The sky split open.

As a rift that was thinner than a strand of hair, brighter than a dying star. A column of light shone through the heavens above Oolong City. Wind howled across the plaza, drawing terrified cries from soldiers and civilians alike as the air warped and twisted around the catastrophic surge of emerald qi.

Li Wei stood at the center of the storm.

Barely standing. Barely breathing.

Yet the force roaring behind him was anything but fragile.

The Compass of the Verdant Abyss spun in a towering vortex, ancient sigils orbiting him like fragments of a forgotten temple. Each one pulsed with primordial qi that made the jade platform dissolve into dust beneath his boots.

Every breath he took cost him a meridian, yet he held fire. As there was no other path.

The magistrate stepped back. For the first time since his descent, a flicker of caution passed through Yun's stoic face. His golden aura swirling around him like molten sunlight. "What have you done… boy?" Yun questioned him.

Li Wei's voice rose above the storm, hoarse yet cold as tempered steel.

"I said… I would show you a technique you cannot break."

The vortex behind him expanded, emerald lightning lancing upward through the rift in the sky. The clouds churned. The air distorted. Even the Oolong banners hanging from nearby pavilions ignited and curled into ash.

Dozens of soldiers dropped to their knees, bleeding from their ears, unable to withstand the pressure.

"Mother heavens…" one muttered, trembling. "That's… that's not human qi…"

"No… that's a forbidden art," another gasped. "A sect-ending technique!"

But Li Wei did not hear them.

His focus narrowed into a single needlepoint aimed at Magistrate Yun.

The magistrate raised his hands slowly, golden threads swirling around his arms. "You cannot control that technique," he said. "You will burn yourself alive."

Li Wei smirked, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

"And yet… here I stand."

The plaza convulsed beneath them.

Tiles shattered.

Stones cracked.

The fissures Li Wei had forced earlier widened into gaping wounds that swallowed debris, forming craters where the jade platform once stood.

The prisoners huddled together, watching him with awe and terror.

"Th-that young master…" one whispered. "Is he even still human?"

Another prisoner, trembling violently, replied:

"A man with vindication can become a god or a demon. Today… he is both."

Tang Li sprinted across the ruined rooftops, talisman clenched between trembling fingers. The child struggled to hold on to her, eyes wide with terror at the chaos unfolding below.

Broken stone dust billowed upward.

Emerald and gold tore across the plaza.

The magistrate's golden aura clashed against the rising storm of Li Wei's technique, the two energies spiraling into a colossal vortex above the city that was half emerald, one half gold.

Tang Li stumbled as the wind whipped at her robes.

"Senior Wei…" she whispered, heart pounding violently. "Please… please don't let this kill you…"

She leapt from the final rooftop, landing hard on a fractured column. Her legs buckled, but she forced herself upright, sliding down to the plaza's edge.

The pressure nearly crushed her lungs.

Yet she kept walking.

"Don't die… don't die…"

Li Wei exhaled, steam hissing from his lips as the vortex reached critical mass. His vision swam. Blood ran down his torso. His organs had begun to tear.

But his eyes were steady. "Come then, Yun," he whispered. "Let us see whose dao shall stand the test of time."

He thrust his war rod forward.

Cracks spread along its length as emerald qi surged through it like a raging river forcing its way through brittle wood. The fractured rod screamed in protest as Li Wei roared. "VERDANT ABYSS!"

The vortex behind him collapsed inward and then exploded outward.

The impact shattered buildings as a dome of emerald flames expanded like a beast unleashed, the ground beneath them breaking apart in concentric rings. Jade tiles vaporized. Stone pillars split like rotten bamboo. Humans were flung backwards like paper kites. whether soldier, enforcer, or bystander.

The golden execution rings burst into a thousand shards. Fifty prisoners were hurled away from the blast, rolling across the ground with their lives preserved.

The shockwave swept across the district, extinguishing every lantern flame and sending market stalls flying like dead leaves.

Yun's eyes widened. "Impossible—!"

He crossed his arms before his chest, weaving a dozen golden seals in an instant.

[Golden Bastion Seal—Fortress of Ten Thousand Suns]

Ten golden shields erupted around him as an emerald storm hit them—

CRAAAAAAAAAAAASH—!!

Shields shattered one after another.

Until only one remained.

Yun's boots slid backward across the broken jade as the last barrier held, creaking like an old door under an avalanche.

He grimaced.

A small line of blood trickled from the corner of his lip. "Li Wei," he hissed, "you treacherous bastard! How dare you…."

Li Wei staggered forward, war rod dragging behind him like an anchor. "Hold your tongue," he rasped. "You are just a man… spare me the semantics."

Yun straightened, his golden aura blazing so bright that shadows fled from him. "You have tarnished the reputation of the Oolong Group before all of Jade Carp City," he said. "You have ruined my execution array and scarred my district. And you dare wound me."

Li Wei lifted his chin, eyes dim but unwavering. "If I knew my actions would have made such a fuss," he muttered, "I would have come here sooner ."

Yun's face twisted. He raised his hand, and golden sigils spiraled outwards to the sky, the ground, from the robes of every Oolong enforcer. "The law you spit on," Yun whispered, "is the only reason this city still stands."

His fingers curled into a fist. "Let me show you the empire's answer to rebellion."

The sky darkened as golden qi congealed into a colossal hand descending like a heavenly calamity, It cast a shadow over the plaza.

Li Wei coughed up some blood and eyed the apparition above, while Tang Li ran toward him.

He already knew what this was. "The Magistrate's Hand of Mandate," he murmured. A technique used by magistrates under the empire, who had touched the Dao of Resonant Harmony and did not perish. The technique was meant to sweep aside armies on the battlefield, now it was being used on a single target.

Li Wei braced his war rod, but it would not hold.

His body could articulate freely, while the qi in his meridian's would not hold.

But he had not ideas of retreat. "A man who fights alone," he whispered, "must be both blade… and shield."

Tang Li screamed his name.

"WEI—!!"

He glanced over his shoulder.

She was running toward him, face pale, tears streaming, the child clutching her robes from behind.

His expression softened for a single heartbeat.

"You foolish girl…" he whispered.

The colossal golden hand descended.

Li Wei inhaled briefly.

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