Mei Qingxue and Shen Lanyue went pale.
The Qin Family elders were stunned at first.
Then relief flooded them so strongly several nearly stumbled.
A Saint Artifact.
Even a damaged one was not a thing Lower Domain cultivators could properly imagine. Heaven Rank treasures were already enough to become the foundation of great families and regional sects. A Saint Artifact stood at the border between the highest mortal path and the first shadow of divinity. It carried law structure that ordinary Sky Lords could not understand and could not afford to resist.
Lu Jiangheng almost laughed.
Luo Zhenmu's eyes burned with hope.
"Good," he whispered. "Good."
Zhao Chuan and Lei Yunhe roared at the same time.
Their Sky Qi poured into the disk in two violent streams. One was brutal, black-blue, and filled with Zhao Chuan's wounded fury. The other was thin, white-blue, and frighteningly controlled, threading through the artifact's cracks to stabilize what Zhao Chuan's rage might have shattered.
The bronze disk spun once.
Then it opened like an eye.
Blue-gray mist erupted from beneath River Ridge City.
It did not rise like ordinary fog. Ordinary fog drifted. This folded upward in layers, as though invisible hands were lifting veils from the earth.
One veil became three.
Three became nine.
Nine became dozens.
Each layer rotated in a different direction. Some moved clockwise. Some flowed backward. Some curled inward as if falling into a pit. Thunder threads ran through them like veins through flesh, flashing blue-white in the gray.
The city screamed.
Not the people.
The city itself.
Stone roads cracked. River water leapt from its channel and fell back in sheets. Formation flags snapped on rooftops. Merchant halls, family courtyards, weapon shops, and pill chambers all ignited emergency arrays at once.
Weak cultivators collapsed where they stood, blood leaking from their noses and eyes. Spirit Qi-Sensing juniors fainted before they understood what had happened. Nascent Essence cultivators clutched their chests, their meridians thrown into chaos by the distorted pressure. Origin Core experts spat blood. Several hidden Sky Lords in private halls gripped their armrests, faces turning pale.
This was not Sky Lord pressure.
This was Sage Ruler law structure.
Even damaged, even incomplete, even activated by two Sky Lords who could only borrow its surface power, the treasure carried the scent of a higher realm.
A sealed sphere formed around Long Shenyu and Long Shenyin.
Layer after layer of thunder-mist closed around them. The veils spun faster. False shadows appeared inside. Space seemed to stretch, fold, and turn back on itself.
For the briefest moment before the mist swallowed them, Long Shenyu raised a brow.
Long Shenyin looked bored
Then both vanished.
The entire city breathed again.
Zhao Chuan threw his head back and laughed, harsh and broken, coughing blood between each breath.
"Not so arrogant now!"
His laughter echoed over River Ridge like thunder rolling through a canyon.
Lei Yunhe did not laugh.
His face was pale, and sweat ran down his jaw. His hand trembled around the bronze disk's control seal. The activation had drained more from him than he expected. Worse, he could feel the artifact's inner structure burning.
The Thousand-Veil Thunder-Mist Judgment Cage was not a normal restraint treasure.
It was a damaged Saint Rank artifact once used by a Heaven's Edict frontier elder to trap rebellious Sage Rulers long enough for execution teams to arrive. It could not be used casually. Every activation consumed stored Saint-level law patterns that could not be easily replenished in the Lower Domains. Even Heaven's Edict Thunder Palace would not throw away such a treasure without reason.
Its purpose was not killing.
It was imprisonment.
Inside the cage, perception collapsed first. Sight became unreliable. Sound returned from false directions. Distance bent. Movement looped back on itself. Qi circulation was repeatedly redirected, forcing techniques to form incorrectly unless the user possessed sufficient law comprehension to correct them. Dao resonance was muffled beneath layers of thunder-mist. Aura could not easily spread. Divine sense, if weak, would turn inward and strike the user's own mind.
To an early Sage Ruler, the cage was dangerous.
To a Sky Lord, it was a nightmare.
To an Origin Core cultivator, it should have been absolute imprisonment.
Lei Yunhe inhaled slowly.
They had done it.
At least for now.
Luo Zhenmu exhaled as if a boulder had finally rolled off his chest.
His face regained a trace of arrogance.
"Very good."
Lu Jiangheng wiped blood from his mouth, his lips trembling with excitement.
"That thing can trap a Sage Ruler…"
The words spread through nearby cultivators like fire through dry grass.
A Sage Ruler.
Those two words restored courage to people who had forgotten they possessed it.
Qin Roujian felt his legs nearly weaken from relief. He gripped the edge of the tower balcony and whispered, "Then River Ridge survives."
Another Qin elder closed his eyes.
"Heaven's Edict is still Heaven's Edict."
No one rebuked him.
Because they all wanted to believe it.
For the past stretch of time, Long Shenyu and Long Shenyin had overturned every rule River Ridge understood. Origin Core killing half-step Sky Lords. A young man injuring Sky Lords. Noble Domain envoys humiliated. Qin Family elders dead. Verdant Edge disgraced. Heaven's Edict wounded.
It had felt as though the sky had cracked.
Now, at last, the old order seemed to have answered.
A Saint Artifact had descended.
The Qin Family had not misjudged everything. The Noble Domain was still the Noble Domain. Heaven's Edict Thunder Palace still possessed foundations that Lower Domain monsters could not cross.
The thought steadied them.
Then Ning Huang moved.
Lightning erupted from her body.
It was not the heavy verdict lightning of Zhao Chuan, nor the controlled spear-light of Lei Yunhe. It was brighter. Cleaner. Aurora-colored arcs flashed gold, violet, blue, and white across her robes. Her cultivation was weaker than theirs, but her aura surged with a fierce instability, as if something in her heart had struck the wall of her own restraint and refused to remain contained.
The air around her sharpened.
Mei Qingxue reached out instinctively. "Ning Huang—"
Shen Lanyue's eyes narrowed.
Ning Huang did not hear them.
Her gaze locked onto Zhao Chuan and Lei Yunhe.
For the first time since Heaven's Edict arrived, she did not look like a disciple caught between sect and self. She looked like the war-heiress they had crossed battlefields to retrieve. Proud, furious, and radiant enough to make the thunder around her seem dim.
Zhao Chuan's laughter stopped.
Lei Yunhe's expression changed.
Because the glare Ning Huang gave them was not confusion.
It was not fear.
It was not even simple anger.
It was betrayal sharpened into lightning.
Her voice cut across River Ridge City.
"How dare you!"
Zhao Chuan furrowed his brows.
Ning Huang's lightning had not weakened after the Thousand-Veil Thunder-Mist Judgment Cage closed. If anything, it grew sharper.
It no longer spread outward in proud waves. It gathered close to her body, thin and bright, coiling around her wrists, shoulders, and spear like strands of living aurora. Gold. Violet. Blue-white. Each color flickered once, vanished, then returned brighter than before.
Her face was cold.
Too cold.
Zhao Chuan frowned. "War Heiress. Do not be foolish."
She finally looked past him.
Her gaze fixed on the thunder-mist sphere hanging above River Ridge City.
Layer after layer of gray-white mist revolved around the sealed space. Thunder veins crawled through it, flashing like serpents trapped beneath ice. Every rotation distorted the air. Every pulse made the city's formation flags tremble.
Somewhere inside that sphere were Long Shenyu and Long Shenyin.
To everyone else, they were trapped.
To Ning Huang, that sight felt unbearable.
"Release them."
Her voice was not loud, but it cut through the unstable silence.
Lei Yunhe sighed.
He looked far more exhausted than Zhao Chuan. The bronze disk hovered before him, its surface full of burning cracks. His palm remained pressed against the control seal, and faint threads of blood ran from beneath his fingernails.
"You know we cannot."
"I said release them!"
The second time, her lightning snapped outward.
Several nearby cultivators flinched. Even Qin Family elders watching from hidden balconies felt their hearts jolt. Ning Huang was only a 1st layer Sky Lord, but her aura was not ordinary Sky Qi. It carried a verdict-like majesty, a radiance that made lesser wills instinctively want to lower their heads.
Zhao Chuan's face twisted.
"Have you lost your mind? They attacked Heaven's Edict envoys!"
Ning Huang turned back to them.
The look in her eyes startled both men.
It was not merely anger.
There was killing intent there.
True killing intent.
Not the refined battle intent of a noble disciple. Not the restrained threat of a war-heiress who knew how far she could push before politics intervened.
This was raw. Savage. Personal.
For one breath, Zhao Chuan felt as if he were not facing a junior from the same sect, but a wounded beast baring its fangs.
"No," Ning Huang said. "You attacked first."
Zhao Chuan's jaw tightened.
"You pressured him. You threatened the people beside him. You tried to use Heaven's Edict authority because you could not win by strength."
The words landed like blades.
Zhao Chuan stared at her.
For a moment, he could not immediately answer.
Because part of him knew she was not entirely wrong.
He had been the one to descend with pressure. He had been the one to demand obedience. He had tried to force Long Shenyu to submit through status first, strength second. That was how Heaven's Edict envoys handled Lower Domain disturbances. It was normal. It was expected. It was efficient.
But Long Shenyu had also been the one to attack him first.
That fact burned in Zhao Chuan's chest.
"You are defending him?" he asked.
Ning Huang's aura sharpened.
"I am standing where I choose."
The city seemed to grow quieter.
Lei Yunhe's expression tightened.
That sentence was worse than rage.
Rage could be blamed on shock. On youth. On the temporary confusion of a genius who had been too close to danger.
But choice?
Choice meant her heart had crossed a line.
Ning Huang was not merely angry at them. She was not hesitating between sect duty and personal feeling. She had weighed both sides, and in front of Heaven's Edict envoys, Verdant Edge cultivators, River Ridge nobles, and countless hidden eyes, she had chosen.
Lei Yunhe slowly exhaled.
This was no longer just a mission to retrieve a war-heiress.
This was a disaster.
Mei Qingxue stepped beside Ning Huang.
Her face was pale. The pressure in the sky was far beyond what she could comfortably endure, and every breath scraped faint frost through her meridians. But her gaze was steady.
"You should pray that cage holds him for longer than one breath."
Zhao Chuan turned his eyes toward her.
The contempt returned at once.
"A mere lower being thinks she understands a Saint Artifact?"
Mei Qingxue's eyes turned cold.
She was usually gentle. Quiet. Even when angry, her anger was restrained, like moonlight reflected across still water.
But now, beneath the shadow of the thunder-mist cage, something colder surfaced.
She did not argue.
That made Zhao Chuan's sneer deepen.
Then Shen Lanyue stepped forward too.
Compared to Mei Qingxue, Shen Lanyue's face was calmer. Her breathing was controlled. Her sword was not drawn. She looked at the massive cage in the sky, then at Zhao Chuan, and her voice came out clear.
"No. But we understand him."
Those words made Mei Qingxue's heart tighten.
They understood that Long Shenyu did not panic.
They understood that he never showed all his strength unless he wanted others to see it.
They understood that when he smiled at danger, the danger had usually misunderstood who was prey.
Above them, Luo Zhenmu laughed.
His broken arm was still pierced by pain from Long Shenyin's earlier attack. His robes were torn, his aura unstable, and the wound left by the Black Sun Tyrant Spear still throbbed with a heavy suppression that made his Sky Qi circulate slower than normal.
Yet now, seeing Long Shenyu and Long Shenyin sealed away, he felt a cruel relief rise through him.
"What touching ignorance."
He hovered above the city, one hand pressed over his injury, face pale but eyes bright with vindication.
"A damaged Saint treasure is still a Saint treasure. Do you know what that means? It means even a Sage Ruler would need time to struggle." His lips curled. "That boy is finished."
The sentence spread.
Some cultivators believed it because they needed to.
The Qin Family believed it because their entire city had been overturned by those siblings, and the idea that there was still something in this world capable of stopping them gave their hearts a place to rest.
Lu Jiangheng believed it because hatred needed hope.
Zhao Chuan believed it because if he did not, then everything he had done would become a joke.
But Ning Huang did not believe it.
Her fingers trembled around her weapon.
She wanted to attack.
She wanted to tear Zhao Chuan down, strike Lei Yunhe away from the control seal, and shatter the bronze disk herself. She wanted to burn Luo Zhenmu's laughter out of the sky.
But she knew.
She knew the gap.
She was a genius, not a fool.
Zhao Chuan and Lei Yunhe were both Sky Lords with deeper foundations than hers. Luo Zhenmu was a 4th layer Sky Lord. The artifact above them carried Saint-level law structure. Her lightning might be rare, her talent might be terrifying, but in this moment, strength was strength.
She could rage.
She could bleed.
She could not break that cage.
That helplessness enraged her even more.
And that rage became the opening Xue Moren had been waiting for.
Dozens of miles away from River Ridge City, beyond the fractured roadways and outer watch formations, there was a barren ridge choked with dead grass.
No birds passed above it.
No beasts lingered near it.
The ground was black-red, as if old blood had soaked too deeply into the soil for rain to wash away. A faint demonic stench drifted between the rocks, sharp enough to make ordinary lungs bleed.
Xue Moren knelt at the center of the ridge.
Before him was a blood formation drawn with his own essence.
It was not large. Only thirty feet across. Yet every line within it was precise, layered, and viciously alive. The formation did not glow like ordinary array light. It pulsed like exposed veins.
His skin was paler than before. His cheekbones looked sharper. His eyes had become red-black pits, deep enough to swallow reflection.
Behind him stood Luo Xuechan.
One palm pressed between his shoulders.
Her blood essence poured into him in slow, steady streams, feeding the formation through his body. Her beauty had grown sharper under the demonic light, almost painful to look at. Blood-red mist curled around her hair, and the crescent blade at her waist hummed softly, as if enjoying the scent.
"You are burning too much," she said lightly.
Xue Moren did not look back.
"Her emotions are exposed."
"Ning Huang?"
"Yes." His voice remained strained but controlled. "Her killing intent opened her blood rhythm."
Luo Xuechan's smile curved.
"Thunder girls become so honest when angry."
"Focus."
"I am focusing." She leaned slightly closer, her voice carrying laughter. "I am also enjoying myself."
Xue Moren ignored her.
Both his hands pressed into the blood formation.
The veins beneath his skin darkened. His shoulders sank slightly, as if an invisible weight had descended upon him. Then the center of the formation split open.
A blood shadow rose.
It was not a full body.
It was a phantom made of tendons, veins, and red-black moonlight. Its head was only a blur. Its limbs were too long. Its fingers twitched as if they were remembering how to tear flesh from bone.