Chapter 3: The First Spark and the Greedy Ants
The top of the mountain was silent, save for the heavy, rhythmic breathing of Lin Feng. He lay flat on the thousandth step, his fingers digging into the translucent Star-Jade. To an observer, it might have looked like he had barely moved, but in his mind, he had just survived a cosmic war.
"You're getting mud on the jade," a lazy voice drifted over him.
Lin Feng looked up. Ye Chen was leaning back in a lounge chair that definitely hadn't been there ten minutes ago, peeling a spirit fruit with a knife made of condensed starlight. Beside him stood the Silent Empress, her dark armor absorbing the sunlight as if she were a hole in reality.
"Master..." Lin Feng wheezed, pushing himself up. As he did, he felt something... change.
Earlier, his body felt like a parched desert. Now, it felt like an ocean. The liquid spiritual energy swirling around the peak—energy so dense it had turned into a faint purple mist—was being sucked into his pores at a terrifying rate.
[Ding! Direct Disciple Lin Feng has initiated 'First Enlightenment'.]
[Physique: Heavenly Sun-Devouring Fire — Stage 1: Ignition.]
[Calculating Breakthrough...]
Boom!
A dull roar echoed from within Lin Feng's dantian. In the world of cultivation, the first step was Qi Refining. Most geniuses in the Eastern Region took months to reach the first stage. Lin Feng didn't even have to try.
1st Stage... 4th Stage... 9th Stage Peak!
The barrier of the Qi Refining realm, which usually required a 'Qi-Gathering Pill' for mortals, shattered like glass under the weight of his awakened physique. His spirit sense expanded, his muscles tightened, and the "motes" of fire in the air began to bow to him.
[Breakthrough: Foundation Establishment!]
The momentum finally slowed down as he stabilized at the 5th Stage of Foundation Establishment (Mid-Phase).
Lin Feng opened his eyes. They weren't brown anymore; they were a deep, molten gold. He felt like he could punch through a stone wall—no, a mountain. He looked at his hands, which were now glowing with a faint, healthy luster.
"Not bad," Ye Chen said, popping a grape into his mouth. "Mid-Foundation. It's a decent start for a few minutes of work. If you'd hit Nascent Soul immediately, your foundation would've been as shaky as that old hut I used to live in. We don't do 'shaky' in the Eternal Divine Sacred Land."
Lin Feng bowed so low his forehead touched the jade. "Thank you for the Master's guidance! I will work a hundred times harder!"
"Please don't," Ye Chen sighed, waving a hand. "The more you work, the more I have to supervise. Go to the Technique Hall. Your custom manual and your gear are waiting. General Yan, go with him. Make sure he doesn't accidentally burn the library down."
The bronze-skinned giant, General Yan, gave a thunderous nod. "By your command, Sect Master!"
While Lin Feng was busy being awestruck by his new God-tier gear, the world outside the mountain was in a state of absolute chaos.
The golden pillar of light that had appeared when Ye Chen received his power hadn't just been a pretty show. It had been a beacon visible for millions of miles. In the Eastern Region, where a "Saint" was considered a legendary ancestor and a "Great Emperor" was a myth from the ancient era, such a phenomenon could only mean one thing: A Peerless Treasure had descended.
Fifty miles away, at the base of the mountain range, a group of cultivators had gathered. They wore the crimson-and-gold robes of the Blazing Sun Valley, a mid-tier sect that dominated the surrounding three thousand miles.
"Elder Zhao, the source of the light is definitely that peak," a young disciple said, his eyes gleaming with greed. "But that mountain... it was a wasteland yesterday. Now, look at it. The spiritual energy is so thick it's forming clouds!"
Elder Zhao, a man in the Golden Core - 7th Stage, stroked his gray beard. His heart was pounding. If his sect could claim this "Sacred Land," they would leap from a mid-tier power to the undisputed overlords of the Eastern Region.
"It must be an ancient ruin that has finally unsealed itself," Zhao muttered. "Or a Divine Herb has matured. Regardless, this belongs to the Blazing Sun Valley. Anyone else who approaches is to be killed on sight."
He looked at the mountain. From a distance, he could see the Talent Ladder shimmering in the mist.
"Look! A staircase! The heavens are inviting us!" Zhao laughed, his voice filled with arrogance. "Disciples, follow me! We shall ascend and claim our destiny!"
About thirty cultivators began to rush toward the mountain. They reached the foot of the ladder, their faces flushed with excitement.
Elder Zhao stepped onto the first rung.
CRACK.
The sound wasn't the jade breaking. It was the sound of Zhao's knees hitting the floor.
"What... what is this?!" Zhao gasped.
Because he was a Golden Core expert, the ladder didn't treat him like it treated a mortal. The pressure it exerted was relative to his strength and, more importantly, his intent.
To the ladder, Elder Zhao was a "thief" with "trash-tier talent." Therefore, the pressure it applied was equivalent to a Transcendent-level aura pressing down on a bug.
"Elder!" the disciples screamed. They tried to step on as well, but as soon as their feet touched the jade, they were flung backward by a golden ripple of energy. Some flew hundreds of feet, their bones shattering as they hit the trees.
"The... the mountain is alive!" one disciple shrieked.
Elder Zhao was pinned to the first step, his face pressed against the cool jade. He couldn't move a finger. He felt like an ant under the heel of a God. "Who... who dares... this is the territory of the Blazing Sun Valley!"
Back at the peak, Ye Chen was lying by the koi pond, watching the scene through a transparent "System Mirror" that floated in the air.
"They're getting grease stains on the first step now," Ye Chen muttered, looking annoyed. "Silent Empress, can you go take out the trash? It's ruins-ing the aesthetic."
The Silent Empress, who had been standing like a statue, tilted her head. "Shall I erase their lineage, Sect Master? Or merely their physical forms?"
Ye Chen blinked. Wow, she's intense. "Uh, just clear them off the mountain. Maybe leave one alive to tell their friends to stay away. I'm trying to run a quiet sect here, not a graveyard."
"As you command."
She didn't fly. She didn't walk. She simply vanished.
At the base of the ladder, Elder Zhao was finally starting to push himself up, his eyes bloodshot with rage. "I will bring the Sect Leader! I will bring the Ancestor! We will shatter this mountain and—"
He stopped.
The air in front of him didn't just turn cold; it ceased to exist.
A woman in black armor appeared. She didn't look at him. She didn't even draw the blade at her waist. She simply stood there, and the entire world seemed to turn gray and white.
"Noise," she whispered.
She didn't move a muscle, but a tiny, microscopic sliver of her Eternal Divine God aura leaked out. To the Silent Empress, it was like a stray hair falling off her head. To the cultivators, it was the end of the world.
POOF.
The thirty disciples behind Elder Zhao simply... ceased. No blood, no screams. One moment they were there, the next, they were fine dust blowing in the wind.
Elder Zhao didn't even have time to be horrified. He felt his Golden Core—the source of his power—crack and dissolve into nothingness. He was instantly reduced from a powerful Elder to a frail, trembling old man with zero cultivation.
"Go," the Silent Empress said, her voice like a winter gale. "Tell your 'Valley' that this is the Eternal Divine Sacred Land. Trespassers... do not leave."
She waved her hand, and a gust of wind picked up the now-mortal Zhao and threw him three miles away into a haystack.
The Silent Empress looked at the empty clearing, her eyes cold. She sensed more "ants" approaching from different directions—other sects, independent cultivators, all drawn by the light.
"The Sect Master wants quiet," she murmured to the empty air.
With a thought, she activated the Sect Formation. A massive, translucent dome of sapphire energy erupted from the peak, expanding until it covered the entire mountain range. To those outside, the mountain simply... vanished. Where a majestic peak had been, there was now only a thick, impenetrable fog that distorted space itself.
The "Secret" was safe for now, but the legend of the "Invisible God Mountain" was about to spread through the Eastern Region like wildfire.
Inside the Sect Grounds
Lin Feng emerged from the Technique Hall, and even Ye Chen had to sit up for a second.
The boy was wearing robes that seemed to be woven from captured sunlight. A heavy, black-and-gold claymore—the Solar Flare Blade—was strapped to his back, humming with a rhythmic heat. The Vermillion Bird hatchling was perched on his shoulder, chirping indignantly at a butterfly.
"Master! The 'Nine-Suns Primordial Scripture' is incredible!" Lin Feng exclaimed, his face glowing with excitement. "I feel like I can control the very heat of the sun!"
"Good, good," Ye Chen said, lying back down. "Now, since you're so full of energy, see those palaces over there? The floors are made of 'Cloud-Mist Marble.' They're very shiny, but they get dusty easily. Since you're the only disciple... you know the drill."
Lin Feng didn't look disappointed. He grabbed a broom made of Thousand-Year Spirit Bamboo that was leaning against a pillar. "Yes, Master! I will make them shine like the sun!"
Ye Chen watched him go, a small, lazy smile on his face. One disciple down, nine to go. Maybe if I get enough of them, they can take turns fan-ing me while I sleep.
[Ding! Host has successfully defended the Sect for the first time.]
[Reward: 1x 'Spirit Vegetable Garden' Seed Pack, 1x 'Divine Tea Tree' Sapling.]
"Tea, huh?" Ye Chen closed his eyes. "Finally, a reward I can actually use."
End of Chapter 3