The forest winds were restless.
Branches shivered even without touch, leaves rustled despite the still air, and the faint scent of blood drifted through the trees like a warning. Lin Feng stood atop a mossy boulder, dusted with crushed spider-ivy, scanning the far ridgeline.
A heavy pressure pressed faintly against his chest — distant, but growing.
Someone strong is coming… too strong.
Xuanyu Ye stood a few steps behind him, fanning himself lazily with his jade folding fan.
"Your face looks like someone told you spirit wine is banned," the scholar said calmly. "Something troubling you?"
Lin Feng frowned. "Trouble doesn't describe it. I feel… a mountain getting closer."
Xuanyu Ye raised a brow. "Ah. That kind of mountain."
A sudden BOOM split the distant sky. A blood-red ripple of qi exploded above the horizon, turning the clouds crimson for a heartbeat. Birds fled in a panicked wave.
And then—
A voice rolled over the hills like thunder wrapped in hatred.
"LIN FEEEENG!"
Lin Feng flinched. "Yep. That's a mountain."
Xuanyu Ye coughed lightly. "Correction — that is a mountain tied to another mountain and thrown downhill."
The sky parted like ripped cloth.
A streak of scarlet light tore toward them, moving so fast the air screamed. Trees bent away from the pressure wave, roots wrenching free of the soil.
Lin Feng swallowed. "Core Formation… no. That's more."
Xuanyu nodded, closing his fan. "Peak Core Formation. Half-step Golden Core. He's… enthusiastic."
"Enthusiastic?!" Lin Feng hissed. "He wants to peel my soul like a fruit!"
"Then don't let him catch you."
"Great advice! Anything else? 'Don't die'?"
Xuanyu snapped his fingers. "Actually—yes. Don't die."
"Wonderful. Your wisdom amazes me."
A heartbeat later, the elder arrived.
He didn't so much land as crash into existence, the air trembling violently where he appeared ten steps away. His robes burned with scarlet embroidery, his hair whipped in the aura storm around him, and his eyes glowed with pure murderous intent.
He stared directly at Lin Feng.
"YOU," the elder growled, voice cracking the stone beneath their feet. "You killed my brother."
Lin Feng took one step back. "Technically, lightning killed him."
"You are the lightning!"
"…Okay, that's fair."
The elder clenched his fist. Space rippled. The entire clearing warped toward him, pulled by the gravity of his cultivation.
Xuanyu leaned toward Lin Feng. "Would now be a bad time to mention you still owe me tea?"
"YES IT'S A BAD TIME!"
The elder released his aura fully.
A tidal wave of qi blasted outward. Trees bowed until their trunks snapped, boulders cracked, and the air felt like thick mud. Lin Feng's knees buckled; blood vessels in his arms bulged.
Xuanyu, meanwhile, sipped tea from a gourd he definitely did not have a moment ago.
Lin Feng strained against the crushing weight. His newly consolidated Core Foundation qi surged, lightning essence crackling through his meridians like furious snakes.
Hold… hold… don't kneel…
The elder smiled cruelly. "Kneel, child."
Lin Feng spat blood, but stayed upright.
"Kneel…?" he growled.
"Why don't you try making me?"
Lightning burst from his eyes in thin streams.
The elder's face twitched. "Very well."
He raised his hand —
and the forest dimmed.
A massive scarlet palm materialized in the sky, thousands of feet wide, glowing with runes. Birds fell dead mid-flight. The ground cracked under the pressure.
Lin Feng looked up.
"…Ah."
Xuanyu leaned beside him. "Impressive. You are about to die."
"THAT DOESN'T HELP!"
The scarlet palm fell.
Lin Feng's qi erupted instinctively, his core spinning like a nova. Lightning surged from his dantian, coursing through his limbs, bursting from his fingertips.
His body felt light — feather-light — as if he were stepping on the sky.
Move—MOVE—NOW!
He shot sideways as the palm smashed into the earth—
BOOOOOOM!!!
A crater hundreds of meters wide erupted behind him, shockwaves blasting him through three trees. He rolled to his feet, coughing blood.
"Still alive?" Xuanyu called out lightly.
Lin Feng glared. "A little help!?"
Xuanyu sipped tea. "I'm observing."
"OBSERVE FASTER!"
The elder appeared in front of Lin Feng in a flash, moving so fast the world blurred.
"You cannot escape," he snarled.
Lin Feng clenched his fist as lightning roared up his arm.
"Oh yeah?"
"Watch me."
He unleashed the first stage of his newly developed lightning movement technique — Flashstep Gale — and vanished in a streak of blue-white light.
The elder blinked. "Hmph. Fast. For a bug."
He disappeared as well.
As Lin Feng leapt into the air, lightning exploding under his feet, the elder materialized behind him.
Scarlet qi surged.
Palms clashed with lightning.
The sky lit up with exploding clouds.
Lin Feng summoned his new technique instinctively—
Raged Thunder Strikes!
Five arcs of lightning coiled around his arm like raging serpents, then shot forward in a spiraling blast.
The elder grinned savagely.
He crushed all five with one hand.
But the explosion of lightning pushed Lin Feng higher into the air, giving him a moment's breathing room.
Xuanyu Ye watched from the ground, stroking his chin. "Beautiful technique. He might survive… perhaps."
The elder floated upward, eyes red with fury.
"You dare struggle this long…? Die properly!"
He began forming seals. The sky darkened. Scarlet clouds swirled, forming a vortex that sucked in spiritual energy from miles around.
Lin Feng felt his heart freeze.
This is… a Golden Core–level killing art…!
Even Xuanyu lowered his fan. "Well… that escalated."
A massive spear of condensed scarlet qi formed above the elder — ten meters long, buzzing with destructive runes.
The elder pointed at Lin Feng.
"Perish!"
The spear shot down—
—so fast it tore the sound out of the world.
Lin Feng's eyes widened. No dodge. No escape. No time.
Lightning surged wildly through his veins.
And then—
Xuanyu Ye finally moved.