before the altar where Su Lan lay. She was unconscious, her face pale as death. A small, ornate vial sat on the altar, filled with a drop of her shimmering, golden blood.
"A Master Teacher... in a place like this?" the Shadow Servant hissed, his voice sounding like a thousand spiders crawling over silk. "You are talented, Lu Chen. But you are too late. The blood of the Xun'er Clan has been drawn. The seal on the Abyss will finally break."
"You touched her," Lu Chen said. The temperature in the room plummeted. It wasn't the cold of ice, but the cold of a void where nothing was allowed to exist.
"And I will touch you too!" The Shadow Servant disappeared into a flicker of darkness, appearing behind Lu Chen with a dagger made of solidified shadow.
[Target: Shadow Servant (Stage 5)]
[Technique: Abyssal Step. Flaw: The shadow heart is exposed for 0.01 seconds during re-materialization.]
Lu Chen didn't turn around. He simply reached back with the Origin Spirit Pen, which had transformed into a slender, white-gold spear.
Thrust.
The spear didn't hit the man's body; it hit the exact coordinate in space where the man's heart was about to appear.
The Shadow Servant let out a strangled gasp as the white-gold spear pierced his chest. The Holy Origin Qi within the weapon erupted, burning the Abyssal shadows away like mist under a summer sun.
"You... you can see... the coordinates of the void?" the man stammered before his body turned into white ash, leaving nothing behind but a scorched mark on the floor.
Lu Chen rushed to the altar. He picked up Su Lan, his heart heavy with a rare emotion—fear. He looked at her neck, where a tiny, glowing 'Flame Dragon' mark was pulsing.
[System Notification: Hostess Su Lan's Bloodline partially awakened due to trauma.]
[Alert: The 'Ancient God Domain' has detected the activation. Proximity: Immediate.]
The Erasure of the Corrupted
When Lu Chen emerged from the dungeon, carrying Su Lan in his arms, the courtyard of the mansion was a graveyard of broken stone and defeated men. Han Feng, Yue Qi, and Mo Xiao stood in a circle, their breathing heavy but their eyes burning with victory.
The City Lord, a fat man in extravagant robes, lay trembling on his knees.
"Master Teacher Lu Chen! Please! I was a puppet! The Shadow Sect threatened my family!" he wailed, his forehead hitting the dirt. "I will give you the city! I will give you my soul! Just let me live!"
Lu Chen looked at the man, then at the mansion, which was built on the blood and suffering of the citizens. To his Sovereign Eye, the entire structure was a "Glitch" in the world's blueprint.
"An Architect does not repair a building infested with the rot of the Abyss," Lu Chen said, his voice echoing through the entire city. "He levels the ground and starts anew."
He raised the Origin Spirit Pen to the sky. The Halo of the Sovereign appeared behind him—a ring of light so bright it turned the night into day.
"Structural Erasure."
Lu Chen drew a closing circle in the air.
GRRRRRRRRRT.
The earth groaned. The massive mansion began to fold in on itself. The stones didn't just fall; they turned into dust. The foundations were pulled into the void. Within sixty seconds, the most powerful fortress in Cloud Mist City was gone. In its place was nothing but a flat, clean field of white sand.
The City Lord and his guards were left sitting in the dust, their power, their wealth, and their status erased in a single breath.
The New Disciples and the Golden Omen
As Lu Chen turned to leave, two figures stepped out from the stunned crowd.
One was a burly, mountain-like youth with a massive, rusted hammer slung over his shoulder. His hands were covered in soot, but his eyes were like glowing coals. The other was a young girl, perhaps fourteen, clutching a zither to her chest. Her eyes were clouded—she was blind—but she moved with a grace that suggested she saw the world through sound.
They both knelt in the white sand before Lu Chen.
"We heard that you can see the soul of a thing," the boy with the hammer said, his voice like grinding stones. "My hammer is broken, and my clan is gone. But I want to build. Teach me, Master."
The blind girl plucked a single string on her zither. The sound was so pure it brought tears to the eyes of the onlookers. "I hear the flaws in the wind. Teach me to play the music of the Heavens, Master."
[System Notification: Disciple #4 (The Blacksmith Genius) and Disciple #5 (The Sound Master) have recognized the Path.]
[Current Disciples: 5/15.]
Lu Chen looked at the five of them—his growing army of Sovereigns. "Follow me. Our journey in this Rank-1 puddle is over. We head North."
But as they turned to leave, a massive shadow fell over the city. It wasn't a cloud.
A golden flying ship, the size of a small town, descended from the heavens. Its hull was made of Sun-Gold, and its sails were woven from the silk of Celestial Spiders. On the deck stood warriors in golden armor, each one having a cultivation level that made the City Lord look like an ant.
This was the Xun'er Clan—the Royal Family of the Ancient God Domain. They had come for their princess.
Standing at the front of the ship was a woman with a cold, dominating beauty. Her hair was like a waterfall of silver, and her eyes were a piercing violet. This was The Empress of the West, the leader of the rescue party—and Lu Chen's first encounter with his Medusa-type Wife No. 1.
She looked down at Lu Chen, her gaze filled with a mixture of shock and extreme arrogance. "You... a mortal teacher from a Rank-1 trash heap... you are the one who dared to hold our Princess in your arms?"
Lu Chen didn't flinch. He adjusted his grip on Su Lan and looked up at the Empress.
"I am the one who saved her," Lu Chen said, his Sovereign Architect's Pressure clashing with her royal aura, causing the very air between them to spark with lightning. "And if you want her back, you'll have to show me that your 'Empire' is built on something more than just expensive gold and loud words."
The world held its breath. The Architect had just challenged a Goddess.