Ren smiled lazily.
"Just don't send a child," he added, as if he were asking for more tea instead of provoking a fourth-grade sect. "I'd feel bad if she got bored on her first visit to a fourth-grade sect."
The hall almost exploded.
Several young male core disciples choked at the same time. Someone really did nearly spit blood. Faces flushed red, veins bulged at temples, killing intent flared, and was swallowed in the same breath. Underneath the Vermillion Bird carvings and phoenix totems, the proud sons of Divine Phoenix Island felt as if someone had reached into their chests and flicked their hearts.
You'd feel bad?
Mu Chihuo's face went iron-dark.
He had weathered storms on the South Sea, fought life-and-death battles when Divine Phoenix Island was still carving its name into the horizon. To be treated as a "fourth-grade sect" that might "bore" someone—he almost rose right there.
Almost.
His gaze fell on Ren's relaxed profile.
The young man's smile was easy, almost gentle.
It only made the unease worse.
Mu Yuhuang's fingers tapped once on her throne's arm.
Her expression didn't change much, but her eyes turned thoughtful, the way a seasoned expert assessed a storm front rolling across the sea.
"Very well," she said at last, voice steady. "Then…"
Her gaze swept the hall and fell on a woman standing quietly among the elders.
"Qingyi."
Mu Qingyi stepped forward, vermillion robe rustling like feathered wings. Her bearing was graceful, her brows clear and heroic. Vermillion Bird flame slumbered beneath her skin, but years of responsibility had smoothed its edge.
"Island Master."
"Among the core disciples currently on the island," Mu Yuhuang asked, "who do you judge suitable to face this Qin girl? Realm around Houtian, Fire Laws well-tempered."
The elders' gazes shifted.
This was not simply about a spar.
This was Divine Phoenix Island's face.
Mu Qingyi lowered her eyes in brief thought. Threads of Vermillion Bird Law stirred as she silently compared flames.
"…Mu Dingshan," she said finally. "His cultivation is at Middle Houtian, but his Vermillion Bird cultivation art is nearing half-step Xiantian. His true essence is thick, his control over Vermillion Bird flame is solid. Among the younger generation, his Fire Laws rank among the most refined."
Mu Chihuo snorted softly, but even he nodded despite himself.
Mu Dingshan—sturdy, steady, with a Vermillion Bird flame that had always burned straight and true. A "safe" choice, if any could be called safe in front of this monster.
Mu Yuhuang considered, then inclined her head.
"Call Dingshan."
...
They did not go to a public arena.
No cheering crowd, no outer island disciples packing the stands. This was not a spectacle for the South Sea.
This was a decision.
On the Divine Phoenix council hall's central floor, formations lit one after another as elders flicked true essence into hidden array nodes. Jade runes rose from the scarlet tiles, weaving a translucent barrier that slowly congealed into a dome over a cleared circle of red jade.
The ever-present tongues of flame that normally danced along the floor withdrew, drawn back by the arrays. The red jade smoothed itself, becoming a perfectly flat surface, faint phoenix patterns dimming until they were only pale shadows.
Within that circle, under the gazes of Revolving Core and Life Destruction experts, two juniors would cross weapons.
The weight of it made the air heavy.
A short time later, a red-robed youth stepped through a side entrance.
Mu Dingshan.
He walked with his back straight, Vermillion Bird aura sharp but well-contained. His eyes held the confidence of someone who had been praised since childhood. Middle Houtian cultivation surged in his meridians, but his Vermillion Bird true essence had already begun to touch the threshold of Xiantian; his foundation stood far above normal peers.
The flames carved into the jade pillars flickered approvingly as he passed, responding to a bloodline and a fire they were familiar with.
His gaze swept the hall just once. It brushed past Ren, paused longer on Qin Xingxuan.
"You are…" He stepped into the barrier, voice respectful but confident. "The disciple of Young Hero Ren?"
Opposite him, Qin Xingxuan entered the circle.
Her steps were light, her back straight as a spear. Her robe was simple compared to Divine Phoenix's lavish styles, but it couldn't hide the sharpness in her bones.
Pulse Condensation true essence flowed along the Heaven-Piercing Elemental Canon's patterns in her dantian, circulation smooth and steady. Within that sea of true essence, the Azure True Dragon Infinity Seed pulsed once—quiet, profound, the kind of presence that did not need to shout to be felt.
"Yes," she answered simply.
No excuses, no extra words.
Mu Dingshan's eyes narrowed.
His Vermillion Bird flame stirred unconsciously in response to the pressure pressing faintly against his senses.
Even before a single move, he could feel it.
Her true essence—dense, steady, without a single leak.
Her aura—perfectly gathered, not a thread spilling outward unless she willed it.
It was the kind of foundation that could only be carved out with patient tempering and terrifyingly precise guidance. Not something a random Martial House from some backwater kingdom should have produced.
Mu Yuhuang's gaze slid to Ren.
He stood outside the barrier, one hand tucked casually into his sleeve, the other resting lightly on the shimmering surface of the array as if it weren't there. Through it, his fingers brushed Qin Xingxuan's shoulder.
The barrier didn't dare stop him.
"Xingxuan," he called, voice soft, warm around the edges. "Let them see what Fire looks like when it stops crawling."
His tone was almost amused.
The hall heard the casual insult—crawling fire—and every Divine Phoenix disciple felt their hearts burn.
Qin Xingxuan's heart steadied instead.
"…Mm," she answered.
She stepped forward, spear butt touching the jade with a quiet sound.
Mu Qianyu, standing among Divine Phoenix's saintesses, narrowed her eyes.
"That girl…" Her Vermillion Bird flame vibrated, sensing something buried in Qin Xingxuan's aura—a sharpness, a vertical piercing will that reminded her of a thin beam of light splitting the heavens. "Her Fire… is not weaker than the direct disciples. And that spear intent…"
At the back, Mu Fengxian's cloudy eyes brightened, the corners of her mouth twitching ever so slightly.
"Interesting," she murmured.
Inside the barrier, Mu Dingshan and Qin Xingxuan faced each other.
They cupped fists.
"Mu Dingshan of Divine Phoenix Island," he said, voice steady. "Please… give me your guidance."
"Qin Xingxuan of Seven Profound Martial House," she replied. "Please."
The barrier flared, arrays stabilizing.
"Begin," an elder intoned.
...
Mu Dingshan moved first.
Vermillion Bird true essence roared up from his dantian, rushing along his meridians in a blazing flood. The Vermillion Bird cultivation art spun up; phoenix runes lit across his skin like brands, feathers of flame unfurling along his arms.
Flames burst from his back, coalescing into a blazing phoenix phantom. It spread its wings and let out a cry that shook the barrier, its voice echoing through the hall like a small sun awakening.
"Vermillion Bird Soars to the Ninth Heaven!"
His body blurred.
Crimson light streaked forward, phoenix sword thrusting out in a savage lunge that dragged a flaming bird behind it. The air inside the barrier detonated—heat surging like a tidal wave. The red jade floor blackened along his path, the edges of the tiles glowing, softening as they approached their melting point.
The pressure of his strike pressed against the barrier, making it ripple.
On the sidelines, Divine Phoenix's juniors exhaled with admiration and pride.
"That's Senior Brother Dingshan's full-strength thrust…"
"With that spear he can injure Early Xiantian opponents…"
"To meet that head-on with Pulse Condensation is suicide…"
Qin Xingxuan watched the oncoming phoenix light with calm eyes.
Her spear lowered a fraction.
The Heaven-Piercing Elemental Canon's patterns in her dantian suddenly brightened. Fire, Wind, and Thunder Seeds flared at the same time; the Azure True Dragon Infinity Seed pulsed, releasing a wave of pure, dense true essence that flooded every meridian without turbulence.
Behind her, a red-gold rune-wheel unfolded like a burning halo.
Fire Martial Intent.
At first its presence was faint, like a small sun peeking over the horizon. In the span of a breath, its rotation accelerated. Within its field, every strand of flame inside the barrier—Mu Dingshan's Vermillion Bird fire, the residual heat clinging to the air, even the faint Furnace Fire sleeping inside the red jade—trembled.
Then they were forced to burn hotter.
Purified.
Compressed.
Refined to a higher order whether they wished it or not.
At the same time—
Qin Xingxuan's aura surged.
It was still Pulse Condensation in the strict sense. But the pressure that burst out from her body had nothing to do with an Early Pulse Condensation junior.
Middle Xiantian.
The entire hall felt it.
"What—"
"Impossible!"
Mu Xiaoqing, watching from the female disciples' side, went pale. The Blue Luan bloodline inside her recoiled instinctively, recognizing a threat that should only appear among much older experts.
The Fire Law exuding from Qin Xingxuan changed.
Before this moment, Divine Phoenix's disciples had sensed in her a Fire comprehension akin to their early insights—heat, burning, persistence. A respectable talent.
Now a door opened.
The Fire clinging to her spear, the Fire flowing along her skin, carried a sovereign aura that made lesser flames want to kneel.
Second-level Fire Law.
The kind of qualitative leap that normally demanded years of meditation and at least stepping into Xiantian before one feather of comprehension could fall into one's hand.
Mu Yuhuang's pupils shrank.
Mu Chihuo's fingers dug into the armrest hard enough to leave marks.
Mu Qingshu felt his Vermillion Bird flame press itself low, every feather bristling.
"How…" someone whispered, voice hoarse. "She's just… Pulse Condensation…"
Above the arena, the Vermillion Bird phantom at Mu Dingshan's back faltered.
Mid-flight, under the pressure of Qin Xingxuan's Fire Martial Intent, its body shuddered, as if sensing a predator higher on the food chain.
Qin Xingxuan's gaze sharpened.
She moved.
It was not a grand, heaven-splitting technique.
Just a step. A slight twist of her waist. A shift in her grip that made the spear an extension of her spine.
Her spear rose in a simple thrust.
But within that thrust, countless Dao lines flowed.
Wind gathered at the spear tip, sharpening its path until even space seemed to flinch.
Thunder threaded along the shaft, saturating it with an impossible vibration, making its timing untraceable.
Fire, compressed by the rune-wheel behind her, wrapped around the spearhead in a layer as thin as a blade's edge, as dense as molten star-metal.
"Heaven-Piercing Fire Spear."
The spear cut forward.
No phoenix illusion flared. No ostentatious explosion painted the air.
Just a single, clean line.
It felt like someone had taken a brush and drawn a stroke through heaven and earth.
Mu Dingshan's Vermillion Bird flame collided with that line.
For a heartbeat, Fire clashed with Fire.
The phoenix phantom screamed.
Then—
His flame collapsed.
Not because his true essence was weak.
Not because the Vermillion Bird art was flawed.
It was crushed.
Under the higher-order Fire Martial Intent.
Under the second-level Fire Law aura.
Under the spear intent that gathered Wind and Thunder and Fire into a single piercing will.
His Vermillion Bird flame folded like a banner under a hurricane. The phoenix phantom shattered; its cry broke into a strangled rasp that died in its throat.
The phoenix sword light winked out.
Qin Xingxuan's spear did not slow.
It slipped through the weakened flame, traced along Mu Dingshan's phoenix sword, sent a brutal vibration screaming up his arms and into his bones. The backlash tore through his meridians like lightning—every inch of inner Fire that had been proud moments ago now in total disarray.
Mu Dingshan's eyes flew wide.
This… this couldn't—
A soundless impact slammed into his chest.
Air detonated outward in a ring. The red jade floor spiderwebbed beneath his feet. The barrier flared, ripples racing across its surface like a pond struck by a falling star.
His body shot backward, hit the barrier hard enough to make the entire dome glow, then slid to the ground.
Silence.
From Mu Dingshan's first attack to his defeat, fewer than three breaths had passed.
...
Outside the barrier, no one spoke.
An elite Middle Houtian cultivator, whose Vermillion Bird flame grazed the threshold of Xiantian, a proud genius of a fourth-grade sect… hadn't merely lost.
He hadn't forced his opponent to take a second proper move.
"Just now…"
"That… that was one move?"
"A Middle Houtian, half-step Xiantian Vermillion Bird genius… couldn't even force her to shift her feet twice…"
"In what world…"
The faces of the young male disciples burned as if they'd been slapped.
The elders' expressions were stranger—a twisted mix of shock, disbelief, and a grudging excitement they struggled to suppress. Old bottlenecks rumbled faintly at the edges of their Dao Hearts, recognizing something they hadn't seen in a very long time.
Mu Xiaoqing's hands were clenched over her chest, knuckles white. Her Blue Luan bloodline was trembling between fear and exhilaration.
"This is… his disciple…?"
Inside the barrier, Qin Xingxuan slowly drew back her spear.
Her aura calmed.
The red-gold rune-wheel of Fire Martial Intent behind her slowed, shrinking until it faded completely into her Spiritual Sea. The Middle Xiantian pressure smoothed away, leaving only the quiet, solid presence of an Early Pulse Condensation cultivator.
She exhaled once, chest rising and falling.
Then she turned.
Mu Dingshan was already struggling to his feet, face pale, Vermillion Bird flame still like scattered feathers in a storm.
Qin Xingxuan cupped her fist and bowed.
"Thank you for your guidance," she said sincerely.
Her voice carried no arrogance. Only respect.
Mu Dingshan stared at her for a moment.
Then he laughed once—short, bitter, but not unwilling.
"…No," he said hoarsely. "It is I who should thank you."
He straightened as much as he could and returned the bow.
"I admit defeat," he declared, voice clear. "Your understanding of Fire has already surpassed mine by a great distance. Before that, the gap in realm is meaningless."
The barrier dissolved.
The hall breathed again.
Voices rose, low and disbelieving.
"A Middle Houtian with half-step Xiantian battle strength…"
"An Early Pulse Condensation junior suppressing him with one move…"
"That Xiantian pressure… she was clearly not Xiantian, but it felt like a Mid Xiantian elder…"
"Fire Laws that high… at that realm? Unless…"
Almost as one, eyes turned toward Ren.
He was still smiling lazily, as if he'd watched a casual demonstration rather than one of Divine Phoenix Island's proudest cores being crushed.
He lifted a hand and crooked a finger slightly.
Qin Xingxuan stepped out of the arena and moved to his side. He reached out, thumb brushing once along her jawline. The gesture was gentle, unhurried—so natural that several hearts in the hall skipped without knowing why.
"Not bad," he murmured, his voice low enough that it felt like it was meant only for her. "You did what I asked."
Her clear eyes met his.
"…I still fell short of what you could have done," she said, quietly honest.
"That's the point," he replied, amused. "You're not me. Your road is your own. But for today—"
He tilted his head toward Divine Phoenix's elders.
"You were more than enough."
Qin Xingxuan's ears flushed faintly, but her back straightened a little more.
Mu Yuhuang finally spoke, her usually calm voice pitched a shade lower.
"…What cultivation method is that?" she asked, unable to restrain herself any longer. "How can a Pulse Condensation junior exude such a Fire aura, such pressure? That Fire Martial Intent… those Laws…"
Her Vermillion Bird flame still remembered the feeling of Qin Xingxuan's Fire brushing past it. For a moment, even her Flame had wanted to lower its head.
Ren chuckled.
"It's just my way of doing things," he said. "My flavor of Dao."
He lifted his hand and traced a small circle in the air.
"Comprehension is the foundation of everything," he went on, tone light, as if they were discussing weather. "Realms are an aftereffect. If you refine your understanding, your true essence, your Law essence to the right level, then 'Houtian' and 'Xiantian' become labels people use to feel safe."
He shrugged.
"Xingxuan's realm is Early Pulse Condensation. That's just where her true essence has condensed so far. But her Fire has already stepped past many so-called Xiantian elders. Her spear intent has already pierced through bottlenecks that others would take decades to approach. Her pressure is only strange if you cling too tightly to your own limits."
His words settled into the hall like heavy stones dropped into a lake.
Mu Fengxian's eyes narrowed.
"You say it easily," she rasped. "But to raise a junior's comprehension to that height, without breaking their foundation…"
Her mind flashed back to the way Qin Xingxuan's aura had risen and fallen, smooth as water falling from a higher spring.
"That is not something any random 'Dao' can do."
Ren's mouth curved.
"Of course not," he agreed, as if it were obvious. "If it were that simple, your South Sea wouldn't look like this."
The quiet sting of those words made several elders' expressions twist.
Ren lifted his hand again.
"Since you're curious," he continued, playful light returning to his eyes, "I'll show you a little more. Consider it a greeting gift."
The temperature in the hall shifted.
Fire origin energy, which had always been thick in Divine Phoenix Island's core, shivered.
Flames embedded in the jade pillars, the Vermillion Bird array lines beneath the floor, even the Vermillion Bird fire circulating in the elders' meridians—all of them stirred as if an invisible hand had stroked their backs.
Ren extended his palm outward.
"Your Vermillion Bird flame is good," he said. "Proud. Pure. Full of tradition."
A faint red glow gathered above his hand.
"But it's still thinking too small."
The Vermillion Bird origin flame that Divine Phoenix used as its standard—threaded through all their cultivation arts, embedded in their formations—responded.
Not violently.
Not as if being stolen.
It simply… leaned.
Tiny strands of fire essence, invisible to mortals but clear to any Fire cultivator, drifted out of the jade floor, the pillars, the air itself. They spiraled toward Ren's hand, weaving together in front of his palm.
On the main phoenix totem above the hall, the Vermillion Bird phantom shivered.
Its eyes—carved from flawless crimson jade—flickered with something like surprise as its own essence was drawn out. It was not being ripped away. It felt more like a younger cousin recognizing an elder and wanting to greet them.
Mu Chihuo's eyes bulged.
"Our… our standard Vermillion Bird flame…"
Mu Yuhuang's heart lurched.
"Impossible… how can he directly manipulate the island's Vermillion Bird source…?"
In Ren's palm, the gathered flame compressed.
What had been scattered throughout the hall condensed into a sphere of heat. It did not blaze wildly. It burned inward, light folding into itself.
Around it, Dao lines manifested—subtle at first, then clearer: arcs of sun, feathers of fire, patterns of burning that spoke not of birds…
But of stars.
The sphere elongated.
Feathers bloomed from its blazing core.
A bird took form.
It was not Vermillion Bird.
Its wings were broader, every feather etched with solar Dao patterns. Its eyes were twin suns, pupils drowned in molten gold. The heat it gave off was not the heat of ordinary fire—it was the heat of a star at zenith, of stone turning to glowing liquid in its presence.
Sun Bird.
Every Divine Phoenix cultivator in the hall felt their Phoenix bloodlines tremble.
They shouldn't have.
Divine Phoenix's Vermillion Bird lineage was one of the peak Fire bloodlines in this world. They had always looked down on lesser flames.
But in front of this Sun Bird, their blood felt like a tributary meeting the main river, like lamps flickering before dawn.
Mu Bingyun, who had been quietly observing from the side, unconsciously took half a step forward, eyes widening. Her own Blue Luan bloodline—always slightly colder, sharper, like frost-etched flame—flared. Threads of it reached out toward the Bird as if yearning.
Mu Xiaoqing's Blue Luan blood screamed.
For the first time, she realized there might be something above the "phoenix" she had believed to be the pinnacle of Fire.
The Sun Bird's wings beat once.
It cried.
The sound wasn't loud.
But every flame in the hall answered.
Vermillion Bird phantoms bowed their heads.
Bloodlines stirred—in excitement, in terror, in yearning.
Ren's aura changed.
He didn't circulate some grand pattern on purpose. He simply let the Sun Bird fold its wings around him.
Fire origin energy surged.
Divine Phoenix Island had been built over a vast fire sea; its formations constantly channeled origin energy to nourish disciples and fortify the sect. Now, under the Sun Bird's call, that origin energy gathered like rivers rushing toward an ocean.
It poured into Ren.
His Early Xiantian true essence roared.
In his dantian, his true essence vortex spun at insane speed. Law lines etched through his Spiritual Sea—Fire, Wind, Thunder, Annihilation, Space, Time—flared one by one, their colors interweaving.
The Fire Law lines blazed brightest, molten-gold veins twining together with the Sun Bird's solar Dao.
True essence condensed.
The vortex folded inward, spinning faster and faster until it collapsed to a single point. For a heartbeat, it felt as if his entire being compressed… and then blossomed.
A Revolving Core formed in his dantian.
Not shaky.
Not forced.
Perfect.
Every revolution was smooth. Every thread of Fire Law woven into it was uniform and tightly knit. Wind and Thunder Laws wrapped around it like protective bands, arcs of storm-light pulsing faintly. Strands of Annihilation, Space, and Time traced along its surface, tempering its existence with destruction, distance, and flow.
The core did not simply spin with true essence.
It sang with Laws.
Among the elders, several Revolving Core cultivators felt their own cores tremble in shame.
The pressure that burst from Ren's body made the hall groan.
Mu Chihuo, Mu Qingshu, Elder Yan, and several Revolving Core Great Elders felt their Vermillion Bird flames jolt.
Then—
Their knees hit the floor.
Not because they willingly knelt.
Their bodies simply couldn't remain standing.
It was as if a mountain had settled onto their shoulders. Their Vermillion Bird flames, which had always burned proudly, crouched low inside their meridians, tails tucked, refusing to flare under the Sun Bird's gaze.
"You—!" Mu Chihuo gasped, eyes bloodshot. "How can… our flames… kneel…!"
Ren looked at him mildly, Revolving Core aura rolling off him like sunlight.
"I warned you earlier," he said. "There are levels to Fire."
He didn't send a single wisp of killing intent toward them.
He didn't crush their meridians or interfere with their circulation.
The Sun Bird simply existed.
In existing, it defined a higher rung on the Fire Dao's ladder.
Everything below had no choice but to acknowledge that truth… or break.
Most chose to acknowledge.
On the other side of the hall, things were different.
For the women, the Sun Bird was not a hand pressing them down.
It was a door.
Mu Qianyu's Vermillion Bird flame surged to meet its call.
Thunder-tempered phoenix fire, faintly tinged violet from the Purple Flood Dragon Divine Thunder Ren had woven into her path, exploded in brightness. Sparks of lightning formed among the feathers of her Phoenix phantom—Thunder Phoenix flame trying to molt.
Every beat of the Sun Bird's wings sent waves of new insight crashing into her mind. Law lines she'd seen a thousand times finally connected. Concepts that had sat at the edge of her understanding slid into place.
Bottlenecks that had refused to budge for years loosened.
Mu Yuhuang's phoenix fire shuddered.
For years, she had stood at peak Revolving Core, half a step from Life Destruction. She had walked the Phoenix Mystic Realm's depths, meditated in fire seas, combed Divine Phoenix's inheritance jade slips until their edges wore smooth.
She had believed there were no more "new things" for her to see.
Now, as she watched the Sun Bird, she felt like a young disciple again.
She saw the way its flames folded, the way its feathers contained both destruction and nourishment, the way every plume held Law patterns balancing annihilation and life.
Concepts she'd struggled to express suddenly found form.
Her Dao heart, hardened by centuries, tasted the sweetness of a breakthrough for the first time in a long while.
Mu Bingyun's eyes filled with tears she didn't notice.
Her Blue Luan-tinged Flame responded even more violently. The Luan was a close cousin to the phoenix; the Sun Bird shook her bloodline down to its roots. Inside her, Blue Luan and Vermillion Bird fought for dominance; under the Sun Bird, both bent, finding a new hierarchy.
Mu Xiaoqing clutched at her chest, biting her lip so hard it bled.
Her cultivation was far lower, but the Sun Bird's Dao did not discriminate.
Dormant phoenix runes in her meridians lit up one by one. If she closed her eyes, she could see paths of fire stretching ahead of her—more than she could count, each one a future she had never dared imagine.
And Mu Fengxian—
Founder of Divine Phoenix Island.
Matriarch who had stepped into Life Destruction.
The woman whose Fire art had ruled the South Sea for centuries and whose name made sect masters bow.
Her bloodline trembled.
Not with fear.
With recognition.
In her youth, she had glimpsed indistinct images of an Ancient Phoenix—in old jade slips, deep in the Mystic Realm, in the whispers of the world's Fire Laws.
She had used those fragments to build Divine Phoenix Island.
Now, watching the Sun Bird coiling around Ren, feeling her own Life Destruction aura shrink before it…
She realized the truth.
She had seen a feather.
This boy—this relaxed, smiling, shameless boy—was showing her a whole wing without even trying.
Her Life Destruction aura felt small.
Not because he was forcibly suppressing it.
Because next to that sun, her flame was a lantern in the wind.
Her dry lips parted.
"This…" Her voice shook for the first time in many years. "This is… not from our Divine Phoenix legacy."
Her blood roared.
It wanted to surge, to break through, to chase that Bird's path.
But her body knew its limits. The gap was too large; to force it would be to crack her own foundation.
She swallowed, pressing her restless Fire back with iron will.
When Ren judged that it was enough, he closed his hand.
The Sun Bird folded its wings around itself and collapsed into a condensed sphere. With a gentle flick of his fingers, he scattered it.
The gathered Vermillion Bird essence flowed back into the pillars, the floor, the totem.
Flames in the jade columns flared back to normal. The main Vermillion Bird phantom straightened, eyes clearing.
Ren's Revolving Core aura smoothed.
He didn't completely hide it. He let it linger just at the surface, allowing everyone to feel the perfect revolutions of his core for a few breaths.
Then he dialed it down.
His presence faded back toward Early Xiantian, as if nothing much had happened.
The male elders gasped as the pressure lifted.
Mu Chihuo's forehead glistened with sweat. Mu Qingshu's palms bled where his nails had bitten into them. Elder Yan's Vermillion Bird flame still refused to look up.
They were trembling.
Not from physical strain.
From the knowledge.
They had been made to kneel without a single deliberate attack.
"Monster," someone whispered, voice barely audible.
Mu Qingshu swallowed bitterly.
"If he wished," he thought, chest tight, "he could overturn the entire South Sea's order…"
On the female side of the hall, the quiet felt different.
Not the quiet of fear.
Mu Qianyu's eyes shone.
Mu Yuhuang's lungs felt too small, her mind racing through new Fire paths.
Mu Bingyun's Dao heart pounded with awe and… gratitude.
Mu Xiaoqing's gaze was glued to Ren as if he were a living Dao field.
Mu Fengxian's fingers tightened on her cane.
She had known, when she'd heard of Acacia Peak's destruction and the changes in the South Sea, that this youth was strange.
But knowing with the mind and having one's own Dao shaken were different things.
She studied him.
He stood there with his hands loose at his sides, shoulders relaxed, smile easy—as if he'd just demonstrated a basic technique instead of unveiling a Sun Bird that had made a fourth-grade sect's Fire Dao tremble.
"This," Ren said lightly, as if wrapping up a small performance, "is only a taste."
His eyes moved slowly over the hall.
"Divine Phoenix Island has good bones," he continued. "Your legacy isn't bad. Your bloodlines are excellent. You just… grew too used to your current sky."
He spread his hands slightly.
"If you let me nest here for a while," he said, tone almost playful, "I'll see how many of you can be coaxed into turning your Vermillion Bird flames into something that makes even the heavens squint."
His gaze lingered on Mu Yuhuang, Mu Qianyu, Mu Bingyun, Mu Xiaoqing, then swept across the ranks of female disciples—so many flushed faces, eyes bright, breathing unsteady.
"I promise," he added, voice dropping just enough to make hearts skip, "it'll be fun."
Mu Chihuo recoiled inwardly.
Fun?
To him, overturning their Fire foundations, shaking elders into kneeling, making their Vermillion Bird flames whimper—that was "fun"?
On his side of the hall, horror curdled with a bitter, unwilling awe.
On the female side—
Mu Yuhuang felt something inside quietly settle.
This man's cultivation was unfathomable.
His Fire Laws stood above theirs.
His Revolving Core foundation made their elders' cores feel crude. His Dao heart was steady enough to walk into their sect, crush their flames, flirt with their saintess, and speak of dragging their entire South Sea toward a higher sky without a ripple in his smile.
By all rights, such a person should be terrifying.
He was terrifying.
And yet…
He stood there, hands open, posture loose, smiling like a man inviting companions to watch a sunrise.
There was no greed in his eyes when he looked at their arrays.
No hunger when his gaze moved over their bloodlines.
Only interest.
Amusement.
A calm, unshakable confidence—and a warmth that made the idea of entrusting disciples to him feel less like throwing them to a beast and more like pushing them into a harsher, greater, but oddly kind heaven.
Mu Qianyu's chest rose and fell slowly.
"Ren Ming…" she thought, dazed. "Just how far… do you intend to go…?"
On the high seat, Mu Fengxian's heart—still for a very long time—began to beat faster.
"This boy…" she murmured inwardly.
"He truly is walking a road that intends to crush the sky."
Yet he smiled as if nothing could touch him.
The storm of emotions in the hall thickened.
Awe.
Fear.
Jealousy.
Excitement.
For the men, much of it felt like horror and humiliation.
For Mu Yuhuang, Mu Qianyu, Mu Fengxian, Mu Bingyun, Mu Xiaoqing, and the other female elders and disciples…
It felt like the heavens themselves had cracked open.
A hand had reached down, grabbed their world's ceiling, and pushed it up.
Beyond the shattered limits, a new sky gleamed.