The door was kicked open.
Splinters flew. Wuxu, anticipating the violence, threw himself backward, crashing into the pile of firewood. It was a calculated fall; he needed to look weak, but he also needed to land exactly two meters away from the Center.
"Look at him," a voice sneered. "The former genius, cowering like a dog."
Three men entered. They wore the silk robes of Inner Disciples. Leading them was Li Feng, a cultivator at the 8th Layer of Qi Condensation. He held a folding fan made of steel, inscribed with wind runes.
Li Feng was here for the Pendant of Clarity Wuxu's mother had left him. It was the last thing Wuxu owned.
"Wuxu," Li Feng said, snapping his fan shut. The sound echoed like a gunshot. "Hand it over. Don't make me dirty my boots."
Wuxu coughed, clutching his chest. He looked up, fear plastered across his face. "Senior Brother Li... please. It's all I have left."
"And that is why you don't deserve it," Li Feng laughed. He stepped forward.
Wuxu scrambled back, crawling on his hands and knees. "Please! I'll do anything! I'll clean your quarters! I'll—"
"Pathetic." Li Feng spat on the floor.
Wuxu was calculating.
Target: Li Feng.
Distance to Center: 5 feet.
Current Status: Outside Domain.
If Wuxu attacked now, Li Feng would kill him with a flick of his finger. Li Feng was reinforced by Qi; his skin was like iron, his reflexes supersonic. Wuxu was slower than a snail.
He had to pull him in.
Wuxu scrambled further back, curling into a ball right next to the invisible line of the 3-Chi radius. He held the pendant up, his hand trembling.
"Take it," Wuxu sobbed, holding it out. "Just don't hurt me."
He held the pendant inside the Domain.
Li Feng's eyes lit up with greed. He didn't suspect a thing. Why would he? There were no fluctuations of Qi. No formation flags. No killing intent. Just a broken boy in a broken shed.
Li Feng stepped forward.
Four feet.
Three feet.
He reached for the pendant. To grab it, he had to step across the invisible line.
Li Feng took the step.
The Threshold was crossed.
The moment Li Feng entered the Domain, the wind runes on his fan went dormant. The protective Qi swirling around his body dissipated. The spiritual strength reinforcing his muscles vanished.
He didn't notice it immediately. His momentum carried him forward. He grabbed the pendant.
"Finally," Li Feng smirked.
Wuxu stopped trembling.
The tears in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a gaze so flat and dead it looked like the bottom of a dry well.
Li Feng paused. He felt... heavy. Why was the air so still? Why did he feel so cold? He tried to circulate his Qi to warm himself.
Nothing happened.
"What..." Li Feng frowned. He tried to summon a Wind Blade to punish Wuxu for the dirty look.
No wind came.
"Senior Brother," Wuxu said. His voice wasn't raspy anymore. It was smooth, calm. "You are standing in my house."
Li Feng swung his steel fan at Wuxu's head. Even without Qi, a steel fan could crack a skull.
Wuxu didn't dodge. He simply raised his hand.
Inside the Domain, physics was Wuxu's plaything. He didn't catch the fan; he simply willed the kinetic energy of the swing to become zero.
The fan stopped dead in mid-air, an inch from Wuxu's nose, as if it had hit an invisible wall.
Li Feng's eyes widened. " demonic art—"
Wuxu stood up. Inside the Domain, he wasn't crippled. He was the definition of absolute existence.
"Kneel," Wuxu said.
He didn't use a pressure technique. He simply altered the vector of gravity acting on Li Feng's kneecaps.
CRACK.
Li Feng screamed as his legs folded the wrong way, slamming him to the floorboards. The two disciples by the door jumped, startled.
"Senior Brother!" one yelled. "What happened?!"
They didn't enter. They were outside the radius. To them, it looked like Li Feng had tripped and Wuxu was just standing there.
"Help me!" Li Feng shrieked, trying to crawl away. "My Qi! My Qi is gone!"
Wuxu placed a foot on Li Feng's back. "Don't struggle. In here, struggle is a concept I have deleted."
Wuxu looked at the two disciples by the door. "If you enter," he said calmly, "you will join him."
They hesitated. They were cultivators; they feared the unknown. But they saw no formation. They saw a cripple stepping on their leader.
"Kill him!" one shouted, drawing a sword and charging.
Wuxu sighed. "Greed over survival."
The disciple rushed forward, sword glowing with fire. He crossed the line.
The fire vanished. The speed vanished.
Wuxu didn't even look at him. He simply snapped his fingers.
"Erasure."
A hole the size of a melon appeared in the disciple's chest. No blood, no bone. Just empty space where matter used to be. The body collapsed.
The third disciple froze at the door. He stared at the corpse. He stared at Li Feng, who was weeping on the floor.
"Monster..." the third disciple whispered. He turned and ran.
Wuxu didn't chase. He couldn't chase. If he left the 3-Chi radius, he would return to being a cripple, and the fleeing disciple would easily kill him.
He looked down at Li Feng.
"You have five seconds," Wuxu said softly. "Tell me where the Sect keeps the Spirit Severing Roots. My Anchor is cracking, and I need better materials."
"You... you can't fight the Heavens!" Li Feng spat, blood bubbling from his mouth. "The Elders will sense this! When you leave this spot, you are dead!"
"You are correct," Wuxu nodded. "When I leave this spot, I am weak. But..."
Wuxu leaned down, whispering into Li Feng's ear.
"I don't need to leave. I just need to move the spot."
[System Notification: Order Destroyed (Rank 8 Cultivator humiliated).]
[Reward: Domain Stability +1 Hour.]
[Current Shift Cooldown: 5 Days, 23 Hours.]
Wuxu frowned. The reward was small. Killing a fly like Li Feng barely fed the Domain.
He placed his hand on Li Feng's forehead.
"Your existence is no longer required."
Collapse.
Li Feng dissolved into dust.
Wuxu sat back down in the lotus position, surrounded by the silence of his Domain. He looked at the door where the third disciple had fled.
The alarm would be raised. The Elders would come.
Wuxu looked at the countdown. 5 Days, 23 Hours.
He was trapped in this woodshed. He couldn't move the Domain. He couldn't fight an army.
He reached into Li Feng's remaining robes (which hadn't dissolved) and pulled out a signal flare.
"If I cannot move the trap," Wuxu mused, tossing the flare in his hand, "I must make the bait irresistible."
He lit the flare and threw it out the window, signaling a direct attack on the sect.
It was suicide. Or it was the greatest bluff in the history of the Azure Cloud Sect.
Wuxu closed his eyes and began to cultivate his Anchor. He needed to be ready to run in six days. Until then, he would stack the bodies high enough to block the door.