The desolate silence of Ghost-Sword Peak did not last long.
By midday, three roaring streaks of light pierced the silver mist around the summit and slammed onto the weathered stone courtyard in front of Adam’s hall. The impact kicked up a cloud of gravel and dust and rattled the rusted iron swords thrust into the surrounding rocks.
When the light faded, three young men in luxurious white silk robes trimmed with silver thread stepped forward. On their chests hung the Inner-Zenith Crest, a mark worn only by the top fifty inner-sect disciples.
The leader was Gu Long, a tall youth with sharp eyebrows and a heavy, broad-bladed spirit sword strapped across his back. His eyes burned with cold arrogance, and he radiated the fierce, surging pressure of a Peak 9th Layer Qi Condensation cultivator on the cusp of Foundation Establishment.
Behind him stood two 8th-Layer inner-sect cronies, hands resting on their hilts, smirking as they surveyed the decaying courtyard.
"So this is where the famous ’Heavenly Talent’ is hiding," Gu Long sneered, his voice heavy with disdain. He swept his gaze over Adam, who sat cross-legged on a smooth granite boulder, sipping tea brewed from low-grade spirit leaves.
Adam didn’t raise his head. He blew gently on the steam rising from his cup, his hood casting a long shadow over his face.
"Ghost-Sword Peak is restricted territory, granted by the Sect Master," Adam said softly, his tone empty of emotion. "Intruding without permission violates sect law. State your business, then get lost."
Gu Long’s face darkened. "Presumptuous trash! Do you really think a rare spiritual root makes you an elder? You’re a lucky beggar from the wilderness who hasn’t even established a foundation!"
He took a heavy step forward, slamming his foot into the stone and unleashing his full 9th-Layer aura. A pressure wave rolled outward and cracked the flagstones beneath his boots.
"Ghost-Sword Peak sits on rich underground spirit veins, and my Senior Brother Ye has had his eye on them for three months!" Gu Long declared, pulling a golden transfer scroll from his sleeve and tossing it onto the stone in front of Adam. "Sign this agreement. Yield seventy percent of the peak’s spirit resource quota to Senior Brother Ye’s faction, and we might let you stay on as a caretaker dog."
"And if I refuse?" Adam asked, taking another slow sip of tea.
"Refuse?" Gu Long laughed, and his two followers joined in. "Then we challenge you to an official Peak-Dominance Duel right here! In the Great Void Sect, strength rules! If you’re crippled in a duel, even the Sect Master won’t punish us for your lack of competence!"
CLANG!
Gu Long drew his broad-bladed spirit sword. The blade hummed as crimson fire-element Qi wrapped around it.
"Hand over the Sect Master’s token and sign the scroll, or I’ll break both your arms today!" Gu Long shouted, leveling the tip at Adam’s throat.
Adam set his teacup on the flat stone and slowly stood, straightening his blue robes.
"You speak of strength ruling all," Adam murmured, stepping off the boulder. "Yet you bring three crickets to demand tribute from a dragon."
"Seeking death!" Gu Long roared, his patience snapping.
He lunged, a blurred crimson streak. His broadsword executed the Mortal-Grade (High) technique Infernal Cleaver, slashing down in a six-foot arc of roaring flames meant to split Adam in half.
Adam didn’t draw a blade. He didn’t even raise his arms. He took a half-step forward and opened his newly acquired Ten-Thousand Blade Dominion.
HUMMM—!
An invisible field flared outward from his body, three feet in every direction.
The moment Gu Long’s flaming blade crossed that line, the crimson fire went out as if smothered by an ocean of ice. The fire-element Qi around the steel didn’t simply fade. It was torn apart into raw, harmless spirit particles.
"What—?!" Gu Long gasped, his body freezing as his momentum carried him inside the field and a crushing pressure slammed onto his shoulders.
Within the field, every grain of dust and every breath of wind vibrated with blade-sharp intent. And beyond it, the sword intent in the air reached the old iron swords scattered across the courtyard.
THUM-THUM-THUM-THUM!
Dozens of ancient, rusted swords tore themselves free of the ground and rose into the air, circling above Gu Long’s head, their rusted tips pointing straight down and humming with an old, terrible resonance that seemed to darken the sky.
"The... the sword spirits of Ghost-Sword Peak... are obeying him?!" one of the cronies screamed, dropping to his knees as his own sword thrashed in its scabbard, trying to break free and bow toward Adam.
Gu Long felt as though a mountain had been dropped on his back. His knees buckled, cracking the stone, and he was forced onto all fours, his face pressed to the cold dirt inches from the scroll he had thrown down.
"A... a sword field?!" Gu Long shrieked, his blood running cold. "At the Foundation stage?! No... impossible! You don’t even have a Foundation Establishment aura!"
Adam walked through the floating swords and stopped in front of Gu Long, looking down at the trembling inner-sect elite with the cold indifference of an ancient deity regarding an ant.
"You wanted to teach me how strength rules the Great Void Sect?" Adam asked softly.
He raised his right index finger and tapped the air downward.
BOOM!!
The pressure inside the field multiplied tenfold.
Gu Long screamed as his primary meridians cracked under the weight. His broadsword shattered into fine metal powder, and he coughed up a mouthful of dark blood. His cultivation reeled, suppressed and unstable. It would take months of healing to recover.
His two cronies were thrown backward by the shockwave, crashed through the courtyard wall, and tumbled down the mountain trail in a bloody mess.
Adam picked up the golden transfer scroll. With a flick of his wrist, a spark of Chaos-Devouring Fire ignited it and reduced it to gray ash in two seconds.
"Go back and tell your Senior Brother Ye," Adam said, his cold voice echoing down the foggy mountain path like a death decree. "If anyone from his faction sets foot on Ghost-Sword Peak again, I won’t just break their cultivation. I’ll erase their name from the sect’s roster."
Gu Long clutched his bleeding chest, weeping with terror, and scrambled backward on his hands and knees before turning to flee down the mountain as fast as his broken body could carry him.
Silence returned to Ghost-Sword Peak.
Adam dismissed the field. The floating swords rained back down and planted themselves in the stone in neat rows.
He turned back toward his hall, a dark, calculating glint in his eyes.
’Beating Gu Long will draw Senior Brother Ye and the larger inner-sect factions into the open,’ Adam analyzed, tucking his hands back into his sleeves. ’Good. The more arrogant elites who attack this peak, the more reason I have to take their assets.’
He climbed the hall’s steps and sat down to continue the slow work of consolidating his Foundation.
[Foundation consolidation: 3 / 30 days.]