The moment Ao Xian and his entourage left, the oppressive atmosphere in the Azure Sun Auction House shattered, and a cacophony of frantic whispers erupted. Cultivators who had been frozen in fear now spoke in hushed, terrified tones, their eyes wide with the memory of the casual, absolute power they had just witnessed.
"Gods above, who was that? To bring out four ancestors as attendants?" one elder whispered to his companion, his hand trembling so much he could barely hold his teacup.
"One hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones... he bid that amount so casually, as if it were nothing more than a handful of copper coins!" another exclaimed, his voice filled with awe and dread. "That is the entire treasury of a first-rate sect!"
"That young man, Lin Fan, is finished," a third cultivator concluded with a grim certainty. "He provoked a true deity. His arrogance has brought him a calamity he can never hope to overcome."
In his VIP room, Lin Fan was on his feet, his face a terrifying mask of controlled rage. The humiliation he felt was a physical poison seeping into his very soul. As the reincarnated Saintly Sword Immortal, he had been a supreme existence, revered by all, a man whose destiny was to stand at the apex of the world. Never, in either of his lives, had he suffered such a blatant, dismissive, and utterly crushing insult. It wasn't just that his treasure had been stolen; it was that the thief had treated him as less than an ant, a momentary diversion not even worthy of a serious glance.
"Master, are you alright?" a wizened, ethereal voice echoed in his mind. It was the remnant soul of an ancient expert residing within his Myriad Worlds Pagoda, a being who had guided him through countless trials.
"He took it," Lin Fan's voice was a low, guttural growl that seemed to vibrate with killing intent. "He took the World Tree root, the key to repairing the Pagoda's foundation, and I couldn't do a thing. His maid... just a single glance from her suppressed my Dao Bone, my immortal soul, and the Pagoda itself."
"That is no mere maid," the old voice said gravely, a hint of fear in its ancient tone. "The pressure she exerted... it was that of a lifeform from a higher plane of existence. It was pure, instinctual suppression. Her cultivation is sealed, yet her very being is on a different level from us. This young man's background is beyond our comprehension. He is not someone we can afford to make an enemy of."
"Beyond comprehension?" Lin Fan sneered, a dangerous, almost mad light in his eyes. "In this lower realm, I am the one with the ultimate fortune. I am destiny's chosen. No background is so great that it can defy the will of the heavens!" He bit his thumb and drew a complex, bloody seal in the air, pouring his own life essence into the formation. "I will find out who he is. I will burn a century of my reincarnated soul essence to activate the Heavenly Secret Divination Art!"
The bloody seal flared with a brilliant, blinding light, attempting to pierce the veil of fate and spy upon Ao Xian's origin. But the moment it focused on its target, it shattered into motes of light with a soundless scream. Lin Fan was thrown back against the wall of the room, coughing up a mouthful of blood, his face turning deathly pale.
"What happened?!" he cried out in shock and pain.
The old voice in his mind was trembling. "A backlash... a terrifying backlash! The moment you tried to divine his identity, the heavenly secrets went into chaos. It's as if his very existence is a taboo that cannot be spied upon. Trying to see his fate is like an ant trying to lift a universe. Lin Fan... we have provoked an existence we absolutely cannot afford to offend."
For the first time since his reincarnation, Lin Fan felt a sliver of genuine, bone-deep fear.
Meanwhile, Ao Xian was strolling through the streets of Azure Radiance, his four maids following a respectful step behind.
"Young Lord, that Child of Fortune is attempting to divine your origin," Lian Xin, the Succubus Queen, reported with a sultry giggle, her voice like honeyed poison. "He just suffered a rather nasty backlash. His soul must be quite rattled. How delicious."
"How amusingly persistent," Ao Xian commented, not slowing his pace as he examined a street vendor's wares. "He's like a bug trying to understand the sky. It's almost cute."
"His Fortune Value is high," Feng Wu, the Divine Phoenix, noted, her voice as serene as a calm dawn. "Destiny will likely send another treasure his way soon to compensate for his loss and humiliation. The Heavenly Dao seeks balance."
"Oh? Then we should stick around," Ao Xian said, his interest piqued. "It's much more fun to take things from a protagonist than to find them myself. Where's the challenge otherwise?" He paused and glanced at a distant, ominous mountain range on the horizon, a place shrouded in perpetual black mist. His Eyes of Karmic Judgment had picked up on its details earlier.
[Location: Blackwind Mountain Range]
[Status: Minor Forbidden Ground]
[Primary Danger: Remnant killing intent from a fallen Immortal-level entity.]
[Primary Treasure: Unhatched egg of a 'Netherworld Crow', a beast with a trace of the Phoenix bloodline.]
[Protagonist's Next Opportunity: Lin Fan is destined to be pursued by enemies and will stumble into this Forbidden Ground, where he will accidentally find and subdue the Netherworld Crow egg, gaining a powerful future ally.]
"A fallen Immortal's killing ground, with a little bird egg that this Lin Fan is supposed to find," Ao Xian mused aloud, a playful smile on his face. "That sounds like a perfect place for a picnic."
Long Jing, the dragon maid, ever the pragmatist, looked at the terrifying mountain range that even local ancestors dared not enter. "Young Lord, the remnant killing intent there could instantly annihilate a Nascent Soul cultivator."
Ao Xian waved a dismissive hand. "It's just the lingering resentment of a dead fellow. It won't even tickle. The egg itself is irrelevant, but destiny has arranged for our little protagonist to find it. It would be rude not to intercept such a gift. I want to see the look on his face when he runs all the way there for nothing."
With a casual step, Ao Xian and his maids vanished from the crowded street, reappearing moments later at the edge of the Blackwind Mountain Range. The air was frigid, and the whispers of vengeful spirits filled the air, a sound that would drive any normal cultivator insane. To Ao Xian, it was just a pleasant breeze. "Well," he said, looking into the oppressive darkness, "let's go collect the protagonist's next toy."
The Blackwind Mountain Range was a place of legend in the Azure Cloud Realm. It was said that the wailing spirits within could tear a cultivator's soul to shreds before they even set foot on the blighted ground. As Ao Xian and his maids stepped past the invisible barrier that marked the edge of the forbidden ground, the tangible killing intent, sharp enough to sunder steel, parted before them like a gentle mist. The shrieking, tormented spirits that swarmed the entrance scattered in mortal terror, their ethereal forms dissolving into nothingness.
"It seems the local residents are a bit shy," Ao Xian commented with a smile.
"They are merely remnants of a shattered will, Young Lord," Feng Wu explained, her divine phoenix aura causing the blighted ground beneath her feet to sprout tiny, golden blades of grass. "They instinctively recognize a true, complete soul and flee from its presence."
They walked casually, as if through an imperial garden. Following the directions provided by his eyes, they arrived at a deep crater. At its center, nestled in a small, pulsating cocoon of black energy, was an egg. Just as they approached, the ground trembled violently, and a colossal beast made of pure, condensed killing intent and vengeful spirits clawed its way into view. It was a ten-headed spectral serpent, the guardian of the egg.
Ao Xian didn't even glance at it. "Feng Wu," he said simply.
The Divine Phoenix maid stepped forward. She raised a single, delicate finger. A minuscule spark of pure, golden flame appeared at her fingertip. "Return to oblivion," she whispered. The spark shot forward and touched the colossal spectral serpent. The entire, mountain-sized creature silently dissolved into a gentle shower of light particles that rained down, cleansing the crater of its corruption.
Ao Xian walked down into the now-peaceful crater and casually picked up the Netherworld Crow egg. "Well, that's taken care of. Now, we wait." He gestured to the open space beside the crater. With a wave of Lian Xin's hand, a small, exquisitely carved jade pavilion materialized from thin air. For the next several hours, they sat in the heart of the forbidden ground, sipping tea. Finally, Ao Xian paused, a smile playing on his lips. "It seems our guest of honor has arrived."
At the edge of the crater, a figure stumbled into view. It was Lin Fan. His robes were torn and stained with blood, clearly having exhausted himself fighting his way through the outer edges of the forbidden ground. His eyes, filled with desperation and hope, immediately fell upon the obsidian egg. Then, his gaze shifted to the one holding it.
Lin Fan froze. His face went from exhaustion to disbelief, then to pure, unadulterated fury. It was him. The arrogant young man from the auction house was here, in the heart of the forbidden ground, holding the treasure that was meant to be his.
"You!" Lin Fan roared, his voice cracking with rage and despair. "It was you again!"
The air in the crater crackled with tension. "Give that back!" Lin Fan snarled, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword. "That is my fated opportunity! It does not belong to you!"
Ao Xian looked from the egg in his hand to Lin Fan's furious face and back again. He then broke into a wide, amused grin. "Your fated opportunity?" he repeated, his tone light and mocking. "You mean the one destiny arranged for you? The one you were supposed to stumble upon after a life-and-death struggle? This one?" He gave the egg another playful toss.
"You... how could you know that?" Lin Fan stammered, his rage momentarily replaced by a chilling fear.
"My dear Child of Fortune," Ao Xian said, taking a leisurely sip of tea. "You seem to be under a grave misunderstanding. You think your 'destiny' is some grand, inviolable law of the universe. To me, it's just a script. A rather predictable one, at that. And I'm finding it much more entertaining to ad-lib."
The casual contempt in his voice was a thousand times more infuriating than any physical blow. "Why?" Lin Fan demanded, his voice trembling. "Why are you doing this? I have never offended you! Why must you compete with a junior like me for opportunities in a lower realm?"
"Compete?" Ao Xian laughed, a genuine, hearty laugh that echoed in the silent crater. "You think this is a competition? Adorable." He stood up and walked towards Lin Fan. "Let me explain something to you. I am not here for opportunities. I am not here to cultivate. I am here because I was bored. You, your destiny, your treasures... you are not my competition. You are my entertainment."
He held up the egg. "I don't need this. It's a mediocre beast at best. But destiny wanted you to have it. And the thought of you fighting tooth and nail to get here, only to find me relaxing with your prize... well, that's fun."
To prove his point, he turned to Feng Wu. "Feng Wu, you're a phoenix, this thing has a trace of your bloodline. Awaken it."
Feng Wu glided to his side. A single, perfect drop of blood, shimmering like a liquid sun, manifested on her fingertip. She gently touched it to the obsidian shell. The egg convulsed, and a small, fledgling crow, wreathed in shadows and embers, emerged. It looked around, confused for a moment, before its eyes landed on Feng Wu. It immediately chirped and affectionately rubbed its head against her hand, imprinting on her as its mother.
Lin Fan watched, his heart turning to ash. The powerful ally that was meant to accompany him on his path to supremacy was now nuzzling the hand of his enemy's maid.
"You see?" Ao Xian said softly, his voice a final, crushing blow. "Opportunities are not taken. They are given. And I can take them away just as easily." He turned his back on the broken protagonist. "Come. The show is over. This place has lost its charm."
Without another glance, Ao Xian and his four maids, along with the newly hatched Netherworld Crow perched on Feng Wu's shoulder, vanished from the crater, leaving behind a silence broken only by the sound of Lin Fan's ragged breathing. Lin Fan stared at the empty spot where his destiny had been stolen, and a low, guttural sound escaped his throat. It was the sound of a faith shattering, of a hero's heart being consumed by the promise of absolute, unending vengeance.