The dead wind of the Withered Valley howled through the basin, carrying the metallic scent of blood and the bitter chill of lingering death qi.
Su Ming exhaled a long, heavy breath, his aura dimming. He was totally exhausted. His dantian ached from the sheer volume of output in such a hostile environment.
'If I keep him alive, he will probably cause another problem for me,' Su Ming thought, evaluating the inherent risk of keeping a Heaven's Chosen archetype breathing.
He activated his Essence Sight, putting a mild strain on his exhausted self to scan the unconscious boy.
The golden glow immediately highlighted a spatial ring on Lin Fan's finger and a strange orb hidden beneath his sleeves.
The Orb was practically overflowing with complex, chaotic patterns, while the spatial ring was packed with high-value items he had scrounged.
Without hesitation, Su Ming stripped him of both, immediately sealing the orb deep inside his own storage ring.
Extending his divine sense into Lin Fan's spatial ring, he quickly cataloged the inventory. He noted the assorted spirit herbs, a few high-quality pills, some spirit stones, a few loose pages regarding his sword technique, and a distinct jade slip hidden deep within.
As his senses brushed against the jade slip, he paused.
He withdrew the slip and extended his divine sense, reading the description.
It was the Heaven-Stealing Cauldron Art.
As Su Ming read the details of the technique, how it superficially healed and strengthened its victims by performing an exchange of Yin and Yang while secretly siphoning their supreme talent, and worse, how it forcibly forged an artificial, fanatical psychological bond of loyalty, a genuine wave of disgust washed over him.
'Disgusting!'
Reading about such tropes in his past life had been a mildly amusing experience, but actually holding the vile methodology in his hands was another matter entirely.
It was an utterly parasitic, brainwashing, demonic art.
He didn't need a mystical vision to understand what would have happened if he hadn't intervened. He had read the internal workings of the demonic art. He understood the predatory nature of "heaven's chosen" who relied on such heinous methods.
It was painfully obvious.
Lin Fan had fully intended to use this exact art to slowly, methodically brainwash Lin Yao, parasitizing her dormant talents until she was nothing but a husk.
If left unchecked, the boy would have undoubtedly used it to harvest other supreme talents across the continent, building a harem bound by parasitic loyalty.
A cold, absolute finality settled over Su Ming's expression.
'And that was probably why he was interested in Lin Yao,' he concluded.
As a certain sense of killing intent rose within him, he turned his gaze back to the unconscious Lin Fan, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
He drew his sword an inch, preparing to cleanly end the boy's life.
"Master!"
Su Ming paused, sliding the sword back into its sheath. He turned his head.
At the entrance of the valley basin, Lin Yao had returned. Behind her, fully armed and radiating cold killing intent, marched a dozen elite enforcers of the Wang Clan.
Leading them was a burly, imposing man, his face weathered, deeply lined with exhaustion, and radiating a simmering, volcanic rage.
This was Wang Zheng, the Head of the Wang Clan.
Wang Zheng's heavy footsteps halted as he took in the scene. His eyes swept over the shattered stone altar, the lingering scorch marks of Su Ming's sword attacks, and finally landed on the broken, unconscious figure lying in the dirt.
"Is that him?" Wang Zheng's voice was a low, terrifying rumble. The aura of a Core Formation cultivator pressed down heavily on the valley.
"Is this the animal who crippled my son?"
Su Ming calmly stepped aside, gesturing toward Lin Fan with a casual gesture.
"He is," Su Ming said, his tone entirely detached. He pointed toward the base of the altar, where the stolen Crimson Blood Sword lay discarded.
"But I fear your son was merely collateral damage in a much darker scheme, Patriarch Wang."
Wang Zheng's gaze snapped to his clan's prized heirloom. His eyes widened in absolute horror.
The once-vibrant crimson blade was heavily cracked. Far worse, it was radiating a putrid, necrotic black aura. The residual death qi of the valley, combined with the chaotic clash of the dragon blood, had turned the majestic weapon into something that looked like it had been pulled from a mass grave.
"What... what is this?" Wang Zheng stammered, the rage in his voice temporarily overshadowed by dread.
"The ancestral sword... why is it emitting such a foul aura?"
Su Ming's expression remained perfectly grave. He easily slipped into the role of the righteous sect elder, delivering his narrative with flawless precision.
"A rogue demonic cultivator," Su Ming stated boldly, his voice carrying absolute certainty.
"He did not steal your heirloom merely for its value. He used the Crimson Blood Sword as a specialized conduit. Its high-quality essence was exactly what he needed to forcibly siphon the residual death qi of this valley and spread disaster."
"Not only that, but he also intended to use this despicable demonic art," Su Ming said, holding up the jade slip.
"A dual cultivation technique that gradually siphons the victims of their supreme talent."
Lin Yao felt a cold satisfaction learning that the boy was a despicable demonic cultivator, and that her master had helped bring him to justice. Although she did not completely understand the concept of Dual Cultivation, she knew it must be something deeply evil if her master condemned it so harshly.
'Perhaps I'll ask Master to explain what it is later,' she wondered silently.
Su Ming summoned a flicker of his crimson flame to his fingertips and dropped the jade slip directly onto it.
The demonic manual ignited instantly. As the jade cracked and burned into literal ash, Su Ming felt a faint, invisible weight settle into the Twilight Nether Lantern within his soul, a microscopic drop of pure Samsara Resin harvested from permanently severing the demonic art.
"I came from the Heavenly Cloud Sect to investigate the recent disturbances in this valley. I tracked the death qi here only to find this young man in the process of performing a dark ritual."
Su Ming continued, gesturing to the ash of the jade slip he had just burned. "I arrived just in time to interrupt the ritual and destroy his foundational manual. Had he succeeded, the Heavenly Cloud Sect would have been forced to intervene directly. I am glad we were able to prevent a regional disaster."
Wang Zheng's face turned completely pale, then flushed with a rage so profound it visibly shook his burly frame.
A demonic cultivator.
This absolute scum had not only ambushed and destroyed the cultivation of his beloved heir, Wang Tian, but had also intended to use their sacred ancestral weapon for a taboo ritual.
"He ruined my heir," Wang Zheng whispered, his voice trembling with a terrifying fury. "He corrupted our legacy. He dared to use the Wang Clan as a stepping stone for his demonic path!"
Blinded by grief and hatred, Wang Zheng marched toward the unconscious Lin Fan.
Lin Fan's body was currently in an incredibly fragile state. In his final, desperate moments against Su Ming, he had undergone a violent, forced breakthrough to the peak of the Core Formation stage. The sheer volume of energy packed into his newly formed dantian was immense, but because he had been knocked unconscious instantly, he hadn't had the time to stabilize it. It was like a bulging dam on the verge of bursting.
Wang Zheng stood over the boy. He raised his heavy, steel-plated boot, channeling the absolute maximum of his earth qi into his heel.
"You took my son's future," Wang Zheng roared. "So, I will take yours!"
He stomped down with the force of a falling boulder, driving his heel directly into Lin Fan's lower abdomen.
*CRACK.*
The sound was sickeningly loud in the quiet valley.
Lin Fan's eyes flew wide open, the whites completely bloodshot, as a silent, agonizing scream tore from his throat. His body convulsed violently before going entirely limp, his head lolling back into the dirt as he slipped back into a deep coma.
The newly formed Peak Core Formation dantian shattered like thin glass under a hammer. The massive reservoir of energy he had just accumulated was violently dispersed.
Su Ming watched without any outward reaction, but deep within his soul, the Twilight Nether Lantern flared with a warm, violet light. A heavy, dense drop of Samsara Resin formed and fell into its reserves. By allowing the Wang Clan Head to shatter the boy's dantian, Su Ming had dealt a devastating blow to Lin Fan's original trajectory.
The 'Hero' path of the original timeline had been forcibly shattered, pushing the Heaven's Chosen onto a far darker road.
In that exact moment, the Lantern granted him a strange sensation....an "Echo of Severed Fate."
This was the first time Su Ming had experienced the phenomenon. Because his cultivation was still low and the harvested resin was only a single drop, there was no grand, visual revelation.
Instead, it was a sudden realization that settled quietly into his mind.