A curtain of mist danced quietly over the hidden cave behind Beauty Hill's waterfall. Gentle droplets clung to glowing rocks, and the soft hum of spiritual energy lingered in the air like a ghost.
Amidst this stillness stood Mike, shirt damp from training, breath slow and steady, his hammer resting beside him as faint white steam curled around his body.
Today, he had finally awakened it the Mountain Shatter Hammer Technique.
He had only just begun to test its power, his aura rising steadily, when something shifted.
Mike froze.
The atmosphere around him suddenly turned cold. Not from ice but from pressure.
A powerful presence. Heavy. Distant. And yet... so close.
He instinctively reached for his hammer and exited the cave in a flash. The waterfall roared behind him, but the valley ahead had gone deathly quiet.
Then from the shade of a crumbling pine, a man emerged.
He was cloaked completely in black. From the tips of his silent boots to the hood that concealed his face, nothing about him revealed origin or intent. No killing intent, no spiritual energy. Just... silence.
But it suffocated.
Before Mike could ask a question, the man moved.
He was fast. Unreasonably fast. One blink, and he was right in front of Mike.
The clash began immediately.
Mike swung first, hammer crashing through the air with a thunderous arc but the cloaked figure deflected it with his bare hands. No weapon. No chant. Just pure, terrifying precision.
Every one of Mike's blows was met, dodged, or turned aside. The man's movement was fluid not aggressive, but relentless. Calculated. With each exchange, Mike received more bruises, small cuts, his clothes tearing little by little.
Who is he? Mike muttered, sweat dripping into his eyes. No weapon... yet I'm barely standing.
The man didn't speak. He just kept advancing.
Mike gritted his teeth and spun his hammer once more, feet slamming against the earth. His spiritual energy surged flames wrapping around his weapon.
ENOUGH!
The hammer glowed with a deeper hue. He roared,
Mountain Shatter Hammer Technique First Stage: Land Flow Collapse!
He slammed the hammer mid-air.
The sky trembled. The air around the cloaked enemy began to ripple unnaturally, flowing like water around his form. The earth responded next sharp, jagged hills erupted from below, as if the ground itself had risen in rebellion.
The enemy leapt back, forming a swirling barrier of spiritual energy just in time. The sky cracked behind him, and one of the sharp ridges missed his side by inches.
Mike landed, panting, watching the distortion fade.
He knew how to block it… like he's used this technique before.
But this was no time for doubt. Mike's flame pulsed again but this time it was cold.
A frigid burst exploded from his chest. Ice-blue tendrils swirled around his arms, and the waterfall behind him began to slow… then freeze mid air. Crystals grew on the cliff walls. The cave trembled as the Ice Snake Flame Aura awakened fully.
The man finally flinched.
Mike's hammer, now wreathed in frostfire, collided again and again with his foe's defenses. Each blow screamed through space cracks spread across the frozen walls. The ground beneath them fissured with every clash.
Mike's lip bled, but his eyes burned brighter than ever.
This… is the strongest enemy I've ever fought.
Then came the moment.
Mike jumped back, raised one palm to the sky and muttered under his breath.
Frostgrave Doomsway first stage: Glacial Rain Piercer.
A gust of ice surged upward. The skies darkened as hundreds of razor sharp ice spikes formed high above, swirling, targeting the enemy from all directions.
The man's eyes narrowed. This time he had to move.
He dodged left, then right, spinning into the air and barely evading the barrage. One spike grazed his arm, tearing his robe. His breathing sharpened.
Far away...
At the Life and Death Competition hall, where dozens of elite cultivators had gathered, one turned toward Beauty Hill, eyes narrowed.
That aura… he whispered. Someone's using Frostgrave Doomsway.
Another cultivator frowned. But who…?
Back on the battlefield, Mike staggered. His chest rose and fell like thunder. His hammer trembled slightly in his grip.
The enemy stood, cloak frayed, one foot pressed into the broken earth.
Neither had anything left to say.
Mike steadied himself. I must finish this.
He inhaled sharply then roared,
Land Flow Collapse AGAIN!
The ground buckled, energy bursting outward in waves. But this time, the enemy didn't dodge. Instead, his aura flared, and from beneath his robes, a flame erupted.
Not just any flame it was Scarlet Rage Immortal Flame.
The fire was alive. Crimson red with gold streaks, black smoke swirling at its core. It pulsed with chaotic energy a flame of anger, vengeance, and blood.
The earth beneath the man melted. The air twisted. Even Mike's hammer wrought attack dissolved before reaching him.
From the distant arena, cultivators chuckled.
Child's trick, one said.
Still basic, said another.
But they were wrong.
Mike's chest rose and fell in heaving gasps. Blood trailed down his arm. His vision blurred, and his limbs ached. But somewhere inside that pain, a fire had awakened.
Mike's gaze hardened. He whispered to himself,
No… this still isn't enough.
A deeper fire.
He didn't understand what he was doing not fully. But something called to him.
He raised both hands skyward. The world around him hushed, as though it too held its breath.
With a growl that turned into a roar, Mike unleashed it.
Sea Snake Flame a spiraling wave of burning blue energy shot toward the heavens like a twisting tsunami, coiling violently into the sky.
And then, a moment later…
Ice Snake Flame colder, sharper, crueler launched after it, weaving around the first like a frigid serpent chasing fire.
The two flames rose higher and higher, circling each other in a furious storm, spiraling faster and faster above Mike. The sky above Beauty Hill turned strange dark, heavy, cracking with pressure.
Mike pressed his palms together, then formed rapid hand signs. One final movement.
He bit his finger.
Blood dripped from his hand… and fell into the heart of the rotating firestorm.
The storm stopped for a heartbeat.
And then
CRACK!
The sky split open.
A rift vertical and jagged tore through the space behind Mike. It was as if reality itself had been wounded.
Clouds twisted above like frightened beasts. Thunder clapped in the distance. Trees bent. Rocks exploded. The entire mountain shuddered.
And from the rift… something stepped out.
A figure. Half-formed. Part shadow, part light. Flame and frost danced along its limbs.
Its body wasn't fully present only its feet, part of its face, and a glimpse of its skull could be seen. Yet that alone made the cave quake violently.
The enemy stumbled back, finally shaken.
Wh–what is that thing…?
Even back at the Life and Death Competition Hall, the watching cultivators jolted to their feet.
What's going on over there?!
That aura… It's not just powerful it's catastrophic.
In a flash of light and wind, many vanished from their seats, racing toward the source.
And just as the chaos reached its peak
An enemy shows his appearance and that is Jian Dao.
But something was… off. His movements were odd, distorted, like a marionette floating against the wind.
Then his chest flashed. His skin split briefly with golden light.
From his body stepped Huo Chuntian, like a shadow leaving its host.
The two stood side-by-side now, watching the battlefield.
This was a test, Huo Chuntian muttered. We pushed him too far.
Mike, eyes wide, staggered toward them. Master… you're here…
And then the portal behind him snapped shut.
The flame-born figure vanished into the rift with a deafening shriek of twisting space. The silence that followed was like a drumbeat that never came.
Mike collapsed.
Jian Dao moved swiftly, catching him just before he hit the ground. His body was covered in blood, his spirit dimmed, but his soul still burned hot within.
Then the cultivators arrived.
But Jian Dao was faster.
He slammed a scroll into the dirt.
Boom! A glowing golden net of light exploded outward, forming a vast Hidden Formation. Invisible to the eye, it concealed everything within even from Sheng Zhe ranked cultivators.
Outside, the approaching powerhouses stopped.
Gone, one muttered. There's nothing left here.
Another glanced around. This looks like a burial ground… and yet, no corpses.
This… this was Beauty Hill? someone whispered.
The air stilled again.
Wind returned.
Birds began to chirp.
The sky cleared.
As if the storm had never happened.
Minutes later, inside the protected dome of the formation, Jian Dao sat beside the unconscious Mike. His expression unreadable. Beside him, Huo Chuntian crouched, gazing quietly at their disciple.
Then he spoke.
You saw it too, didn't you?
Jian Dao nodded slowly. That wasn't instinct.
It was an awakening, Huo Chuntian whispered, shaken. He created a space tearing portal... with emotion alone.
If he hadn't shut it himself, Jian Dao murmured, We would've suffered spiritual damage... possibly irreversible.
They both fell silent.
The crackling flames from earlier had left scars in the land, but the true wound… was left in their hearts.
Because for the first time even they didn't know what Mike was becoming.