Xiao Yan planted one foot on the first moss-slick step, and ten thousand crimson eyes snapped open in unison. Gold-Eating Rats lined both flanks of the stairway; their fur bristled, and an invisible ripple of sound rolled outward, stirring the very Dou Qi of the mountain. Stones trembled. Air quivered like a plucked bow-string.
Above, thunderclouds gathered with unnatural haste—black, swollen, hostile. Xiao Yan's brows knotted. That storm wasn't there a heartbeat ago. But he had already advanced; to retreat now would be admitting defeat before the first trial began. He inhaled once, fierce and steady, then sprang forward. Scarlet wings of Dou Qi burst from his back, fanning the air with a muffled bang. He drove his speed to the limit and raced up Heaven-Reaching Mountain.
A hundred meters in, the Rat Tide's true assault descended.
Chiiirp!
The cry was needle-thin yet thunder-loud, a storm of razor sound that bored through flesh and bone alike. The shriek drilled into Xiao Yan's meridians, rattling his organs, slowing his charge to a painful crawl. In the original timeline he had carried Nalan Yanran through this gauntlet in flight. Today he had only himself, his burnt-orange fighting spirit, and a stubborn refusal to bow.
Teeth grinding, he forced another step, then another, until the sonic blades dulled against his sheer will.
Behind him, Ye Feng watched from Tianshan Terrace, lips curved in a subtle smile.
A single flick of Ye Feng's finger.
Heaven answered.
Lightning forked out of the cloudbank like a silver spear hurled by a vengeful god, aimed straight at Xiao Yan. The young man twisted in midair, Dou Qi-wings flexing hard. The bolt kissed his shoulder, missing his heart by inches, and splintered the stair behind him into steaming rubble. Shock flared in Jin Shi's golden pupils; the patriarch of the Gold-Eating Rat Clan could only gape. Of every place that bolt might fall… why there?
Boom!
A second lance of lightning plunged.
"Devour!" Xiao Yan roared.
Black-red tendrils unfurled from his palms—flame-shaped, sinister, hungry. Instead of blasting him apart, the bolt vanished into those feelers like water into desert sand. The crowd gasped. Even Ye Feng's eyebrows lifted.
Devour?
In the original story Xiao Yan possessed no such talent. Ye Feng's mind raced. A faint aura clung to those tendrils, one he knew well—the breath of the Azure Lotus Earth Core Fire.
So he dug up the fire's tuber… and forged it into a devouring art? Wild, but plausible. The tuber of that heavenly flame could swallow other fires to gestate the Lotus; Yao Chen might indeed have refined it into a treasure. But doing so would doom that lava rift to eternal silence—no Azure Lotus would ever bloom there again.
"A pity," Ye Feng murmured, eyes narrowing to slits. "To snuff out Heaven's own wonder for personal gain…"
He prepared to suppress Xiao Yan outright.
He never got the chance.
The skies erupted.
The storm no longer threw lightning one strike at a time; it poured them down in a baptism of blinding white arcs. A true thunderstorm—wrath made manifest. Xiao Yan's tendrils gulped bolt after bolt, his body shining with crackling nets of current, but the torrent soon outpaced his fledgling devouring skill. A final thunder-whip slammed him square in the chest, tearing open skin and resolve alike. Smoking, he tumbled backward, landing on all fours at the foot of the steps.
"Defeated," someone whispered.
If not for that heavenly barrage, Xiao Yan might have succeeded, yet defeat was defeat. He shoved to his feet, glare flicking between sky and stair, then toward Jin Shi.
"Was that part of the test?" he demanded, voice ragged.
Jin Shi shook his furry head. "Merely coincidence."
Thunderheads thinned, sunlight probing through tatters of cloud. Xiao Yan's fists clenched. When I advanced, the storm struck. When I retreated… clear skies. Coincidence? Hardly.
His gaze slid to Ye Feng.
The man in black answered only with placid amusement, sleeves unmoving in the breeze.
"Could he have done this?" Xiao Yan muttered.
"No," Yao Chen whispered from the ring, disagreeing. "More likely it concerns that tuber you took. Nature does not forgive lightly."
"Tuber? What does that have to do with—"
"The Azure Lotus Earth Core Fire is a child of Heaven and earth. You plucked its seed, severing a destiny. Perhaps Heaven judged that crime and barred you from its boons—the Tianshan Blood Pool among them."
"Teacher, my fate is my own. That storm might've been mere chance."
"Then make yourself strong enough to swallow chance next time," Yao Chen replied.
Xiao Yan's grin was sharp and wolfish despite scorched robes. "Exactly. My devouring art is still green. Give me time, and I'll eat storms whole."
"And now?"
"Now we head for Zhongzhou. The Pill Region's Grand Alchemy Conference approaches—I'll perfect my art there."
With that, Xiao Yan turned, cloak fluttering, and strode down the mountain path toward a new horizon.
Ye Feng watched him until the last flash of red wings vanished among evergreens.
"Master?" Mu Qingluan asked softly beside him. "What troubles you?"
"He was judged," Ye Feng said. "What you saw was the mildest grade of divine punishment."
"That was divine punishment?" Her slender brows arched. "Then Heaven truly has thought—and will?"
"Think of it as a law etched into the world. Break it, and the backlash follows." Ye Feng's gaze flicked toward the clearing sky. "Destroying a Heavenly Flame is a grave sin, yet not unforgivable; thus the lightest sentence."
Mu Qingluan digested that in silence, then glanced again toward the trail where Xiao Yan had disappeared. Relief mingled with curiosity in her eyes. "Master, do you know who he is?"
"Xiao Yan, disciple of Yao Chen."
Her breath caught. "The Pavilion Master? Then Master Feng will be overjoyed—she has searched for Yao Chen for years!"
Ye Feng's expression darkened. "Qingluan, there's something you should hear."
"I'm listening."
"Your teacher, Venerable Feng, gained her breakthrough after taking the Yin-Yang Mysterious Dragon Pill—gifted by Yao Chen, yes?"
"She's always been grateful for that favor."
Ye Feng sighed. "Yao Chen gave her that pill as an experiment. He did not know its efficacy. Your master was… a test subject."
Mu Qingluan reeled, jade cheeks draining of color. "An… experiment?"
"Unwitting. Unwanted. But yes."
Memories of Venerable Feng's reverent stories about Yao Chen flashed through Mu Qingluan's mind—gratitude, admiration, devotion. All for a man who had gambled her future on an alchemical whim.
Her fingers tightened around the hilt of her feathered blade. "Master… is this true?"
"Facts seldom care about feelings," Ye Feng answered quietly. "Decide for yourself when you next see your teacher."
She swallowed hard, chest heaving once. Then she bowed. "Thank you for telling me."
If you notice the new Fanfic are gone i'll give the new link
This is the new link for my new Fanfic because i repost it
Killing People is Kinda Scientific Right?
https://www.webnovel.com/book/killing-people-is-kinda-scientific-right_33392445700696205
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Check my Pâtreon for (40) advanced chapters
Pâtreon .com/Fanficlord03
Change (â) to (a)
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
https://discord.gg/MntqcdpRZ9