The Azure Dragon Continent was vast—so vast that even cultivators would need months to traverse it—but size meant little in the face of despair.

The skies were beautiful, the mountains ancient, the rivers endless… yet despite its wonders, the continent was a ruin slowly collapsing under its own fate.

Not a single Deity Transformation expert existed among the ten imperial cities.

Not one.

For thousands of years, the continent had failed to produce even a single true powerhouse capable of standing against the abyssal tide.

The reasons were many—but the foremost was cruelly simple:

No one wanted to die in this doomed land.

Demonic invasions struck the Azure Dragon Continent far too frequently. Entire cities vanished in a single night. Families that tried to rise here inevitably met their end beneath demonic claws.

Thus, the powerful clans made a simple choice—

Send their true geniuses away.

Preserve their bloodline outside this cursed territory.

And so, what remained behind were the ones with average talent—cultivators like Song Po, who clawed their way to to the Golden core realm through sheer effort, not destiny.

But in the grand scale of the cultivation world, Golden core was merely the beginning, not the end.

This was why most of the Azure Dragon Continent had already been swallowed by demons… and why the rest would soon follow.

It was just a matter of time.

…

Li Mei streaked across the sky like a bolt of white lightning, her robe fluttering in the wind. A faint cross-shaped mark glimmered in her pupils—subtle, but unmistakably divine.

Her All-Seeing Eyes had finally begun functioning again.

A rare, precious ability… one she had once used to observe the rise and fall of entire worlds.

The return of their functionality filled her chest with a quiet, controlled excitement.

Good. This will speed things up.

Now, her search for a fire-attributed Nascent Soul treasure—her next key step—would be far easier.

And she needed fire.

Only fire.

Most cultivators were born without innate spiritual affinities. Only upon stepping into the Foundation Building realm did an attribute manifest. But attributes could be altered—or manipulated—if one possessed certain Heaven-and-Earth treasures.

Li Mei had already calculated countless futures.

Fire affinity was essential for her plans.

Her gaze swept across the barren plains beneath her.

Demon qi lingered in the soil like rot.

Many cities had already fallen.

Even with her calm heart, she felt a heaviness settle inside her.

"The continent is slipping deeper into the abyss…" she murmured.

If the slightest mistake was made—even one misstep—everything she planned, everything she hoped to protect, would collapse like sand in a storm.

But Li Mei didn't panic.

She had lived too many lives to panic.

Her All-Seeing Eyes glowed once more, scanning the horizon.

Far away, beyond the thick forests and blood-soaked earth, something faint tugged at her senses—like a spark in endless darkness.

A fire treasure.

In my previous life… choosing the ice element was the greatest mistake I ever made.

If she hadn't built her entire foundation around a mismatched attribute, she might have broken past the Eternal Emperor Realm—might have stepped onto a path far beyond anything she had attained.

But regrets held no value now.

This life gave her a second chance.

She would not repeat the same error.

…

The journey continued. She and Lin Huang had been traveling for more than four hours across the wilderness. Their destination lay deep within the Silverlake Forest—an ancient woodland sprawling beneath the imperial city, its roots said to be older than the continent itself.

For Qi Refining cultivators, covering hundreds of kilometers wasn't difficult, but traveling nonstop for hours at peak speed still required endurance and willpower.

Li Mei glanced sideways.

A flicker of surprise crossed her eyes again.

What an unbelievable monster…

Lin Huang was three minor realms weaker than her, yet he kept pace effortlessly. His breathing was steady, his stride measured. His entire body radiated a sharp, streamlined aura—like a sword slicing the horizon itself.

He didn't look tired.

Not even slightly.

This is no ordinary talent… this is someone born to dominate the heavens.

Feeling her gaze, Lin Huang slowed a little and flashed a faint smile.

"Junior," he said softly, "can you tell me more about the treasure you're using to break through to Foundation Building?"

His tone wasn't urgent—only curious. As her senior brother, it was natural for him to want to ensure her safety.

Li Mei nodded gently.

They were minutes away from their destination.

It was time to explain.

She parted her lips to speak—

—and suddenly turned sharply, her eyes locking onto the forest behind them.

A cold gleam flashed through her pupils.

She stared for several breaths, scanning the dense trees… then slowly shook her head.

"My All-Seeing Eyes can't be wrong," she murmured under her breath. "There was someone there. A moment ago."

The air felt subtly distorted.

Her All-Seeing Eyes allowed her to perceive entities beyond the mortal spectrum—spirits, hidden beasts, cultivators masking their presence… even the faint echoes of karmic threads.

It was this very ability that once allowed her to stand at the pinnacle of alchemy.

And yet…

She felt nothing now.

Whoever—or whatever—was there had disappeared entirely.

Like dust vanishing into mist.

A faint chill crawled up her spine.

Something is following us… and it's powerful.

She raised her guard.

Lin Huang, seeing her expression shift, subconsciously placed a hand over the hilt of his sword.

The Silverlake Forest, once merely quiet, now felt suffocatingly still.

Leaves stopped rustling.

Birds fell silent.

Even the wind held its breath.

Something was watching them.

Something that shouldn't be there.

Lin Huang instantly picked up on Li Mei's sudden unease.

"What is it, junior sister?" he asked, voice steady but eyes filled with concern.

Li Mei exhaled softly and shook her head.

"Nothing—I just felt as if someone was following us."

Even though she said it lightly, Lin Huang wasn't fooled. He knew Li Mei wasn't someone who panicked without reason—especially someone possessing such frightening perception.

But before he could press further, she offered him a small smile.

"Let's increase our speed. The village is just a few kilometers ahead."

Lin Huang's gaze sharpened immediately. He trusted Li Mei's instincts more than his own—if she sensed something, it wasn't an illusion.

With a burst of qi, he nodded. "Alright."

Whoosh!

Their bodies blurred, thin films of qi coating their skin as they shot between the towering trees like streaks of living lightning. Within a heartbeat, their figures vanished beneath the shifting canopy shadows, moving at a speed no ordinary mortal eyes could follow.

The forest fell silent again.

…

Once the two were completely gone, the air wavered.

A ripple spread across space itself—like a thin sheet of water disturbed by a pebble. From that distortion, a figure slowly emerged.

A young man dressed in extravagant, dark-blue robes… the sword emblem of the Thousand Sword Sect carved sharply over his chest.

Rong Lua.

His long hair swayed gently in the still air, and his narrowed eyes followed the path Li Mei and Lin Huang had taken, his divine sense lingering on them like a stalking predator.

"A little Qi Refining cultivator actually sensed me…"

His lips curved slightly—not in amusement, but in curiosity.

"And that boy… Ying Yue's childhood companion…"

The arrogant envoy's gaze deepened with intrigue, shadows flickering across his irises like blades.

"Those rumors were wrong," he muttered. "Both of them… are far more extraordinary than I expected."

The forest wind carried his soft laughter—cold, unreadable, and laced with intent.

"A cultivator would be unbelievably fortunate to have disciples like them…"

The hint of a smile sharpened into something sinister.

"…so, just what kind of monster did Phoenix and Dragon Dojo produce to take in both?"

After saying this, Rong Lua slowly turned his head toward the whitish silverwood tree in the distance. A faint, knowing smile curled on his lips—sharp, deliberate, and almost mocking.

"Right, fellow Daoist…"

His words drifted into the wind like a provocation meant for someone unseen.

For a moment, there was only silence.

The forest stood unnaturally still. The leaves refused to sway. Even the birds that had been chirping moments earlier seemed to vanish. It was as though the world itself paused, waiting to see who Rong Lua was addressing.

To any outsider, the scene looked absurd—like Rong Lua had finally gone insane from arrogance and was talking to empty air.

But then—

Ripples.

The space beside the white silverwood tree distorted, bending as though an invisible curtain was being pushed aside. A shadow detached from the tree trunk, forming into a human silhouette.

Step by step, a young man walked out of the distortion—his movements unhurried, casual, almost lazy.

Wang Chen.

His robes fluttered gently in the breeze, his expression relaxed, as though he had simply taken a stroll rather than revealed himself before a Nascent Soul powerhouse. Even his aura—calm and refined—belonged unmistakably to a Foundation Building cultivator.

Yet the pressure he carried was anything but ordinary.

His eyes held the quiet depth of someone who had lived far longer than his appearance suggested. His presence, subtle yet impossibly steady, froze the surrounding air for a breath's time.

Rong Lua's gaze flickered with surprise—just a tiny ripple before his arrogance drowned it out again.

Wang Chen smiled lazily, raising a hand in a casual greeting, as though chatting with a neighbor instead of confronting a peak genius of the Thousand Sword Sect.

"Indeed," he said lightly, "I am incredibly lucky to have them as my students…"

His tone was laid-back, careless—yet beneath it was a trace of pride he couldn't quite hide. And despite the relaxed posture, the faint tilt of his chin, the measured calm in his gaze… all of it formed the perfect image of an aloof expert.

The world seemed to hold its breath.

Even the ancient trees bent slightly, as though acknowledging the presence of two forces whose clash could shake the forest.

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