-Storm Beneath the Sky, Blood Over Stone
The dimension battlefield.
A realm beyond mortal comprehension, connected to countless sects, factions, and nations. It was a world of chaos, opportunity, and death—a place where resources appeared like mirages and monsters guarded secrets older than time.
Li Xuan stepped through the jade portal under the academy's war dome. Space warped. Pressure shifted. For a moment, the world itself screamed.
Then silence.
And blood.
The battlefield opened like a scar in the heavens—torn plains, shattered mountains, bones the size of houses half-buried in black sand. From the moment his boots touched down, a cold killing intent welcomed him.
System:
—Mission Activated: "Hunt the Crimson-Eyed Widow" [Rare-Grade Threat]
—Bonus Objective: Locate Voidfire Lotus (Estimated Value: 9,500 spirit stones)
—System Interaction: MINIMAL (Sovereign Sensory Risk)
—Warning: High-density spiritual zones—expect elite cultivators and beasts
—SP Reward Range: 110–330
—Experience Bar: [78% – Late Qi Condensation]
—EXP to Breakthrough: 37,200
—Status: Stable. Kill Instinct: Passive Active. Shadow Mirror Residual Effect: Dormant.
He didn't walk alone.
Thirty disciples from the White Lotus Academy had been chosen for this incursion. Most were Inner Sect elites. Some were silent. Some looked at Li Xuan with veiled curiosity. Others, like Liu Fan—famed battle maniac with a 73-win streak—grinned like they saw prey.
"You the demon everyone talks about?" Liu Fan cracked his neck. "Let's hope you're as good at killing enemies as you are disciples."
Li Xuan gave him a glance. "You'll find out when I run out of beasts to kill."
The tension hung like fog.
But it was broken when a scream echoed across the cracked valley floor.
Beasts.
Spiritual beasts, larger than horses and cloaked in mist, charged from a ridge.
Steel flew. Spells surged.
And Li Xuan vanished into the fray.
—
The first clash exploded like thunder.
Li Xuan engaged a triple-horned spirit hound, its claws strong enough to tear metal, its howls corrupting spiritual senses. He ducked the first lunge, drew the Heaven-Shearing Executioner, and swung horizontally.
CLANG! The beast's scale-armored hide deflected the blow.
But Li Xuan had already leapt forward, rotating mid-air. He slammed his palm onto the beast's skull, gathered momentum, and drove his saber into its eye socket.
The beast wailed. Rolled. Slammed into a rock.
Li Xuan was thrown.
He landed hard—shoulder cracked, blood in his throat.
But he got up smiling.
"Too dull."
He dashed forward again. This time, he aimed lower—slashed the beast's knee joint, forcing it down—then shoved his fingers into a pressure point near its throat.
With a twist—he opened it.
System:
—Kill Confirmed. EXP +4,520. SP +17
—Current EXP: 90% – Late Qi Condensation
Another charge.
This time, two beasts came. One spat venom. The other leapt into the sky and came down like an avalanche.
Li Xuan didn't dodge. He dashed forward.
He used Phantom Step, then Kill Instinct. His foot pivoted mid-air, shifting the arc of his momentum. The venom missed him by a hair's breadth.
His saber came down in a vertical cleave, breaking the jaw of the venom beast. Blood sprayed.
But the aerial beast was faster.
It smashed into him.
BOOM!
Li Xuan's body was thrown through three jagged stones. Bones cracked. His shoulder dislocated. Vision swam.
He barely rolled before another strike fell—he used a spirit stone to buffer his core and fled into the trees, panting.
—Warning: Death Pressure Detected. Retreat Advised.
—Mission Priority: Survival > Completion
Li Xuan spat out blood, leaned against a twisted tree trunk.
That… that had been too close.
His hand trembled slightly—not from fear, but rage.
"I rely on the system too much," he muttered.
He looked down at his hands. His breath slowed. Vision sharpened.
"What if it disappears one day? What if it's taken from me?"
His hands clenched.
He remembered the feeling of flesh, of spirit energy surging, of muscle tearing.
"I need to refine myself," he said coldly. "Every strike. Every dodge. My body. My awareness. My soul."
From that moment, he began tracking wind flow, muscle tension in his legs, angle of rotation on each strike. He measured heartbeat timing. Calculated dodge patterns. Watched others fight—and learned.
Not as a system puppet.
But as a killer evolving beyond it.
Half a mile away.
Liu Fan cut down two beasts with bare fists. But his eyes weren't on them.
They were on Li Xuan—returning from the woods, bloodied, eyes sharp, aura even more terrifying than before.
Liu grinned.
"Oh yeah. You're my kind of lunatic."
—
Over the next hours, Li Xuan's kill count rose.
He bled. Learned. Fought with strategy. Fled from anything that screamed death.
He let a Rank 2 Bone Serpent pass by, hiding in the shadow of its massive coils rather than charge suicidally.
He moved from lone fighter to battlefield tactician—saving three disciples by collapsing a ridge onto a horde of spirit rats with a single saber blast.
Slowly, those who feared him began to follow him.
One even spoke.
"Li Xuan… what formation style is that?"
"No formation," he said without turning. "Just don't die."
"…Yes, sir."
—
System:
—EXP: 98% – Late Qi Condensation
—System Points: 377 / 500
—Mission Progress: Widow Nest Located (Approach with Caution)
But just before night fell, a different pressure blanketed the valley.
A figure appeared.
Red robes. A folding fan. Cold arrogance in every step.
"Ah," the man said. "So this is the famed demon child. Tsk. Not much to look at."
He looked younger than Li Xuan, but his aura screamed foundation realm. Solid, oppressive, ancient.
The other disciples froze.
"Who—?"
"From the Crimson Sky Academy! That's Mo Jing!"
Li Xuan stared.
His instincts screamed. That fan? Poisoned. That smile? Deadly.
He didn't speak.
Because he knew—
This wasn't someone to fight today.
He turned to leave.
Mo Jing smiled wider. "A demon that knows when to run? How boring."
But Li Xuan didn't answer.
He vanished into the mist. The moment he was out of danger, he muttered:
"I'll kill you later."
That night, at the spirit camp on the cliffside, ten disciples gathered around Li Xuan's fire. No one spoke loudly. Some just sharpened blades. Some meditated.
They weren't his brothers yet.
But they were drawn to him.
And when the next beast horde came in the night, it was Li Xuan who stood first.
His saber flashed.
A formation formed around him—instinctive, primal, tight.
They followed not orders… but momentum.
By morning, the cliff was littered with corpses.
System:
—EXP: 100% — Breakthrough Triggered
—Cultivation Stage: Foundation Establishment (Stage 1)
—Breakthrough Style: Violent Surge
—+STR, +SPEED, +DURABILITY
—Skill Gained: Saber Intent (Tier 1)
Li Xuan sat cross-legged as power surged through him like a tide. Muscles swelled. Spirit veins rewired.
His eyes opened hours later—sharp, cold, burning.
No longer just a feared killer.
He was becoming… a leader.