The air in the city changed that night. It didn't just grow cold; it grew heavy. In the map room of the Lin Estate, the Ex-Patriarch Lin Tian stared at Lin Fei in disbelief.
"You are only at the 4th Stage of Qi Condensation," Lin Tian stammered. "The Shui guards are stronger than you! Their Ancestors will erase you before you even cross the gate!"
Lin Fei didn't look back. He merely tightened his grip on the stolen spatial rings. "A dragon doesn't care how many ants are in a hill. They all crush the same."
With a single step, he vanished into the dark.
THE BREACH: STAGE 4 TO STAGE 6
Lin Fei appeared before the Shui Estate's Azure Mist Formation. He didn't have the high-level Qi to break it normally, so he used his body as a wedge. He slammed his shoulder into the barrier, letting the corrosive mist burn his skin.
Instead of screaming, Lin Fei inhaled. His Saint Demonic Dragon Body treated the formation's energy as raw food.
CRACK.
The barrier shattered. As the energy dispersed, Lin Fei absorbed the fragments. His 4th-stage cultivation roared. By the time he stepped over the threshold, his aura had surged to the 6th Stage. The white scales on his arms grew thicker, sharper.
THE HARVEST OF LIVES: STAGE 6 TO STAGE 8
The Shui guards rushed him—nearly a hundred men. Lin Fei moved like a silver blur. He didn't use a sword; his hands were the only weapons he needed. Every time he tore through a throat or crushed a chest, the Dragon's Hunger triggered. He was literally inhaling the Qi of his dying enemies.
"He's a monster! He's growing stronger with every kill!" a captain screamed before Lin Fei's clawed hand silenced him forever.
As he reached the central courtyard, the blood of fifty men had been refined by his meridians. His body groaned under the pressure of the rapid expansion.
Stage 7...
Stage 8!
His white hair began to shimmer with a faint, crystalline light. His physical strength was now so immense that his footsteps left craters in the stone tiles.
THE ANCESTORS' FALL: THE PEAK OF QI
The three Shui Ancestors—Foundation Establishment masters—erupted from the inner sanctum. They saw a youth drenched in blood, his aura vibrating with a terrifying, unstable power.
"You dare use our disciples as cultivation furnace?!" the lead Ancestor roared, swinging a massive broadsword.
Lin Fei caught the blade with his bare palm. The metal screamed and snapped. "Your disciples were weak. Their Qi was sour. I hope yours tastes better."
Lin Fei drove his fist into the Ancestor's Dantian. He didn't just kill the man; he triggered a Sovereign Extraction. The Foundation-level Qi of the Ancestor was ripped out and forced into Lin Fei's own meridians.
"STAGE 9... BREAK!"
The air around the estate imploded. Lin Fei had reached the Peak of Qi Condensation in less than an hour of combat. He was no longer a Stage 4 junior; he was a Peak Stage 9 Rakshasa, standing atop a mountain of corpses.
He impaled the remaining two Ancestors on pillars of their own broken weapons. Not a single soul was spared. He moved through the estate like a divine plague until the only sound left was the crackling of fires.
He stripped the treasury, taking the Earth-Vein Essence, and left the blood-written message on the wall:
"THOSE WHO LOOK UPON THE DRAGON SHALL KNOW ONLY SILENCE."
Lin Fei has reached the Peak (Stage 9) through the slaughter of an entire clan.