The Grand Sky Hall of the Azure Cloud Sect sat atop the Highest Sovereign Peak, bathed in the sharp, cold glare of dawn. Massive pillars of carved white jade held up the vaulted ceiling, where floating banners of silk shimmered with ancient warding runes.
Inside, the atmosphere was suffocating.
Hundreds of inner-sect disciples, core geniuses, and high elders stood along the perimeter. At the elevated head of the hall sat the Sect Patriarch, a shadowy, ancient figure whose presence hummed like a sleeping dragon. To his right stood Elder Lu, his silver robes spotless, though his pale face burned with an icy, suppressed fury.
In the center of the vast hall stood Ren.
He wore no body armor, carried no spirit blade, and wore only the simple grey robes of a newly inducted inner disciple. His arms were folded neatly inside his sleeves, his face a calm, unreadable mask.
"Sect Patriarch! High Elders!" Elder Lu stepped forward, his voice booming through the hall like rolling thunder, backed by his peak Core Assembly Qi. "I demand the immediate execution and soul-refining of this disciple, Ren!"
A murmur rippled through the assembled crowd.
"He stands accused of murdering Enforcer Zhao inside the Secret Realm," Elder Lu declared, pointing a claw-like finger at Ren. "Furthermore, last night, he utilized demonic, blood-refining arts to ambush and cripple three of my elite shadow enforcers inside their own quarters! His 'iron body' is nothing more than a disguise for a vile, forbidden core!"
The Elders on the high dais shifted, their gazes turning sharp and cold as they locked onto Ren.
"Disciple Ren," the Patriarch’s deep, echoing voice filled the hall, heavy enough to make the air vibrate. "How do you answer these charges?"
Ren stepped forward, bowing respectfully to the Patriarch, completely ignoring Elder Lu.
"Elder Lu speaks of murder and demonic arts," Ren said smoothly, his voice low but carrying absolute clarity through the hall. "Yet he omits the reason his enforcers were in my quarters in the dead of night behind a silent, sound-proof barrier."
Ren reached into his sleeve and pulled out three metallic objects, tossing them onto the white jade floor. They clattered loudly—the official private faction badges of Elder Lu’s shadow assassins.
"They did not come to deliver tea," Ren continued calmly. "They came to execute an inner disciple on private orders. As for Enforcer Zhao..."
Ren pulled out a second item—the black-leather scroll retrieved from Zhao's body inside the rift—and held it high.
"This scroll was taken from Zhao’s corpse after he tried to murder me in the Aether-Scar," Ren declared. "It contains Elder Lu’s private seal and detailed instructions to hunt down and butcher any disciple who exhibits irregular spatial or density traits, so their bodies can be harvested for his private Blood-Forge Altar."
Gasps erupted across the Grand Hall. High Elders looked at each other in shock.
"Lies! Fabricated slander!" Elder Lu roared, his face twisting into a hideous snarl as his aura flared wildly. "A crippled scrap-sweeper dares forge my seal?!"
"It is no lie," a cold, crystal-clear voice rang out.
Lin Xiu stepped out from the ranks of the Core Disciples, her hand resting on her icy blade. She walked up beside Ren, bowing to the Patriarch.
"I witnessed Enforcer Zhao ambush Disciple Ren inside the rift," Lin Xiu stated calmly. "I also inspected the black scroll. The spirit seal on that parchment belongs unequivocally to Elder Lu. For years, disciples from the outer yards have vanished without a trace near his private peak."
Elder Lu’s eyes turned completely bloodshot. He looked at the Patriarch, then at the murmuring Elders, realizing that his years of secret blood-refinement were being stripped bare in front of the entire sect.
He had been backed into a corner. There was no maneuvering out of this.
"Traitorous worms!" Elder Lu shrieked, dropping all pretenses of restraint. His Peak Core Assembly Qi exploded outward like a erupting volcano, shattering the jade floor tiles beneath his feet. "You think a ruined scrap-sweeper and a cold-blooded girl can drag me down?! Die!"
Elder Lu blurred into a streak of blinding, crimson lightning. He bypassed the Patriarch, bypassed the Elders, and thrust his right hand forward, his fingers clawed and glowing with a terrifying, plasma-like fire—The Celestial Furnace Palm.
The strike was aimed straight for Ren’s throat, intending to incinerate him into ash before another word could be spoken.
Ren didn't run. He didn't flinch.
He unsealed his Void Lock.
Inside his chest, the two merged Godhead fragments roared to life. His dark, cosmic violet eyes snapped open, and he stepped directly into the path of the Elder's killing blow.