The moment Yunfan's feet touched the stone again, the air tightened.
The glow of the Pillar of Silent Steel faded behind him, absorbed into his bones and the blade at his side.
But before his boots could settle...
A blade the color of rot and hatred struck toward his face.
Yunfan twisted, ducked just barely.
The sword scraped his cheek, drawing a single line of blood.
"Welcome back," Heiyu said, eyes burning with fresh madness.
"Missed me that much?" Yunfan said, wiping the blood with two fingers. "You really should find a hobby."
Heiyu wasn't alone this time.
Corrupt Path disciples nearly a dozen of them had torn through the outskirts of the battlefield while the pillars distracted everyone. They wore ragged black robes marked by soul tattoos and spirit-leech talismans.
They struck with poison blades, soul flame, and flesh-crafted weapons.
And they weren't aiming at Yunfan.
They were butchering the Heaven-Splitting Thunder Sect outer disciples the same ones who mocked Yunfan for years.
"Trash sect," one of the Corrupts sneered. "Can't even protect their own."
A girl barely fifteen tried to shield her injured brother.
She screamed as a saber arced down toward her skull
And stopped.
Because Yunfan was there, hand closed around the corrupt cultivator's wrist.
"She's still a kid," he said softly.
Then he twisted the arm until the bone shattered and flung the man twenty feet with a casual flick.
The others turned toward him.
"You're protecting them?" one sneered.
"Not because I like them," Yunfan said, drawing Wordless Edge, thunder Qi beginning to crackle across his arms.
"Because I hate you more."
He stepped forward.
The ground exploded beneath his feet.
Thunder Qi surged outward, golden and jagged, arcing in every direction. The air bent around him as lightning crawled across the blade like a living serpent.
He moved.
And when Yunfan moved seriously, the world had to catch up.
He struck the first with a single draw the man's arm, sword, and jaw torn in three different directions before his spirit even had time to scream.
He used a glyph under his foot to vanish and reappear behind the second, slashing low, then turning the cut into a sound-based burst, flinging the corpse into his comrades.
He leapt into the air, spun mid-flip, and flung three zither-strings, each one laced with amplified thunder notes.
They wrapped around three throats and detonated.
The air filled with sound and smoke and burnt blood.
Yunfan landed, robes torn, face half-shadowed by smoke.
"Tell Heiyu…" he said, raising his blade, "I'm not done yet."
A roar tore through the air.
Heiyu lunged.
No more patience. No more cleverness. Just raw demon fury.
Their blades collided midair, shockwaves ripping a crater through the battlefield.
Heiyu's strikes came low and wide, corrupt Qi boiling from the black edge of his saber. Each swing left afterimages that slashed with soul energy.
Yunfan met them, blade to blade, but now his sword was wrapped in thunder each deflection sent arcs of lightning crawling up Heiyu's arms.
They moved like two storms crossing
Heiyu, a wildfire of hate and blood.
Yunfan, a precise, merciless rhythm of pressure and steel.
Heiyu roared, mouth splitting wider than humanly possible, and vomited a stream of soul-consuming flame.
Yunfan spun sideways, dragged his zither string across the blade, and released a Thunder-Shock Pulse that shattered the flame in midair.
He darted in.
One slash blocked.
Another dodged.
Then he stabbed into the ground, released his Qi, and activated a glyph trap hidden under the surface.
The earth beneath Heiyu cracked, and a lightning burst exploded from below, lifting the demon off his feet.
"Nice trick," Heiyu growled.
"I'm full of 'em," Yunfan said.
But Heiyu wasn't done.
He spread his arms corruption flooding out like an inverted stormcloud.
Chains of shadow and blood lanced toward Yunfan from every direction.
Yunfan took a breath.
Closed his eyes.
Then moved.
His feet tapped the stone with perfect rhythm like steps in a song no one else could hear.
His blade moved without wasted motion.
Cuts that hummed. Cuts that silenced.
Each strike was paired with a zither tone ringing from his gauntlet, creating resonance that broke the chains mid-flight.
He burst forward, shoulder-checking Heiyu and slashing in one perfect arc across his chest.
The demon stumbled back bleeding black fog.
"You're not supposed to be this strong," Heiyu hissed.
"And you're not supposed to be this dumb," Yunfan said, eyes cold now.
He raised his sword.
Let it hum.
And stepped into his finishing form
Silent Tribulation Slash.
No glow. No flash.
Just a step.
A cut.
And a storm that tore the sky in half.
Heiyu screamed as the blow hit his body, launched across the battlefield, crashing into a black obelisk and cracking it down the middle.
He didn't die.
But he didn't get up.
Yunfan stood still, lightning crawling across his arms like threads of fate.
The battlefield was silent.
Even his own sectmates, now spared, stared at him not with fear…
But with reverence.
For the first time.
"The hell are you all looking at?" Yunfan said, wiping his blade. "Help me loot the bodies before someone comes back."