The blue sky Han Feng had brought to the mountain lasted exactly three hours.
By sunset, the horizon didn't turn orange; it turned a bruised, metallic green. A pressure descended upon the Sanctuary of the Pure Path that made the previous "Stage 8" power of Elder Li feel like a summer breeze. This was the Imperial Will—the weight of a dynasty that had fed on the souls of millions for ten thousand years.
Han Feng stood on the highest balcony of the sect, his hand resting on the Heaven-Shatter Scabbard. His Stage 4 Crystalline Foundation was vibrating, not with power, but with a warning.
"They're here," Lin Xiruo whispered. Her silver eyes were fixed on a single black dot in the distance that was expanding with impossible speed. "The Imperial Envoys. They are at the Core Formation Realm. Han Feng, we have to leave. Now. Your purification hasn't reached the roots of the mountain yet—you can't fight an Empire with a half-cleaned sect."
"I have the Mirror," Han Feng said, his voice tight. Success had bred a dangerous confidence in his chest. He had defeated the Elders; he had cleansed the Phoenix Core. He felt invincible. "The Mirror doesn't care about their rank. Filth is filth."
"Han Feng, listen to me!" Lin Xiruo grabbed his arm, her grip bruisingly tight. "A Core Formation expert doesn't just use Tainted Qi. They use Tainted Laws. The Mirror is Stage 2... you are Stage 4. You are trying to drink an ocean with a straw!"
But it was too late.
The black dot arrived with a sonic boom that shattered every window in the Sanctuary. A man landed in the center of the courtyard, creating a crater fifty feet wide.
He wore armor made of Veridian Soul-Jade, which pulsed with a sickly green luminescence. He didn't carry a weapon; he simply stood there, his presence causing the newly sprouted white flowers to turn into black, liquid rot instantly.
This was Envoy Verde, a Level 1 Core Formation expert of the Emerald Empire.
"So," Verde said, his voice echoing with the power of a thousand buzzing insects. "This is the 'Sanitizer' who thinks he can stop the Emperor's tithe. You've cleaned a mountain, boy. Do you have any idea how much effort it takes to keep this world properly decayed?"
"It ends here," Han Feng roared. He didn't wait. He drew the Azure Phoenix Wing and held the Purification Mirror aloft. "Refine!"
A pillar of absolute white light shot toward Verde. It was the strongest attack Han Feng had ever launched—a concentrated beam of 100% pure essence.
Envoy Verde didn't move. He simply raised a single finger.
"Law of the Eternal Rot."
The green jade on his armor flashed. The white beam of the Mirror, which had disintegrated the Elders, hit an invisible wall of green energy. Instead of purifying it, the white light began to turn green.
Han Feng's eyes widened. "What...?"
"Your mirror purifies Qi," Verde sneered, stepping through the beam as if it were a light mist. "But I am the Law. You are a child trying to wash a mountain with a cup of water. You lack the Mass to clean me."
Verde flicked his finger.
A bolt of green lightning struck the Mirror.
CRACK.
A hairline fracture appeared across the surface of the Primordial Purification Mirror. Han Feng let out a scream of agony as the feedback hit his Dantian. His Crystalline Foundation, once so stable, began to vibrate with microscopic cracks. He was thrown backward, crashing through three stone walls before landing in the wreckage of the Grand Hall.
Han Feng lay in the rubble, his vision swimming in red. He tried to call upon the Mirror, but it remained dark. For the first time, the artifact was silent. He was just a Stage 4 youth facing a God.
Envoy Verde walked toward him, his boots crunching on the stone. "A pity. Such a beautiful toy. I shall take it back to the Emperor. As for you... your blood is strangely clean. I think I'll keep you in a jar as a curiosity."
Verde reached out to grab Han Feng's throat.
BOOM.
The ground between them exploded. A massive, rusted iron cauldron, twenty feet wide, slammed into the earth, separating Han Feng from the Envoy.
"Who dares?" Verde roared, his green Qi flaring.
"An old man looking for scraps," a raspy, drunken voice echoed from the sky.
An old man, dressed in rags that smelled of fermented peaches and old iron, sat atop the rim of the cauldron. He held a gourd of wine in one hand and a broken bamboo broom in the other. He looked like a common mortal beggar, yet Envoy Verde had stopped in his tracks.
"The Mad Alchemist?" Verde hissed, his arrogance replaced by a flicker of genuine fear. "This is Imperial business, Old Man. Why do you care about this trash?"
"I don't care about the boy," the old man cackled, taking a long swig of wine. "I care about the mess. You're getting green slime all over my favorite mountain. Now, leave. Or I'll turn your Soul-Jade into a chamber pot."
Verde hesitated. He looked at Han Feng, then at the old man. The "Law" of the Empire was absolute, but the Mad Alchemist was a legend whose cultivation was a mystery even to the Emperor.
"This isn't over," Verde spat. He vanished in a streak of green light, his departure shaking the peaks once more.
Han Feng tried to stand, but his legs gave way. He looked at the cracked Mirror in his hand and felt a crushing weight of failure. "I was... I wasn't strong enough. The Mirror failed."
The old man hopped down from the cauldron and walked over to Han Feng. He didn't offer a hand. He just looked at the cracked artifact.
"The Mirror didn't fail you, boy," the old man said, his eyes suddenly sharp and clear. "You failed the Mirror. You thought 'Purity' was a weapon you could swing like a club. You thought because you were 'Clean,' the world would just bow down."
He tapped the crack on the Mirror.
"Purity isn't the absence of dirt, Han Feng. It's the strength to stay clean while submerged in it. You tried to push the world away. You should have learned to flow through it."
Han Feng looked at the crack. As he stared, his mind began to spiral. He saw the way the green lightning had entered the Mirror—it hadn't broken the glass; it had overwhelmed the capacity.
enlightenment! *
He realized his mistake. He had been using the Mirror as a shield. But a shield can always be broken by a heavier hammer. He needed to use the Mirror as a Filter. He didn't need to push the Envoy's energy back; he needed to process it.
[System Notification: Profound Enlightenment Attained.]
[New Technique Concept: The Void-Filter Heart.]
[Mirror Status: Damaged (Repair required: Star-Silk and Dragon-Marrow).]
"I need to get stronger," Han Feng whispered, his fingers tracing the crack. "I need to fix it."
"Then stop playing King of the Hill," the old man said, tossing him a map. "The Emerald Empire is hosting a 'Great Refining Competition' in the capital. The prize is a strand of Star-Silk. If you can get in there without being caught, you might just save your little toy."
Han Feng looked at the map, then at his two companions emerging from the ruins. He was no longer the arrogant conqueror of a minor sect. He was a fugitive, a broken cultivator with a cracked god-tier tool.
He was finally ready to start the real journey.