Wang Ba lay flat in the damp darkness of the tunnel, freezing his muscles until he resembled a corpse.

His mind raced, a chaotic storm of calculations and fears.

Suddenly, the Yin Spirit Power within his consciousness began to scream.

The rotation speed was unprecedented—violent and terrifying.

In the blink of an eye, Wang Ba felt the precious reserves in his Yin Spirit Abode evaporate.

One drop. Two drops… Three drops!

Three full drops of Yin Spirit Power, gone in a heartbeat!

Wang Ba’s face drained of blood, turning a deathly shade of pale.

He remembered clearly: when a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Sect had glanced at him near South Lake Village, the passive defense of his Yin Spirit had only consumed half a drop.

Three drops in a split second?

What kind of monster is scanning this place?! Could it be that ‘Chief Steward’ they mentioned?

Terror gripped him. However, the horrific consumption ceased as quickly as it had begun. The Yin Spirit Power abruptly returned to its idle state.

It was as if a god high above had casually swept its gaze across the earth, and Wang Ba was merely an ant trembling in its shadow.

Wang Ba remained motionless, not daring to breathe.

From the tunnel entrance above, the chaotic sound of footsteps grew louder. Relying on his enhanced hearing, he estimated a significant number of cultivators had gathered.

Then, the voice of ‘Bai Yu’ rang out again. Compared to his earlier tone, he now radiated authority and menace.

“Earth-element disciples! Front and center! Collapse this entire tunnel. I don’t want a single bug crawling out of there alive!”

Wang Ba’s heart tightened.

“Uh… Senior Brother Bai, is that really necessary?” another voice hesitated. “I just sensed the earth veins here. The qi is thick and the structure is interconnected. A complete collapse is impossible. At best, we can bring down the first hundred meters, and even that will take time and Spiritual Power…”

“Gong Wei,” Bai Yu’s voice cut through the air like a blade. “What are you trying to say?”

‘Gong Wei’ chuckled nervously, his tone ingratiating. “Junior Brother just means… look, the entire perimeter of the Eastern Sage Sect is under our control. Even if a fish or two slips through the net, they can’t escape the formations we’ve laid… Why waste our Spiritual Power on the orders of an outsider? Why not just seal the entrance and call it a day… No! Wait—!”

BOOM!

A violent surge of Spiritual Power erupted, followed by a sickening thud and a muffled groan.

Then, silence.

Bai Yu’s voice returned, cold enough to freeze marrow.

“Listen well! The Chief Steward was appointed by the Sect Leader himself. His words are the Sect Leader’s will. If anyone else dares to offer lip service while dragging their feet, Gong Wei’s fate will be your lesson!”

Dead silence reigned above.

Then came a chorus of fearful stammering and sycophantic agreement.

Wang Ba’s sliver of hope shattered.

And it wasn’t just his hope—the earth around him began to tremble.

The vibration intensified rapidly. Dirt and stones began to rain down from the ceiling of the sloping tunnel.

“No! I can’t stay here!”

If I wait any longer, I’ll be buried alive!

Faced with imminent death, Wang Ba’s panic suddenly evaporated, replaced by an icy, pragmatic calm.

His mind spun, calculating outcomes at lightning speed.

I can’t charge out. There are too many of them. Even with Alpha-Seven and the jade pendant, I’d be slaughtered. Those two Sect disciples were killed instantly—I’d just be speeding up my own execution.

I can’t hide here. The Yin Spirit cloak is useless against that scanner. Plus, it’s raining; my tracks would give me away instantly.

And if that Gong Wei was right, the outside world is already a tightly woven net. An inescapable trap.

Sect Leader… In the State of Chen, only the Heavenly Gate Sect uses that title recently. Is it them?

It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. The Eastern Sage Sect’s main force had just departed, and the Heavenly Gate Sect had immediately swooped in. This was a premeditated invasion, an ambition far grander than Wang Ba had imagined.

Returning to the Eastern Sage Sect might not be safe.

But staying here was certain death.

The tunnel shook violently, groaning under the pressure of the earth spells above.

Wang Ba made his choice.

Go back!

I have to go back to the well!

Decision made, Wang Ba abandoned all hesitation. He flooded his limbs with Spiritual Power, scrambling backward on hands and knees like a feral beast, retreating deeper into the earth just as the entrance began to implode.

“Hmm? Was there someone down there?”

A cultivator above noticed a flicker of movement and exclaimed in surprise.

His companion rolled his eyes. “Stop being so jumpy. Who cares? The whole thing is collapsing. Even if there was someone, they’re paste now.”

Rumble…

The ground heaved, and the tunnel entrance collapsed in a cloud of dust and stone, sealing the exit forever.

…

South Lake Village. The backyard of an abandoned house.

Rain poured down into the dark mouth of a dry well.

Suddenly, a mud-caked hand shot out of the darkness, clawing at the well’s edge!

With a grunt of effort, a figure slick with slime hauled himself out, gasping for air.

The heavy rain washed away the layers of filth, revealing the pale, terrified face of Wang Ba.

He looked back at the well, his chest heaving. He had made it out just before the shockwave of the collapse reached the other end.

As he caught his breath, his eyes were drawn to the distant horizon.

A faint, almost imperceptible glow flickered against the night sky.

“They… they’ve actually started the attack?”

Wang Ba stared in disbelief at the fires igniting in the distance.

He shifted his gaze to South Lake Village. It was dark, silent, and peaceful.

Under the cover of the rain, the disciples and laborers of the Eastern Sage Sect slept on, completely unaware that the axe was falling. Even the inner sect seemed oblivious to the apocalypse knocking at their door.

Wang Ba remembered Zhao Feng’s warnings, and a chill deeper than the rain seeped into his bones.

“Senior Brother Zhao was right. The day the Sect Leader left was the day of the Great Upheaval. But it didn’t come from within… it came from the Heavenly Gate Sect.”

As the thought crossed his mind, the sky tore open.

A blinding radiance erupted overhead, turning the pitch-black rainy night into noon in an instant!

The light was so intense that the raindrops glittered like falling needles, piercing into Wang Ba’s vision.

CRACK!

The sound of a massive barrier shattering echoed across the heavens.

Immediately after, streams of hostile light shot from the horizon, streaking toward the sect from all directions like meteors!

One massive fireball hurtled through the clouds, smashing directly toward the sleeping South Lake Village!

BOOM!

screams erupted from the village.

“Who is it?!”

“Fire! It’s fire!”

“Help me! Aaaah!”

The flames spread with terrifying speed, defying the rain.

Wang Ba watched the carnage, his heart plummeting into the abyss.

The Sect was vast, but in this moment of chaos, he felt like a rat in a burning box. He had nowhere to go.

Think. Think!

Suddenly, Zhao Feng’s voice echoed in his memory:

“You’d better be careful. If something really happens, remember, you must come to the manor over here immediately…”

Manor Ding-Nine!

A spark of hope ignited in Wang Ba’s eyes.

If there was one person in this entire damned sect he trusted, it was Zhao Feng.

True, a Qi Refining Tenth Layer cultivator was just an ant in a sect war, but Wang Ba had no other lifeline.

He moved.

But just as he took his first step, his instincts screamed.

Wang Ba threw himself forward, face-planting into the mud.

Whoosh!

A steel awl shrieked through the space his head had occupied a split second ago, shearing off a lock of his hair.

“Oh? So you’re a cultivator too?”

Wang Ba scrambled up, mud dripping from his chin.

Not far away, a cultivator in reddish-brown robes stood atop a floating bone skiff. He looked down at Wang Ba with mild surprise.

But only mild.

With his discerning eye, the attacker could see the clumsy Spiritual Power fluctuation Wang Ba had used to dodge. A rookie. Someone who had barely stepped into Qi Refining.

The attacker, a cultivator at the Sixth Layer of Qi Refining, sneered. A bug like this required nothing more than a casual wave of his hand.

He raised his fingers to finish the job.

The next second, his eyes bulged out of their sockets.

A strand of Sword Qi—pure, sharp, and terrifying—expanded silently in his vision.

There was no scream.

One moment he was there, arrogant and alive.

The next, he was gone.

(End of Chapter)