The alarms of the Eternal Lotus Sect rang out like the death knell of an era. As Yun, Shara, and Meilin reached the main staircase, they were met by the "Vanguard of Petals"—thirty elite disciples specialized in binding techniques.
"Don't kill them if you don't have to," Shara commanded, her jade sword humming. "They are still my kin."
"In a war, mercy is a luxury, Shara," Meilin retorted, her hands igniting with a fierce crimson glow. "But for your sake, I'll only singe their wings."
The Vanguard attacked simultaneously, launching silken Qi threads designed to drain a cultivator's energy. Yun stepped forward, his translucent skin pulsing with violet light. He didn't use a weapon. He simply opened his mouth and inhaled.
The dozens of Qi threads, instead of binding him, were sucked into his lungs like a whirlwind. The disciples fell to their knees, gasping as their internal energy was forcibly yanked from their bodies. This was the "Void's Breath," a technique Yun had unconsciously developed in the Abyss.
"Now!" Yun shouted.
Meilin acted with surgical precision. She didn't just throw fire; she shaped it into feathers that acted as shields, parrying the arrows of light shot from the towers. Meanwhile, Shara used her knowledge of the sect's formations to point out the weak spots in the defensive barrier.
"The third pillar to the left! It's the anchor!" Shara cried out.
Yun lunged, his body moving like a violet blur. He struck the pillar with a palm strike. There was no explosion, just a terrifying silence as the massive stone structure withered and turned into gray dust. The sect's great barrier shattered like glass.
However, the path wasn't clear yet. At the main gate stood Sect Master Zhao Cang, his face twisted in a mixture of grief and fury. "Shara... you chose a monster over your home."
"I chose the future, Zhao Cang," she replied, standing side by side with Yun.
"Then the future ends here!" Zhao Cang unleashed his ultimate technique, the Nine-Petal Lotus Slaughter.
Yun felt the weight of the attack, but he didn't move. He looked at Shara and Meilin. "Give me your essence. Not as a meal, but as a bridge."
Understanding the gamble, Shara placed her hand on Yun's shoulder, pouring her calm, wood-elemental life force into him. Meilin placed her hand on his other side, injecting her volatile, destructive fire. Inside Yun's chaos bones, the two opposite energies were forced into a marriage of void.
Yun thrust both hands forward. A beam of "Annihilation Light"—white, violet, and red—collided with the Sect Master's lotus. The explosion shook the entire mountain range. When the smoke cleared, the gate was gone, and Zhao Cang lay defeated, though alive, amidst the rubble.
The three didn't wait. They vanished into the dark forests below, leaving the burning sect behind.