The Floating Cloud surged through the upper atmosphere, its dark-timbered hull gliding effortlessly over an ocean of endless, billowing white mist. High above the sea of clouds, the sky was a deep, immaculate azure, untainted by the dust and turmoil of the world below. The four massive bronze turbine arrays beneath the galleon hummed with a steady, rhythmic vibration, projecting a soft, translucent barrier of array-light that deflected the razor-sharp high-altitude winds.
Inside the Sovereign Cloud Suite, the atmosphere was absolute peace.
Xiao-Yue sat curled up on the thick white fur carpet by the crystalline spirit-glass window. Her small wooden practice sword lay across her lap, and her cheeks were slightly flushed from two hours of focused breath-control practice. She was holding a small silver spoon, carefully eating a bowl of sweet lotus-seed soup that the ship's attendants had brought earlier.
Li-Wen sat cross-legged on the central wooden platform, his broad blade wrapped in dark cloth resting horizontally across his lap. His eyes were lightly closed, his breathing so slow and faint that he seemed almost like a stone statue carved from ancient marble.
HUMMM...
Within his dantian, the cold, golden-white frost Qi flowed with the quiet power of an underground river. With every cycle of circulation, the ancient runes of the Northern Rune Slab inside his spatial ring vibrated faintly, continually refining his perception.
Suddenly, Li-Wen's dark eyelashes flickered softly. His eyes did not open, but his divine perception—a invisible, razor-sharp web of consciousness—extended effortlessly through the protective arrays of the suite, shooting out three miles into the surrounding cloud banks.
They are here, Li-Wen thought, his heart utterly unruffled.
Two miles ahead of the galleon, where the Cloud-Pass Mountains pinched into a narrow, treacherous sky-ravine known as the Devil's Throat, the sea of white clouds turned an unnatural, sickly grey.
Hidden deep within the thick, stagnant fog were three colossal, pitch-black warships. Unlike the elegant, light-wood construction of the Central Merchant League's galleon, these vessels were brutal, battle-scarred leviathans constructed from heavy, dark iron-wood and reinforced with spiked iron plates. Their sails were made of tattered, crimson-dyed beast-hide, painted with the terrifying emblem of a skeletal raven clutching a severed moon.
These were the dread-noughts of the Phantom Raven Band—the most ruthless, feared sky-pirates operating along the trade routes between the Western Border and the Central Imperial Capital.
On the main deck of the lead pirate warship stood a massive, six-foot-eight man clad in heavy, spiked black steel armor. His skin was pale and covered in jagged scars, and his eyes glowed with an unnatural, blood-red light. In his right hand, he idly twirled a massive, two-handed battle-axe that dripped with dark, corrosive Qi.
This was Raven-King Xue Dragon—a terrifying Stage-4 Middle-tier cultivator who had terrorized the high sky for over two decades, slaughtering entire merchant fleets and eluding the regional imperial patrols.
"Boss!" A lean, hunchbacked scout with a brass spyglass scrambled up the wooden rigging, shouting excitedly. "The target has entered the Devil's Throat! It's the Floating Cloud, the flagship of the Central Merchant League!"
Xue Dragon let out a low, guttural laugh that sounded like grinding stones. "Lin Xuan's fat flagship... That old fox usually travels with two escort frigates, but according to our insider in Imperial Sun City, he rushed out in a hurry this time with only a handful of deck guards!"
"He must be carrying the seasonal tribute of spirit-stones and high-grade herbs for the Central Capital's main guild!" the hunchbacked scout cackled. "If we take this ship, we won't need to raid for the next five years!"
Xue Dragon raised his heavy battle-axe, the blood-red Qi around his body flaring into a suffocating, violent aura.
"Signal the secondary ships!" Xue Dragon roared, his voice echoing across the misty sky like thunder. "Spring the Shadow-Raven Lock Array! Disable their turbine engines! Kill every guard on deck, but leave the high-value cargo intact! Move!"
BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM!
The peaceful tranquility above the clouds was shattered in an instant!
From the thick grey mist on both sides of the narrow pass, three massive, black-iron harpoons—each twenty feet long and attached to glowing, crimson spirit-chains—shot out like lightning!
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
The heavy harpoons slammed directly into the side hull of the Floating Cloud! The powerful impact shook the two-hundred-foot galleon violently, causing the crystalline spirit-glass windows to rattle loudly throughout the decks.
"Enemy attack! Sky-pirates!"
Frantic shouts and warning bells rang out across the lower decks. The fifty elite guards of the Central Merchant League scrambled onto the main deck, drawing their halberds and activating the ship's defensive ballistas.
Vice-President Lin Xuan rushed onto the upper command bridge, his purple robes fluttering in the sudden, violent gust of wind. His refined face turned pale as he looked out at the three black iron-wood warships emerging from the fog.
"The Phantom Raven Band?!" Lin Xuan's eyes narrowed in shock. "How did they bypass the regional scout patrols at the mountain pass?!"
ZAPPP!
Before the guards could align their ballistas, the crimson spirit-chains attached to the harpoons flared with dark, corrosive lightning. The high-density energy surged directly into the Floating Cloud's lower hull, short-circuiting the four bronze turbine arrays!
The deep, musical hum of the engines died instantly. The massive galleon shuddered, losing momentum and coming to a complete halt mid-air, trapped helplessly in the center of the Devil's Throat!
"Hahaha! Lin Xuan, you old merchant!"
A booming, sinister voice reverberated across the sky. Raven-King Xue Dragon leapt from his lead warship, descending onto the main deck of the Floating Cloud like a heavy black meteor. The force of his landing shattered the polished Shadow-Cedar deck planks, creating a ten-foot crater.
Behind him, over a hundred bloodthirsty sky-pirates—armed with curved cutlasses, heavy crossbows, and poison vials—swarmed down the spirit-chains, leaping onto the galleon's deck like a wave of ravenous locusts.
"Clear the deck! Anyone who resists gets fed to the sky-beasts!" Xue Dragon bellowed, sweeping his massive battle-axe in a wide circle. A arc of blood-red energy erupted from the blade, blasting five elite guards backward, their armor cracking as they crashed against the main mast.
Lin Xuan stepped forward onto the bridge railing, his expression grim. "Xue Dragon! This is a flagship of the Central Merchant League! If you touch a single coin on this vessel, the League will put a bounty on your head that no corner of the continent can hide you from!"
"The League?" Xue Dragon sneered, wiping a drop of blood from his cheek with the back of his gauntlet. "Once I take your head and sell this ship's cargo on the black market of the Central Capital, I will be living like a king in the southern wilderness! Who cares about your League?!"
Xue Dragon raised his heavy axe, pointing the sharp tip directly at Lin Xuan. "Hand over the keys to the main vault, Lin Xuan! Or I will paint this deck red with your blood!"
The fifty deck guards closed ranks around Lin Xuan, their faces grim and desperate. They knew that against a Stage-4 Middle-tier monster like Xue Dragon, backed by a hundred hardened killers, their chances of survival were practically zero.
Meanwhile, inside the Sovereign Cloud Suite at the highest tier of the ship...
The sudden impact had caused a silver spoon to slip from Xiao-Yue's hand, dropping onto the carpet. She blinked in confusion, looking up from her bowl of soup as the loud shouts and sound of clashing steel drifted up from the main deck below.
"Brother Li-Wen... are the noisy people back again?" she asked softly, her small hand instinctively reaching for her wooden practice sword.
Li-Wen slowly opened his dark eyes. There was no anger, no panic, and no surprise in his gaze—only an abyssal, freezing darkness that seemed to lower the temperature of the room by ten degrees in a single second.
"They are just flies on the road," Li-Wen said softly, his low voice calm and steady.
He stood up smoothly, his broad, wrapped blade held loosely in his left hand. He walked over to Xiao-Yue, reaching out his palm to pat her head.
"Stay inside," Li-Wen instructed gently. "Finish your soup. I will be back before it cools."
Xiao-Yue nodded obediently, sitting back down on the soft cushion. "Okay, Brother Li-Wen. Don't take too long!"
Li-Wen turned around smoothly and stepped toward the heavy shadow-cedar doors of the suite. With a light sweep of his sleeve, the sealed isolation array deactivated, and the sliding doors parted silently.
Down on the main deck, the situation had reached a boiling point.
Xue Dragon was stepping forward, his blood-red axe radiating a lethal aura as he prepared to slaughter the guard captains defending the bridge stairs.
"Die, merchant dogs!" Xue Dragon roared, raising his axe high for a devastating downward strike that aimed to chop the guard captain in half!
STEP.
A single, quiet footstep echoed from the upper deck.
It was not a loud sound—it was merely the soft thud of a leather boot landing on polished timber. Yet, the moment that footstep landed, a strange, terrifying phenomenon occurred across the entire two-hundred-foot ship.
The screaming wind of the Devil's Throat suddenly ceased. The blood-red Qi radiating from Xue Dragon's battle-axe froze in mid-air, turning into static, brittle threads of red light. The chaotic shouts of the hundred sky-pirates died instantly in their throats, as if invisible, suffocating hands had clamped tightly around their necks!
A pale, crystalline frost began spreading rapidly across the wooden deck, starting from the upper staircase and cascading down like a tidal wave of blue ice. Every plank, every iron railing, and every drop of blood spilled on the wood was instantly encased in a layer of glass-like frost!
Xue Dragon's eyes widened in sheer, instinctual horror. His heavy axe stopped three inches above the guard captain's head, completely frozen in place by an absolute, crushing weight that settled over his shoulders like a falling mountain!
What... what is this pressure?! Xue Dragon screamed in his mind, his teeth chattering uncontrollably as a cold, terrifying tremor ran through his soul. This... this isn't Stage-3! This isn't even ordinary Stage-4! This is absolute Blade-Intent Domain!
Slowly, methodically, a tall figure in a plain dark coat descended the grand staircase from the upper tier.
Li-Wen walked with unhurried, measured steps. His right hand rested casually on the hilt of his heavy blade, which remained completely wrapped in dark cloth. He didn't even draw his weapon. He didn't even look at the hundred armed pirates standing on the deck.
His dark, abyssal eyes were fixed entirely on Xue Dragon.
Vice-President Lin Xuan, who had been preparing to fight to the death, let out a massive sigh of relief, bowing his head deeply toward the staircase. "Senior Li..."
Li-Wen stopped at the base of the stairs, standing twenty feet away from the frozen pirate leader.
"You are making too much noise," Li-Wen spoke, his low voice calm, flat, and echoing across the silent, frost-covered deck. "My sister is trying to eat her soup."
Xue Dragon's blood-red eyes filled with hysterical terror. He tried to mobilize his Stage-4 Middle-tier core Qi, trying desperately to lift his battle-axe to defend himself, but the Frost Qi permeating the air was so intense that even his blood felt as if it were turning into sharp ice needles within his veins!
"W-Who are you?!" Xue Dragon rasped out, his voice shaking violently as pale frost mist spewed from his lips. "I am Raven-King Xue Dragon! My master is—"
Li-Wen didn't let him finish.
He didn't draw his blade. He didn't execute an extravagant martial technique. He simply raised his broad right hand and flicked his index finger lightly toward Xue Dragon's forehead.
THWACK!
A single, thumb-sized droplet of pure, compressed Frost Blade-Intent shot through the air like a streak of blue lightning!
It struck Xue Dragon directly between his eyebrows!
CRACKLE!
Xue Dragon didn't even have time to scream. In less than a tenth of a second, an absolute, blinding flash of blue frost erupted from his forehead, spreading across his entire six-foot-eight frame! His spiked steel armor, his heavy battle-axe, his clothes, and his blood were instantly flash-frozen into a solid, motionless statue of translucent blue ice!
THUD.
Li-Wen stepped forward, his boot lightly tapping against the wooden deck plank.
The tiny vibration traveled through the wood, striking the base of the frozen statue.
SHATTER!
The ice statue of Raven-King Xue Dragon—a fearsome Stage-4 Middle-tier tyrant who had terrorized the high skies for twenty years—shattered into tens of thousands of tiny, diamond-like ice crystals, scattering across the frozen deck with a soft, hollow tinkling sound, vanishing into the cold wind!
Silence.
An absolute, suffocating, dead silence enveloped the entire Floating Cloud.
The hundred sky-pirates stood frozen on the deck, their cutlasses held loosely in their hands, their faces completely devoid of blood. Their leader—a Stage-4 powerhouse—had been erased from existence with a casual flick of a finger!
Li-Wen slowly turned his dark gaze toward the remaining hundred pirates standing on the frost-covered deck.
"Drop your weapons," Li-Wen said, his voice flat and devoid of any emotion. "Or turn into ice."
CLATTER! CLATTER! CLATTER!
In less than three seconds, every single cutlass, spear, bow, and shield was dropped onto the wooden planks. The hundred fierce sky-pirates fell to their knees in unison, slamming their foreheads against the icy deck, weeping and trembling in sheer, unadulterated terror!
"Mercy! Senior, have mercy!"
"We were forced! We didn't know Senior was on board!"
Li-Wen didn't even look at them. He turned toward Vice-President Lin Xuan, who was standing on the bridge in complete, spellbound awe.
"Clean the deck," Li-Wen said calmly. "And resume the voyage."
"Y-Yes! Immediately, Senior Li!" Lin Xuan bowed low, his voice trembling with profound reverence.
Li-Wen turned around smoothly, stepping back up the grand staircase toward the upper tier, his dark coat fluttering softly in the mountain breeze.
Within less than five minutes, the three pirate warships were cut loose, tumbling helplessly into the deep mountain ravines below. The four turbine arrays were restarted, and the Floating Cloud surged forward once more, breaking through the remaining clouds of the Devil's Throat into the bright, golden sunlight beyond.
Li-Wen pushed open the heavy shadow-cedar doors of the Sovereign Suite, stepping back inside.
Xiao-Yue was still sitting on the white fur carpet by the window, holding her spoon, just finishing her very last mouthful of sweet lotus-seed soup. She looked up at him with a bright, innocent smile.
"Brother Li-Wen! You're back!" she giggled happily. "Look, I finished all of it!"
Li-Wen walked over smoothly, reaching out his broad palm to pat her head, his cold, dark eyes softening into a quiet warmth.
"Good," Li-Wen murmured softly. "Now take a rest. We will arrive at the Central Capital soon.
See you in next chapter.....