Six years had passed in the biting winds of the Wanyong province. To anyone passing by, Lei Ze looked like little more than a vagrant. He wore tattered robes of ash-grey and black, with a heavy hood pulled low to mask his features. But despite the worn fabric, he carried himself with a quiet neatness that didn't match the life of a beggar.
"Look, it's him," a voice whispered from the crowd. People weren't looking at him with scorn, but with a deep, quiet gratitude.
"That's the man who pulled Lord Hán Guāng's daughter out of the ice."
Lei Ze didn't look up. He just tilted his head further into his hood and kept walking, his boots crunching softly on the frozen earth as the townspeople pointed him out.
"Six years," he thought, a heavy sigh escaping his lips into the cold air. "And still not a single lead on Yǒng Yì. I've mastered the paths in this wasteland, yet I still can't break through the gates of the Iron Peak cultivators." He tightened his fist, the leather of his gloves creaking. To face a monster like that, he knew he couldn't just be a master; he had to perfect the tri-core paths. He had to become something the world hadn't seen yet.
BOOM!
The horizon suddenly tore open. One of the distant peaks erupted in a violent spray of molten rock and fire, a volcanic scream that shook the very foundation of the province.
Almost instantly, black clouds of winged beasts began to swarm from the smoke, diving toward the unsuspecting towns below.
Lei Ze stopped in his tracks, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the sky. "Those aren't just wild animals," he muttered.
He didn't want to reveal himself, but the panic in the streets was rising. As the flaming beasts descended, Lei Ze moved. He didn't use his Qi, but he threw himself into the chaos, pulling children from the paths of fire and shoving elders into the safety of stone doorways.
Then, the local sects arrived.
"Beast tide! Draw your steel and slaughter them all!" a commander roared.
The Hàn Shuāng Sect led the charge, accompanied by the Bīng Hé Zōng and the Tiān Lù Sect.
Lord Hán Guāng appeared in the sky, his long white beard fluttering in the wind as he gazed down at the carnage with a weary wisdom. "It isn't their fault the mountain woke," he said softly, "but since they've brought their hunger to our gates, we have no choice but to end them."
Floating nearby was the Sect Leader of the Yào Shàn Zōng, a woman named Yīng Huā. Her beauty was so radiant it felt out of place amidst the blood and ash. She wore flowing golden robes, and an intricate, curved metal ornament rested on her head, tapering down to a diamond glinting on her forehead.
"She's a goddess..." one distracted cultivator gasped, his eyes glued to her instead of the beast. A second later, a beast dived and swallowed him.
Yīng Huā didn't flinch. She leaned back against her massive spirit-pet, a creature as large as a house and scanned the chaos below. Her eyes caught on a hooded figure moving with strange, grounded efficiency.
She couldn't see his face, but the way he moved was different from the panicked masses. She pressed her fingers against her pet's fur, a playful, curious smile touching her lips. "Interesting," she whispered.
Down in the dirt, Lei Ze was swarmed. A beast pounced, its claws outstretched. He knew that using his techniques here would bring the Lords down on his head, so he kept his posture loose and ordinary. He waited until the last second and threw a simple, physical punch.
There was no flash of light, just the sound of shattering bone. The beast's teeth flew in every direction as its head was snapped back, its body skidding across the frozen ground.
Up above, Yīng Huā's eyes widened. "No spiritual energy, just raw physical power? Very interesting."
Lei Ze didn't stay to celebrate. He jumped back, shielding a group of trembling villagers. "Get to the cellars!" he ordered, his voice muffled by the hood. "I'll hold the line!"
He began to dismantle the beasts with nothing but his hands and feet, his movements a blur of calculated violence.
Suddenly, Lord Hán Guāng gestured, commanding his disciples to descend and assist. The cultivators landed with a flourish, roughly shoving Lei Ze aside as if he were just a nuisance in their way. Lei Ze didn't argue; he simply stepped back into the shadows, his eyes tracking the sky.
"The beasts are breaking their formations," Lei Ze observed, his jaw tightening. "Why are the Lords just sitting up there? Why aren't they helping?"
In that split second of distraction, a beast lunged from his blind spot. Lei Ze moved instinctively, his body twisting like a coiled spring, but the creature's claw caught the edge of his hood. The fabric tore away with a sharp rip, revealing him to the world.
The wind caught his hair, a striking blend of light blue and ash-grey, aged by the harsh frost of the province. On his forehead, a small, elegant green-and-gold crown ornament glimmered in the firelight. His brown eyes, sharp and full of a cold, ancient shock, stared back at the beast.
The battlefield seemed to go quiet for a heartbeat.
"He's... he's beautiful," Yīng Huā whispered, her boredom completely gone. She sat up straight, her eyes locked on the stranger in the grey robes.
"Who is that?" the whispers began to ripple through the crowd and the ranks of the cultivators.
Lei Ze realized the danger instantly. He finished the beast with a quick, lethal strike and didn't wait for a second glance. He turned and sprinted toward the treeline, disappearing into the smoke.
"An outsider!" A Lord whispered, his wisdom replaced by a sharp, sudden alarm.
But Yīng Huā was already gone. She vanished from the back of her pet in a streak of golden light, trailing the handsome stranger into the dark.