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Chapter 16 - Chapter 16: The Fall of Blackwood

High above the silent, creeping paralysis that was consuming the Blackwood Sect, a storm of pure power raged. The sky was torn asunder by the clash of two Spirit Kings. Elder Jin was a meteor of raw, physical force, his every punch carrying the weight of a collapsing mountain. His opponent, the Blackwood Sect Master, a man named Mo Wentian, was a being of shadow and corrosion, his attacks weaving through the air like venomous serpents, his domain a field of miasmic energy that could rot the very spirit.

Their battle was a spectacle of raw destruction. Shockwaves flattened the upper levels of the fortress keep, and the air itself seemed to scream under the strain of their colliding domains. Mo Wentian was powerful, his cultivation on par with Jin's, but his focus was shattered. His spiritual sense, a tool that should have been locked onto his opponent, was in turmoil. He could feel the life signatures of his disciples and elders winking out, not in the fiery blaze of battle, but in a wave of terrifying, unnatural silence. His entire sect was being neutralized beneath his feet, and he didn't understand how.

"What have you done, you Verdant Serpent dog?!" Mo Wentian roared, his attacks growing wild and desperate. "What sorcery is this?"

"This is the price of your treachery," Jin grunted, pressing his advantage, his fists glowing with a golden light that repelled the corrosive miasma. He was the perfect distraction, a brilliant, roaring sun that drew all of Mo Wentian's attention.

And in the darkness behind that sun, the true death was approaching.

Wei moved through the battlefield like a ghost. The chaotic energy of the two fighting Spirit Kings provided the perfect cover, masking his presence completely. He was a shadow within shadows, his aura so suppressed it was indistinguishable from the ambient air. He watched the fight for a full minute, not with the eyes of a warrior, but with the cold, analytical gaze of a physician diagnosing a terminal illness. He noted Mo Wentian's breathing patterns, the rhythm of his spiritual energy circulation, the momentary weaknesses in his domain that appeared every time he launched a major attack.

He found his opening. As Mo Wentian unleashed a massive, shadowy serpent of corrosive energy at Jin, his domain momentarily warped, its defensive integrity focused entirely on the frontal assault. In that fraction of a second, Wei acted.

He did not explode with power. He did not announce his presence. He simply appeared behind Mo Wentian, a silent, inevitable conclusion. Between his fingers, he held the single black needle coated in the shimmering, tear-shaped drop of the 'God-Slaying Tear'.

Mo Wentian's instincts, honed by centuries of battle, screamed in warning. He felt a chill that had nothing to do with the battle, a profound sense of doom that seized his very soul. He tried to turn, to erect a barrier, but it was too late.

Wei's hand moved. The needle shot forward, not with explosive speed, but with an eerie, inexorable grace. It did not target the body. It targeted the soul. The 'God-Slaying Tear' was a poison that operated on a different level of reality. It ignored physical defenses, it ignored spiritual barriers, and it ignored the protective shell of a Spirit King's domain. It simply passed through them all as if they weren't there.

The needle touched the back of Mo Wentian's neck and vanished.

For a moment, nothing happened. Mo Wentian's massive shadow serpent attack was still hurtling towards Jin. Then, the Sect Master's eyes, which had been blazing with fury, went wide with a look of utter, uncomprehending horror. The shadow serpent dissolved into harmless black mist. The corrosive domain that surrounded him flickered and died. The immense spiritual pressure that defined him as a Spirit King vanished.

He looked down at his own hands, a silent scream frozen on his face, as his Nascent Soul, the culmination of a thousand years of cultivation, shattered into a billion motes of light within his spiritual sea. He was no longer a Spirit King. He was a mortal in a cultivator's body.

Elder Jin, seeing the attack dissolve, stopped his own charge, his face a mask of confusion. He watched as Mo Wentian, the powerful rival he had been fighting just a second ago, simply tumbled from the sky, his life force extinguished.

Wei caught the body before it could fall, holding it for a moment before letting it drop unceremoniously to the roof of the keep below. He then turned his attention to the storage ring on the dead man's finger.

[Target confirmed deceased. Cause of death attributed to Host's poison.]

[Calculating Rewards...]

[Target Cultivation: Spirit King Realm, Law Seed Stage.]

[Congratulations, Host, for slaying a target of a higher realm. Rewards will be significantly increased.]

[Host has received: 100,000 Sovereign Points.]

[Host has received: System Authority Upgrade. 'Legendary' store is now fully unlocked. New 'Mythical' category is now visible (locked).]

[Host has received: New System Function - 'Domain of Silent Death'.]

A flood of points and information washed through Wei's mind. The new function was exactly what he needed. It was not a combat domain like Jin's or Mo Wentian's. Instead, it was a subtle, passive field of influence. Within a certain radius, he could suppress the life force of his enemies, amplify the effects of his poisons, and render himself nearly undetectable to spiritual sense. It was a domain designed for an assassin, a perfect reflection of his own Dao.

The battle was over. The 'Silent Serpent' protocol had been a flawless success. The entire Blackwood Sect, from its celebrating disciples to its mighty Sect Master, had been neutralized without a single Verdant Serpent disciple losing their life.

Wei and Jin descended to the fortress below, where the disciples were efficiently moving through the silent halls, binding the paralyzed Blackwood Sect members. The awe on their faces as they looked at Wei was profound. They had seen Elder Jin's glorious battle, but they also knew, with a deep, instinctual certainty, that the silent, anticlimactic end to that battle was the work of the man who had led them here.

With the fortress secured, the true work began. Wei, using the information from his interrogations, led his disciples directly to the Blackwood Sect's treasury. The massive, formation-protected vault, which would have taken an army weeks to breach, was opened in minutes using the command codes he had extracted.

The wealth within was staggering. Mountains of high-grade spirit stones, racks of priceless spiritual artifacts, and shelves lined with thousands of rare pills and elixirs. It was the accumulated wealth of a major sect, a fortune that would elevate the Verdant Serpent Sect's resources to a whole new level.

Wei issued his orders. "Confiscate everything. Every spirit stone, every pill, every artifact. Strip the vaults bare. Leave nothing."

While the disciples began the laborious process of looting the treasury, Wei took Elder Jin to the Sect Master's private chambers. Here, they found the Blackwood Sect's true foundation: its library of cultivation techniques and, most importantly, its 'Legacy Core'. It was a massive, pulsating black crystal that contained the inherited knowledge and a portion of the life force of every Sect Master in the sect's history. It was the key to their most powerful techniques and their deepest secrets.

"We will take this back to the sect," Wei said, his voice calm. "Our own scholars will decipher its secrets. The Blackwood Sect's legacy will become our own."

The systematic plunder of the Blackwood Sect took three full days. While Wei and Jin oversaw the main fortress, Elders Guan and Mei reported their own successes. The spirit stone mines were secured, their annual output now belonging to the Verdant Serpent Sect. The herb gardens were under their control, and Elder Mei had even managed to subdue a rare, powerful Shadowfen Hydra, a beast that would become a new guardian for their sect.

On the fourth day, with the Blackwood Sect's wealth completely loaded into hundreds of high-capacity storage rings, Wei gathered the few remaining, unparalyzed Blackwood Sect elders—ambitious, second-rate cultivators he had identified during his interrogations. He brought them to the main hall, where their entire sect, still paralyzed, was assembled under guard.

He did not stand before them as a conqueror. He stood before them as an arbiter of fate. "Your Sect Master is dead. Your elders are dead. Your wealth is gone," Wei stated, his voice echoing in the silent hall. "Your sect is finished."

He let the weight of his words sink in before continuing. "However, the Verdant Serpent Sect is benevolent. We have no desire to manage a swamp. We will allow the Blackwood Sect to continue to exist." He pointed to the most ambitious and least competent of the remaining elders. "You will be the new Sect Master. You will rule, but you will be a vassal. Forty percent of your sect's future income will be paid as tribute to the Verdant Serpent Sect. You will answer to our First Elder. Any deviation from this agreement will result in your complete annihilation. Is that clear?"

The elder, seeing a chance to grasp the power he had always craved, bowed so low his forehead touched the floor. "Perfectly clear, Lord Wei!"

Wei had not just defeated his rival. He had turned them into a subsidiary, a permanent source of income and resources for his own sect. It was a far more profitable outcome than simple annihilation, and by placing the administrative burden on the First Elder, he avoided any direct responsibility himself. He remained in the shadows, the architect of victory without the tedious duties of a ruler.

With his new puppet installed, Wei gave the order to withdraw. The expeditionary force returned to the Verdant Serpent Sect, not as a weary army, but as a triumphant procession of conquerors, their storage rings overflowing with the wealth of a fallen rival.

Wei's status within the sect had undergone a fundamental transformation. He was no longer just the reclusive Poison Elder. He was the hero who had saved them, the commander who had led them to an unprecedented victory, and the strategist who had absorbed an entire sect without a war. His power and influence were now second only to the First Elder and the reclusive Sect Master himself. And no one, not even his closest friends, had any idea that the entire series of events, from the first poisoned griffin to the fall of a rival sect, had been orchestrated by him for the sole purpose of accumulating power and points for his secret system.

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