Lu Chen delivered his answer the next morning.
He walked to the Crimson River delegation’s temporary quarters in the city’s only inn, a crumbling two-story building near the market square that smelled of stale wine and wet wood.
Huo Zheng was eating breakfast in the common room, surrounded by his six soldiers.
He looked up when Lu Chen entered and smiled his thin, unpleasant smile.
“An early response?
I’m impressed.”
Lu Chen stopped three paces from the table and folded his hands behind his back.
“I have considered your offer.”
“And?”
“No.”
The word landed in the common room like a stone dropped into still water.
Huo Zheng’s smile froze.
His chopsticks paused halfway to his mouth.
The six Crimson River soldiers shifted in their seats, their fire-attribute qi flaring involuntarily.
“I’m sorry,” Huo Zheng said, his voice dropping to a dangerous register.
“I don’t think I heard you correctly.”
“The answer is no,” Lu Chen repeated, his tone calm and even.
“The Dragon Ridge deposit belongs to the Lu Family.”
“It sits on Lu Family land.”
“It was discovered by Lu Family members.”
“And no foreign kingdom has the authority to seize assets within the Blackstone Kingdom’s sovereign territory without the Blackstone King’s explicit authorization.”
He paused.
“Does Prince Han Ming have King Mo Beihan’s authorization?”
The silence in the common room was absolute.
Huo Zheng’s face went through a rapid series of expressions — surprise, irritation, disbelief, and finally a cold, controlled fury that made the temperature in the room spike by several degrees.
He set down his chopsticks.
“You are a Foundation Establishment Stage 1 cultivator,” Huo Zheng said quietly.
“Your family is a declining frontier clan with no political allies, no military strength, and no kingdom backing.”
“I am a representative of the Crimson River Kingdom, which commands the strongest military force on the Eastern Continent.”
“And you are telling me no?”
“I am.”
Huo Zheng stood.
His Foundation Establishment Stage 6 aura erupted outward, pressing against the room’s walls and floor with enough force to crack the wooden beams.
The innkeeper fled through the back door.
Lu Chen stood in the center of the crushing pressure and did not move.
His Chaos-grade foundation absorbed the aura like a sponge absorbing water, converting the hostile fire-attribute energy into neutral qi that the Chaos Origin Pearl filtered and stored.
Huo Zheng’s eyes narrowed.
He had expected the weak young master to buckle under his aura.
Lu Chen was still standing.
“You have twenty-nine days,” Huo Zheng hissed.
“When the deadline expires, the Crimson River Kingdom will not send an envoy.”
“We will send an army.”
He swept past Lu Chen and out the door, his soldiers following in his wake.
The common room’s wooden beams groaned and settled.
Lu Chen stood alone in the wreckage of Huo Zheng’s aura and felt the Chaos Origin Pearl spinning faster in his dantian, energized by the fire-attribute qi it had absorbed during the confrontation.
**[Combat-adjacent energy absorption complete.]**
**[Fire-attribute qi converted: +8% dantian capacity.]**
**[Breakthrough catalyst detected.]**
Lu Chen turned and walked back to the Lu compound.
He descended into the underground cavern before noon and did not emerge for eighteen hours.
The rage was quiet.
It was not the hot, explosive fury that Lu Qinghe felt when the Han servants beat him in the market.
It was cold and dense and focused, a crystalline pressure that built behind his ribs like a dam holding back a river.
Someone had come to his home.
Someone had threatened his family.
Someone had told him he was too weak to refuse.
Lu Chen sat on the cultivation platform in the first cavern and let the rage fuel his cultivation cycle.
The Chaos-grade foundation drank in the underground qi with terrifying efficiency, compressing and refining and solidifying at a rate that would have been impossible for any normal Foundation Establishment cultivator.
The breakthrough came at dawn.
**[Breakthrough achieved.]**
**[Foundation Establishment Stage 1 → Stage 2.]**
**[Foundation density: +22%.]**
**[Meridian reinforcement: +18%.]**
**[Chaos Origin Pearl output: +12%.]**
**[Family Luck Points: +5.]**
**[Current total: 245/100 base.]**
**[New task issued.]**
**[Objective: Reach Foundation Establishment Stage 5 within 30 days.]**
**[Reason: Minimum realm required to repel Crimson River strike force.]**
**[Reward: Cultivation insight packet + secret map expansion.]**
**[Failure penalty: –50 Family Luck Points.]**
Lu Chen opened his eyes in the golden darkness of the underground cavern.
Foundation Establishment Stage 2.
Twenty-nine days to reach Stage 5.
Three stages in less than a month.
It was an absurd timeline that no cultivation manual in the Eastern Continent would consider possible.
But Lu Chen had a Chaos-grade foundation, a ten-times qi cavern, and a Pearl that had waited a million years for this exact moment.
He stood, sealed the passage behind him, and walked into the morning mist.
The clock was ticking.
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