Qi surged toward her as though answering a silent summons. Rings of gold and white light formed around her slender figure, revolving slowly, smoothly—like celestial orbits governed by immutable law. Each rotation sent ripples through reality itself, bending light, suppressing sound, and forcing the battlefield into reluctant stillness.

This was not mere cultivation.

This was divine will brushing against the mortal world.

Arkos felt it instantly.

The moment he recognized that influence—pure, unmistakable divinity—his fury didn't cool.

It exploded.

"DIVINE BITCH—!"

With a thunderous roar, he lunged.

Lightning cracked as his massive form vanished and reappeared directly before her. His colossal fists, encased in condensed obsidian demonic energy, slammed downward with annihilating force.

The sky screamed.

Space fractured into countless shards, like a shattered mirror reflecting infinite angles of destruction. Shockwaves tore outward, peeling layers of reality apart, leaving visible spatial rifts in their wake—wounds so deep that even the laws of the world recoiled.

This single strike was enough to erase mountains.

To end cities.

To annihilate everything within miles.

And yet—

Even as annihilation hovered inches from her face, Ming Yao's eyes did not flicker.

Not fear.

Not urgency.

Not even caution.

Only cold, absolute focus.

---

At that exact moment, far beyond mortal sight, in the folded depths of void-space—

Wang Chen was tearing through reality itself.

Space collapsed and reformed around him as he pushed the One Thought Crossing Technique to its absolute limit. His figure cut through overlapping layers of the world like a silver comet, tearing open fault lines of qi wherever he passed.

Each step shattered distance.

Each breath burned fate.

"Damn… how far is this place?" he muttered through clenched teeth. His voice carried strain—a rare thing for him now.

"At this rate, my future fortune will collapse before I even arrive."

Ever since leaving the Tower of Infinite Enlightenment, he had felt it.

A pull.

Not physical.

Not spiritual.

A gravitational convergence of destiny itself—so dense it warped qi flows across entire regions. Even without focusing, Wang Chen could sense it tugging at his existence, dragging unseen threads tighter and tighter.

Now he was certain.

That pull originated here.

Something was unfolding—something massive enough to distort fate on a continental scale.

Behind him, sealed within the summoning tower's inner space, the long-dormant beast egg floated silently.

Or rather—

It had stopped being silent.

Fine cracks spider-webbed across its shell, glowing faintly from within. With each pulse of distant destiny, the egg responded—trembling, expanding, resonating.

A low hum echoed outward.

Ancient.

Resonant.

It vibrated through every layer of reality, slipping past barriers, formations, and dimensions alike.

Whatever slept inside the egg…

Was waking up.

And fate—once again—had begun to move.

...

Phoenix and Dragon Dojo

In another part of the world, the courtyard of Wang Chen's dojo shimmered beneath the rising sun. Crimson Bodhi leaves drifted lazily across the stone ground, their faint spiritual glow painting the courtyard in warm hues. Young Master Yun moved steadily through them, a wooden broom in hand, sweeping in silence as if this humiliating task were nothing more than a temporary inconvenience.

Then a sudden chill crawled up his spine.

It wasn't fear—he knew fear well enough to recognize it—but a sharp, instinctive warning, the kind that only came when death brushed dangerously close.

Something was wrong.

Before his mind could process the sensation, the ground beneath him exploded.

Bang!

A glowing green vine erupted from the earth like a spear, obliterating the tiles beneath his feet and sending shards of stone flying in all directions. Spiritual energy detonated outward, rattling the surrounding walls.

"—What the—!?"

Yun reacted on pure instinct. His body twisted midair, narrowly avoiding the strike as the vine tore through the space he had occupied a heartbeat earlier. His robes fluttered violently as he landed several steps away, heart hammering.

But that was only the beginning.

The courtyard trembled again. Then again.

Dozens of pale-green vines burst forth from the ground in unison, coiling and snapping through the air like awakened serpents. Demonic light pulsed along their surfaces, runes flickering briefly before vanishing as they converged on him from every direction, sealing off all paths of retreat.

The Bodhi leaves were shredded to dust.

Yun forced himself to move, every ounce of training screaming through his body. His reflexes—honed through years of brutal cultivation—kept him alive, barely. He twisted, stepped, leapt, each motion measured to the breath, vines brushing past him close enough that he could feel their killing intent scrape against his skin.

Then space itself warped.

One vine vanished mid-strike.

And reappeared behind him.

Its sharpened tip emerged silently, aimed straight for his heart.

"Young Master, move!"

A hoarse shout ripped through the chaos. One of the Dharma Protectors appeared beside Yun in a blur of motion, forcibly shoving him aside as the vine struck.

Puchi!

The sound was wet and final.

The vine pierced straight through the protector's chest, its demonic glow flaring as blood splattered across the dojo walls. The old man staggered, breath hitching, yet even as his life drained away, he turned his head and forced out a grim, relieved smile.

At least… the Young Master had survived.

His body collapsed moments later.

The ground shook once more—far more violently than before.

At the heart of the courtyard, the ancient Bodhi Tree began to tremble. Its massive roots writhed beneath the stone, cracking the ground apart as its branches twisted unnaturally, bark blackening, veins of demonic light crawling across its once-sacred form.

The aura it released rolled outward like a tidal wave.

Spiritual pressure flooded the area, freezing cultivators within miles, pinning weaker ones to the ground as though the heavens themselves had grown hostile. Even the air felt thick, suffocating, tainted with something profoundly wrong.

Young Master Yun's expression hardened.

He could feel it clearly now—the demonic signature hidden beneath the tree's sanctified exterior, a corruption so deep it had disguised itself as holiness for who knew how long.

One after another, his remaining men rushed to his side, faces pale, weapons drawn, eyes locked on the monstrous transformation unfolding before them.

The commotion also attracted other's.

The Fang sisters were the first to arrive, their steps faltering the moment they crossed into the courtyard. Their faces drained of color as the oppressive storm of corruption surged up from beneath the ground, the demonic aura seeping through the cracks in the stone like poisonous mist that clung to the skin.

Moments later, Li Mei, Lin Huang, and Rong Luo arrived almost simultaneously. Their auras flared on instinct, spiritual energy spreading outward in defensive waves as they took in the scene before them. The once-serene courtyard had become warped and hostile, the air itself heavy enough to make breathing laborious.

Li Mei's golden pupils flickered with dense runic light as she focused on the writhing roots of the Bodhi Tree. Layer after layer of analysis unfolded in her gaze, her expression growing increasingly grim with every passing heartbeat. Finally, her lips parted, and she spoke in a low, steady voice that carried unmistakable certainty.

"…Demonic possession."

The words fell like a hammer.

Everyone froze.

The sacred Bodhi Tree—nurtured by generations of cultivators, blessed personally by the dojo's founding master—had been defiled. Whatever had taken root within it had not merely slipped past the dojo's defenses; it had entrenched itself so deeply that holiness and corruption had become indistinguishable.

And the aura radiating from it made one thing terrifyingly clear.

This was no common demon.

The pressure alone eclipsed the Unity Realm entirely, carrying the suffocating weight of something far older and far stronger. Whether it was a greater fiend or an existence that had already stepped into the Grave Ascension Stage, none of them could say with certainty—but no one doubted the conclusion.

The Phoenix and Dragon Dojo was standing on the edge of catastrophe.

Its greatest trial had begun.

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