The air atop the Misty Cloud Peak had turned into a pressurized vacuum. The thousands of disciples below had long since retreated, their ears bleeding from the mere hum of the two opposing auras. On one side stood Yun Shan, a Dou Zong whose grey energy felt like the cold, stagnant breath of a tomb. Opposite him, suspended by the sheer kinetic force of his 8x-Multiplied Qi, was Xiao Chen.
"You dare look down upon me from the same height, child?" Yun Shan's voice was a grating rasp. He waved his hand, and the clouds for ten miles around condensed into thousands of jagged, ice-hard mist spears. "In the realm of Dou Zong, I am the master of space! Die!"
Fwoosh!
The spears rained down with the speed of falling stars.
The 8x Absolute Defense
Chen didn't blink. With his 8x Soul Perception, every spear was moving through the air like a fly trapped in honey. He didn't dodge. He crossed his arms, and the [Heavenly Green Armor] rippled.
Instead of a simple layer of Qi, the armor expanded into a rotating sphere of emerald glass.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The spears, capable of piercing a mountain, shattered against the green sphere as if they were made of toothpicks. The recoil sent shockwaves through the air, creating a ring of thunder that cleared the sky of every last cloud.
"My turn," Chen whispered.
He vanished.
Yun Shan's eyes widened. As a Dou Zong, he could "lock" space, making it impossible for enemies to move fast. But Chen's 8x Physical Strength was so immense that he was literally tearing through the space-lock by brute force.
BOOM!
Chen appeared in front of Yun Shan, his fist glowing with a concentrated, white-hot spark of the Green Lotus Core Flame.
"8x... VOLCANIC BURST!"
The punch landed squarely on Yun Shan's defensive barrier. The barrier, which could withstand the bombardment of an army, bent inward like a soap bubble before exploding.
Yun Shan was sent hurtling through the air, crashing through three separate mountain peaks before slamming into the Sect's Ancestral Hall.
The Terror of the Earth Realm Soul
"Ancestor!" Yun Yun cried out, her face a mask of horror.
From the ruins of the hall, a pillar of grey light erupted. Yun Shan emerged, his robes tattered, his face contorted in a demonic rage. "I will shred your soul! [Skill: Grand Cloud-Mist Soul-Devouring Wave]!"
A massive, ghostly image of a serpent made of grey fog rose behind Yun Shan. This was a soul-attack—the ultimate weapon against those with higher physical strength but lower spiritual maturity.
Xiao Yan, watching from the stairs, felt his head spin just from the residual leak of the soul-wave. "Brother Chen! Watch out! That attack targets the mind!"
Even Yao Lao's spirit within the ring trembled. "That old dog is desperate! Chen's soul might be strong, but—"
Yao Lao's voice died in his throat.
Chen didn't scream. He didn't collapse. Instead, he stood tall, and his emerald eyes turned into pools of pure, liquid gold. The 8x Soul Multiplier fully engaged.
[Soul Skill: 8x Emerald Emperor's Gaze]
An invisible pressure, heavier than the ocean and sharper than a divine blade, erupted from Chen's forehead. It didn't just meet Yun Shan's soul-wave; it crushed it.
The ghostly serpent let out a silent, agonizing shriek before dissolving into nothingness. Yun Shan let out a blood-curdling scream, clutching his head as his own soul backfired.
"You... your soul..." Yun Shan gasped, blood leaking from his eyes. "You're at the Earth Realm? How?! You are only a boy!"
"The problem with you old men," Chen said, walking through the air as if on invisible stairs, "is that you think time is the only way to gain power. But the System... the System doesn't care about your years."
The Final Execution
Chen reached into his sleeve. The Seven-Colored Python (Medusa) sensed the end was near and leaped out, expanding in mid-air into a ten-meter-long shimmering dragon-snake. She let out a roar that shook the foundations of the empire.
"Medusa?!" Yun Shan's voice broke. "The Queen of the Desert?! Why is she with you?!"
"She's my partner," Chen said, his voice cold. "And she's hungry."
Chen and Medusa struck simultaneously. Chen channeled his 8x Green Wood Qi into Medusa, amplifying her 7th-tier power. She became a streak of rainbow fire, while Chen became a jade meteor.
[Skill: 8x Heaven-Swallowing Emerald Strike]
The collision was silent for a heartbeat, and then—the entire top of the Misty Cloud Mountain disappeared.
The explosion was seen from the Imperial Capital hundreds of miles away. A mushroom cloud of green and purple fire rose into the stratosphere.
When the light faded, the Great Hall was gone. The Ancestral statues were dust. And Yun Shan... the great Dou Zong... was pinned to the ground by a single, glowing emerald spear made of Qi.
He was alive, but his cultivation was gone. His meridians were scorched beyond repair.
The New Order
Chen stood over the fallen Ancestor, his breathing calm, his 8x-foundation already beginning to pull energy from the surrounding atmosphere to replenish his reserves.
He turned to the thousands of terrified disciples and the trembling Yun Yun.
"The Misty Cloud Sect has lived for too long as a bully," Chen's voice carried to every ear on the mountain. "As of today, this Sect is disbanded. Those who wish to stay and practice the true way may remain under Yun Yun's leadership—as a subsidiary of the Xiao Clan. Those who wish to continue Yun Shan's path of arrogance... leave now, or stay here as fertilizer for the mountain."
No one moved. The silence was a testament to the absolute terror Xiao Chen had instilled.
He walked over to Xiao Yan, who was looking at the ruins of the mountain in a daze.
"Yan-er," Chen said, ruffling his hair. "I believe your 'Three-Year Agreement' is officially over. You don't need to challenge the disciple when you've already seen the Ancestor fall."
Xiao Yan looked at the broken Yun Shan, then at his cousin. "Brother Chen... where do we go from here?"
Chen looked toward the distant horizon, toward the Central Plains where the truly powerful clans resided. "We go higher, Yan-er. The 8x multiplier is fun, but I've been doing the math... and I really want to see what 16x feels like."
In the shadow of the fallen sect, a new era had begun. The era of the Infinite Doubler.