In the VIP stands, a pale-faced man with a predatory gaze… Yue Shan, the leader of the Blood Wolf Gang… watched with growing alarm, his brow furrowed looking at Lin Dong keeping up with the Wei Tong. 'Impossible! How is he matching Wei Tong? Wei Tong should have killed him in a single move!' Yue Shan, who had hoped to see Lin Dong eliminated as a potential future threat, felt the knot tighten in his stomach. He had gravely miscalculated the boy's talent.
The fight raged on, the arena reduced to a chaotic mess of shattered stone and swirling crimson dust. Lin Dong fought with the desperate ingenuity of a survivor, his movements becoming more fluid, his counters sharper.
Finally, a blinding burst of power erupted from Lin Dong's position… the culmination of a technique refined by his own unique methods.
A strange, unnatural silence followed the final impact. The dust slowly settled, revealing a figure standing tall amid the destruction. Lin Dong was panting, his martial robes torn, but he was undeniably standing.
Wei Tong, however, lay sprawled on the shattered stone, his body unmoving, his crimson Yuan Power having dissipated entirely into the air. His eyes were wide, fixed on the sky in an expression of final, bewildered disbelief. There is no breath in his corpse.
Silence gripped the Dual Arena. Then, a collective, stunned gasp broke the stillness. No one could believe Wei Tong had fallen. A Late Heavenly Yuan expert, a top master of the Blood Cloth Sect, had lost his life at the hands of a youth not even twenty years old.
Lin Dong, though victorious, clenched his fists, forcing his breathing to normalize. 'I believed with my current strength, I should have dispatched him easily… but Wei Tong's power exceeded my expectations,' he thought, a cold reminder that the road ahead remained perilous.
High above the arena, Lin Yi watched the conclusion, his gray eyes devoid of emotion. 'A satisfactory performance. The life-and-death struggle was necessary. Now, the Blood Wolf Gang will truly feel the sting. Although I warned Yue Shen, he doesn't know that Lin Dong is my brother or that I am related to the Lin Family. Anyway, I will leave everything to Lin Dong. The chosen one is capable of dealing with all kinds of trouble… At first I thought my arrival may change the plot, but now it seems changing plotlines in such high level dimensions is not easy because of active fate and destiny rules.'
Lin Yi maintained his position for a few silent beats, allowing the chaos and the subsequent roar of the victorious crowd to wash over the city. Lin Dong had accomplished his objective: the decisive defeat of a Blood Cloth Sect master had officially cemented his status as a legitimate power in Yan City, ensuring the Mayor's House would approach him with the proper deference.
'His prestige is established. Zi Yue will invite him for the Tower Battle shortly, a necessary stepping stone,' Lin Yi mused, synthesizing the information. He had provided the necessary shield (the Yi Pavilion), the training (the Five Phase Spiritual Exercise), and the pressure (the staged conflict). Now, Lin Dong needed space to grow through the final pre-tomb challenge.
The ultimate objective at this stage… the exploration of the Nirvana Tomb in the Sky Flame Mountain region… was still several weeks away, a period of crucial final preparation for all the region's major powers. For Lin Yi, it was time to shift his focus and secure his other anchor.
'Qing Tan,' he thought, the name carrying a subtle warmth in his otherwise cold calculations. Her Terminus Devil Body was a ticking clock of phenomenal energy, and his last return from her breakthrough had been the colossal.
"It's time to return to the Lin Family." He muttered thoughtfully, with that decision settled, Lin Yi's figure, still enveloped by the camouflage spiritual technique, flickered. In the span of a single breath, he who had been watching from the rooftop was gone, vanishing as silently and completely as a shadow consumed by darkness.
…
The journey back to Qingyang Town was swift, a seamless blur accomplished through Lin Yi's refined spatial control, a subtle capability granted by his Manifestation Stage mastery. He reappeared near the familiar, sprawling compound of the reformed Lin Family… no longer relegated to the minor branch, but now consolidated within a prestigious, high-walled manor in a secluded, quiet corner of the town.
He did not announce his arrival. Instead, he simply walked through the secondary gate, his concealed aura preventing any of the newly hired guards from detecting his presence.
The internal courtyard, a place of peace and relative seclusion, brought him to the main residence where his parents, Lin Xiao and Lin Yun, had their private quarters.
He paused outside the door, letting the Concealment technique dissipate. The sudden re-appearance of his powerful aura… though heavily masked back to a stable Heavenly Yuan level for appearances was enough to alert the two cultivation experts within.
The door slid open, and Lin Xiao, his father, emerged first, his brow furrowed with confusion. He was dressed in simple, yet high-quality silk robes, his posture still that of a veteran commander, though now tempered by the quiet prestige of the main family's leader. Behind him, Lin Yun, his mother, stood, her expression quickly shifting from concern to stunned recognition.
"Yi'er?" Lin Yun gasped, moving forward immediately, a look of profound relief and maternal worry washing over her face. "You've been away for so long! We heard rumors that you have been hired by the Yi pavilion, but Elder Mu was so secretive about your whereabouts."
Lin Xiao's demeanor was more reserved, though the pride in his eyes was clear. "You should have sent word, son. Yan City is a den of wolves. What level are you at now? Your aura is… confusing."
Lin Yi offered a faint, sincere smile. "I apologize for the lack of communication, Father, Mother. Yan City required a subtle approach, and discretion was paramount. I am well. And the Yi Pavilion is now a deterrent force, rather than a target."
He stepped into the room. Before they could inquire further, he retrieved two meticulously crafted jade boxes from his Chaos Talisman Space. He placed them gently on a nearby table, their elegant craftsmanship drawing immediate attention.
"I did not come empty-handed," Lin Yi said. "These are small tokens of filial piety. They will aid your recent cultivation advancements."
Lin Yun approached the table first, her expression still maternal and warm. Lin Xiao, ever the suspicious pragmatist, watched his son closely.
...