Old Lady Shen's Prison
"Old Lady Shen… I know you can hear me."
Doctor Lu Cheng stood outside the weathered wooden door of the mountain hut beside qinghe village. His voice was thick with a month of exhaustion. "You don't have to do this. It isn't your fault that we couldn't save the boy. But it has been two months… you can't stay locked away forever."
Silence was his only answer.
Lu Cheng sighed, his palm lingering on the wood before he turned away.
A few paces from the house sat a simple, clean grave. It was Xinyi's resting place. Lu Cheng knelt, his eyes dimming as he looked at the headstone.
"Xinyi… your son is in a place where neither I nor the Old Lady can reach him. We don't even know if he breathes." He clenched his fists. "If your soul is still wandering, please… guide him home." Immediately he stand up, turn around and vanished.
Inside the hut, Old Lady Shen sat in the shadows. Her eyes trembled.
I failed you, Xinyi, she whispered to the darkness. This is my penance. To wither away in this room.
But then, her head snapped up.
A ripple of sheer, jagged power moved through the air. Even miles away, her refined senses caught the metallic tang of high-level Sword Qi.
This pressure…
Her pupils dilated. A Sect Elder. Han Yue.
She stood up, her instincts screaming at her to grab her staff and fly there immediately. But then she froze. She looked at her trembling hands and sat back down, closing her eyes tight.
No. This is my punishment. I will not interfere.
The Siege of Qinghe
Two kilometers away, Doctor Lu Cheng felt the world turn cold. A terrifying weight was dropping from the sky, moving with the speed of a falling star.
"Someone powerful is coming," Lu Cheng hissed.
As the presence closed to one kilometer, his face went pale. "Shit! It's him!"
He lunged toward the village center, his voice booming like a physical strike. "EVERYONE! ACTIVATE THE FORMATION SHIELD! NOW!"
The village, who as trained by years of living kilometer away from the Terrifying Forbidden Mountain, moved as one. Vendors dropped their crates; children were snatched into cellars. One of the village brought out the formation plate, here it is, okay Lu cheng replied. In an instant Lu Cheng's fingers blurred as he threw rapid hand seals. The artifact seller sprinted forward, slamming four high-grade spirit stones into the formation plates.
The plates began to spin, rising into the air and glowing with an ancient, golden light.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A massive golden barrier erupted, domes of light interlocking until the entire village was encased in a shimmering shield.
High above, a figure appeared out of thin air.
Elder Han Yue stood in the sky, his robes fluttering in the wind of his own making. Every step he took on the air released a visible shockwave that made the golden barrier ripple.
"Oh?" Han Yue smirked, looking down at the glowing dome. "So this is the little rat hole. It took me far too long to find you people."
He descended slowly, landing softly on the air just meters above the shield. His gaze was like a physical blade, cutting through the villagers' courage.
"A Core Formation cultivator…" someone whispered, their voice shaking with terror.
Lu Cheng stepped forward, looking up through the golden light. "What do you want from us? This is just a quiet village of market's,farmers, and doctors!"
Han Yue laughed, a cold, echoing sound. "Don't waste my time,and stop all this acting. Doctor. My investigation is complete. There is a hidden passage to the Forbidden Mountain's core, and this village is the key." His eyes narrowed. "Lead me to it" and.
"There is no such passage!" Lu Cheng shouted back. "You're chasing ghosts!"
The smile on Han Yue's face didn't just fade, it died.
The air around him began to hum with blue spiritual flames. "Did you just… interrupt me?"
You dare interrupted me,as I speak, haha.He looked at the golden shield with genuine annoyance. "What an irritating formation. But don't think this thin skin of light will protect you. I know you know the way. Don't make me ask again."
"And if I don't?" Lu Cheng gritted his teeth, his own Qi rising in a desperate, tiny flicker compared to the Elder's sun-like brilliance.
Han Yue's eyes turned into twin voids of ice.
"Then… I will burn this village to the ground. I will sift through your ashes to find the map myself."
BOOM!
Han Yue released his full spiritual pressure. The ground outside the shield shattered, and the golden barrier groaned under the weight of a Mid-Core Formation master's wrath.
Qinghe Village shook to its very foundations.