"Sea-Unity Realm?! No—Divine Core Realm!"
Zhang Bo's face drained of all color, his heart hammering against his ribs like a war drum. The pressure rolling off Lu Chen was suffocating—monstrous, far beyond anything a Sea-Unity Realm cultivator could project. How? Everyone said Lu Chen was trash. Fourth level, Body Forging Realm, bottom-tier talent. That was the story, anyway. So how in the hell was he this strong?
"L-Lu Chen… no—Senior Lu!" Zhang Bo's voice cracked. "I was wrong! Spare me, please! Everything I took—it's yours, all of it! I swear, I never touched you myself. That was Zhang Shuo acting on his own. Kill him if you want someone dead. Just let me go!"
Under that crushing pressure, Zhang Bo felt like an ant beneath a boot—small, insignificant, seconds away from being ground into dust. He couldn't die here. Not like this. He was an inner disciple. Destined for the core. Destined to stand above the masses. Sacrificing his brother? He didn't even hesitate. A new brother could be made. His own life? Irreplaceable.
Lu Chen looked down at him with cold contempt. "Weren't you full of yourself a moment ago?" A sneer curled his lips. "Funny how fast that changes."
He flicked a finger. A thread of True Yuan sliced clean through Zhang Bo's ring finger, and the spatial ring flew back into Lu Chen's waiting palm. He wiped it clean and slid it onto his own finger without a second glance.
Zhang Bo screamed inside. Outside, he didn't make a sound. He didn't dare.
The outer disciples watching from a distance exchanged wide-eyed looks. None of them had imagined today would spiral this far out of control.
Lu Chen swept his mind through the ring.
Tens of thousands of low-grade spirit stones. Healing pills, third and fourth-grade. One dark iron spear. Three jade swords. A few hundred stones short, but otherwise—everything was there.
The jade swords gave him a moment's pause. Shen Qing had gifted them to him personally, each one infused with her power—each strike equivalent to a full-strength blow from her own hand. They were trump cards, meant to keep him alive. Instead, his stolen ring had landed him in this mess to begin with. The memory still stoked a quiet, burning anger in his chest.
But that was then.
He activated his Scanning Eye.
The moment it came online, golden system boxes flooded his vision, stacking one over the other in a cascade of opportunity.
[Spatial Ring — Low-Grade | Diameter: 100 ft | Enhancement Cap: ×10,000] Enhance? [Y/N]
[Low-Grade Spirit Stones — 51,603 pcs | High Spiritual Density] Enhance? [Y/N]
[Healing Pills — Third-Grade ×24, Fourth-Grade ×8] Enhance? [Y/N]
[Dark Iron Spear — Mortal Weapon, Peak-Grade] Enhance? [Y/N]
[Sword Qi Jade Swords ×3 — Single Use | Power: Divine Core Realm Sweep] Enhance? [Y/N]
A slow grin spread across Lu Chen's face.
All of it. Every single piece.
"Naturally…" He grinned. "Enhance everything."
He swept his hand through the air. In an instant, a cascade of confirmations lit up his vision, one after another, each one more satisfying than the last. He pulled up the results.
Spatial Ring — Upgraded from Low-Grade to High-Grade. Interior diameter expanded from 100 feet to 100,000 feet.
Spirit Stones — 51,603 low-grade stones converted to 51,603 high-grade stones. One high-grade stone equaled ten thousand low-grade ones.
Healing Pills — Upgraded to twenty-four seventh-grade and eight eighth-grade pills. A single eighth-grade pill could drag a man back from the edge of death.
Dark Iron Spear — Transformed from a low-grade Mortal Weapon into a peak-grade Divine Weapon. The divine pressure radiating from it alone was something even the sect's Divine Ability Realm elders might not be able to match.
Sword Qi Jade Swords — Enhanced to a level capable of cutting through a Soul Palace Realm expert in a single strike. With these three trump cards, who could stand in his way before he reached the Golden Body Realm?
Lu Chen stared at the results for a long moment. Then he laughed—low, quiet, and cold.
With these, he could shake the Azure Sky Sect to its foundations. From the sect's biggest joke to a force capable of toppling it entirely—four days. That's all it had taken.
He briefly entertained the idea of crafting his own single-use strike items from scratch, enhancing them for even greater effect. The bottleneck was obvious: the materials and the restriction arrays required were costly and time-consuming. For now, the three jade swords were more than enough.
He turned his attention to Zhang Shuo, who was still doing a poor job of playing dead on the ground. A flicker of True Yuan pierced into him like a needle. The man's eyes snapped open immediately, blazing with hatred—aimed at Lu Chen, and, unmistakably, at his own brother.
He hated everything about this moment. But he didn't move. Couldn't move. Playing dead might be the only card he had left. Lu Chen was on another level entirely—even Zhang Bo hadn't been a match. Every thought of resistance had been crushed flat before it could form.
"You had your chance to walk away in one piece," Lu Chen said, his voice flat and emotionless. "You chose not to take it."
Before Zhang Shuo could draw breath to speak, the pressure came down. He didn't even have time to scream. One moment he was there—the next, a red mist hung in the air where he'd been.
Lu Chen's gaze shifted.
"Now." His voice dropped to something soft and deliberate—the kind of quiet that made the skin crawl. "It's your turn."
"No—please—I can't die here—!" Zhang Bo was shaking so hard he could barely speak. "I'll tell you who ordered the hit! Just don't kill me!"
Lu Chen paused. "Who?"
"I'll tell you everything, just—"
"You're not negotiating with me." Lu Chen's tone didn't change. "Your life depends on my mood. Make your choice."
"It was Zhao Heng!" The name burst out of him. "Core disciple! He's the one who ordered us to kill you—we would never have gone after you on our own, I swear it!"
Lu Chen tilted his head slightly. Outer disciples. Then inner disciples. Now a core disciple pulling strings. "What's next—a true disciple at the top of the ladder?"
"I told you everything! Please—!"
"I never said I'd spare you." Lu Chen's smile didn't reach his eyes.
"You—you deserve to die! You deserve—!" Zhang Bo's voice broke into something between a scream and a sob.
Lu Chen raised his hand.
"STOP!!!"
The command hit like a thunderclap.
Seven figures dropped from the sky in unison, their auras detonating outward the moment they landed—waves of Divine Core Realm pressure crashing across hundreds of miles of air, bending the world around them. The disciples who hadn't already fled scrambled back, instinctively dropping to their knees.
"The elders—!"
"Outer sect elders, all seven of them—!"
"Wait—is that actually Lu Chen?"
"It is. I'd know his face anywhere."
"But he's supposed to be a waste. A Body Forging Realm trash with no talent—"
"Then what the hell are we looking at right now?!"
The Azure Sky Sect's outer division operated under four pillars: the Outer Discipline Hall, the Task Hall, the Resource Hall, and the Scripture Pavilion. Each was overseen by multiple Outer Sect Elders. Seven had answered the call today.
Elder Wang Wuji stepped forward, his expression thunderous. "Lu Chen. You've butchered over a hundred outer disciples and cut down an inner disciple in broad daylight, in front of witnesses. You are not walking away from this." He jabbed a finger toward the distant hall. "You're coming with us to the Outer Discipline Hall. Now."
Lu Chen glanced at him. "So you're here to arrest me."
"Obviously!" Wang Wuji snapped. "This is the Azure Sky Sect. There are rules. Killing has consequences—"
"Consequences." Lu Chen let the word sit in the air for a moment. "You knew I killed them. Where were you when they were trying to kill me? Where were the consequences then?"
"You're a Divine Core Realm expert!" Wang Wuji's face went red. "They couldn't have killed you!"
"I'm done talking." Lu Chen shook his head and turned toward the inner sect, already walking.
"Stop him!"
Lu Chen didn't slow down. "Step in my way," he said, without looking back, "and you'll regret it."
The seven elders exchanged glances, fury written across every face—but not one of them moved.