The sect plaza remained deathly silent.
Cold wind drifted through the mountain pathways while spiritual lanterns flickered uneasily beneath the fading evening sky.
No one spoke immediately after Elder Mo's words.
Because the terror within his voice…
felt real.
Not exaggerated.
Not born from panic or emotion.
Real.
Several disciples standing nearby had already turned pale.
Some unconsciously took a step backward.
Golden Core cultivators stood like mountains within the Azure Sky Sect.
Untouchable.
Supreme.
Existences countless disciples spent their entire lives pursuing.
Yet now—
their Sect Leader and six elders had vanished within a single day.
And the sole survivor…
looked broken.
An elder standing near the front finally spoke in a careful voice.
"…What exactly happened?"
Elder Mo remained seated upon the cracked stone platform for several long moments.
His breathing gradually steadied, though faint tremors still passed through his body.
Then—
slowly—
he began to speak.
"At first…"
"…we believed it was merely a spirit beast with unusually strong concealment abilities."
A bitter laugh escaped his lips afterward.
"…We were wrong."
The surrounding elders listened in complete silence.
No one interrupted him.
Elder Mo lowered his gaze slightly.
Almost as though he were reliving the battle inside his mind.
"It attacked before we could fully establish formation control."
"One elder died instantly."
His voice tightened faintly.
"…Killed before anyone even realized the beast had moved."
Several nearby disciples visibly stiffened.
A few exchanged uneasy glances.
Elder Mo continued quietly.
"It controlled storms."
"Lightning."
"Flames."
"Wind."
"Spatial concealment."
"And…"
His expression slowly changed there.
A trace of lingering disbelief surfaced within his eyes.
"…it possessed a manifestation."
Silence.
One elder frowned sharply.
"A manifestation?"
"That's impossible for an ordinary spirit beast."
Elder Mo nodded slowly.
"I know."
"That should not have been possible for a beast that had only recently broken through."
"But I saw it myself."
The atmosphere across the plaza grew heavier afterward.
Because manifestations were not ordinary techniques.
They required an extremely high degree of spiritual control and comprehension.
Most spirit beasts relied primarily upon instinct, bloodline abilities, and raw power.
Yet Elder Mo's description…
sounded less like a wild beast—
and more like some ancient cultivated monster that had survived for centuries.
Another elder finally spoke.
"…What realm was it?"
Elder Mo slowly closed his eyes for a brief moment.
Then answered quietly.
"…Golden Core."
A pause followed.
Then softly—
"…But stronger."
Several elders' expressions changed instantly.
One of them muttered under his breath,
"A peak Golden Core beast…"
"No."
Elder Mo interrupted immediately.
His eyes opened once more.
And this time—
the fear within them became unmistakably clear.
"…Not peak Golden Core."
Silence stretched across the plaza.
The cold mountain wind suddenly felt even heavier.
Then—
"It was still only at the early stage."
Those words struck harder than anything he had said so far.
Because everyone present understood exactly what that meant.
Seven Golden Core cultivators.
Including Sect Leader Yuan after unleashing his bloodline transformation.
And even after killing all of them—
the creature had still not exhausted itself completely.
One elder's face paled slightly.
"…Impossible…"
Elder Mo laughed weakly again.
"That's exactly what I thought."
His fingers tightened faintly against the cracked stone beneath him.
Then his voice lowered further.
"…Sect Leader Yuan fully unleashed the Golden Tyrant Dragon bloodline."
"He forced the beast into direct combat."
"For a moment…"
A faint pause followed.
"…I truly believed we might win."
The plaza remained utterly silent.
No disciple dared whisper.
Even the elders listened without the slightest interruption.
Then Elder Mo continued softly.
"But it adapted."
"It continued growing stronger during the battle."
"The longer we fought…"
"…the worse the situation became."
His expression darkened further afterward.
"And its poison…"
For the first time—
visible unease appeared clearly across his face.
A nearby elder frowned deeply.
"Poison strong enough to kill Elder Jin?"
Elder Mo nodded slowly.
"It invades spiritual energy directly."
"The more power you circulate…"
"…the faster you die."
Silence descended once more.
A suffocating silence.
Then one elder finally asked the question lingering within everyone's minds.
"…What do we do now?"
Elder Mo did not answer immediately.
Because honestly—
he himself did not know.
For the first time in many years—
fear toward something unknown had completely settled within his heart.
Not fear of defeat.
Fear of extinction.
Eventually—
his gaze slowly lifted toward the distant mountains beyond the sect.
Toward the direction of the Azure Root Forest.
The wind drifted quietly across the plaza while fear lingered heavily within the silence surrounding everyone present.
Then finally—
he spoke.
Quietly.
Slowly.
"…We need to inform the Supreme Elders immediately."
The surrounding elders' expressions changed instantly.
Several nearby disciples visibly froze.
Because within the Azure Sky Sect—
the Supreme Elders represented something entirely different from ordinary Golden Core cultivators.
They were the true foundations of the sect.
Ancient existences who normally remained in closed-door cultivation for years at a time.
Nascent Soul cultivators.
Beings who rarely involved themselves in sect affairs unless a genuine catastrophe threatened the sect itself.
And now—
Elder Mo was requesting their intervention directly.
One elder frowned deeply.
"…Are things truly that severe?"
Elder Mo slowly turned toward him.
His exhausted face remained pale beneath the spiritual lanterns.
But his eyes—
carried absolute certainty.
"Yes."
That single word fell heavily across the plaza.
He continued quietly afterward.
"If we conceal this matter…"
"If we hesitate…"
"…then eventually the sect itself may disappear."
Silence followed immediately.
No one refuted him.
Because everyone present understood clearly now—
Elder Mo was not speaking out of panic.
He genuinely believed the creature posed a threat to the entire Azure Sky Sect.
One elder lowered his voice carefully.
"…A Nascent Soul spirit beast…"
But Elder Mo immediately shook his head.
"No."
His fingers tightened slightly.
"That's what makes this worse."
The plaza grew even quieter afterward.
Then—
"It was still only at the early Golden Core stage."
Several disciples unconsciously inhaled sharply.
Even now—
hearing those words again felt unreal.
Elder Mo slowly lowered his gaze.
The plaza remained silent around him while cold wind drifted across the sect mountain.
Fear.
Shock.
Disbelief.
All of it lingered heavily within the expressions of the surrounding disciples and elders.
Then finally—
Elder Mo spoke once more.
Quietly.
Firmly.
"…Enough."
His voice carried deep exhaustion now.
But also certainty.
"The sect's protective grand array has already been activated."
Several elders immediately exchanged glances afterward.
The grand array.
One of the Azure Sky Sect's ultimate defensive measures.
Normally only activated during war or external invasion.
Yet now—
it had been raised against a single creature.
Elder Mo slowly pushed himself back to his feet.
His body still trembled faintly from his injuries.
Dried blood remained scattered across parts of his robes.
But his expression had gradually steadied somewhat.
"I only returned to confirm the situation personally."
His gaze swept slowly across the gathered elders.
"No one leaves the sect."
The words fell sharply across the plaza.
One elder frowned slightly.
"…Not even the outer disciples?"
"No one."
Elder Mo answered immediately.
"We do not know whether the creature followed me."
"We do not know whether it possesses long-range tracking abilities."
"And we do not know whether it intends to attack the sect directly."
Silence followed.
Because after everything he had described—
none of those possibilities sounded impossible anymore.
Elder Mo continued calmly.
"Instruct the outer elders stationed beyond sect territory to temporarily handle all external matters."
"Resource gathering."
"Patrols."
"Trade routes."
"All suspended or reassigned."
One nearby elder slowly nodded grimly.
"…Understood."
The atmosphere around the plaza remained tense.
Heavy.
Like a storm waiting to descend completely.
Then Elder Mo exhaled slowly.
His spiritual aura fluctuated weakly once more afterward.
Clearly—
his injuries were far from light.
Not merely physical injuries either.
The earlier battle had shaken even his spiritual foundation.
"I need time to recover before entering the ancestral grounds."
Several elders immediately understood what he meant.
The Supreme Elders.
Nascent Soul ancestors who remained deep within closed cultivation beneath the sect itself.
Awakening them was not something done lightly.
But now—
none of the elders present objected anymore.
Elder Mo slowly turned away afterward.
His robes fluttered faintly beneath the mountain wind.
Then, without another word—
he departed toward the deeper regions of the sect.
The gathered disciples remained silent while watching him disappear into the distance.
No one celebrated his return.
No one spoke loudly.
Because everyone understood clearly now—
the Azure Sky Sect had not survived a victory.
It had merely survived long enough to become aware of something terrifying hidden within the Azure Root Forest.
And somewhere far beyond the mountains—
beneath the endless night sky—
an invisible white-scaled creature continued drifting silently through the darkness.