The shadow in the corner of the courtyard didn't move. It became solid. A man, dressed in matte grey cloth that drank the moonlight, stood there. He held no weapon. He didn't need to. The air around him was a weapon. It grew heavy, thick, pushing down on Li Wei's shoulders, trying to drive him to his knees. It was the pressure of a Foundation Establishment expert—a realm above Qi Gathering, where spiritual energy was no longer just a tool, but the mortar of a cultivator's very being.
Li Wei's bones groaned. His feet sank an inch into the hard-packed earth. But he did not kneel. His Primordial Chaos Body, tempered by divine blood, held. It was like a mountain refusing a strong wind.
The assassin's eyes, flat and black, showed a flicker of surprise. Then, they went dead again. He moved.
He was a ghost. One moment he was across the yard. The next, his palm was inches from Li Wei's chest. No flashy light, just a silent, condensed force meant to stop a heart and shred the meridians around it.
Li Wei didn't have time to think. Instinct, sharpened by his father's lessons and the whispers of his Divine Dao Bone, screamed at him. He twisted. He didn't block. He let the killing palm slide past his ribs. The force of it tore his robe and scraped his skin raw, but it missed its mark.
Pain, sharp and hot. But not crippling. He was still standing.
He struck back. His fist, wrapped in grey Chaos Qi, shot out in a simple, direct punch. It was fast. It was heavy. It hit the assassin's raised forearm.
CRACK.
The sound wasn't of breaking bone, but of shattering air. The assassin grunted, skidding back two full paces, his arm trembling. He looked at his forearm, then at Li Wei. Confusion turned to cold analysis.
"Not Qi," the assassin whispered, his voice like dry leaves. "Something else."
The real fight began.
The assassin stopped holding back. He became a storm of silent violence. He didn't use grand techniques. He used efficiency. Fingers aimed for Li Wei's eyes. A knee drove for his dantian. A chop aimed to break his neck. Every move was a killing move, backed by the dense, crushing power of the Foundation realm.
Li Wei fought like a cornered beast. He was slower. Less skilled. He took hits. A glancing blow to his shoulder numbed his whole arm. A kick to his thigh made the muscle scream. But he gave back what he got. His punches, when they landed, didn't just hurt. They disrupted. His Chaos Qi ate at the assassin's refined spiritual energy, turning orderly force into wild, useless noise.
He was being cut apart, piece by piece. But he was eroding the assassin's foundation, chip by chip.
Blood ran from Li Wei's split lip, from a cut over his eye. His breath came in ragged gasps. The assassin bled too—from a broken nose, from where a fist had cracked a rib. The perfect killer was looking ragged.
Enough. Li Wei reached for the deeper power.
He focused past the pain, into his core, to the first broken seal on his Ancient God Bloodline. He pulled on the trickle of golden, divine strength there. It flooded his muscles, hot and fierce.
His next punch wasn't just fast. It was a blur.
The assassin saw it coming, raised both arms in a cross-block. The fist connected.
BOOM.
This time, the sound was different. Solid. Final. The assassin's perfect block shattered. The force lifted him off his feet and threw him against the courtyard wall. Stones cracked. He slumped down, coughing, one arm hanging limp.
Li Wei stood over him, chest heaving, every inch of him screaming in pain. He was a ruin. But he was standing. The assassin, a realm above him, was broken on the ground.
The killer looked up, his professional calm gone, replaced by raw, animal fear. He had come to squash an insect. He had found a wolf.
Li Wei didn't kill him. He was too tired. His voice was a rough scrape in his throat.
"Tell them," he said, blood dripping from his chin onto the dirt. "The next one they send… I won't let walk away."
The assassin didn't nod. He just scrambled back, using his one good arm, and vanished into the shadows he came from, leaving only the scent of blood and fear behind.
Li Wei stayed standing until the footsteps faded. Then his legs gave out. He sat hard on the cold ground, trembling with exhaustion and pain. He had won. He had fought a Foundation expert and won. But he felt no joy. Only the cold, hard truth.
He was strong. But he was not strong enough. Not yet. The seals on his blood and bone had to break. He had to get stronger. Faster.
He looked up at the dark sky. One week. One week until the Azure Lotus Sect. It couldn't come soon enough.