In the Sky-Frost Institute, status was a currency paid for with Contribution Points. To secure the high-grade materials for his final breakthrough, Lin Chen had accepted a hunt for a Frost-Tusk Behemoth, an Early Foundation Establishment beast.
To the team he joine, Tie shan and the twin sisters, Ling and Ran, Lin Chen was just a quiet genius along for the ride. To Lin Chen, they were the perfect cover for a trip into the Forbidden Glacial Valley.
The valley was a world of jagged ice and howling winds. Deep within a cavern of azure crystal, they found something far more valuable than their target. Growing from a crack in the spirit-vein stone was a Crimson Frost Fruit, its skin glowing with a pulsating red light.
"The Crimson Frost Fruit!" Tie shan gasped. "This is worth more than ten Behemoths!"
"It's also worth your lives," a cold voice echoed.
From the mouth of the cavern, five figures appeared: Han Dong and four bodyguards who radiated the heavy, suffocating pressure of the Early Foundation Establishment realm.
"Commoners who lay eyes on Han Clan property must die," Han Dong sneered. "Guards, wipe them out."
The four guards moved instantly. Their speed was a blur, their Foundation-level Qi crushing the twins and Tie shan to their knees. But as a heavy claymore swung toward Tie Mountain's neck, a streak of black light intervened.
CLANG!
The ground beneath Lin Chen's feet shattered as he blocked the massive blade with his iron sword.
"Get back," Lin Chen commanded his team. He lunged.
The battle was a violent blur. Lin Chen's Phantom Void Step turned him into a flickering ghost. He wove through frost-blades and ice-shards, his Heaven-Devouring Scripture roaring within his meridians, pushing his Qi to a density no ordinary cultivator could imagine.
"Void-Shattering Palm!"
Lin Chen's left hand struck a guard's chest. The impact sounded like a thunderclap, disintegrating the man's heart instantly. He spun, his sword singing a song of death.
One guard's arm was severed; a reverse thrust pierced another's skull. The last two guards unleashed their life-essence, striking simultaneously, but Lin Chen grabbed one by the wrist and parried the other, slamming the two experts into each other before decapitating them both in a single, crimson circle.
The cavern fell silent. Han Dong stood shaking, his face pale. Lin Chen didn't let him speak; a flick of his sword sent a needle of Qi through the noble's forehead.
As the bodies lay steaming in the frost, Lin Chen knelt. His Devouring Spiritual Roots hummed with predatory hunger. He worked with ruthless efficiency, snatching the roots before the blood grew cold. "Early Foundation... 5th-grade... 6th-grade... and Han Dong... 8th-grade Earth Root!"
The moment the 8th-grade essence merged with his soul, Lin Chen's world exploded.
The massive influx of refined talent acted like a catalyst. The liquid Qi in his dantian, already at peak density, began to spiral with violent force.
He didn't need a pill. He didn't need a formation. He had the "breath of life" from five high-level cultivators coursing through his meridians.
BOOM!
A shockwave of dark energy erupted from his body, throwing Tie shan and the twins back toward the cavern walls. Lin Chen's hair lashed around his face as a pillar of obsidian light shot through the roof of the cavern, piercing the clouds above the valley.
Inside his dantian, the sea of Qi hardened, crystallizing into a jagged, nine-layered mountain of dark glass. The bottleneck that held him at the 12th stage of Qi Refining shattered like a fragile vase.
Foundation Establishment Realm — Initial Stage.
The temperature in the cavern plummeted as Lin Chen stood up. His eyes glowed with a faint, golden-black ring that signaled a perfect foundation. He felt like he could crush the valley with a single thought.
He plucked the Crimson Frost Fruit and tucked it into a jade box for later use, then looted the Han Clan's high-grade storage rings. With a wave of his hand, he incinerated the corpses to ash.
He turned to his terrified team. "The Behemoth is still out there. Let's finish the job."
Tie shan looked at the crater where Lin Chen had stood and the charred remains of the Han Clan. He simply nodded, his eyes filled with a new, bone-deep terror for the boy he had thought he was protecting.