"Crack, crack..."
Centered beneath Chen Kuang's feet, the surface of the river froze over in an instant, blanketed in pure white.
From the dark night sky, the snow fell harder and harder.
Originally, it was only a light sprinkle, sparse as salt scattered in the wind.
But earlier, vast quantities of river water had been evaporated by the Myriad Tribulation Enduring Fire, rising into the air and merging with the clouds up above.
Now, as that trace of chill emerged, the steam that had just begun to ascend immediately condensed in large swathes, falling back down as dense flurries of frozen rain, further fueling the snowstorm.
As these heavy flakes descended only to be consumed by the flames, they transformed once more into sweeping gusts of wind.
Above: snowfall howling.
Below: firestorms roaring.
Where the two clashed, airflow churned and spiraled, forming a vortex of storm winds, vaguely shaped like the black and white of a yin-yang diagram.
"Rumble..."
Above the river, at the edges of the storm vortex, streaks of lightning flashed across the sky, evoking an apocalyptic vision.
But this was merely the beginning.
After reciting the poem 'River Snow', Chen Kuang stepped fully onto the ice-covered river. He took a deep breath and advanced toward that massive orb of flame hovering midair, glowing like a miniature sun.
Blizzard winds lashed at him, billowing his robes with thunderous flutters.
With each step forward, the power conjured from the poem took on ever more solid form, shaped by his will.
"Boom..."
Within the storm's fury, towering snow pillars plummeted from the heavens like divine punishment. The raging infernos along both riverbanks were instantly smothered, leaving not a single ember behind.
The disciples of Firebrand Sect stood frozen in place, watching in disbelief as the fires that had engulfed the entire mountainside were doused in mere seconds, as if forcibly erased.
Worse yet, when they tried to channel their spiritual power and retreat..
Nothing responded.
No resonance within their bodies, no feedback from the environment.
Though the Myriad Tribulation Enduring Fire had returned to its origin, their own cultivation techniques should still function.
For there to be no response... there could be only one explanation:
The entire region's Spiritual Energy had been utterly suppressed, completely pinned down by the descending snowfall.
Even more terrifying was that, as the blizzard raged on, the scorched earth and blackened hills were rapidly being transformed, layer by layer, into pristine white.
It looked as if the world had been reshaped into a field of marble sculptures.
Birds, beasts, everything without sentience froze in an instant, becoming frozen images in a still tableau.
"This... this was done by Chen Kuang?!"
A Firebrand Sect disciple's voice trembled with fear as panic spread like wildfire.
All of them had heard the poem earlier, its recitation had echoed up and down both riverbanks.
And right after it ended, this unnatural snowstorm had begun. Spiritual Energy was stilled. No doubt, it was Chen Kuang's doing, all of this!
Words becoming law, such a method could only be called a Divine Ability.
But Chen Kuang was clearly only in the Tower Ascension Realm!
How could such a thing be possible?!
It defied everything that they knew!
Even on the boat behind them, Wen Si, Chen Kuang's senior brother, stirred slightly, his expression growing solemn as he stared into the blizzard and muttered:
"My junior brother... he's truly extraordinary."
Wen Si had always thought well of Chen Kuang, but only as one might appreciate a promising younger generation.
As a great demon, Wen Si's lifespan far surpassed that of any human.
If one counted the hazy years he'd spent as a mindless fish before gaining sentience, his age likely surpassed even the few surviving Saints of the present age. He had witnessed so many marvels that few things could still surprise him.
That Chen Kuang had leapfrogged three major realms to slay a Moon-Embracing Realm expert might astonish most cultivators, but five thousand years ago, geniuses had been as plentiful as carp in the river.
There were even those stronger than Shen Xingzhu. Whether Chen Kuang could even rank in the top ten of all time was yet to be determined.
The again, back when Chen Kuang was still a mere mortal, he had already been personally chosen by Xi Mengquan.
If he hadn't possessed power far beyond the norm, that would have been the real surprise.
But now... as snow fell from nowhere, and the surrounding Spiritual Energy lay in deathly stillness, Wen Si finally understood what Xi Mengquan had meant all those years ago.
Wen Si could still remember clearly, back then, he'd watched from beneath the water as Xi Mengquan held a sleepy, blindfolded child in his arms and said:
"Wait here for ten years. Once he leaves the palace, take him back to your old home. Afterward, you may do whatever you wish."
Wen Si had simply asked, "Why?"
Though what he really wanted to ask was: "What right does he have?"
But considering the old bastard had just beaten him up, Wen Si rephrased things a bit.
Xi Mengquan replied leisurely:
"The Way of Heaven takes from the overabundant to nourish the deficient. When the Dao loses a portion of itself, it draws from all things to mend it. And if all things prove insufficient... it draws from outside the world."
"If even that is not enough... then the Dao ceases to be the Dao."
Wen Si was silent for a long time, then said: "Are you even speaking human language?"
"...Hmm?"
"I mean, I'm a demon. I don't understand you humans' convoluted reasoning."
Xi Mengquan withdrew the hand he'd just rudely placed atop Wen Si's head, sighed, and said:
"The sky has sprung a leak, but someone will come to patch it."
Wen Si looked at the mortal child in his arms, confused:
"Him?"
Xi Mengquan said:
"It's him. But also... not just him."
Wen Si didn't quite get it. "You mean... he'll be powerful?"
Xi Mengquan laughed:
"Something like that."
"How powerful?"
After a pause, Xi Mengquan said meaningfully:
"As powerful as your imagination allows."
At the time, Wen Si found it baffling. After all, the Dao had already long been divided into Nine Tiers, this was a settled matter.
How could someone become more powerful than even that?
But now, as he watched the snow fall silently and suppress all energy across the lands, he was beginning to understand, the Dao may have Nine Tiers, but Chen Kuang... does not belong among any of them.
...
"Hoo..."
Chen Kuang exhaled a puff of white breath. Across the entire river, the ice was now three feet thick.
Even the vortexed depression formed earlier by the evaporated waters had been frozen into a massive crater.
Above, the horrifying Myriad Tribulation Enduring Fire was now surrounded by the blizzard, locked in stalemate.
Mere snow could not halt a flame capable of vaporizing everything.
What had truly stopped it, was the poetic artistic conception that was brought to life.
"Where thousands of peaks, no birds fly
along ten thousand paths, no soul walks."
The meaning drawn from this verse was not noble solitude or purity, it was annihilation and stillness.
That was what sought to erase the Myriad Tribulation Enduring Fire as well.
And this was why all things without sentience had been silenced, all had lost their voice in this deathly domain.
Chen Kuang narrowed his eyes. The force shaped from the poetic conception was a mysterious thing, like an extension of thought itself, impossible to explain.
But he knew, at this very moment, with a single thought, he could reduce every Firebrand Sect disciple on this river to ash.
Yet he didn't want to end it that simply.
Nor did he plan to let Bai Luoyan, the one who had rallied the entire sect against him, off so easily.
He wanted deterrence.
He wanted shock and awe.
Before leaving Liang, he would leave no room for the likes of the Firebrand Sect or any other Sect of the like to stand in his way.
Chen Kuang raised his eyes to look at Bai Luoyan, now forced to stand atop the ice. Her Spiritual Energy sealed, she kept trying to summon fire and cast spells, but nothing worked.
As snow landed upon her, her expression contorted in complete horror.
"Impossible... No one can suppress an area's Spiritual Energy on this scale, unless they've grasped their Dao and released a Domain of the Dao... You, you're Upper Third Tier!"
Her voice was dry, trembling.
With every step Chen Kuang took, she felt the same disorientation and despair her grandson must have faced in his final moments.
That overwhelming, incomprehensible dread.
Domain of the Dao?
A new term.. Something that's apparently accessible only to those in the Upper Third Tier or higher. He'd have to ask Senior Brother about that later.
"Elder, you don't need to be afraid."
Chen Kuang narrowed his eyes slightly and smiled gently:
"I killed your sect master. You brought your entire sect to avenge him, that's understandable. I don't blame you."
His voice drifted through the wind and snow, causing Bai Luoyan and the other Firebrand Sect members to freeze mid-breath.
He sounded so sincere, but Bai Luoyan felt a creeping and chilling unease.
What... was he planning?
Based on past records alone, it was clear this man was cunning and deeply calculating. There was no chance he would genuinely forgive someone who had tried so hard to kill him.
Chen Kuang continued:
"But to me, it seems you might've had a more... personal motive."
"After all, the one who died was not just the sect master, he was your grandson."
He shook his head with a sigh.
"Which makes me feel a bit sorry for all these Firebrand Sect disciples."
"Among them, were there not some who were unwilling? Some who came only because they were ordered?"
"If it was truly for the good of the sect... Elder, did you ever stop to consider, if all these elite disciples die here, then how will the Firebrand Sect continue?"
"Did they die to protect their sect's honor... or for the private vengeance of a grieving grandmother?"
Bai Luoyan's face changed.
Clearly, Chen Kuang was sowing discord at a critical moment, manipulating them while their morale was broken.
But why? He already held the total advantage. Why bother with such tactics now?
Then he smiled pleasantly and said:
"I'm a kind person, so I'll give the Firebrand Sect... a chance."
"But this chance depends entirely on you, Elder."
The remaining Firebrand Sect members turned their gazes to Bai Luoyan.
The battle was lost and even the Myriad Tribulation Enduring Fire was suppressed.
No one doubted the outcome.
Few people are willing to die for abstract ideals. In the face of inevitable defeat, their hearts naturally wavered.
And those who were reluctant from the start, doubted this war, resented this cause and were stirred even more by his words.
Because of the way he framed it, the one now holding their lives in her hands was no longer Chen Kuang, but Bai Luoyan.
The river remained silent.. Only the howling wind and falling snow could be heard.
Each flake of snow carried with it the sting of death.
And then, the Myriad Tribulation Enduring Fire, held at bay for moments, was finally snuffed out, entirely swallowed by the endless snow.
Chen Kuang noticed Bai Luoyan's gaze and raised his brows slightly.
"It seems... the snow isn't heavy enough yet."
As soon as he said it, all eyes turned upward.
The fire, which had once surged to dozens of times its size, now shrank rapidly, returning to its original form within mere breaths.
Its remaining heat... was almost imperceptible.
Bai Luoyan's expression twisted.
At last, she gritted her teeth and spoke, her voice as heavy as stone:
"...What chance?"
Chen Kuang clapped lightly and smiled.
"Simple."
"If you, Elder, the one chiefly responsible for all this, break your own heart meridian here and now... I will swear an oath before Heaven to spare all the remaining disciples of the Firebrand Sect."
Bai Luoyan's pupils shrank. She hissed:
"You vile brat..."
Chen Kuang replied gently:
"Elder, are you unwilling?"
"You said this was for the sake of the Firebrand Sect, did you not? That your sect master had died, and the sect must avenge him, or risk disgrace."
"But I must ask, does his death mean the sect has no future?"
"Surely not."
"Look at all these disciples. Are you saying not a single one of them could carry the Firebrand Sect forward?"
"If they all die here today, will it still be the Firebrand Sect?"
"Elder... is this truly their sect?"
"Or is it just yours?"
Chen Kuang's relentless questioning caused Bai Luoyan's face to grow paler and paler.
The disciples of the Firebrand Sect were similarly shaken to their core, as if struck by lightning.
They themselves had harbored such thoughts before, but now that Chen Kuang had spoken them aloud so directly and unapologetically, the impact was like a thunderclap to the heart.
Bai Luoyan had never felt so powerless as she turned toward the disciples of the Firebrand Sect and shouted:
"Have you all forgotten?! It was the Firebrand Sect that gave you cultivation techniques and pills! That nurtured you into what you are today!"
But at this point, such words were already meaningless.
Instead, they only stirred up more indignation in the hearts of some disciples.
"Ptui! All those decades of sect resources went straight to your precious grandson! Did you ever spare us a single glance?!"
"Fifty years ago, I was ranked among the top hundred of the Canglang Evaluation, but I couldn't get a single Spirit-Focusing Pill, so I missed the chance to break through to the Sea-Cleaving Realm. And later I found out... it had gone to heal your arrogant grandson after he stupidly tried to challenge Yan Taiyi!"
"Elder Bai, do you dare to swear before Heaven that this never happened?!"
Bai Luoyan's expression twisted, pale and dark in turns, but her trembling right hand still would not rise.
The Firebrand Sect disciples fell into brief silence... then came an uproar, scattered shouts turning into a wave of angry denunciations.
Eventually, someone shouted directly:
"Elder Bai! If you truly care for the Firebrand Sect, if you really want what's best for the sect, then you should leave behind the true spark of the future!"
"Are you really willing to watch the Firebrand Sect vanish forever?"
"Say something, Elder Bai! Was all this really just about avenging your grandson? Did you bring us here to die for your personal grudge?!"
Standing in the center of the river, the old woman's chest rose and fell violently as she gripped her charred staff tightly.
Of course she didn't want to die. What's more, these disciples weren't the entirety of the Firebrand Sect.
Before setting out, she had already arranged for several trusted elders to stay behind with a few promising young talents at the sect's main mountain...
As long as she could make it back, the Firebrand Sect could rise again.
Chen Kuang sighed with regret:
"So it seems the elder is unwilling after all?"
"Then how about this, every breath you hesitate, I will kill a hundred people."
He smiled:
"Until the elder proves she is willing to die for the sect and not lead its disciples to die for her."
"You-you... pfft!"
Bai Luoyan, furious beyond control, suffered a backlash from her internal injuries and immediately spat out a mouthful of blood.
She staggered back two steps.
And within those two steps, Chen Kuang calmly said:
"One breath."
In the very next moment.
The wind left no trace. The snow fell in silence.
And a hundred disciples... vanished into ash.
No cries, no explosions, just quiet disintegration, scattered into the wind with the snow, without even a trace left behind.
Those who remained didn't merely feel fear, they were gripped by sheer and utter panic.
When they realized Chen Kuang truly meant what he said, their voices rose in alarm, some even breaking into curses, showing no more respect for the Supreme Elder.
Bai Luoyan's face turned deathly pale.
Now she understood what Chen Kuang was doing.
With a few sentences, he had utterly destroyed her reputation. Those disciples who survived today would never again obey the sect as before.
They would believe that they were the sect's final hope.
And the trusted elders she had left behind, those loyal only to her, would inevitably clash with the returning disciples who had seen the truth..
The Firebrand Sect... would truly fracture.
And Chen Kuang... from this day forward, he would become an everlasting nightmare in the hearts of every Firebrand Sect member. Beneath this fearsome wind and snow, no one would dare oppose him again.
Chen Kuang hadn't only killed people.
He had shattered the very spirit of an entire sect.
And Bai Luoyan could do nothing to stop it.
She was powerless!
Who could have imagined that even after rallying the entire sect, even after unleashing their sacred flame... they still couldn't take down a single Tower Ascension Realm Cultivator?
Even worse, the master behind him hadn't even made a move.
No..
He couldn't possibly be just at the Tower Ascension Realm.
That had to be a disguise.
What Chen Kuang truly was, what realm he actually stood in, whether this entire encounter was some grand trap laid by some unknown forces...
Bai Luoyan could no longer bring herself to think.
And in that moment of hesitation, Chen Kuang smiled and continued counting.
"Two breaths."
Another hundred lives were erased.
Before Bai Luoyan, only one path remained:
Death.
To die by her own hand, or by Chen Kuang's.
"I chose wrong... I chose the wrong path..."
Bai Luoyan said through trembling lips, raising her staff.
"Three breaths," said Chen Kuang casually. "Will you cry, Elder Bai? Because crying also counts toward the time."
Pfft...!
Another mouthful of blood spurted forth. Her eyes now bloodshot, Bai Luoyan gritted her teeth, flipped the staff upside down, and drove it straight into her own heart!
Qi surged and with a burst of force, her heart meridian shattered.
But Chen Kuang still counted:
"Four breaths."
Bai Luoyan roared hoarsely:
"Chen Kuang! Are you going to break your oath?!"
"Hmm...?"
Chen Kuang paused.
"Wait, when did I ever swear an oath?"
Bai Luoyan froze.
But her heart was already broken, her life force rapidly draining away. She could no longer stand, collapsing to her knees with a heavy thud.
Her face twisted, eyes wide and bloodied as she struggled to crawl forward, like a resentful ghost:
"You... you..."
Chen Kuang laughed.
"Elder Bai. Next time, be more careful."
"You've lived so many years, have you really just been in secluded cultivation all this time and never once talked to another human being?"
"I was just bluffing, and you actually fell for it."
He paused, then his smile faded, and his voice turned cold:
"Ah, I forgot. You're only at the Master Realm. You won't reincarnate with any memories."
"When you die, you'll truly vanish, soul and all."
"Seems there'll be no meeting in the next life after all."
"Farewell, Elder Bai."
Bai Luoyan's eyes bulged wide, one final gush of blood gurgled from her lips, and she died with eyes wide open.
It wasn't clear whether she died from her broken heart meridian...
Or from sheer fury.
After Bai Luoyan's death, the remaining Firebrand Sect disciples all fell into silence.
They had heard Chen Kuang's every word clearly.
Now, all bore looks of alarm, terrified that he might go back on his word and slaughter them too.
When even Bai Luoyan's corpse was dissolved by the wind and snow, Chen Kuang finally turned around and said:
"I may not have sworn an oath, but I am a man of my word."
"Since Elder Bai willingly died in place of your sect, I will not make things difficult for you."
"You may leave."
As he exhaled, the surrounding snowstorm faded, opening up a path.
The situation reversed in an instant.
Some disciples even bowed in gratitude, voicing their thanks over and over again.
Once they were gone, Chen Kuang's Spiritual Energy could no longer sustain such a vast snowfall. It all dispersed into the night, returning as Wishforce into the Wujian Between.
The river, too, returned to its natural stillness.
Chen Kuang let out a long breath.
With the scene dissipated, the poetic force of River Snow vanished as well.
The Myriad Tribulation Enduring Fire floated midair, now only a small flicker about the size of a campfire ember.
In a way, this was a testament to its strength, having survived the utter desolation of River Snow's conceptual force.
Its name, "Myriad Tribulation Enduring," was not for nothing.
"Swoosh-"
The tiny flame trembled and the tried to flee.
Chen Kuang hadn't been ready for that and stared in dumbfounded shock.
"Splash-!"
Wen Si casually waved a hand, summoning a wave from the river that trapped the fire within.
It was drawn back and floated gently down before Chen Kuang.
He caught it and blinked:
"It... has sentience?"
Wen Si said:
"All things have spirit. And this sort of rare treasure even more so."
"Though, the more powerful the item, the longer it takes to develop awareness. This flame has endured for countless eons, perhaps it has only just now begun to form a shred of consciousness."
He added thoughtfully:
"It's probably... like a newborn baby."
"If you're interested, Junior Brother, you could keep it with you. Over time, it might just recognize you as its master."
...
From afar, two silhouettes hovered over the skies of Jiangning Prefecture, silently observing this grand reversal.
One of them clicked their tongue in astonishment:
"We came just to retrieve the young lady... but ended up witnessing quite the show."