The island had settled into rhythm.
Yan Shen descended into the volcano each day and forced the Fire Qi to temper him. The magma chamber became a forge. His body, the blade.
Late Qi-Gathering had stabilized. Dense. Quiet. Heavy.
Each session left his meridians humming and the island faintly warm long after he climbed back to the surface.
On the fourth evening, as he emerged from the basalt tunnel, sweat still evaporating from his skin...
Then
The sea detonated!!
A violent surge of Qi rolled across the water. Not elemental. Not natural.
Combat.
Yan Shen bent his knees slightly... and launched.
The air split around him.
The battlefield lay miles offshore.
Four massive fish-men circled a single silver-scaled youth. Coral armor reinforced their torsos, compressed water spiraling tightly around their limbs.
Middle Foundation Establishment.
Each of them.
Behind them hovered a fifth figure.
Larger. Composed. Dense.
The sea bent subtly around him.
Early Core Formation.
At the center
A single silver colored mermaid.
Early Foundation Establishment. Injured. Bleeding from multiple rents in his scales. Two guards already floating lifeless nearby.
"You've run out of sea, Prince," the Core Formation leader said calmly.
Kaelrin's spear shook, but did not drop.
Out of nowhere Yan Shen descended.
He did not slow.
He impacted.
The ocean compressed beneath him from the sheer force of downward momentum. For a fraction of a second, the water flattened like struck glass
Then exploded outward in a violent ring of displaced sea.
Spray blasted the surrounding attackers off balance.
Yan Shen hovered just above the surface, suspended in air.
Five hostile auras snapped toward him.
The leader's spiritual sense swept over him.
Late Qi-Gathering.
His brows furrowed.
"…You chose the wrong battlefield, human."
Yan Shen glanced once at Kaelrin.
Alive. Stable enough.
Then back to the Core Formation cultivator.
"Kill him," the leader ordered.
Two Middle Foundation attackers surged instantly, tridents forming from condensed sea-pressure.
Yan Shen accelerated.
The first trident met his hand mid-thrust.
It shattered.
His palm struck the cultivator's chest.
The coral armor imploded inward. Spine collapsed. The body dropped without resistance.
The second attacker roared and reinforced his weapon with layered Water Qi.
The strike landed.
The weapon bent.
Yan Shen's elbow moved.
A short, efficient arc.
The skull separated from the body in a concussive rupture.
The sea swallowed both remains.
The remaining two Middle Foundation cultivators hesitated.
That hesitation ended one of them.
Yan Shen crossed the gap faster than their perception could adjust. His leg cut through water resistance as if it were mist. Impact folded the attacker midsection-first. Internal organs ruptured instantly.
The last Middle Foundation cultivator fled downward.
The Core Formation leader moved.
Sea pressure multiplied violently.
A full suppression wave descended, water density increasing tenfold within his domain.
Kaelrin choked under the weight.
Yan Shen did not.
The leader's eyes sharpened.
"Interesting."
The ocean rotated around him. A controlled vortex formed, compressed, bladed water dense enough to carve through stone.
It launched.
Yan Shen flew straight into it.
The vortex collapsed on contact.
Not countered.
Not dispersed.
It simply lost structure around him.
The Core Formation cultivator's composure cracked.
Yan Shen crossed the distance.
The leader reinforced both forearms with condensed Core formation power.
Yan Shen's fist connected.
The defense shattered.
Bone disintegrated. One of his hands mangled
The leader retreated upward instantly, trying to gain altitude.
Yan Shen followed,faster.
They collided above the sea.
The Core Formation cultivator struck with some form of water technique and killing intent.
Yan Shen caught the wrist mid-swing.
Bones compressed audibly.
"Impossible..."
Yan Shen's other hand drove forward into his chest.
Direct.
Precise.
His hand find the core and crushed it.
The leader's aura collapsed instantly.
His body fell.
Silence returned.
Yan Shen hovered above the reddened sea.
Below, Kaelrin stared upward in disbelief.
Four Middle Foundation.
One Early Core Formation.
Erased.
"You're Qi-Gathering," Kaelrin said hoarsely.
"Yes."
"You killed a Core formation."
"Yes."
Kaelrin swallowed slowly.
"You've been cultivating on that island. The Fire pressure spiked these past days. Our patrol sensed it."
Yan Shen's expression didn't shift.
"I know."
"You thought this was about that?"
"For a moment."
Kaelrin shook his head weakly.
"They've tracked us for weeks."
Yan Shen glanced at the floating remains.
"They won't again."
He rose higher into the air.
Kaelrin called out, voice rough:
"You saved me. Why?"
Yan Shen didn't look back.
"You were dying."
And that was sufficient.
He accelerated toward the island.
Behind him, the sea slowly returned to rhythm.
The volcano still breathed.
And the island was no longer quite as quiet as it had been.