Starveil Sword Sect
Meeting Hall
"Hey," John said casually, his hands still in his pockets.
"Can you make me an elder?"
The hall froze.
"Tchh, you think you can just become a member of the sect—much less an elder—just by asking?" Elder Feng said with disdain, adjusting his glasses as his qi flared.
"Hmph. How foolish."
"Do you think this is some village school?" another elder snapped, his sharp eyes flashing like blades.
"Although we don't know what you're using to hide your cultivation, that doesn't give you the right to make such an outrageous request," a female elder added coldly.
Voices piled one after another, outrage crashing down like waves. Qi pressure filled the hall, heavy enough to split stone. Formation runes along the walls lit faintly in response, prepared to suppress an intruder.
But John only yawned.
"Silence."
The single word from the sect master cut through the air like a blade. The elders fell quiet instantly, though their faces were still twisted with anger.
The sect master turned his gaze to John. His black hair gleamed under the lantern light, his star-like pupils steady, calm in contrast to the storm of his elders.
"Before we discuss your amusing request, would you not at least introduce yourself?"
John tilted his head, amused. So this guy is calmer than the rest. Interesting.
"My name is John. I'm quite new here, but I took an interest in your sect after seeing it. Now, I want to be an elder. Don't worry," he grinned, "it'll be worth it."
BOOM.
"Outrageous!" An elder slammed the arm of his chair, qi rippling through the room, but quickly shut his mouth after a sharp glance from the sect master.
"So you want to become an elder," the sect master asked evenly. "Why?"
"Because I'm bored," John said simply. "And I think being an elder here might cure that."
The sect master's brows twitched. Bored? That's… new.
And yet… even this close, I still cannot sense his cultivation.
He leaned forward. "In our sect, there is a standard. To be an inner sect elder, one must be at least at the Soul Tempering Realm. And for all we can sense… you are a mortal."
The grin on John's face widened, as though he had been waiting for those very words.
"So, if I prove I'm stronger than Soul Tempering, I can become an elder?"
The sect master's lips curled slightly. "I do not go back on my word."
John nodded. "Good. Then you'd best prepare yourselves."
"Prepare ourselves? Hah! Stop playing games and show your cultivation already," Elder Feng scoffed, disdain dripping from every word.
"Enough of the bravado."
"Get on with it."
The chorus of agreement filled the hall, qi rising like a storm.
But John only smiled. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
He closed his eyes. How should I do this…?
Mm. Just a tiny bit will do.
And then—he released it.
A sliver of his true presence.
Sect Leader Liang Xuanyu's POV
At first, I thought he was merely a hidden Nascent Soul cultivator. That would explain the confidence, the arrogance, the smile plastered across his face. His presence might pressure my elders a little, I thought.
But then—
My blood froze.
This… this wasn't Nascent Soul. Not even close.
What descended upon us was something far beyond, something my mind struggled to even define.
Third Person
The moment John released his presence, silence swallowed the hall.
But it wasn't just the hall.
It wasn't just the sect.
The entire Northern Continent stilled.
And it wasn't silence born of fear. It was absolute. Sound waves themselves froze in place. For three full seconds, reality itself seemed to pause, as though the world had been reduced to a painting.
In the meeting hall, veins bulged across elders' foreheads. One clutched his chest, gasping noiselessly as blood trickled from his ears. Another's sword, hanging at his side, trembled violently, then cracked down the middle. The formation pillars shuddered, sparks of qi dancing before dimming completely.
Outside the sect—
A fisherman dropped his net mid-cast, his body collapsing into a bow without knowing why.
In a royal court far to the east, an emperor and his ministers froze mid-sentence, every head turning toward the distant Starveil Mountains, before falling to their knees as one.
Deep within an ancient forest, a spirit beast with scales of steel whimpered, its massive body lowering until its snout pressed into the dirt.
Even in secluded caves where reclusive cultivators had meditated for decades, eyelids snapped open in terror, their first instinct to kneel.
And at the center of it all—John stood smiling, hands still in his pockets, as if he had merely exhaled.
Then, just as suddenly as it came, the presence vanished. The world breathed again. Sound returned. Elders collapsed in their seats, drenched in cold sweat, some slumped unconscious, others trembling like frightened children.
Only Liang Xuanyu remained awake, though his body quivered and his hands had turned clammy.
John tilted his head, grinning.
"So now… can I join your sect?"
For the first time in centuries, the sect master felt something he thought long buried.
Fear.