The Yun family's jade mine was a scar on the lush Myanmar landscape. Under the pretense of a routine security audit, Ye Xia and a hand-picked team of the family's most capable guards—all low-level cultivators—traveled to the site. Silas coordinated from a hidden vantage point, his sniper rifle equipped with custom-made rounds that could disrupt Kai flow.
Using Mo's intelligence, they knew the exact date and the planned entry point of the "Viper's Nest" team. Ye Xia spent the days before their arrival preparing the battlefield. She used her [Spiritual Crafting] ability to subtly alter the energy fields around the mine's perimeter, creating areas of dissonance that would disorient the attackers. She also set up several of her newly crafted Kai-infused daggers as hidden traps.
The night of the attack was moonless and heavy with humidity. Ye Xia waited in the shadows near the mine entrance, her senses stretched to their limit. She felt them before she saw them: five figures moving with the silent, fluid grace of predators. Their Kai signatures were sharp and venomous, just like their name.
As the first attacker slipped through the fence, he triggered one of her traps. A Kai-infused dagger shot out from a concealed mechanism. It didn't kill him, but it grazed his arm, and the concentrated energy sent a paralyzing shock through his system. He cried out, breaking the silence.
The trap was sprung.
The Vipers reacted with professional fury. They fanned out, their movements a blur. Ye Xia's guards engaged them, the clash of steel and the flash of Kai lighting up the night. It was chaos, but it was a chaos Ye Xia had orchestrated.
She focused on the Viper leader, a woman with cold eyes and blades that dripped with a paralytic toxin. They fought in the center of the compound, a whirlwind of strikes and counters. The woman was faster, more experienced. But Ye Xia had something she didn't: the System's pure, relentless energy and the Mountain Stream Style's fluid defense.
Ye Xia deflected a lethal stab, flowing around the woman's attack like water, and slammed her palm, charged with a burst of Kai, into the woman's chest. There was a crack of breaking bone. The Viper leader gasped, stumbling back.
Seeing their leader fall, the remaining Vipers lost their nerve. Silas picked off two with his disruption rounds, and the Yun guards subdued the others.
It was a total victory. The threat had been neutralized without a single casualty on their side.
As the sun rose, Ye Xia stood amidst the captured mercenaries. She had proven her worth not just as a cultivator, but as a strategist. The message to Leng Feng was clear: the Yun family was no longer easy prey.
A message flashed on her secure phone from Mo. [Efficient. Leng Feng is furious. The game has changed.]
Ye Xia allowed herself a small, cold smile. She was no longer a piece on the board. She was a player.