High upon the observation platform, Emperor Xia Xuanyin frowned, his gaze fixed on the arena below. He leaned slightly toward the Spirit Ruins Sword Sect elder beside him.

“Fellow Daoist Long Zhi appears to be suppressing her realm, does she not?”

The elder bowed low. “Your Majesty has keen eyes. She has already reached the half-step Nascent Soul stage. Her aura is flawless, a drawn bowstring held at maximum tension. If she were to exert her full power now, it would likely trigger the Heavenly Tribulation. She is not yet fully prepared for the lightning, so she keeps her strength leashed just below the critical limit.”

Xia Xuanyin’s eyes widened. “She can already sense the Tribulation? Two hundred years of cultivation… Such talent is truly terrifying.”

As he spoke, a tremor ran through the air. Xia Xuanyin’s expression froze, and he snapped his head toward the southeastern sky. A kinetic force was piercing the Southern Capital’s defensive Grand Formation, moving with the speed of a falling star.

“Your Majesty?” the elder asked, alarmed by the Emperor’s sudden tension.

“The Zhou Heaven Protective Grand Formation has been breached,” Xia Xuanyin stated, his voice dropping an octave. “An intruder is incoming. At least a Peak Golden Core cultivator.”

He barked an order to General Han Yichen, who stood guard nearby like a statue of war. “General Han! Intercept and investigate immediately. Exercise utmost caution!”

“Your servant obeys!”

Han Yichen’s eyes flashed with lethal intent. Blood-red baleful energy erupted around him, transforming him into a crimson comet that tore through the sky to meet the threat.

The disturbance was loud enough that even the spectators began to crane their necks in confusion.

Meanwhile, on the dueling platform, the battle between Zhang Xian and Long Zhi raged on, oblivious to the sky above.

“Hey, have you noticed? Zhang Xian isn’t using pills, Earth-grade talismans, or detonating spirit treasures this time!”

“Yeah! It’s a completely different style from his usual ‘Pay-to-Win’ atrocities.”

“Could it be he’s going easy on her because Immortal Long Zhi is a beauty?”

“Likely! I heard this guy is a massive lecher. There’s even a faction within the Yunmiao Sect dedicated to protesting his crimes, though they haven’t had much luck.”

“Holy shit. He’s already marrying the Pavilion Master and he’s still not satisfied? He wants to lay hands on Immortal Long Zhi too? What a beast!”

The murmurs from the crowd drifted over to the Yunmiao Sect delegation. Lin Yinyin seized the opportunity to fan the flames.

“Master, look! Even the audience can tell Brother is holding back. He must have taken a fancy to Immortal Long Zhi.”

Li Fuxi didn’t take the bait. She watched the fight with soft, admiring eyes. “He isn’t holding back. He is using this battle to test the limits of his new power. Those artifacts are merely crutches. Right now, he is displaying the steel that belongs to him alone.”

Lin Yinyin stared at her master, dumbfounded.

It’s over. My formerly aloof and proud master is gone. She’s completely fallen in love. She’s turned into a love-struck fool who sees everything Brother does through rose-tinted glasses.

Just then, an earth-shattering boom echoed from the clouds.

Accompanied by a suppressed groan of pain, a crimson figure plummeted from the sky like a broken meteor. It crashed heavily onto the jade pavement at the edge of the arena, blasting open a deep crater and sending debris flying.

As the dust settled, a collective gasp swept through the stadium. Lying in the wreckage was General Han Yichen. His heavy armor was rent open, his chest heaving as he coughed up mouthfuls of blood.

Chaos erupted. Screams and shouts rose from all sides.

Xia Xuanyin stood up abruptly, his imperial aura flaring.

High in the sky, a figure shrouded entirely in a loose black robe hovered like a wraith. A wide hood concealed their face, revealing only a chin carved from cold, hard lines. In their hand, they casually twirled a broken spear tip—Han Yichen’s weapon.

An overwhelming Nascent Soul-level pressure descended like a physical weight, suffocating the entire martial arena. Even the sunlight seemed to dim under the oppressor’s shadow.

Xia Xuanyin vanished from his seat, reappearing in the air opposite the intruder. Zhiyin, Wang Ya, Yun He, and other powerful cultivators flashed to his side, their expressions grave as they formed a defensive line.

Suppressing his fury, Xia Xuanyin’s voice resounded through the heavens. “Which Fellow Daoist visits us? For what purpose do you forcibly intrude upon my Southern Region and injure my general?”

The black-robed figure let out a low, grating laugh that sounded like sandpaper rubbing against bone.

“Why such anger, Emperor Xia? This humble one is also from the Southern Region. Hearing that a lively Demon Sweeping Assembly is being held here, I simply came to join the festivities.”

“From the Southern Region?” Xia Xuanyin’s pupils contracted. When did such an unfamiliar Nascent Soul expert appear in his territory?

On the dueling platform, Zhang Xian and Long Zhi had ceased fighting.

When the intruder spoke, Zhang Xian’s heart gave a violent jolt. That sandpaper voice—it was identical to the shadowy figure from the minor world, the one under the Withered Glory Samsara Restriction.

Is he the mastermind behind the Demon Nest?

Zhang Xian looked up at the mysterious figure. Xia Xuanyin and the others were confronting him, but something felt wrong.

Wait.

Zhang Xian’s blood ran cold. The dueling platform was isolated by a sound-proofing formation. He shouldn’t have been able to hear that voice so clearly.

The formation has been breached.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a stream of white energy at the platform’s edge, silently corroding the barrier like acid.

Is the target the arena? Is it me, or Long Zhi?

Just as the alarm bells rang in his mind, a blurred afterimage shot out from a dark corner of the spectator stands. It bypassed the sky battle entirely, heading straight for Zhang Xian with lethal intent.

The ambush was instantaneous. Even with Zhang Xian’s heightened reflexes, he only had time to trigger his passive defenses.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of heart-stopping explosions rang out. Several layers of protective spiritual light flared to life around Zhang Xian, only to be shattered instantly by the black afterimage. The attacker’s strength far surpassed the Golden Core stage.

Layer after layer of defense crumbled, but they bought him a fraction of a second.

As the final shield broke, strands of sinister black energy seeped through the cracks, winding toward Zhang Xian’s body like vipers. The aura carried a powerful corrosive and mental interference force. Before it even touched his skin, Zhang Xian felt a wave of dizziness and nausea rush to his head.

Crack!

A crisp shattering sound came from within his robes. The Orange Heart Pendant—Yun Wanqing’s gift—exploded. Unable to withstand the erosion and mental assault, it sacrificed itself, the warm fragments pricking Zhang Xian’s chest.

That brief pain cleared his mind.

Zhang Xian activated the Teleportation Wind Talisman he had been clutching in his palm since the intruder appeared.

Whoosh.

He vanished.

The black shadow, clearly a Nascent Soul assassin, hadn’t expected a mere Golden Core junior to possess so many layers of high-grade defense. He glanced at the corner of the platform where Zhang Xian reappeared, instantly surrounded by several fresh Earth-grade spirit shields.

Defenses maxed out.

The assassin didn’t waste time. His figure twisted eerily in mid-air, abandoning the hard target. He turned his killing intent toward Long Zhi.

Only now did the crowd react to the lightning-fast assassination attempt. Screams erupted like a tidal wave.

“Brother!” Lin Yinyin shrieked.

Li Fuxi reacted the fastest. Icy energy exploded from her body as she transformed into a streak of white light, charging straight for the dueling platform to save her disciple.

However, just as she was about to cross the boundary…

Hum!

An enormous, mountainously thick, earthen-yellow light shield materialized out of nowhere. It formed a perfect semi-circle, like a giant inverted bowl, instantly sealing the entire dueling platform.

Zhang Xian, Long Zhi, and the black-robed assassin were trapped inside.