The ruin held its breath.
Dust drifted through the air like falling snow, disturbed by the rising tension between two cultivators locked in silence. One stood with his sword drawn, his expression cool and calculating. The other remained still, violet flame pulsing faintly around his hand, eyes half-lidded like a predator waiting to strike.
Ji Liang broke the silence.
"You've changed, Su Chen. No longer the mutt who crawled into the sect through pity."
He stepped forward, blade tip dragging across the stone floor with a quiet hiss. "But it doesn't matter. I'll carve that power out of you and offer it to Elder Mo myself."
Su Chen's voice was soft. "You think I crawled?"
A pulse of energy surged from his core—hot, violet, and razor-sharp.
"I never crawled. I've only ever risen."
Ji Liang snorted and vanished.
He moved like a serpent—quick, clean, aiming to end the fight before it began. His blade flashed through the air, aimed at Su Chen's heart.
But it never landed.
A flame wall erupted between them with a thunderous roar, spiraling upward like a blooming lotus. Ji Liang was forced to pivot mid-strike, retreating a step as embers danced around his robes.
"You think I didn't study you?" he sneered. "That new flame—impressive. But unstable. You're not used to it yet."
Su Chen didn't answer.
He stepped forward through the smoke, violet eyes glowing.
The Blooming Void Petal formed between his fingers—this time split into two, rotating in opposite directions.
Ji Liang narrowed his eyes. "That's new…"
> [Blooming Void Petal – Fractured Bloom: Dual Cast Active]
Note: High Qi cost. Precision required.
Su Chen's aura surged.
And then he vanished.
The next moments were chaos.
The ruin's walls trembled as flame and steel clashed, their echoes crashing like thunder.
Ji Liang struck with the precision of a trained sword cultivator—no wasted movement, every thrust aiming to disable. But Su Chen didn't fight like a swordsman.
He fought like a sovereign.
Each motion wove around Ji Liang's strikes. Flame followed behind his movements like a second skin, leaving trails of scorching light that bent space itself. One petal exploded at Ji Liang's side, the shockwave sending the outer disciple tumbling backward into a broken pillar.
Ji Liang gritted his teeth and lunged again, this time using a movement technique—Azure Phantom Step—doubling his speed.
Su Chen didn't move.
He waited.
And the moment Ji Liang reappeared behind him—
> [Void Pulse: Initiate Compression Sequence]
A pulse of nothingness exploded from Su Chen's chest, warping the air like shattered glass. Ji Liang's blade stopped mid-swing, trembling in place, its metal disintegrating from the tip down as it passed through the void pulse field.
"What—!?"
Ji Liang staggered back, staring in disbelief at his half-melted sword.
"That… that wasn't flame," he hissed. "That was—"
"Void," Su Chen finished, voice like cold iron. "And you don't even understand what you touched."
Ji Liang took a shaky step backward.
Fear began to creep into his expression.
Su Chen walked toward him—not running, not rushing—just advancing with that same unshakable calm that made even the ruin seem to bow to him.
Ji Liang launched one final desperate strike, drawing a dagger from his belt and aiming at Su Chen's side—
But the second petal struck before he got close.
It didn't explode.
It bloomed.
Like a flower of flame and death, it opened around Ji Liang's arm and blade, swallowing both in violet fire. He screamed, stumbling back, clutching a charred, useless limb.
Su Chen stopped just a foot from him.
"Next time," he said coldly, "you'll lose more than a sword hand."
> [Combat Logged: Enemy Defeated]
Ji Liang will require weeks to recover. Prestige in sect increased.
Reputation: Intimidating +2
Su Chen turned to leave.
But just before he reached the steps, Ji Liang spat blood and hissed, "This isn't over. Elder Mo—he'll come for you himself. You're marked."
Su Chen paused at the threshold of the ruin.
Without turning, he replied, "Then tell Elder Mo…"
His aura surged again—deep, resonant, like a storm building at the edge of heaven.
"…I'll be waiting."
Back at the sect, rumors spread like wildfire.
Ji Liang—crippled inside a ruin no one could even find again.
Su Chen—emerging unscathed, carrying a Foundation beast core and a new technique no one could identify.
Some said he had found an ancient inheritance.
Others whispered he wasn't even human anymore.
But one thing became certain:
Su Chen was no longer just an inner disciple.
He was a threat.