A few days later, Li Yuan was back in the Forbidden Forest, hunting once more. Overhead, thunder rolled faintly as the weather worsened with each passing moment.

  The air around him crackled with electricity as he absorbed a Spirit Stone to replenish his depleted Qi. The static did not come from the storm above—but from the corpses at his feet.

  A pair of late-stage Three-Eyed Lightning Foxes lay cooling on the forest floor, their silver-blue fur snapping now and then with lingering arcs of lightning.

  When he finished restoring his Qi, he crouched beside them. With a steady hand, he drew a dagger and carved out the third eye from each fox, placing the organs carefully into a specialised container.

  The third eye of these beasts were used in refining certain second-grade pills. Which made them extremely valuable.

  It was knowledge he had picked up over the past month, along with details about other spirit beasts.

  Not extensive.

  But enough to recognize which parts were valuable—and how to harvest them without ruining their worth.

  After sealing the containers, he summoned the Stele. He removed the foxes' ears as proof of the hunt, then pressed both corpses against the stone.

  They vanished instantly.

  On the Status Panel, the number at the bottom shifted.

  0 → 273.

  Li Yuan did not pause.

  He directed every point into his Formation Breaking skill.

  The counter began to rise.

  663... 664... 665…

  It continued climbing until—

  1st Tier Formation Breaking – 800 / 800 (Complete Perfection)

  He paused, staring at the skill.

  This was the first technique he had ever pushed to completion. He waited to see if something would change—if anything would happen at all.

  For a heartbeat, nothing did.

  Then—

  The runes on the Stele shifted. The Status Panel flickered, and the entry transformed.

  2nd Tier Formation Breaking – 0 / 400 (Moderate Accomplishment)

  Li Yuan blinked once.

  Then he gave a faint nod. "Figures."

  He had already mastered every aspect of first-tier formations. Every trap, every formation flag, every boundary array at that level had been broken down and absorbed into instinct.

  The only logical path forward was the second tier.

  What caught his attention was not the increase in tier—but the starting point.

  Moderate Accomplishment.

  Not Minor.

  He considered it briefly, then understood.

  Second-tier formations were more complex, yes. But their foundations were built on the same principles. The logic overlapped. The structure followed similar rules.

  He was not starting from nothing.

  Which was why the Stele had not treated him as though he were.

  Satisfied, he spent the remaining points into Veil of Borrowed Heaven. And his status panel now looked like this:

  NAME: Li Yuan

  AGE: 14

  CULTIVATION: 5th Stage Qi Condensation

  SKILLS

  Nine Peak Breathing Art – 0 / 200 (Major Accomplishment)

  Mountain-Splitting Stillness Sword – 1 / 600 (Perfection)

  Shadow-Cloud Steps – 0 / 800 (Perfection)

  Veil of Borrowed Heaven – 448 / 1200 (Major Accomplishment)

  Spirit Residue Following Technique – 1 / 500 (Major Accomplishment)

  1st-Tier Formation Breaking — 800/800 (Complete Perfection)

  2nd-Tier Formation Breaking — 1 / 400 (Moderate Accomplishment)

  CURRENT POINTS: 0

  Not a dramatic shift. But enough. He was now completely confident he could dismantle the Stillness Burial Array.

  With that settled—and the storm closing in—it was time to return to the sect.

  ...

  After one short detour that is.

  He moved through the forest rapidly, weaving between trunks and cutting through the undergrowth until he reached the shaded slope from his vision.

  Near the edge of the incline, half-hidden from sight, a single herb grew at the base of a boulder.

  This was the real reason he had come to the forest today, instead of focusing solely on his imminent breakthrough.

  A Condensation Spirit Leaf.

  Its veins glowed faintly with gathered Qi, and from its stem hung a single red berry.

  Li Yuan knelt and harvested only the berry, severing it cleanly at the stem.

  No larger than a fingernail—

  yet this small fruit was the true objective of his trip.

  The berry of a mature Condensation Spirit Leaf aided minor breakthroughs within the Qi Condensation Realm.

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  In truth, he was confident he could reach the Sixth Stage without assistance.

  But there was no harm in stacking the odds further in his favor.

  Then he did what most cultivators would not bother with.

  He uprooted the plant.

  Carefully.

  He preserved the roots and kept the surrounding soil intact.

  Moments later, he entered his Ancient Spatial Ring and replanted the Condensation Spirit Leaf beside the low-grade spirit lake.

  When he finished, he straightened and surveyed the area.

  A dozen spirit herbs of similar—or greater—quality grew nearby. Some thrived under the lake's nourishment. But others struggled. Their leaves had dulled to yellow-brown, and their stems twisted faintly from insufficient spiritual nourishment.

  He frowned slightly at the sight.

  If he did not learn how to properly cultivate spirit herbs, some of them would eventually wither. But that could wait.

  First, he would deal with Shu Dong.

  With that thought settled, he left the Ancient Spatial Ring.

  The forest had darkened due to the thick clouds and the low rumble of thunder overhead had grown even louder. The wind had picked up, and the air carried the scent of coming rain.

  It would pour soon. Time to return to the sect.

  —————

  Li Yuan lowered himself onto his cultivation mat and released a slow breath.

  Outside, thick clouds had swallowed the sky, turning evening into night. Wind forced its way through the cracks in his window, and heavy rain hammered against the roof, disrupting his focus.

  Worse, water had begun to seep through, dripping onto the floor in uneven taps.

  'I need a better courtyard and house,' he thought with some amusement.

  He reached into his Spatial Ring and withdrew the formation plate and flags of his Illusory Realm Formation.

  With practiced movements, he arranged the flags around him and activated the array.

  The world shifted.

  The roar of rain faded. The cold damp air vanished. In its place, he appeared to sit beneath a warm sky, waves rolling gently against a distant shore, sunlight spilling across pale sand.

  He knew it was only an illusion. But if it granted him peace enough to cultivate, and break through... that was all that mattered.

  He settled onto the cultivation mat. With a flick of his wrist, spirit stones spilled from his Spatial Ring and scattered across the floor, rolling until they formed a rough circle around him.

  Hundreds of low-grade spirit stones. He doubted he would need that many to break through—but caution cost nothing.

  He adjusted each stone by hand, spacing them evenly and correcting their alignment until the ambient Qi began to move in a slow, controlled spiral.

  Only when the flow felt steady did he reach into his Spatial Ring again.

  The red berry from the Condensation Spirit Leaf now rested in his palm. Up close, it looked ordinary. But the dense Qi pulsing within it told a different story.

  He inhaled deeply, then swallowed the berry whole and the effect was immediate.

  Warmth ignited in his stomach and spread outward through his limbs. Qi surged through his meridians in a steady rush. Around him, the spirit stones began to dim one by one as their energy drained, feeding into the circulating current within his body.

  Li Yuan closed his eyes.

  He drew in a slow breath.

  Qi gathered.

  He exhaled.

  Compressed.

  For days, he had felt it—the thin, stubborn barrier between the Fifth Stage and the Sixth. A membrane that refused to tear. Now, under mounting pressure, it began to strain.

  His meridians trembled as Qi pressed harder and harder. Then—

  Something gave... And the thin membrane shattered.

  Qi flowed freely, smoother than before, settling into a deeper, steadier rhythm within him.

  Sixth Stage of Qi Condensation.

  Li Yuan opened his eyes, surprised.

  'That… was easy.'

  He felt almost foolish for the tension he had carried into the breakthrough.

  Everything seemed sharper now. The crash of waves and the cries of seagulls within the Illusory Realm sounded clearer. Even the texture of the false sand beneath him felt more defined.

  He let out a quiet laugh, the tightness in his shoulders easing.

  "Good."

  He rose and stretched, joints cracking softly. Around him, a few spirit stones had crumbled to ash, but most remained intact. The red berry had supplied the bulk of the energy required.

  With a thought, he dismissed the Illusory Realm Formation.

  The warmth vanished. And cold damp air returned, making him glance outside the window in worry.

  Outside, the storm had worsened. The sky was completely dark now, rain still hammering against the roof without pause.

  The roof leaked even worse now. Water dripped steadily onto the floor, and the windows rattled under the force of the wind clawing to get inside.

  'Did the sect get hit by a hurricane?' he thought as thunder cracked overhead, lightning flashing bright enough to turn night into day for a single heartbeat—before darkness swallowed everything again.

  He blinked at the storm. Then he smiled.

  Weather like this was ideal. Perfect for a quiet assassination. And if it turned into a fight, the thunder would swallow the noise while the rain would wash away blood and traces alike.

  Decision made. Without hesitation, he pulled on a black cloak to conceal his figure and fitted a bronze mask over his face. He retrieved his sword, checked the Formation-Breaking Bead once more—just in case—and let Veil of Borrowed Heaven settle over him like a second skin.

  His presence thinned and then vanished completely.

  He opened the door and stepped into the downpour.

  Tonight, Shu Dong would die.

  —————

  Rain battered the mountain as he climbed.

  By now, it had grown violent enough that streams carved their way down the slope, some merging into torrents that looked like rushing rivers.

  He had never seen weather like this within the sect.

  Water poured from the sky in sheets. Thunder cracked so close it rattled his bones. A blinding flash split the clouds ahead and struck a towering tree in his path, reducing it to splintered ruin.

  Li Yuan slowed for half a breath, eyes narrowing. Then he moved again.

  As the storm worsened, urgency coiled tighter in his chest. This was the perfect cover. But he needed to act quickly.

  For a fleeting moment, he wondered if his Fortune had nudged events in his favour. Maybe? Even he didn't completely understand the ways in which his fortune worked.

  He pulled the dark cloak tighter and adjusted the bronze mask. Then he inhaled deeply and continued climbing into the storm.

  Shu Dong's courtyard sat atop a low hill, surrounded by a dozen similar estates. Each was framed by its own manicured garden.

  The hill thrummed faintly with Qi. Grass grew thick and even, trimmed to uniform height by sect servants. A cobbled path wound upward, rainwater flowing neatly into carved stone channels instead of turning the ground to sludge.

  The house itself was a two-story stone manse, solid and well maintained.

  Li Yuan's mouth twitched as he compared it to his own residence.

  His courtyard had a dirt path that dissolved into mud whenever it rained. His house had been patched and repatched over the years, built from wood long warped and rotting. He had no servants to trim the grass, which often grew wild to his waist if left unattended.

  On paper, both he and Shu Dong were Outer Sect disciples. But in reality, their living conditions could not have been more different.

  And yet—

  He felt no envy.

  The world was not fair. But neither were his advantages. If anything, his cheats outweighed the wealth and protection enjoyed by the heirs of powerful families.

  He reached the edge of Shu Dong's grounds and crouched low, rain soaking into his cloak as he studied the estate. His senses extended outward, searching for the formation.

  He found it almost immediately. Its presence was so obvious now that he nearly laughed at himself for missing it before.

  Then again, the last time he had attempted this, he had not achieved Perfection in breaking first-tier formations.

  He observed the array in silence. Then he smiled. The flaws were glaring. Overlapping nodes. Redundant anchors. A defensive focus tilted inward rather than outward.

  From a single glance, he could already envision a dozen ways to dismantle it without causing the slightest disturbance.

  'Hard to believe I died to this,' he thought. Ignorance had been deadlier than any blade.

  He advanced to the base of the house, crouched low, and reached toward the nearest formation anchor—

  Light erupted in the courtyard.

  Li Yuan reacted instantly, slipping backward into the shadow of a rain-soaked bush. His pulse stayed steady, though his muscles coiled tight. For a fleeting instant, he thought someone had triggered a lightning talisman.

  That he had been discovered.

  Then he understood. The light was not local. The courtyard had not brightened. The entire world had.

  He lifted his gaze— and stilled.

  Lightning streaked across the heavens from every direction, crawling through the clouds as it converged on a single point above the mountain.

  A sphere of lightning was forming.

  It swelled with each passing breath, growing larger, brighter. The air thickened. A crushing pressure descended, pressing down on everything beneath it.

  'What the hell—'

  And then it fell. Not a lighting bolt but an entire fucking pillar of lightning.

  Lightning as thick as a tree trunk tore down from the heavens and smashed into one of the upper peaks of the Nine Peak Sect.

  The mountain quaked. Stone shattered. And the sound of Thunder drowned out even the storm as the lightning struck something—

  or someone.

  In the distance, rain and tremors triggered a landslide. An entire slope gave way, collapsing in a roaring wave of mud and stone that would have crushed anything in its path.

  Li Yuan stared at the blazing column, breath lodged in his throat.

  Then he understood. Someone higher up in the mountain was breaking through to the Golden Core Realm.

  Li Yuan watched for one final heartbeat, rain streaking down his mask as thunder shook the mountain to its core.

  The pressure in the air was suffocating. But it also brought him clarity.

  The elders—and anyone of importance—would be focused entirely on the Lightning Tribulation.

  Good.

  With a Golden Core breakthrough in progress, no one would spare a fragment of attention for the Outer Sect tonight. If there had ever been a better opportunity, he could not think of it.

  He turned back to Shu Dong's residence, ready to dismantle the formation—

  —and stopped as the door to the house swung open.

  For a moment, Li Yuan simply stared in complete disbelief... as Shu Dong stepped out into the storm.

  Bare-chested. Rain plastered his hair to his face and shoulders. His trousers clung heavily to his legs. He looked thinner than Li Yuan remembered from the vision.

  Shu Dong walked a few steps into the downpour and stopped, tilting his head up toward the distant lightning pillar. His expression filled with longing, pain, despair and resentment.

  Li Yuan watched him stand there. Outside the house. Outside the protection of the Stillness Burial Array. For a single heartbeat, he did not move, such was his disbelief.

  He had just told himself there could be no better opportunity. And then a better one appeared.

  Instinct snapped into place. Now!

  His hand slipped into his sleeve.

  Six talismans flared into existence between his fingers, already igniting as he triggered them in one smooth motion. He flicked his wrist—

  They shot through the rain like shrieking meteors, converging on Shu Dong from six different angles.

  Shu Dong reacted at the last possible instant. A translucent shield burst into life from the necklace at his chest. The first strike slammed into it, sending ripples across its surface. The second made it flicker. The third shattered it outright.

  The shield absorbed three high-grade talismans. The remaining three struck unhindered. And they hit all at once.

  Shu Dong did not have time to scream. He did not even understand what was happening. The force tore through him, shredding flesh and bone in a single, brutal instant.

  When the light faded, what remained of him collapsed into the grass. Unrecognisable.

  Li Yuan blinked. That was it?

  He had expected more. A last-ditch counterattack. A hidden artifact. Some desperate resistance.

  Instead, Shu Dong had simply… died.

  "…"

  Li Yuan released a slow breath. Then, he moved.

  Ignoring the ruined state of the corpse, he swept what remained of Shu Dong into his Spatial Ring in one efficient motion—flesh, bone fragments, blood-soaked grass. Everything.

  The rain would take care of the rest.

  Evidence erased, he did not linger any longer.

  He ran—but not in a straight line. He cut through neighbouring courtyards, jumped across low walls, doubled back twice, and passed through a clusters of Outer Sect residences. Enough confusion in his path to make tracking the killer nearly impossible. That is, if the storm hadn't already washed away all the traces.

  By the time he reached his own house, he was drenched. His cloak hung heavy with rain and mud. He slipped inside and closed the door quietly, resting his weight against it for a moment.

  Water dripped from his sleeves onto the dirt floor as he forced his breathing to steady.

  Then he looked up. His halo shone pristine white.

  And a slow laugh escaped him.

  Shu Dong was dead.

  The greatest threat to him, and to his family, was gone. At last, he could stop looking over his shoulder. At last—

  He was free.