The return journey to the isolated northern peaks was filled with a dangerous stillness.
Ye Chen could feel the subtle shifts in the wind—the faint, lingering gazes of the City Lord’s hidden scouts tracking his movements from the outer perimeters of the bazaar.
He did not turn back, nor did he accelerate his pace.
To a former Sovereign, these clumsy espionage networks were as visible as bloodstains on pristine snow.
Let them track me, he thought calmly.
An apex predator never fears the trail left behind for the wolves.
He stepped inside the cavern, the heavy stone seal sliding into place with a hollow thud, plunging the chamber into an eerie, moonlit quiet.
The ambient cold from the frozen walls was biting, but to his frost-tempered bones, it felt like an anchor—stabilizing the volatile silver energy inside his channels.
Ye Chen sat cross-legged on the stone platform and drew the small jade box containing the Sun-Scorch Pill Core from his wide blue sleeve.
He popped the latches with a single movement.
The moment the seal broke, a dense wave of crimson heat exploded from the box, causing the ambient frost on the cave floor to hiss loudly and evaporate into white steam.
The pill core vibrated with raw, unstable fire-attributed energy—a dangerous catalyst that would systematically incinerate the meridians of any normal Second Layer cultivator.
“The lower-realm alchemists build their foundations on pure, unrefined heat, thinking the fire alone can force a breakthrough,” Ye Chen murmured, a cold smile touching his young face as he looked at the glowing red marble.
“They do not know that fire without a vacuum is merely a wild beast without a cage. To balance the ice, one must not fight it—one must command both to serve the center.”
He did not hesitate.
He tossed the burning pill core into his mouth, his jaw clamping shut instantly.
Boom.
The expansion of the medicinal fire was immediate and brutal.
It felt as though a volcano had erupted directly inside his throat, sending a torrent of liquid magma rushing down his esophagus and flooding into his lower dantian.
The intense heat collided violently with the silver, glacial energy he had harvested from the spring, creating a chaotic explosion of spiritual pressure that threatened to split his newly repaired spirit roots into microscopic fragments.
“Argh!”
A low, painful groan escaped his lips.
His hands instinctively clenched into fists so hard that his fingernails pierced through the skin of his palms.
Dark blood mixed with fiery crimson residue began to ooze from his pores, staining his moon-silk robes.
His chest rose and fell in ragged, shallow gasps.
His vision turned completely red as the internal temperature of his flesh rose to a dangerous degree.
A normal inner sect vanguard would have lost consciousness within ten seconds, their mental wall collapsing under the pure trauma of the opposing elements, leading to a violent internal core implosion. This story is hosted at g.com.
But Ye Chen’s soul was an ancient, unyielding monument.
He had watched the death of stellar constellations.
He had endured the cold vacuum of the cosmic void.
This physical pain, no matter how suffocating, was merely a tool—a hammer he would use to forge his throne.
Nine Heavens Monarch Scripture, activate!
Form the Cycle!
his mind commanded into the burning darkness of his consciousness.
The silver river of Qi inside his dantian throbbed violently, then began to circulate backward through his secondary channels while simultaneously pushing forward through his primary paths.
This was the legendary Dual-Orbit Refinement—a technique that only a former Sovereign’s soul awareness could execute without instantly tearing their brain apart.
Under the absolute command of his mind, the chaotic fire of the Sun-Scorch Core stopped destroying his flesh.
Instead, it was seized by the silver Qi, dragged into the frozen depths of his spirit roots, and systematically forced to merge with the residual glacial frost.
The extreme cold and the intense heat ground against each other like two cosmic grindstones, crushing the impurities trapped within the deepest walls of his meridians.
The glass-like pathways of his foundation began to glow, turning from pure silver into a translucent, crystalline white that radiated a terrifying density.
One hour passed.
The air inside the cave grew so intensely hot that the loose gravel on the floor began to turn into fine red ash—only to be hit a moment later by a freezing wave of frost as his cold-attribute Qi balanced the furnace.
By the third hour, the violent synthesis finally reached its apex.
Ye Chen’s heart beat with the slow, deep resonance of an ancient war-drum.
He sat perfectly still, enveloped in a massive, spinning cocoon of crimson fire and silver ice that hummed with the deep, heavy pressure of ancient laws.
CRACK.
A sharp, metallic note resonated inside his mind, shattering through the final bottleneck of his current stage.
The spinning cocoon violently imploded, the raw energy rushing back into his chest in a single, massive wave before stabilizing into a deep, vast ocean of gold-tinted silver Qi within his lower dantian.
The spiritual river had grown three times wider, three times denser, and filled with a lethal, armor-piercing velocity.
Ye Chen slowly opened his eyes.
The dark of the cavern was instantly pierced by a brilliant, blinding flash of silver light that erupted from his pupils, leaving behind two faint, trailing ribbons of spiritual light that traveled five feet before dissolving into the air.
He took a long, deep breath, and as he exhaled, the air left his lips in a perfectly balanced plume of white steam that crackled with tiny sparks of residual static electricity.
He stood up, his joints letting out a series of deep, heavy thuds—like massive iron gears locking into place within a fortified gate.
He ran his spiritual awareness inward and felt a surge of satisfaction.
He had not only stepped into the Third Layer of the Qi Condensation realm, but the density of his silver Qi was so immense, so flawlessly refined, that it could easily match or suppress a normal cultivator at the peak of the Fifth Layer.
His Asura Iron Flesh had absorbed the synthesized energy, making his physical frame twice as dense as before.
Without utilizing a single drop of Qi, he could now withstand the full-force strike of a Fifth Layer warrior’s spiritual steel weapon without leaving a scratch.
“Third Layer,” Ye Chen whispered, his voice carrying an icy, unyielding weight that chilled the cavern walls.
He closed his fist, and the air compressed with a sharp, violent pop that echoed into the shadows.
“The base is set. The flies of the city can assemble whatever factions they desire—my blade is finally sharp enough to begin the true slaughter.”
He picked up his basic iron sword, sliding it back into its scabbard with a crisp, heavy click.
He walked to the edge of the cavern, looking down at the distant lights of Nine Star City beneath the morning fog.
Meanwhile, inside the main pavilion of the Wang Clan, Young Master Wang Qiang knelt before his father, the Clan Leader.
His face was pale with humiliation and fury as he reported the event from the bazaar.
Behind them, an old elder with a scarred jaw slowly pulled a long, blood-red dagger from an iron case.
“He has no background, yet he possesses an iron body that deflates a Fourth Layer enforcer?” the old elder hissed, his voice cold as ice.
“The Lin Clan has hidden this stray for too long. If he enters the Great City Tournament, he will alter the balance of the three families.”
He raised the dagger, its edge catching the torchlight.
“Send the Blood-Hound mercenaries. I want his head on my counter before the week ends.”
The wolves were finally baring their teeth.
The lines of the grand confrontation were drawing closer.
And Ye Chen stood upon the mountain—a silent, ancient predator waiting for the hunt to begin.
Author’s Note:
Third Layer achieved!
🔥
Ye Chen didn’t just break through — he created a new foundation.
His silver Qi now matches a Fifth Layer cultivator.
But the Wang Clan is not waiting for the tournament.
The Blood-Hound mercenaries are coming…
Comment below: Will the Blood-Hound mercenaries be a threat, or just more fuel for Ye Chen’s blade?