Chapter 2: Kneel Before This Venerable One
The heavy doors of the Frost Moon Palace's inner sanctum boomed open, the sound echoing like thunder across the snow dusted courtyard.
Outside, the air was thin and biting cold. A dozen figures stood waiting, their breaths pluming in the freezing atmosphere. These were the pillars of the Frost Moon Palace, the Council of Elders. They wore sweeping white robes embroidered with silver ice patterns, their expressions a mixture of anxiety and greedy anticipation.
At their head stood Great Elder Zhao. He was a withered man with a hawk like nose and eyes like frozen ponds. He was peak Foundation Establishment, just a half step away from the Golden Core realm, and had long resented Su Qinghan's rule.
They were waiting for their Palace Master to emerge as a Spirit Severing cultivator, having consumed the Human Furnace they had procured for her.
Instead, a young man in pitch black robes stepped across the threshold.
Ye Tian's presence was like an ink droplet falling into a bowl of pure milk. His black robes absorbed the light, contrasting sharply with the pristine white surroundings. His ink black hair whipped slightly in the wind, and his eyes held a terrifying, abyssal calm.
The courtyard fell into a dead silence. The elders stared, unable to process the scene.
This was the waste? The mortal village boy with blocked meridians?
"Where is Palace Master Su?" Elder Zhao barked, his voice sharp with suspicion. He scanned Ye Tian, his spiritual sense probing, but it recoiled as if it had hit a wall of adamantine steel. He couldn't read the boy's depth at all. "Boy, why are you still alive? And where did you steal those robes?"
Ye Tian stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at the group of powerful cultivators as if they were ants. A faint, mocking smile played on his lips.
"Your Palace Master is... resting," Ye Tian said smoothly. His voice wasn't loud, yet it carried a strange resonance that vibrated in their chests. "She had an exhausting night. I'm afraid the breakthrough didn't go quite as you planned."
The implication hung in the air, thick and scandalous.
A younger elder, fiery tempered and loyal to Zhao, stepped forward. "Audacious slave! You dare speak with such disrespect? You were brought here to die for the glory of the Frost Moon Palace. If you are alive, it means something has gone terribly wrong. Kneel and accept your interrogation!"
He unleashed his mid stage Foundation Establishment pressure, a wave of freezing Qi rushing toward Ye Tian intended to force him to his knees.
Ye Tian didn't even blink. The freezing Qi hit his body and instantly vanished, absorbed effortlessly by the Sovereign Chaos Body.
"Kneel?" Ye Tian chuckled darkly. "In this world, the strong are respected. You bunch of half dead old farts think you are qualified to make me kneel?"
Before the elder could react to the insult, Ye Tian raised a single finger.
[System Skill Activated: Tyrant's Finger]
A beam of condensed, golden spiritual energy shot from his fingertip. It moved faster than thought.
Bang!
There was a sickening wet crunch. The shouting elder flew backward like a broken kite, crashing into a distant ice pillar. He slumped to the ground, foaming at the mouth, a neat hole punched right through his lower abdomen, his dantian shattered.
A single finger. A Foundation Establishment elder crippled instantly.
The remaining elders gasped, their faces turning ashen. The metallic scent of blood cut through the crisp mountain air.
"Golden Core..." Elder Zhao stammered, taking an involuntary step back. His eyes bulged. "Impossible. You were a mortal yesterday! What devilish art did you use to steal this power?"
"Steal?" Ye Tian stepped down the first stair. The pressure he released was suffocating, a mountain of golden aura that pressed down on their very souls. "I merely took what was offered. Su Qinghan tried to refine me. I refined her instead."
Just then, a soft footstep sounded from the doorway behind Ye Tian.
Su Qinghan emerged. She was wrapped in a fresh, conservative white gown, but her usual lofty, untouchable aura was fractured. Her beautiful face was still flushed with a lingering rose color, her lips slightly swollen. There was a languid weakness in her gait that spoke volumes to the experienced elders.
When she saw the crippled elder bleeding out in the snow, her eyes widened slightly, but she said nothing.
"Palace Master!" Elder Zhao cried out, seeing his savior. "This devil has gone mad! He attacked Elder Li and claims to have... to have defiled you! Quickly, join forces with us to suppress this demon!"
Su Qinghan looked at the desperate Elder Zhao, then at the broad, black robed back of Ye Tian. She felt the residual throb of the golden seal he had placed on her soul, the Eyes of Domination's lingering effect. Her body still hummed with the terrifying pleasure and power of their union. She knew, with chilling certainty, that even at her full strength, she couldn't beat him now.
She walked slowly down the stairs, passing Ye Tian. To the absolute horror of the elders, she did not raise her sword against him.
Instead, she stopped two steps below him, bowed her head slightly in a posture of deference, and spoke in a husky, subdued voice.
"Elder Zhao. Watch your tongue. This person... is now the Master of the Frost Moon Palace."
The silence that followed was heavier than the mountain itself.
"You... you submitted to him?" Elder Zhao's voice shook with fury and disbelief. "You are a Nascent Soul cultivator! The icy jade maiden of the Northern Wastes! You let this... this peasant rut you into submission? You shameless harlot!"
Ye Tian's eyes narrowed. The golden slits of his pupils dilated.
"My property is not for you to insult," Ye Tian stated coldly.
He moved.
It was an instantaneous shift, too fast for the naked eye. He appeared directly in front of Elder Zhao. Before the Great Elder could even conjure a defensive barrier, Ye Tian's hand was wrapped around his throat, lifting him off the ground.
"Since you dislike my rule so much, you can be the first example."
Ye Tian squeezed. The tyrannical Golden Core energy flooded into Zhao's body, not just breaking his neck, but violently rupturing every meridian in his body.
Great Elder Zhao went limp, his eyes wide in final terror, and was tossed aside like garbage.
Ye Tian stood over the corpse, bathed in the terrified gazes of the remaining survivors. He turned to Su Qinghan, who was trembling slightly.
He reached out, hooking a finger under her chin and tilting her beautiful, flushed face up to his. He ignored the audience, treating the powerful sect as his personal backyard.
"Tell them, Qinghan," Ye Tian murmured, his thumb brushing her lower lip, savoring the shiver that ran through her. "Tell them who their new god is."
[Ding! System Achievement Unlocked: Ruthless Tyrant]
Reward: 500 Villain Points.
[New Mission Triggered: Expand the Harem]
Description: A ruler needs more than one concubine. The Frost Moon Palace has a famous Ice Heart Saintess, the sect's top disciple. Subdue her.
Reward: Chaos Sword Art (Heaven Tier).