The wind outside the villa was quiet, but within Ren Wei's cultivation room, a pressure was rising — silent, heavy, and expectant.
Ren Wei sat cross-legged, a shimmering silver pill hovering between his fingers.
> Ding!
Item Retrieved: Heaven's Dust Pill
– Earth-Grade Alchemical Pill
– Effect: A Pill that grants a 60% success rate to breakthrough from Perfect Master to Foundation Establishment. Best Consumed within 24 hours after achieving Level 9 Qi Refinement.
The room had already been sealed. Silencing talismans and protective formations were carved into the floor. Mei Rou and Su Yao waited just outside the room, watching him with concern.
Ren Wei opened the door once more.
> "Don't worry," he said calmly. "If I don't come out for a few days… or even a month, don't panic. Foundation Establishment isn't a small step — it's a rebirth."
The maids exchanged a glance but nodded. Neither spoke. They knew this realm was a barrier most cultivators never crossed.
Ren Wei stepped back inside, swallowed the Heaven's Dust Pill, and exhaled.
The glow of the pill burst outward like moonlight, and his Qi spiraled violently before it began to stabilize. Veins across his arms and chest pulsed with a faint crimson hue — the Iron Blood Meditation activating fully. Heat surged through his body, but his mind remained ice-clear.
> "This is the beginning," he muttered. "Not the end."
---
Far away — beneath the ancient stone roots of Azure Fang City — the four remaining Great Families gathered within a subterranean hall.
Candles flickered over etched clan banners. Scrolls bearing blood pacts and dead legends lined the walls.
The Li Patriarch, stern-faced with eyes like black steel, stood first.
> "He shamed our name. And defeated Li Xuan."
Next, the Mo Family Head, expression unreadable, hands clasped behind his back.
> "He's backed by the Han Crest. It's a poor time for open war."
The Qin Matriarch sneered.
> "A poor time for cowardice, you mean."
The final seat was filled not by an elder, but a young man in white — heir of the Zhao Clan. His fingers played with a soul-marked jade slip.
> "Ren Wei… This name was never on our lists."
> "Yet he's on everyone's lips now," Li Patriarch growled.
They debated. Argued. Conspired.
Then came consensus.
> "We'll use a blade from the past," said Mo calmly. "One who's tasted failure… and wishes to taste vengeance."
They all looked toward the ancient portrait hanging at the far wall — a man in ragged robes holding a black spear.
Wei Wuxian. The Ash Pike Wanderer.
The only Grandmaster ever publicly defeated by a Master.
They sent the jade scroll without ceremony.
---
In a ruin deep in the Crimson Hills, an old cultivator opened his eyes for the first time in decades.
He read the jade scroll once. Then crushed it into powder.
> "Ren Wei…" he rasped.
His breath ignited the dust mid-air.
> "Let's see if the past still has teeth."
Ren Wei's breath deepened as he sat cross-legged on the jade-lined floor of his cultivation chamber.
> Ding!
Initiating Realm Ascension: Qi Refinement → Foundation Establishment
Progress: 14%
Ren Wei's eyes opened momentarily, sweat forming on his brow. Despite the raw force bubbling inside him, his gaze was flat. Unimpressed.
> "One day… and only this much?"
"Tch… The world's changed, but the sky still isn't giving discounts."
He shut his eyes again. This time, his breath settled slower — sinking deeper into the marrow of his bones. The sabers of his thoughts dulled. Silence stretched.
---
In the Grand Hall of the Han Crest
A thin talisman landed gently onto a lacquered desk before Han Suiren.
The wax seal bore no sect, no clan — only a single black symbol: 「来」— Come.
Han Suiren's face hardened. A silent pulse echoed in the air around him as he broke the seal and read the parchment:
> "Ash Pike returns."
Behind him, a young man stepped forward. His eyes were sharp, clad in a pale-blue robe with subtle lightning insignias.
> "Father," he asked carefully. "Who is Ash Pike?"
Han Suiren set the message down. His fingers tapped once.
> "In the old wars… he was a myth walking among mortals."
"They called him the Ash Pike Wanderer. A rogue cultivator who carried a single pike made of scorched meteorite — forged himself from the bones of fallen stars."
"He never joined a sect. Never accepted a master. But when the Four Great Families clashed over the Southern Sea Rift, he stood alone. One against dozens."
"And still walked away, after defeated by a genius Master..."
The room turned silent.
> "He disappeared fifty years ago."
"Some say he died. Others say he ascended beyond mortal reach."
Han Suiren's voice turned colder.
"If he truly returns… not even a Grandmaster may remain safe."
---
Across Azure Fang City, a golden falcon took to the skies — its cry shattering the morning mist.
Wei Wuxian watched it disappear, arms behind his back, dressed in obsidian robes lined with starlight threads.
He turned to the gathered disciples of the Wei Clan.
> "Spread the word. In one month, I challenge Ren Wei at the peak of Azure Fang."
"Let the city witness whether the boy walks with a borrowed name — or if his steps leave fire behind."
From rooftops to back alleys, the message echoed.
A storm had been declared.
And deep within his cultivation chamber, Ren Wei's body glowed faintly — like a furnace quietly tempering itself.
He didn't hear the declarations.
He didn't need to.
He was already preparing for war.