The explosion from the cave had cleared a perfect circle in the silver mist of the valley, leaving a scorched crater where only the strongest could stand. In the center, Qin Feng stood with his back straight, his silhouette framed by the fading violet light of the breakthrough. Opposite him, First Elder Zhao of the Azure Sky Sect was struggling to regain his composure, his breath coming in ragged, disbelieving gasps.
The Elder's silver-rank mount, a majestic Griffin-hawk that usually exuded pride, now lay on the ground with its head tucked low, its wings trembling from the sheer pressure of the 'Eclipse' aura. The twelve elite disciples who had accompanied Zhao were scattered like fallen leaves, their formation shattered before the fight had even truly begun.
"Foundation Establishment..." Zhao hissed, his fingers tightening around his heavy iron mace until his knuckles turned white. "To reach the Foundation from the 3rd Layer of Qi Refining in mere days... what kind of demonic sorcery have you practiced, boy? No human meridian could withstand such a violent expansion!"
Qin Feng didn't answer immediately. He looked at his hands, turning them over. They were no longer the hands of a weary miner covered in permanent grime. The skin was as smooth as polished jade, yet he could feel the terrifying density of the Qi flowing beneath, thick, liquid, and unstoppable. It felt as if he carried the weight of a mountain range in his veins, yet moved with the lightness of a shadow.
"Sorcery?" Ye Chen's voice drifted through the clearing, melodious yet sharp enough to cut bone. She stepped out from behind Qin Feng, her white rags fluttering in the wind. To the Elder, she looked exactly like she did three years ago at the height of her power, cold, beautiful, and utterly terrifying. "Elder Zhao, your Sect Leader once bowed to me for a single bottle of Moon-Dew. Now you call my husband's talent 'demonic' simply because it exceeds your narrow understanding?"
Zhao roared, the veins in his neck bulging like snakes. "The Moon Sect is dead! And today, I will bury its last ghost along with this arrogant brat!"
He lunged forward, his 3rd Layer Foundation Qi erupting in a wave of crushing gravity that turned the surrounding grass to dust. He raised his mace, the metal glowing with a dull, heavy grey light that seemed to pull the very air toward it. "Heaven-Crushing Strike!"
The air around Qin Feng groaned under the pressure. The ground beneath him began to sink, forming a bowl-shaped depression. A normal 1st Layer cultivator would have had their bones crushed and their internal organs ruptured instantly. But Qin Feng didn't even raise his weapon. He simply stood there, his eyes glowing with a calm, violet intensity.
[System Notification: Enemy Technique 'Heaven-Crushing Strike' detected.] [Analysis: Earth-aspected gravity. Counter: 'Eclipse Void Step'.]
Qin Feng took a single step.
To Elder Zhao, it looked like the miner had simply dissolved into a puff of silver smoke. The massive mace slammed into the empty earth with a thunderous CRACK, creating a shockwave that leveled the remaining trees for fifty yards. But Qin Feng was already gone.
"You're far too slow, Elder," Qin Feng's voice whispered from directly behind Zhao's ear.
The Elder spun around, his eyes wide with terror, but it was too late. Qin Feng swung his black-ebony pickaxe. The violet crystal blade left a trail of frozen starlight in the air, humming with a frequency that resonated with the very fabric of the valley.
CLANG!
Zhao barely managed to bring his mace back to block. The impact didn't just push him back; it sent a shock of absolute cold through the Elder's arms. He gasped as frost instantly coated his iron weapon, creeping toward his fingers and turning his skin a sickly blue.
"How? Your Qi... it's only the 1st Layer!" Zhao yelled, his voice cracking as he scrambled backward, trying to shake the frost from his hands.
"It's not about the quantity of your pool, Elder," Ye Chen said, her eyes glowing with a predatory violet light as she stood back, watching her husband work. "It's the quality of the water. His Qi is fused with the essence of a Divine Empress. Your 'Foundation' is nothing but wet sand compared to his diamond."
Qin Feng didn't give Zhao a chance to breathe or recover. He activated Eclipse Flash, but this time, the speed was ten times greater than it had been in the mines. He became a blur of violet and gold, striking Zhao from four different directions in the span of a single heartbeat.
CRACK. CRUNCH. SHATTER.
The Elder's protective Qi shield, which had withstood the attacks of Spirit Beasts for decades, broke like thin glass. His heavy armor, made of rare spirit-iron and enchanted by the sect's best smiths, was pierced in three places by the crystalline tip of the pickaxe.
[DING! Target 'First Elder Zhao' is at 30% Health.] [System Suggestion: Execute 'Twin Eclipse' for maximum Face-Slapping effect.]
Qin Feng looked back at Ye Chen. She nodded, understanding his intent through the invisible thread that now bound their souls. They didn't need words. They were two halves of a single, celestial whole.
Ye Chen raised her hand, her violet Qi spiraling into the air like a vortex of starlight. Qin Feng raised his pickaxe, his golden energy merging with her purple mist. Above them, a miniature eclipse formed, a black sun surrounded by a ring of violent, flickering fire. The temperature in the valley plummeted to a level that made the surviving disciples' lungs burn.
"Final judgment," Qin Feng said, his voice overlapping with Ye Chen's.
"Eclipse Descent!" they finished together.
The orb of energy slammed into the center of the clearing. There was no fire, no messy explosion, only a silent, absolute erasure of light and sound. When the brightness faded, Elder Zhao was on his knees, his mace turned to grey dust, his cultivation base completely suppressed and frozen within his body. His elite disciples lay unconscious, their weapons shattered and their pride broken.
Qin Feng walked up to the Elder and looked down at him with the indifference of a god looking at an ant. "Go back to your Sect Leader. Tell him that the 'trash' miner he tried to bury is coming for his throne. And tell him that the Empress... she isn't banished anymore. She's just getting started."
He kicked the Elder's discarded silver sect token toward him. "Run. While I'm still in a good enough mood to let you breathe."
Zhao didn't wait for a second warning. He scrambled to his feet, grabbed his unconscious disciples with trembling hands, and fled into the forest like a beaten dog, his mount following with its tail between its legs.
[DING! Major Victory!] [EXP Gained: 15,000!] [Relationship Level Up: 'True Companions'!] [Loot Acquired: 'Spatial Ring of the First Elder', 'Map of the Azure Sky Forbidden Zone'.]
Qin Feng felt the adrenaline fade, but the crushing exhaustion he expected never came. Instead, he felt a deep, resonant strength, as if the very earth of the valley was feeding him. He turned to Ye Chen, who was looking at the distant mountain peaks with a pensive, regal expression.
"We can't stay here," she said, her voice soft but firm. "The Sect Leader himself will come next. He is at the 9th Layer of Foundation Establishment, nearing the Gold Core realm. We are not ready for him... yet."
"Then where do we go?" Qin Feng asked, looking at the 'Forbidden Zone' map that had appeared in his mind's eye.
Ye Chen pointed toward the highest peak of the mountain range, where the clouds were permanently frozen into jagged shards. "The Ancient Moon Ruins. If we can reach the Inner Sanctum, I can reclaim my Divine Sword. And you... you will find the inheritance of the first Eclipse Emperor. Only then will we have the power to turn this sect into ash."
Qin Feng looked at the map, then at his wife. He reached out and took her hand, feeling the perfect harmony of their energies. "Then let's go. I've always wanted to see what's at the top of the mountain."
[NEW MAIN QUEST: 'The Ascent to Divinity'] Objective: Reach the Ancient Moon Ruins. Reward: Unlock 'Divine Flight' and 'Soul-Bound Armory'.