The Sovereign’s domain expanded like a living lung, inhaling moonlight and exhaling death.
Feng Xianyue stood at its edge, her body wracked with pain.
Her Nine Yin Physique screamed warnings into her meridians.
The lunar energy in the air—her yin energy, her very essence—was being ripped from the environment and fed into the beast before her.
She should have been terrified.
She was terrified.
But not of the Sovereign.
She was terrified of what she was seeing.
The strange man walking through the spirit domain as if it were morning mist.
Not fighting it, not breaking it, just walking.
A formation of solidified soul-ice erupted beneath his feet.
As he stepped forward, the ice shattered behind him, as though it had never been triggered at his position.
A spirit attack followed—a blade of condensed hatred passed through his chest like light through glass.
“He is not stronger,” Feng Xianyue realized, her breath catching.
“He is disconnected from being targeted.”
The Sovereign’s domain had rules.
Every cultivator who entered was registered, tracked, attacked.
The man existed outside those rules.
Not invisible.
Not invincible, just…
un-targetable, and the enemy didn’t notice.
The Sovereign’s attention—all of its attention—remained fixed on her.
By now, she noticed something…
the man was not running.
He was moving deliberately, every step placed at the edge of her defensive perimeter, not for protection but for positioning.
Suddenly she understood.
Without a word, she shifted her yin energy, the overflowing lunar force within her—not attacking or defending but redirecting, feeding the environment’s chaotic flow into controlled channels.
She didn’t fight the pull; she guided it, feeding it exactly what it wanted, pulling its attention and holding its hunger steady.
She broke the Sovereign’s absorption rhythm.
For half a breath, a gap appeared in the domain—a space where the rules didn’t quite apply.
The man moved through that gap, his sword cutting something she couldn’t see, causing the Sovereign’s regeneration to slow down.
They did not speak.
There was no time for words, no space for coordination.
But her body moved as if she knew where he would strike.
His blade appeared exactly where she had created an opening.
He is not protecting me, she realized during a brief pause.
He is using the battlefield efficiently.
And in that same moment, she felt his awareness brush against hers—not a glance, just a sense of someone who had come to the same conclusion.
When he moved, his sword glowed as it struck the Sovereign’s body.
A piercing scream tore from its throat, but the man struck again.
And again.
His blade moved like water, each strike landing in the exact gaps she’d created.
The Sovereign’s form flickered—once, twice—then fractured along invisible seams.
The Moon Eating Spirit didn’t explode.
stopped being something that could exist.
One breath it was there, the next, it was an absence where a monster had been.
As silence returned, the domain collapsed, and Feng Xianyue fell to her knees.
Her body shook with exhaustion, but a smile broke free from her lips.
This was her closest brush with death in this world, and she survived…
she was still alive.
The man stood over her, looking down with an empty expression.
He stretched out his hand towards her as if to help her up, but when Feng Xianyue attempted to hold his hand, he took it back, throwing her a glare.
Confused, Feng Xianyue wondered what was wrong with him.
“You have something of mine.”
Struggling to stand, Feng Xianyue said, “Something of yours…
I don’t think so.”
“The dagger you stole.”
Feng Xianyue’s heart stuttered.
The dagger.
She remembered grabbing it the first time they met…
she’d assumed it was just lying there with no owner.
But the blade had never dulled.
Not once, through every battle.
And now she knew why.
It was his.
She should have known that it belonged to him…
however, she felt reluctant.
The dagger had accompanied her throughout her battles in the secret realm, and she had unknowingly grown attached to it.
Then his arrival here wasn’t a coincidence.
He must be after his dagger—saving her was a second thought.
Feng Xianyue glared back at him.
She didn’t care that he saved her—how dare he call her a thief?
She ranted internally, holding onto something to justify her conflicting thoughts.
“You must be mistaken…
we have never met before,” she lied with a straight face, looking him up and down with a strange gaze.
“And I do not steal.”
The man’s eyes squinted with suspicion, looking at the shameless woman.
Before he could reply, he saw the remaining cultivators heading towards them, and his eyes glinted with malicious intent.
“Next time, control your yin energy well and don’t bring trouble to your martial brothers and sisters,” he said, giving her a disapproving look before flying away on his sword.
The other cultivators were just in time to hear this, discovering the cause of their misfortune.
They all sent her disgusting looks, throwing insults at her.
“Such a jinx…
look how shameless she is, bringing misfortune to everyone.”
“No wonder the Feng family abandoned her—she would have jinxed them with misfortune by now.”
“Annoying waste of beauty,” Feng Xianyue muttered, clenching her fist.
He deliberately threw her under the bus and left.
When they meet again, she would get back at him.
But even as she thought it, her fingers brushed the dagger’s hilt, still warm against her arm.
He hadn’t taken it back.
Why?
While others pointed at her with hurtful insults, some remembered a phenomenon that had happened a few days before the secret realm opened.
They remembered hearing a rumour that a person with the Nine Yin Physique had appeared in the Feng family…
so it was true.
“The Nine Yin Physique has really appeared,” someone muttered, his eyes shining with amazement.
Lan Hua sent the person a fierce glare before turning to Feng Xianyue.
“I heard the Nine Yin Physique was a heavenly treasure,” Lan Hua began.
“But seeing it now…
there is nothing amazing about it.
Instead, you ended up bringing trouble with it.”
“Ultimately, whether it’s a heavenly treasure depends on one’s talent,” Han Long added.
The rest nodded, different expressions running through their faces.
Feng Xianyue, not wanting to listen anymore to useless people running their mouths, bowed, saying, “Seeing that my troublesome self is not needed…
I shall take my leave.
Good day.”
“Y…
yo…
you!” Lan Hua’s words stumbled, pointing at Feng Xianyue’s fading figure as she stomped her feet in irritation.
“Feng Yue,” Lan Hua called, grabbing Feng Yue’s arm.
“That Feng Xianyue is so annoying.
Look how arrogant and unremorseful she is after causing us trouble…
she has to be taught a lesson.”
Feng Yue didn’t say anything, only patted her friend’s hand in comfort.
But her eyes never left Feng Xianyue’s fading figure.
Nine Yin Physique…
A bitter smile curved her lips.
Even with that, you’re still nothing.
I’ll make sure of it.
“Humph!
She thinks she is someone important because of the Nine Yin Physique…
Feng Yue, let’s forget about her now.
When Senior Brother Xiao gets the legendary Eternal Frost Blade for you, let’s see whether that Feng Xianyue can keep being arrogant,” Lan Hua said.
Han Long overheard this, a sad smile flickering across his face.
If only he were stronger…
then he could have been the one to claim the Eternal Frost Blade for Feng Yue.
Then she might finally see him.
Truly see him.
His fists clenched.
He wouldn’t give up.
No matter what, he’d find a way.
And if that Xiao fellow got in his way…
Worst comes to worst, he wouldn’t let that Xiao fellow succeed.
After all, everyone in the secret realm would be vying for the treasure…
how can it be easy for Brother Xiao to get it?