The sky was the color of old bronze clouds swirling like molten metal.
Yunfan stood at the edge of a half-collapsed platform of jagged stone.Ahead, a wide basin cracked open like the palm of a giant hand.Ruins. Scorched marks. Ancient inscription pillars leaning at sharp angles.
This was it.
The Inscription Vault a lost chamber said to hold ancient Dao markings, formation scrolls, and inheritance jade slips from an elder of the Nascent Soul stage.
Yunfan wasn't alone.
Crimson Night Sect and Snow Jade Pavilion disciples were already inside, bloodied, tense, and facing off.
At the center of the platform: a glowing array, pulsing over a half-buried vault door carved with symbols so old they shifted when you blinked.
Yunfan watched them argue.
"That array is still unstable! You touch it, it'll explode""And let you take the treasures? Dream on!""Step any closer and I'll rip your core out, Pavilion dog!"
He exhaled.
Tuned his zither quietly.
And stepped forward.
They all froze.
"Who?"
"Heaven-Splitting… that's one of theirs."
"Is that the one who..."
Yunfan walked between them, hands behind his back.
The Crimson Night disciple nearest to him drew a curved, toxin-laced saber and barked:
"I don't care who you are leave. Or I'll gut you here and now."
Yunfan didn't speak.
He didn't stop.
"Hey! I said—"
The saber moved.
Yunfan didn't.
But Wordless Edge did.
The draw was silent.
No flash. No aura.
Only a faint vibration in the air, like a bell rung too far away to hear clearly.
The saber wielder's eyes widened.
Then he fell.
A red line traced his neck. No blood flowed yet.
Yunfan sheathed the blade.
Then the Crimson disciple's head slid from his shoulders, thudding softly to the stone.
Everything paused.
Even the air.
Even the array.
Snow Jade Pavilion disciples raised their weapons spears, talismans, fan-shaped blades.
The lead disciple, a silver-robed genius named Lu Jingyan, pointed his sword at Yunfan.
"You broke the neutral zone. Now we end you."
Yunfan stared at him.
Then he lifted a hand
and played a single zither chord.
The note wasn't loud.
But the sound hit like a wall.
Two of the Snow Jade disciples were thrown back instantly, formation glyphs on their robes shattering under the sheer pressure of the harmonic vibration.
Lu Jingyan narrowed his eyes.He activated a defensive talisman, forming a spiritual barrier of ice.He dashed forward with his sword, channeling a Mid Core Formation–level sword art.
Yunfan stepped to the side precise, effortless.
The blade missed.
"Stay still and fight like a man!"
Yunfan tilted his head.And for the first time in the fight he spoke.
"You want the sword?""Then listen to its song."
He drew again.
Wordless Edge flickered once.A clean arc.No wasted motion.
Silent Tribulation Slash.
The world dimmed for a heartbeat.
Jingyan's barrier cracked.
He raised his blade to block but missed. Yunfan had already moved.
He twisted, slicing diagonally across the Pavilion genius's chest, but backward. The blade sang in reverse.
Jingyan screamed as the cut seared through his robe, skin, and spiritual armor.
"W-What technique is that?! That's not a Heaven-Splitting style!"
Yunfan didn't answer.
He stepped in, zither-string glowing on his wrist.
A pulse of lightning Qi surged from his left hand
and he struck a zither chord with his sword.
The blade sang.
The pressure flattened the other disciples instantly. One vomited blood. Another passed out.
Jingyan stumbled back, wild-eyed, trying to form a retreat talisman.
Too late.
Yunfan sheathed his sword again.
Click.
A delayed sword echo pulsed from the previous strike.
It hit.
Jingyan was flung off the platform, screaming into the clouds below.
Silence returned.
Wind whistled through the cracked ruins.
Blood dripped from Yunfan's wrist not from injury, but overuse of inscription-enhanced Qi modulation.
He turned toward the vault.
Alone now.