Old Daoist Peng's pupils contracted to pinpoints.
"…You actually know of that matter," he said quietly, voice turning hoarse.
"The Realm God has been chained here for too long," Ling Feng replied, tone mild, almost conversational. "Your academy opened too many portals, poured too much power into it, held onto it generation after generation when it should've already gone back to ashes and returned to where it came from."
He lifted a shoulder in an easy shrug.
"I get it. It's an incredible guardian. It's protected your human race for ages. Letting go is hard."
Old Daoist Peng's fingers tightened on his knee, the knuckles whitening. His Dao Heart had weathered countless storms, yet at this moment a subtle unease climbed up his spine.
"A mere Named Hero…" he began, forcing his tone to stay steady.
Ling Feng smiled faintly.
"In name," he said. "Realm-wise, I'm playing small. Does it make you feel better if I wear a weak little signboard on my chest? If I walked around with my true level on my sleeve, people would start screaming and I'd never get a quiet meal again."
He let a bit of Chaos leak out.
It was just a wisp.
The chamber darkened as if a vast hand had covered the sun, then brightened again in the span of a breath. In that instant, Old Daoist Peng felt as though he were staring into a bottomless abyss—not just deep, but wrong. Time twisted in there. Fate ran backward and sideways. Karma knotted into shapes that did not belong to this world's Heaven.
His breath hitched. For the first time in many years, his heart truly skipped.
Then the pressure vanished.
Ling Feng calmly picked up the teapot, poured himself a cup, and drank as if nothing had happened.
"I'm not here to lecture you," he said, setting the cup down. "You and your brothers have done well keeping the Academy alive this long. But the Realm God's already showing signs of going crazy, right? Sudden fury, hard to calm down, big disasters you barely smoothed over."
Old Daoist Peng's voice lowered to a murmur.
"Earlier," he admitted after a pause, "it erupted without warning. We had to join forces to appease it. If it had gone any further, the Academy, perhaps even the Eastern Hundred Cities…"
"Yeah," Ling Feng said. "It'd flatten a lot. I'd rather not deal with that level of cleanup yet."
He spoke lightly, but Peng could hear the steel buried under the casual words.
Ling Feng leaned back slightly.
"So here's the deal," he continued. "I'll help you stabilize the Realm God and prepare it to leave cleanly. I'll also clear out a bunch of annoying enemies for the Academy while I'm at it—Brilliance Ancient Kingdom's idiots, Azure Mysterious Kingdom's clowns, Tiger's Howl's barking dogs, you name it."
Old Daoist Peng studied him, gaze deepening.
"And what do you want in return?" he asked.
Ling Feng smiled.
"A stage," he said simply. "And an old man who doesn't get in my way when I start flipping tables."
He leaned forward, eyes half-lidded, voice soft but carrying.
"I'm going to stir up this era anyway," he said. "That's non-negotiable. I'd rather do it with the Heavenly Dao Academy standing beside me, not buried underneath the rubble."
Silence fell.
The old Daoist closed his eyes. His qi sank, rose, circled once through his meridians. He had presided over this Academy through storms that would have crushed lesser sects. He had seen young monsters come and go. He knew what it meant when Heaven itself pushed a variable into the board.
When he opened his eyes again, something had shifted. Caution was still there, but the weight in his gaze had changed—from suspicion, to wary consideration.
"…If you can show this old man that you truly have such ability," he said slowly, each word weighed, "then the Heavenly Dao Academy will cooperate where it can. But if you fail, the consequences—"
"If I fail," Ling Feng cut in quietly, "this era was doomed anyway."
He rose in one smooth motion.
"Watch me," he said, casual again. "I'll give you a small demonstration soon. Treat it as a down payment."
...
"Small demonstration," as it turned out, meant:
Creating yet another merit law.
The courtyard Ling Feng chose inside the Grand Era Hall was quiet compared to the rest of the Academy. Mountains ringed it on three sides, folding in like ink-washed peaks in an ancient painting. The air here was thick with the Academy's accumulated dao—traces of lectures from past sages, lingering intent from old battles on the Dragon Arbiter Stage, the solemn resonance of countless students stepping onto their paths.
Ling Feng's group sat in a loose circle around him.
Li Shuangyan, back straight, jade-like temperament as cold and distant as the moon above the Nine Saint Demon Gate.
Chen Baojiao, legs crossed with lazy confidence, her supreme beauty and Immortal Spring Physique giving her the air of a noble tigress waiting to pounce.
Xu Pei, storm-qi smoothed into quiet ripples, eyes focused, hands folded in her lap.
Bai Jianzhen, sword resting against her shoulder, expression calm but gaze sharp as a drawn blade.
Chi Xiaodao, shoulders relaxed yet coiled with that stubborn Lion's Roar toughness.
Chi Xiaodie, the princess of Lion's Roar, face serene, eyes bearing the weight of a country's fate.
Bing Yuxia, the Ice Feather Palace's Ice Empress, aura cold and noble, watching everything with quiet focus.
Ling Feng looked around at them, lips curling.
"So," he said, "the Academy has plenty of good techniques. But they're designed for average geniuses, not for monsters like you."
Chen Baojiao grinned, eyes glinting. "Calling us monsters now?"
"Compared to these so-called geniuses, yes, you are," Ling Feng replied without mercy.
He flicked his fingers. A jade slip floated between his hands, runes glowing faintly—it was a standard Grand Era Hall merit law, something meant to temper both comprehension and combat ability, pushing students gradually toward the Noble and Enlightened realms.
"On its own," he said, "this will take you from point A to point B in a few decades if you're diligent. That's fine for them. We don't have time for that."
He let Chaos seep into the jade slip.
The air in the courtyard rippled. The dao patterns inside the slip stirred as if waking from sleep, then writhed. Runes rearranged themselves with frightening speed, weaving together with strands of an alien energy that did not belong to this world's Heaven.
It wasn't demonic. It wasn't buddha. It wasn't the clean, sharp lines of an Immortal Emperor's dao, nor the twisted threads of an Ancient Devil's path. It was something outside the ledger of this universe, yet it wrapped around the old law with effortless intimacy.
The resulting construct was smoother, deeper—and far more dangerous.
"This version," Ling Feng said calmly, "will sharpen your combat instincts, refine your Fate Palaces, and make it easier to digest complex grand dao. Think of it as… a cheat sheet written by someone who's already read the answers."
Xu Pei watched the transformations, eyes wide. "You're really modifying an ancient academy merit law like it's a casual note," she whispered.
"The Academy's test papers are good," Ling Feng replied. "I'm just scribbling in the margins."
He split the modified law into seven strands of light, each laced with faint traces of Chaos that no Heavenly Dao elder would recognize. With a gesture, he sent one into each person's sea of consciousness.
They did not resist.
Li Shuangyan closed her eyes first. Inside her inner world, her Pure Jade Physique resonated with the new patterns. Her dao had always been flawless, but a little too distant—like an ice sculpture, perfect but cold. Now, under the influence of Ling Feng's law, the jade loosened. It became warmer, more flexible, easier to evolve. Her Fate Palaces glowed, jade light cycling with less waste, each circulation of energy leaving subtle refinement in its wake.
Chen Baojiao's Immortal Springs rumbled.
The chaotic force within them rotated more efficiently, each spring becoming a miniature storm reservoir.
Xu Pei's storm-qi settled into a more disciplined whirl. Before, her Violent Cloud Chant was like summer thunder—violent, explosive, but a little wasteful. Now, under the modified law, the violent energy did not simply explode outward; it rotated, compressed, and then released in controlled bursts, like a series of artillery strikes instead of a single, wasteful detonation.
Bai Jianzhen's Sword Dao, so straight it threatened to rust, gained a faint curve.
Her intent had always been "one sword to cut all things" but that extremity, while terrifying, also made her path brittle. Ling Feng's law added small arcs of unpredictability, slight flex in the straight line. Her strikes would become harder to read; her sword path, harder to counter.
Chi Xiaodao's Heavenly Turtle path grew thicker and more grounded. The modified law wrapped his turtle-like endurance with Chaos patterns, making his defenses less passive. His every step would carry hidden counterforce; his defense could now become a springboard for explosive retaliation.
Chi Xiaodie's newly formed Fate Palaces—five in total—integrated more harmoniously with her identity as Lion's Roar princess. The law anchored her cultivation not in vague personal ambition, but in the responsibilities and dreams she carried for her country. Each heartbeat echoed with both personal will and the dragon pulse of Lion's Roar.
Bing Yuxia…
She sucked in a sharp breath.
The modified law slid into her cultivation like a key into a lock. The Ice Feather Palace's inherited arts, the cold, elegant dao she had inherited as the Ice Empress, suddenly found new pathways to flow. Frozen rivers turned into glacial torrents. Snowflakes became blades.
Her ice dao, which had always been lofty and untouchable, now had teeth.
She opened her eyes slowly.
"…You're insane," she said softly.
Ling Feng smiled at her, eyes warm. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
Her lips twitched. She turned her face slightly, as if to hide the faint flush coloring her pale ears.
Around them, the Academy's ambient dao seemed to hum. Even the mountains in the distance felt like they were leaning closer, listening.
A new law had been born inside Heavenly Dao Academy, and its creator was a Named Hero who wasn't really a Named Hero.
...
The Academy didn't let them adjust quietly for long.
Trouble came faster than that.
It started at the Dragon Arbiter Stage.
The Dragon Arbiter Stage was infamous even before Ling Feng arrived—a massive battle platform at the heart of the Heavenly Dao Academy, forged from the bones of a primordial dragon and tempered by the blood of countless students. Here, disciples of the five great halls settled grudges, tested their daos, and sometimes died.
"Life and death are determined by fate; wealth and honor are in the heavens." Those words were carved along the stage's edge. Many students could recite them in their sleep. Fewer had truly stared at them with blood dripping down their chins.
On this day, the atmosphere around the stage was… strange.
The usual roar of the crowd was there—disciples from Grand Era, Zenith Era, Idle Era, Sacred Era, and even a few from Emperor Era Hall packed the viewing platforms. But beneath the excitement ran a current of tension, a sharp thread of expectation.
Everyone knew.
Huangfu Feng and Gui Fushu were waiting.
Huangfu Feng stood on the stone platform already, golden bird aura surging. Princess of Tiger's Howl Country, disciple of Tiger's Howl School, descendant of a great demonic Golden Bird—her Houtian Golden Bird Physique blazed, feathers of golden flame spreading from her back like a divine phoenix ready to descend. Her reputation in Zenith Era Hall was not undeserved; she had carved her name onto the Dragon Arbiter Stage with blood more than once.
Across from her, the other side of the stage was still empty.
Gui Fushu leaned on the railing among the Zenith Era Hall students, ghostly aura coiling around him like a quiet tide. He came from the Ghost Race, yet had been accepted by Brilliance Ancient Kingdom and bestowed the title of Royal Noble. One Celestial Enlightened Being; his Life Wheel Merit Law, the Brilliance Immortal Pursuit, was famed for a speed that could make Five Celestials lose their colors.
He looked down his nose at the Grand Era Hall section.
At Ling Feng's group.
"The Dragon Arbiter Stage is meant for students who actually have cultivation," he said lightly, voice drifting over the crowd with ghostly echo. "Not for people who rely on strange tricks to cheat their way into the Academy."
Whispers rippled outward.
Huangfu Feng's gaze was already cold enough to freeze steel.
"You dare humiliate Tiger's Howl School and cripple our envoys," she said, voice ringing clear, layered with tiger roars and bird cries. "Do you think my Tiger's Howl Country has no one who can take your life?"
Memories stirred in the onlookers:. Tiger's Howl was not a forgiving sect.
Chi Xiaodie's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Those envoys came to pressure our Lion's Roar," she said, voice cool, regal. "Their legs and foundations were a fair price."
"The Dragon Arbiter Stage allows life-and-death battles," Gui Fushu added with a faint smile. "If your side is so confident, why not send someone up? Let us see whether this 'Ling Feng' can do more than talk."
Countless gazes turned to the Grand Era Hall section.
Ling Feng stretched lazily as if he'd just woken from a nap, not as though he was being challenged in front of the entire Academy. His group stood around him, calm but coiled—Shuangyan's jade aura, Baojiao's fiery presence, Xu Pei's storm, Bai Jianzhen's silent sword intent, Chi Xiaodao's turtle steadiness, Chi Xiaodie's quiet authority, Bing Yuxia's cold nobility.
He looked at Huangfu Feng.
Then at Gui Fushu.
He could understand why Huangfu Feng had a grudge—envoys crippled, pride shattered.
As for Gui Fushu…
Ling Feng decided he must be brain damaged if he genuinely believed that he had relied on some "trick" to enter the Academy.
In any case, Brilliance Ancient Kingdom was just as much of an eyesore as Azure Mysterious Kingdom.
"…No interest," he said.
They both stiffened.
"What?" Huangfu Feng snapped.
"I said I'm lazy," Ling Feng replied. "Both you Tiger dumbasses and Brilliance idiots aren't worth my time."
The murmuring around the Dragon Arbiter Stage rose in pitch.
"Arrogant!"
"Does he not fear Tiger's Howl School?"
"Gui Fushu will not let this pass…"
Gui Fushu's smile thinned until it was barely a line.
"Or are you afraid?" he asked softly.
Ling Feng's gaze slid to him, indifferent.
"Afraid?" he repeated. "Of a one-celestial ghost who thinks speed makes him invincible?"
Gui Fushu's fingers tightened on the railing. The Brilliance Immortal Pursuit he cultivated was indeed famed for its terrifying speed, allowing him to blitz opponents before they could react. His entire dao heart was built on "first strike decides all."
Ling Feng waved a hand dismissively.
"Anyway, I said I'm lazy," he went on. "Why would I lift a finger when I've got people who need practical experience?"
He turned his head.
"Xiaodie," he said casually. "You want to vent a bit towards these loudmouths, right?"
Chi Xiaodie's eyes sharpened, a glint of suppressed fury rising from deep within.
"Yes," she said quietly.
"Good," Ling Feng said. "Go kill Huangfu Feng."
The Dragon Arbiter Stage fell utterly silent.
Even the howling mountain winds seemed to pause, waiting.
Huangfu Feng laughed, the sound brittle with disbelief. "You think a mere Royal Noble from a small country can—"
Her words cut off as Chi Xiaodie stepped onto the stage.
She did not posture. She did not roar her lineage. Her aura rose slowly, like a tide filling a valley. Five Fate Palaces shone steadily behind her True Fate, crystalline and deep, foundations tempered by Ling Feng's relentless adjustments and the blessing of the Golden Turtle earth vein beneath Lion's Roar. She walked forward not as a junior facing a genius, but as a princess inspecting her own city walls.
Huangfu Feng's eyes darkened.
"Fine," she snapped. "I'll pluck a chicken before I roast a tiger."
Golden flames erupted.
The Houtian Golden Bird Physique blossomed to full power—wings of searing light spread from her back, each feather a blazing dao rune. The air distorted, turned into a furnace. Her body shot into the sky in a streak of gold, diving with talons of condensed dao laws, each claw sharp enough to rend mountains and pierce noble treasures.
The stage trembled under the might of her descending strike. Lesser disciples on the edges had to circulate their energy just to breathe.
Chi Xiaodie did not move until the last heartbeat.
Then she stepped forward.
Ling Feng's modified merit law flowed through her meridians. The Heavenly Turtle path he had carved into her foundation, the Fate Palaces he had forced to align with Lion's Roar's dragon pulse, and her own iron will—refined by years under political pressure—merged in that single step.
Her blade traced a simple arc.
No flowers, no embellishment. Just the straightforward cut of a woman who had finally decided to protect what was hers.
Steel met flaming talon.
The Golden Bird Physique's power crashed down.
It broke.
Huangfu Feng's eyes widened as her dao-searing flames were split. The force behind them did not simply collide and rebound; it was swallowed, digested, and redirected by the steadiness of Xiaodie's turtle-anchored grand dao. The stage beneath them groaned as redirected force burrowed into the stone instead of into Xiaodie's body.
"This…" Huangfu Feng whispered, disbelief chipping away at her pride.
The crowd erupted.
"She split it head-on!"
"Is that really just Royal Noble cultivation?"
Chi Xiaodie's second strike was colder.
"Die," she said simply.
Her blade moved with terrifying inevitability—Tiger's Howl defensive treasures flared, layer upon layer of support from a great sect: life treasures, protective talismans, even a defensive barrier personally carved by an ancestor.
Under normal circumstances, these would have allowed a princess to walk sideways through the Zenith Hall.
Under Ling Feng's modified law, under the Heavenly Turtle's grounded dao, they may as well have been paper.
Her sword edge slid through the first barrier like cutting tofu. The second shattered. The third screamed with dao cries and ruptured. The last desperate golden bird phantom roared, trying to shield its descendant—and was pinned to the ground by a single line of steel.
The blade cut across Huangfu Feng's chest, slicing through defensive artifacts, meridians, and the last stubborn threads of her fate.
For a breath, she stood there, eyes wide, golden feathers flickering.
Then she fell.
Her blood scattered across the Dragon Arbiter Stage in a crimson arc, stark against the ancient stone.
Silence.
A Tiger's Howl genius. Princess of a country. A Zenith Era Hall prodigy. Dead in a few exchanges.
The Tiger's Howl students gaped in horror, legs trembling. The disciples of other halls, who had so confidently placed Huangfu Feng among the Hundred Cities' top young talents, suddenly felt that their imagination of "genius" had been very small.
Chi Xiaodie stood alone amid the blood, sword tip dripping. Her back was straight, her gaze calm. There was no cruelty in her eyes, only decision.
For a moment, someone in the crowd saw not just a princess, but the shadow of a future ruler.
Before they could fully react, Gui Fushu leapt down onto the stage, killing intent boiling like ghostly fire.
"Enough!" he snapped. Ghostly wind swirled around him, robes snapping. "You dared kill someone under my eye…!"
Ling Feng sighed theatrically from the viewing platform.
"Pei-Pei," he said lazily. "Go."
Xu Pei's heart thumped once, hard.
Then her storm-qi settled.
She stepped up onto the stage, King Noble cultivation flaring, the Violent Cloud Chant rotating in precise pulses. Clouds of qi swirled around her feet like coiled thunderheads, each step accompanied by the whisper of distant thunder.
Against a One Celestial Enlightened Being, in normal circumstances, this would have been suicidal.
But nothing about Ling Feng's group was "normal."
Gui Fushu sneered openly now.
"You send a mere Noble against me?" he said, voice dripping disdain. "You're insulting the Brilliance Ancient Kingdom."
He vanished.
His body blurred into a streak of light.
Brilliance Immortal Pursuit—Life Wheel Merit Law created by an Immortal Emperor from Brilliance Ancient Kingdom. Just by circulating it, he stepped into a different rhythm of time. To the eyes of most onlookers, he didn't move; he simply disappeared and reappeared, leaving only afterimages behind.
Emperor's Domination
His figure flickered toward Xu Pei, speed tearing ripples in the air. The first attack was a probing strike, yet its power was enough to crush a mountain peak.
Xu Pei's eyes did not track his body.
Her storm did.
Ling Feng's modified law had honed her perception. The Chaos threaded through her cultivation allowed her to feel not the afterimage, but the intent behind Gui Fushu's motion. The world slowed—clouds of qi swirling in precise patterns, each stray breeze, each distortion of air, all feeding into her senses.
She pivoted.
Violent Cloud Chant compressed into pinpoint bursts around her fists and elbows, miniature storms anchored to her bones.
Lightning-wrapped fists slammed into the path Gui Fushu took.
The first exchange sent shockwaves spilling out over the Dragon Arbiter Stage. Ancient inscriptions flashed, absorbing excess damage. The protective barriers around the viewing platforms flared to life.
Gui Fushu was forced back half a step, eyes narrowing.
"Not bad," he spat. "But—"
He accelerated.
This time, he stopped holding back. His body dissolved into a streak of ghostly brilliance, Brilliance Immortal Pursuit launched to its peak. The stage seemed to fill with his afterimages—hundreds, thousands, all striking from different angles, each one a killing blow that had once overwhelmed even Enlightened Beings.
King Nobles in the crowd turned pale. They could not see the trajectory at all; it felt as though the stage itself wanted to shred Xu Pei into pieces.
Xu Pei smiled faintly.
"Come," she whispered.
Her storm-qi spiraled tighter, the Violent Cloud Chant changing mode. Instead of exploding outward, the violent energy wove into a revolving well around her body, an invisible vortex.
When Gui Fushu's body slammed into her again, the impact didn't simply push her back.
It dropped into the compressed storm.
Vanished.
Then re-emerged as a brutal counterforce that tore into his bones from within.
Gui Fushu's eyes widened; he coughed out a mouthful of purple blood. His speed had become his own whip.
"You—"
He flickered again, desperately trying to change angles, change rhythm, break free of the storm. But the more he moved, the more the storm learned him. Ling Feng's Chaos modifications let the Violent Cloud Chant adapt in real time, carving grooves through space itself.
Each path he took was already waiting with a fist, a knee, an elbow, a compressed burst of storm-qi that shattered his ghostly defenses and seeped into his Life Wheel.
Over and over, the crowd watched the impossible happen: a King Noble tracing the movements of a One Celestial Enlightened Being, turning his speed and pressure into cultivation fuel.
Xu Pei's strikes grew sharper.
Though still formally a Noble, her combat prowess had already reached nine-star Enlightened Being under Ling Feng's constant tempering. Each blow combined Violent Cloud Chant's controlled detonations with Chaos-honed precision. The storm around her was no longer gentle rain; it was a hurricane in human form.
Gui Fushu's ghostly light dimmed, his movements losing their clean edges.
Bone cracks echoed faintly beneath the roar of qi.
In the end, she caught him mid-flash.
His body flickered into existence just in front of her, eyes widening as he realized he had no path left.
Both of Xu Pei's hands slammed down onto his chest, storm-qi compressed to the limit between her palms.
"Fall," she said.
The Violent Cloud Chant detonated inward.
Bones shattered like rotten wood. His Life Wheel cracked with a sound like breaking jade. The Brilliance Immortal Pursuit tried to flare, to carry him away, but there was nowhere to go—his meridians had been turned into a field of lightning.
Gui Fushu stumbled backward, eyes wide, lips moving soundlessly.
Then he collapsed on the Dragon Arbiter Stage, body hitting the stone with a dull thud.
The ghostly light faded from his pupils.
A Ghost Immortal genius from Brilliance Ancient Kingdom, famed for speed and resilience, cut down by a "mere Noble" from a small country.
The smell of blood and burnt qi clung to the air.
The square was deathly still.
Tiger's Howl students trembled, faces ashen. Brilliance Ancient Kingdom's supporters stared as if watching a dream shatter. Even the proud Zenith Era Hall geniuses, who had thought themselves above Grand Era's "wild seedlings," now felt their throats dry.
Someone finally found his voice. It cracked.
"You… you'll regret this! Hu Yue will not let you go! Our Tiger's Howl School will seek revenge—"
"Shut up," Ling Feng said.
He didn't raise his voice. Yet the words hit like a hammer, vibrating through bone and soul.
The shouting disciple's knees knocked together; his face went bloodless.
Ling Feng's gaze swept over the two factions, slow and lazy, like a butcher choosing which pig to slaughter next.
"Hu Yue can bring his butt buddy Ba Xia or whoever he likes," Ling Feng said lazily. "If they come, they'll just become blood splatter on the Dragon Arbiter Stage. I already told your envoys that."
He smiled faintly, as if discussing the weather.
"But many of you are too hard-headed to understand."
The wind picked that sentence up and carried it around the stage, into the ears of every disciple present, echoing through the Dragon Arbiter Stage's ancient stones.