Night Tomb fell into absolute, tranquil silence.
Li-Wen sat cross-legged on the cold, green jade mat, his body floating three inches off the floor as a dense, dark-purple aura swirled around him like a miniature cosmic galaxy.
Floating in front of his chest was the liquefied Spatial Sovereign Source. The ancient, dark-purple liquid vibrated rhythmically, breaking down into millions of fine, glowing spatial strands that seeped directly into his pores, flooding into his Dantian and merging into his Divine Spiritual Core.
RUMBLE—!
Deep within his Dantian, a celestial transformation was unfolding. The silver-gold liquid Ki within his meridians expanded exponentially, becoming denser, heavier, and far more concentrated. The translucent golden bones of his Jade-Bone Foundation vibrated with divine resonance, absorbing the spatial essence until a faint, cosmic purple hue permanently interwoven into his golden skeletal structure.
His cultivation momentum surged forward like an unstoppable, roaring ocean wave!
CRACK!
An audible, soul-shaking shockwave erupted from his chest, rippling outward and cracking the surrounding obsidian walls!
Earth-Realm—Fourth Stage!
The Middle Earth-Realm barrier was shattered effortlessly!
His Ki reserves doubled instantly, and his divine consciousness expanded from three miles to a staggering eight miles! His physical striking force leaped from one hundred and twenty thousand pounds to an astounding two hundred thousand pounds!
Li-Wen opened his eyes slowly. Two dark-purple spatial runes flashed brilliantly within his golden pupils before vanishing into his deep, calm irises.
He landed softly on his feet, examining his open palms.
"Fourth Stage of the Earth-Realm," Li-Wen murmured smoothly, his voice carrying an ancient, absolute authority. "With my present foundation, ordinary Sixth and Seventh-Stage Earth-Realm cultivators are no different from insects. Even against a Peak Ninth-Stage Earth-Realm expert, I can crush them using my physical body alone."
He raised his head, looking toward the heavy stone ceiling of the subterranean chamber.
Through his expanded divine consciousness, he could feel that the three-day trial period of the Sovereign Night Ruins was coming to a close. The spatial boundaries of the ruins were beginning to fluctuate, preparing to expel all surviving participants.
However, as Li-Wen's divine consciousness pushed past the black mountain toward the exit, his brow furrowed slightly.
Waiting directly outside the grand archway of the mountain were not just regional disciples or minor elders. He sensed two suffocating, sky-crushing auras hovering in the air—auras that surpassed the Earth-Realm entirely!
It was the terrifying, oppressive pressure of genuine Heaven-Realm Powerhouses!
"The Lin Clan and the Vice Governor's faction..." Li-Wen's lips curled into a cold, indifferent smile, though a sharp glint of alertness flared in his eyes. "They reacted faster than expected. Sending Heaven-Realm old monsters to personally block the exit."
Li-Wen did not hesitate or linger. He adjusted his light-grey robes, turned around, and stepped out of the secret chamber, heading calmly down the long obsidian corridor toward the mountain exit.
Outside the Sovereign Night Tomb, at the wide, stone-paved plaza at the base of the central black mountain.
The sky above the ruins was darkening into an ominous, blood-red twilight as the ancient portal prepared to collapse. Hundreds of surviving young participants from various regional sects were gathered near the exit, waiting anxiously to be teleported back to Azure Sky City plaza.
However, the atmosphere near the exit was terrifyingly tense, frozen in an ice-cold, suffocating fear.
Floating fifty feet in the air above the main archway were two formidable figures.
On the left stood an old man in blood-red elder robes. His long white hair fluttered wildly in the howling mountain wind, and his eyes burned with demonic, bloodthirsty murder. Around his body, a dense, crimson flame burned continuously, distorting the surrounding air—this was the Grand Ancestor of the Lin Clan, Lin Cang-Hai, a formidable Second-Stage Heaven-Realm Expert!
On the right stood a middle-aged man in heavy, dark-steel dragon armor, holding a massive black warhammer that hummed with lightning—the Chief Marshal of the Azure Sky City Guard, a First-Stage Heaven-Realm Powerhouse!
Behind them, dozens of elite Lin Clan elders and City Guard captains formed a tight, inescapable encirclement around the entire mountain exit!
"Grand Ancestor! Young Master Lin Zhan's soul plaque broke hours ago!" a trembling Lin Clan elder on the ground reported, kneeling before the floating old man. "And Vice Governor Lord Zhao's life token has also been extinguished inside the main chamber of the tomb!"
"WHAT?!"
Lin Cang-Hai's roar shook the surrounding black mountains like a divine thunderbolt!
BOOM—!
The terrifying, unsuppressed pressure of a Second-Stage Heaven-Realm expert erupted completely, causing hundreds of nearby young geniuses to collapse onto their knees, spitting fresh blood in sheer horror!
"WHO DID IT?!" Lin Cang-Hai screamed hysterically, his voice filled with venomous, demonic rage. "Who dared to slaughter my Lin Clan's top genius and the Vice Governor of Azure Sky City?!"
At that exact moment, the dark-purple barrier across the grand archway hummed softly.
A calm, grey-robed youth stepped casually out of the grand archway of the Sovereign Night Tomb.
Li-Wen walked with unhurried, steady steps. His aura was intentionally concealed at the Second Stage of the Earth-Realm, and his expression remained completely unbothered by the suffocating atmosphere around him.
The moment he stepped into the light, Young Master Ye and the surviving City Guard captain—who were cowering in the crowd—pointed their shaking fingers at Li-Wen with frantic, bloodthirsty screams!
"IT'S HIM! GRAND ANCESTOR LIN! CHIEF MARSHAL! IT'S THAT GREY-ROBED RAT!"
"He killed Young Master Lin Zhan! He killed Lord Zhao and absorbed the tomb's supreme ancient inheritance!"
SWOOSH!
Thousands of shocked, terrified gazes locked onto Li-Wen in an instant!
Lin Cang-Hai's blood-red eyes instantly fixed onto Li-Wen, his expression twisting into a demonic, horrifying sneer.
"A SECOND-STAGE EARTH-REALM BUG?!" Lin Cang-Hai howled in furious disbelief, his voice echoing across the desolate valley. "Little bastard! You dared to destroy the future of my Lin Clan! Today, I will peel your skin, tear your sinews, and burn your soul in hellfire for ten thousand years!"
BOOM!
Lin Cang-Hai didn't offer a single word of banter or warning. As an old monster of the Heaven-Realm, he struck with absolute, lethal force to ensure complete obliteration!
He reached down with his right palm, condensing his Heaven-Realm crimson Ki into a hundred-foot blood-red giant palm that slammed down toward Li-Wen from the sky like a falling meteor!
BOOM—!
The sheer air pressure compressed the stone ground beneath Li-Wen's feet by three feet, shattering the cobblestones into fine dust and locking down all spatial retreat routes within a thousand-foot radius!
Faced with the full, lethal strike of a Second-Stage Heaven-Realm expert, Li-Wen's golden pupils flared with supreme, ancient brilliance!
"Heaven-Realm..." Li-Wen's heart beat calmly, but his mind calculated the reality with brutal precision.
His current physical body and Fourth-Stage Earth-Realm cultivation were formidable, but the gap between the Earth-Realm and the Heaven-Realm was a massive, qualitative divide of martial laws!
He could not dodge under the locked spatial pressure! He had to take it head-on!
Void Sovereign Technique: First Stance—Sovereign Tyrant Fist!
Li-Wen unleashed the full, unsuppressed power of his Fourth-Stage Earth-Realm cultivation! The translucent gold luster of his Jade-Bone Foundation flared through his light-grey robes as two hundred thousand pounds of physical force, combined with his dense silver-gold liquid Ki, exploded into a blinding golden sun from his knuckles!
BOOM—!
Li-Wen threw a divine, straightforward punch directly into the sky to meet the descending hundred-foot blood palm!
A catastrophic explosion detonated at the base of the black mountain!
The shockwave pulverized surrounding stone pillars into fine powder, blasting dozens of nearby cultivators backward like dried leaves, their ears bleeding from the deafening roar!
CRACK!
The hundred-foot crimson blood palm was actually cracked by Li-Wen's physical punch!
However, the overwhelming, terrifying rebound force of genuine Heaven-Realm Ki surged directly back through Li-Wen's arm into his body!
PUNCH!
Li-Wen's light-grey robes tore open at the shoulders! Blood spurts erupted from his lips as his feet dragged back eighty feet across the shattered stone floor, leaving two deep, bloody trenches!
His internal meridians burned, and his Jade-Bone Foundation hummed wildly, absorbing seventy percent of the deadly impact. But the remaining thirty percent of Heaven-Realm force crashed into his internal organs, forcing a heavy mouthful of fresh, dark blood onto his chest!
He was injured!
"HE SURVIVED?!"
"An Earth-Realm cultivator took a direct hit from Grand Ancestor Lin Cang-Hai and didn't explode into blood mist?!"
The surrounding crowd let out screams of utter disbelief!
Lin Cang-Hai's eyes widened in profound, ice-cold shock, followed immediately by endless, greedy murder. "A body-refining technique capable of withstanding my Heaven-Realm force?! You definitely obtained a supreme ancient secret inside the tomb! Chief Marshal, strike together! Do not give him a single breath!"
"UNDERSTOOD!"
The Chief Marshal roared, leaping eighty feet into the air beside Lin Cang-Hai!
His massive black warhammer flared with violent, blue thunderbolts, transforming into a hundred-foot thunder hammer projection that sliced through the air!
At the same time, Lin Cang-Hai bit his tongue, spitting essence blood to ignite his crimson flames, forming a three-headed blood-dragon phantom that roared as it dived toward Li-Wen!
Two Heaven-Realm experts unleashed their absolute pinnacle killing moves simultaneously!
The combined pressure of thunder and blood flames crushed the air, turning the canyon floor into a literal hell on earth!
Li-Wen stood in the center of the crater, wiping the blood from his chin with his sleeve. His light-grey robes were soaked in blood, his breathing heavy, and several of his ribs cracked under the immense pressure.
Looking up at the descending thunder hammer and the three-headed blood dragon, Li-Wen's dark eyes showed neither panic nor despair—only an ice-cold, murderous detachment.
"Two Heaven-Realm old dogs jumping a junior..." Li-Wen whispered softly, his voice cold enough to freeze the air. "Today's debt... I, Li-Wen, will repay in blood tenfold in the future."
He knew that with his current injuries, taking another combined strike from two Heaven-Realm experts would completely destroy his physical foundation and likely cost him his life!
He was pushed to the absolute edge of death!
SWOOSH!
Li-Wen reached into his inner sleeve, his blood-stained fingers gripping a dark-purple, rune-carved ancient jade talisman he had retrieved from the Sovereign Night Tomb—the Void Spatial Escape Talisman!
"DIE, RAT!" Lin Cang-Hai screamed in hysterical delight, his blood dragon reaching just twenty feet above Li-Wen's head!
"BREAK!" Li-Wen roared in his heart, injecting his remaining silver-gold Ki into the purple talisman!
CRACK!
The ancient Void Talisman shattered into a blinding, dark-purple spatial vortex!
HUMMM—!
A wave of wild, uncontrolled spatial energy wrapped around Li-Wen's bloody body, violently tearing open a rift in the fabric of space behind him!
"SPATIAL TALISMAN?! STOP HIM!" Lin Cang-Hai shrieked in horror, plunging his blood palm down with desperate speed!
BOOM—!
The combined thunder hammer and blood dragon struck the spatial vortex, detonating with catastrophic force!
Although the spatial vortex sucked Li-Wen into the void a fraction of a second before the full blast landed, the residual, explosive wave of Heaven-Realm thunder and blood flames still slammed directly into his back as he vanished into the rift!
"AGHH!"
A muffled groan of pain echoed from within the tearing space before the rift snapped shut with a deafening pop!
Silence fell over the shattered plaza.
The crater where Li-Wen had stood was reduced to a seventy-foot deep pit of molten rock and char.
Lin Cang-Hai and the Chief Marshal landed heavily beside the crater, their expressions darker than coal.
"Dammit! HE ESCAPED!" the Chief Marshal cursed furiously, slamming his warhammer onto the ground. "He used an ancient spatial talisman!"
Lin Cang-Hai gritted his teeth so hard blood trickled from his lips. He closed his eyes, sensing the chaotic spatial currents that had carried Li-Wen away.
"He took a direct hit from our combined residual force while entering an unstable spatial rift," Lin Cang-Hai said in a cold, venomous voice. "His meridians are definitely destroyed, his organs pulverized! Even if he didn't die inside the spatial turbulence, he is at death's door!"
Lin Cang-Hai turned his head, looking toward his elders with blood-red eyes.
"Issue an absolute extermination order across the entire province!" Lin Cang-Hai roared softly. "Search every forest, every mountain, and every border! Find that grey-robed rat's corpse and bring me his ring!"
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away from Azure Sky City.
High above an unknown, frozen mountain range covered in perpetual snowstorms and dark mist.
CRACK!
A jagged, dark-purple spatial fissure tore open in the middle of the stormy sky fifty feet above a jagged, icy cliff!
A bloody, battered figure in torn grey robes fell violently out of the spatial rift, tumbling like a broken leaf through the freezing air!
BANG!
Li-Wen's body slammed heavily onto the hard, frozen snow, rolling through the ice rocks for dozens of yards before crashing against the base of a giant, frost-covered pine tree.
"Cough... COUGH!"
Li-Wen coughed violently, spitting out several mouthfuls of dark, coagulated blood onto the white snow, staining it a crimson red.
His light-grey robes were completely shredded, drenched in his own blood. Inside his body, the situation was catastrophic—his meridians were twisted and fractured from the Heaven-Realm Ki rebound, three of his ribs were completely broken, and his Dantian was trembling from the violent spatial shockwave!
He was severely injured, hovering right at the precipice of death!
If not for the supreme density of his Jade-Bone Foundation and the ancient protection of his Divine Spiritual Core, his body would have dissolved into blood mist inside the spatial rift!
Li-Wen lay on the freezing snow, his vision blurring as cold mountain wind howled around him.
He forced his trembling left hand to move, pulling a single, glowing healing pill from his spatial ring and shoving it into his mouth. The cool medicine dissolved down his throat, barely stabilizing his fading life force.
He slowly turned his head, his dim golden eyes looking around the desolate landscape.
The air here was bitterly cold, saturated with heavy, wild ice-attribute spiritual energy. In the distance, towering white mountain peaks pierced through black storm clouds, and the distant, blood-chilling roars of unknown primal beasts echoed through the foggy valleys.
"I managed... to escape..." Li-Wen breathed weakly, white mist puffing from his lips.
He knew he had survived the deadly ambush of the two Heaven-Realm experts, but his current condition was the weakest and most dangerous it had ever been since his rebirth.
Any low-tier demon beast or passing cultivator could easily end his life right now.
He needed to find a hidden, secure place to hide and heal before his enemies or local predators discovered him.
Li-Wen gritted his teeth, using every ounce of his remaining willpower to drag his shattered, bloody body through the deep snow, leaving a trail of red blood as he crawled toward the dark, misty mouth of a nearby frozen valley...
See you in next chapter...