A month passed, and the Verdant Sword Li Clan grew accustomed to a new, strange rhythm. Li Wei, the once-mocked "Mighty," was now treated with wary distance. The incident with Li Jun was not forgotten, but with the Clan Head's silent, watchful order in place, no one dared to provoke him openly.
Li Wei preferred it this way. He became a ghost once more, but this time by choice.
---
The Whispering Fangs
Deep within the forest, Li Wei was not foraging. He was hunting.
When a sleek, grey-furred Wind-Saber Wolf, a 4th-Level beast, lunged from the shadows, Li Wei didn't dodge. He met its charge, his hand shooting out. A vortex of grey energy swirled in his palm. As the wolf's fangs snapped inches from his face, the devouring force caught it. The beast's momentum vanished. Its fierce snarl turned into a confused whimper as the spiritual energy sustaining its life was violently ripped from its body. In seconds, it collapsed, desiccated.
A warm, potent stream of energy flooded Li Wei's meridians. He spent his days like this, devouring beast cores to fuel his cultivation, then selling the parts for spirit stones to buy pills. Alone in a hidden cave, he would consume the pills and activate the "Primordial Sovereign Scripture", focusing entirely on expanding his cultivation base and tempering his Primordial Chaos Body.
He did not attack the seals. For now, they remained immutable, colossal barriers within his soul. But he could feel them now. He could feel the immense pressure building behind them as his own power grew. It was like leaning against a vast, stone dam and feeling the vibration of an entire ocean pressing against the other side.
In a single month of relentless effort, he had advanced to the 6th Level of Qi Gathering. The power within him was a deep, steady ocean, its foundations rock-solid.
Yet, when he returned to the clan each evening, he wore a mask. He carefully suppressed his aura, letting only the energy of the 4th Level of Qi Gathering leak out.
---
In a luxurious courtyard, Li Jun slammed his fist on a table, making the teacups rattle. "Fourth Level! In a month! How is that possible? He was a cripple! A cripple!"
His older brother, Li Jin, the top genius of the younger generation at the 7th Level, polished his spirit sword with an air of bored superiority. "Calm yourself, little brother. Your obsession with that trash is beneath you. So he found a trick. So he can barely keep up with the mediocre disciples now. It changes nothing. He is still a gnat."
"A gnat that humiliated me!" Li Jun seethed. "He didn't even use a technique! It was just... pressure."
"Then your foundation is weaker than I thought," Li Jin said dismissively. "When the Grand Tournament arrives, I will be breaking through to the Foundation realm. He will still be playing in the Qi Gathering mud. Do not bother me with this again."
Meanwhile, in the clan's main hall, the atmosphere was more grim. Clan Head Li Tao sat at the head of a table, flanked by two senior elders.
"The boy advances too quickly," rumbled Elder Li Guo, a large man with a fiery temper. "From a standstill to the Fourth Level in a month? It reeks of demonic arts or a dangerous treasure. We should seize him and interrogate him before he brings calamity upon us!"
"Act rashly, and we may destroy exactly what could save this clan," countered Elder Li Feng, a man with sharp, intelligent eyes. "What if it is not a treasure, but a true latent talent? A bloodline awakening we do not understand? To cripple such a prospect out of fear would be the true calamity."
Clan Head Li Tao steepled his fingers, his expression unreadable. "Elder Feng is prudent. But so is Elder Guo. This is not natural growth. I have felt the boy's aura. It is... dense. Unsettling." He looked at both of them. "We will not seize him. Not yet. We will watch. We will test him."
"A test?" Elder Guo asked.
"The Grand Tournament is in two months," Li Tao said, a cold gleam in his eye. "We will let the younger generation be our probe. Let Li Jin and the others push him. Let us see what this 'mighty' talent is truly made of, and what he hides beneath the surface. If his power is stable and can be controlled, we will harness it for the clan. If it is unstable, or if he is a danger..." The Clan Head's voice did not need to rise. The threat hung in the air, cold and final.
---
That evening, Li Wei returned to his family's quarters. His mother, Meiling, greeted him with a warm bowl of soup, her eyes full of a hope that was still fragile. "You look tired, son. Your cultivation... it is going well?"
"It is, Mother," he said, giving her a genuine smile. "Better than well."
His father, Li Kang, watched him from the corner, a complex look on his face—pride, worry, and a dawning comprehension. He could feel the hidden weight in his son's steps, the solidity in his calm demeanor. He didn't see the 4th-Level disciple the clan saw; he saw a young man who carried a deep, silent storm within him.
Later, lying on his simple cot, Li Wei looked at his hands. The clan was buzzing around him, a hive of speculation and schemes. They saw a rising stream, but beneath the surface, the pressure behind the heavenly seals was building to a fever pitch.
He was not just building his cultivation; he was building up the force for a single, world-shattering rupture. He knew, with a certainty that vibrated in his bones, that when the next seal finally broke, it would not be a crack.
It would be a cataclysm. And the clan's Grand Tournament would be the perfect stage for it.