The seven days melted away like snow beneath a scorching sun. When the morning dawn broke over Azure Mist City, the central martial grounds of the Wu Estate were already packed with hundreds of spectators.
News of the altered assessment format had leaked throughout the city, drawing not only members of the main and branch lines of the Wu clan, but also representatives from rival merchant families, rogue cultivators, and wealthy town elders.
At the center of the vast stone square stood the main attraction—a terrifying structure that sent chills down the spines of the onlookers.
It was the Iron-Cage Arena. A high-walled, thirty-foot ring encased entirely in heavy, black refined-steel bars, reinforced with blood-repelling runes. Once the heavy iron gate slammed shut, only one combatant would walk out alive or victorious.
High above the arena, on an elevated wooden viewing pavilion, sat the clan elders and distinguished guests.
Second Elder Wu-Guang sat in a lavish velvet chair, sipping dark tea with an insufferable smirk on his face. Beside him, dressed in his crisp white and gold Academy robes, sat Deacon Han. The judge's cold, hawk-like eyes lazily scanned the crowd below, occasionally glancing at the iron cage with practiced indifference.
In the center seat of honor sat Clan Head Wu-Wen. His expression was calm, but his knuckles were white as he gripped the armrests of his carved wooden chair.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
A heavy bronze gong echoed three times across the square, drowning out the loud murmurs of the crowd.
Second Elder Wu-Guang stood up, stepping to the edge of the pavilion. His voice, amplified by Sixth-Stage Ki, boomed over the martial grounds.
"Members of the Wu Clan and honored guests of Azure Mist City!" Wu-Guang announced loudly, throwing his hands wide. "Today is the day of our official Family Assessment! To test the true martial resolve of our younger generation, the Elder Council, with the full backing of Deacon Han from the Azure Mist Academy, has reinstated the ancient tradition of the Iron-Cage Death-Match!"
Gasps and hushed chatter rippled through the spectators.
"The rules are absolute!" Wu-Guang continued, a cruel light flashing in his eyes. "No outside intervention! No surrenders unless recognized by the official judge! Only the strongest will earn the right to represent our family!"
Wu-Guang turned his head toward the entrance of the martial stage. "First match! The eldest son of the Second Elder, Wu-Tian... versus the son of the Clan Head, Li-Wen!"
A roaring cheer erupted from Wu-Tian's supporters and branch family members who had aligned themselves with the Second Elder.
Wu-Tian was the first to step into the arena. He wore expensive navy-blue silk robes, his long hair tied in a golden crown. An aura of violent, red-tinged Fifth-Stage Ki surged around his body, kicking up gusts of wind that rattled his robes. He walked into the iron cage with absolute arrogance, tossing a mocking glance up at Wu-Wen in the viewing pavilion.
Then, the heavy iron gate opened again.
Li-Wen walked out.
He wore a simple, plain black robe with no embroidery or golden thread. He carried no weapons, no talismans, and his aura was completely suppressed—appearing like a ordinary, frail mortal who had wandered onto a slaughterhouse floor by mistake.
As Li-Wen stepped into the cage, the heavy iron gate behind him slammed shut with a deafening CLANG!, and two heavy steel deadbolts slid into place.
Wu-Tian grinned viciously, his eyes locking onto Li-Wen like a predator eyeing a cornered rabbit.
"You actually dared to step inside, you crippled waste," Wu-Tian sneered in a low, venomous voice, stepping closer until only ten paces separated them. "Did you really think your little tricks against Boss Bear meant anything? Look around you! Once this gate is locked, not even your father can save you!"
Li-Wen stood calmly in the center of the ring. He didn't even bother to take a fighting stance, resting his hands loosely behind his back. His golden-tinged eyes looked at Wu-Tian as if he were looking at a piece of wood.
"You speak too much," Li-Wen said smoothly. "Are you going to attack, or are you planning to bore me to death?"
Wu-Tian's face twitched violently, his arrogance instantly turning into blinding rage.
"Courting death!"
BOOM!
Wu-Tian's Fifth-Stage Ki erupted entirely. Red, volatile flames of energy surged from his Dantian, wrapping around his hands as he executed the Wu family's signature martial arts—the Iron Leaf Palm!
Because of the Tier-Two Flame Marrow Pill he had consumed, his palms didn't turn silver like before; instead, they turned a terrifying, glowing crimson, radiating enough heat to scorch the stone tiles beneath his boots!
Wu-Tian lunged forward like a striking viper, his crimson palm aiming directly at Li-Wen's chest, intending to melt his ribs and incinerate his internal organs in a single blow!
In the viewing pavilion, Wu-Wen stood up abruptly, his heart leaping into his throat.
Deacon Han merely smirked, leaning back in his chair as he stroked his sparse beard, making no move to intervene.
To the audience, Wu-Tian's attack was a blazing red blur—fast, ruthless, and terrifyingly destructive!
To Li-Wen, however, it was agonizingly slow.
Li-Wen didn't even raise his Ki. He didn't draw a step back.
Just as the glowing crimson palm reached within three inches of his chest, Li-Wen took a subtle half-step to the right. The scorching heat grazed his black sleeve, but the strike hit nothing but empty air!
Wu-Tian's eyes widened in shock as his momentum carried him forward.
Before he could pull his arm back, Li-Wen's right hand shot out like a lightning strike. With terrifying precision, two rigid fingers wrapped in the dense, heavy force of the Abyssal Bone Rune tapped lightly against Wu-Tian's right elbow joint.
CRACK!
A sickening sound of shattered bone echoed inside the iron cage.
"ARGHHH!"
Wu-Tian let out a blood-curdling scream of agony as his right elbow was bent completely backward at a grotesque ninety-degree angle! The volatile crimson Ki flowing through his arm instantly backfired, tearing through his muscle tissue and spraying a jet of fresh blood onto the grey stone floor.
Wu-Tian stumbled backward four paces, clutching his ruined, mangled arm, cold sweat pouring down his face like rain.
The entire martial grounds fell into a dead, suffocating silence.
The cheering from the Second Elder's faction died instantly in their throats. The spectators stared with wide, unbelieving eyes at the blood dripping onto the stone tiles. A Fifth-Stage genius... had his arm shattered in a single casual dodge-and-counter by a youth who hadn't even unleashed his Ki?!
High above in the pavilion, Second Elder Wu-Guang sprang from his seat, knocking over his teacup. "WHAT?!"
Li-Wen stood calmly, dusting off a speck of blood from his finger, his eyes remaining as cold as an ancient glacier.
"Is this the power of the Fifth Stage you bragged about for two weeks?" Li-Wen said softly, taking a slow step toward the trembling Wu-Tian. "Hollow. Pathetic."
Wu-Tian's face was pale with agony, but his eyes burned with a terrifying, unhinged madness.
"You... you monster!" Wu-Tian snarled through gritted teeth. "I will kill you! I WILL KILL YOU!"
With his left hand, Wu-Tian reached beneath his sleeve, his fingers wrapping around the small black wooden box containing the Seven-Night Paralysis Needle.
A sinister, green light flashed in Wu-Tian's left palm as he prepared to launch the deadly poison needle directly into Li-Wen's throat at point-blank range!
A glint of eerie emerald light flashed in Wu-Tian's trembling left palm as he snapped open the hidden wooden box under his sleeve.
With his mind consumed by raw, unadulterated humiliation and burning madness, Wu-Tian no longer cared about the rules or the honor of a clan duel. His right arm hung uselessly at a grotesque, mangled angle, dripping dark crimson onto the cobblestones. The painful backfire of his own Ki was tearing through his meridians, but the blinding hatred in his chest completely numbed the agony.
"Die, you crippled dog!" Wu-Tian roared internally, his face contorting into a hideous mask of venomous malice.
With a sudden, violent flick of his left wrist, a slender black steel needle no longer than a finger shot through the air. The Seven-Night Paralysis Needle, coated in the lethal, condensed venom of a Tier-Two Shadow Viper, sliced through the space between them like a ghost. It left behind a faint, sickening trail of greenish vapor, aimed precisely at the exposed pulse point on the right side of Li-Wen's neck!
At point-blank range—a mere six paces away—the speed of the needle was terrifying. To an ordinary Fifth-Stage cultivator, dodging such a concealed weapon from a blind angle would be an absolute impossibility.
In the elevated viewing pavilion, Clan Head Wu-Wen's pupils shrank to the size of needle points. His refined Sixth-Stage Divine Sense instantly caught the faint greenish glint tearing through the air.
"Li-Wen! Look out—POISON!" Wu-Wen screamed, springing up from his seat so violently that his heavy carved wooden chair shattered into splinters beneath his feet.
Beside him, Second Elder Wu-Guang sneered darkly, a cruel, victorious smile spreading across his face. "It's too late, Wu-Wen! Your waste of a son is dead!"
Deacon Han, the bribed judge from the Azure Mist Academy, sat back in his chair with a cold, lazy smirk. He didn't raise a finger to stop the match, nor did he blow the horn to signal an illegal weapon foul. He simply watched with cold, hawk-like indifference, waiting to declare Wu-Tian the official victor the moment the boy collapsed.
Inside the iron cage, the world seemed to freeze.
To Li-Wen, whose soul was that of an ancient God Emperor, the speed of the deadly needle was laughably sluggish. He didn't panic. His expression remained as undisturbed as a deep, subterranean lake.
"Using an assassination needle from the Shadow Viper Pavilion in broad daylight?" Li-Wen thought smoothly, a thread of absolute contempt running through his mind. "Pathetic."
Li-Wen didn't dodge backward, nor did he panic to channel a defensive Ki barrier.
Instead, he simply raised his left hand with fluid, effortless elegance. His thumb and forefinger snapped together like a pair of celestial iron tongs, closing precisely on the air half an inch in front of his neck.
SNAP!
A sharp, metallic ping echoed inside the silent iron cage.
The deadly green vapor dispersed instantly as the flying needle came to a dead stop.
The crowd held its breath, gasping in utter disbelief.
Li-Wen stood completely unharmed. Held firmly between his rigid two fingers was the slender black needle, its dark green tip still glistening with lethal venom, trembling harmlessly under his absolute grip.
"W-What?!" Wu-Tian's eyes nearly burst from their sockets. His jaw dropped, his face turning from a frantic flush to a sickly, ghost-like white. "No... NO! HOW COULD YOU CATCH IT WITH YOUR BARE HAND?!"
High above in the pavilion, Second Elder Wu-Guang's tea cup slipped from his hand, shattering on the wooden floorboards. Even Deacon Han's lazy smirk froze on his face, his thin eyebrows knitting together in sudden, sharp disbelief. Catching a high-speed concealed poison needle bare-handed without using a shield talisman? That required a level of kinetic reflex and physical bone density that far exceeded the Ki-Refine realm!
Li-Wen looked down at the dark needle between his fingers, then raised his calm, golden-tinged eyes to look at the trembling youth before him.
"The venom of a Tier-Two Shadow Viper," Li-Wen said, his quiet, flat voice carrying an immense, suffocating weight that echoed across the entire silent arena. "It numbs the nerves, turns the blood to sludge, and rots the internal organs within three breaths. You used an illegal, lethal poison during a family assessment."
"I... I didn't! It wasn't me!" Wu-Tian stammered in absolute panic, taking two frantic steps backward, his knees trembling so violently he could barely stand. The arrogant genius who had bragged for weeks was now looking at Li-Wen as if looking at the Reaper himself.
"Deacon Han!" Second Elder Wu-Guang suddenly shouted from the pavilion, his voice laced with desperate authority. "My son's arm is broken! He is unfit to continue! End the match now! Declare a draw!"
Deacon Han quickly reacted, standing up to raise his hand. "The match is—"
"A death match ends only when one party surrenders or dies," Li-Wen's cold voice cut through Deacon Han's words like a frozen sword. "Those were the rules you accepted, Second Elder."
Before Deacon Han could scream a halt or throw his judge's token into the ring, Li-Wen moved.
His body flickered like a phantom passing through the night wind. He didn't use a grand movement technique; he simply flexed the Abyssal Bone Rune on his spine, propelling his physical frame forward with terrifying, explosive speed!
In the fraction of a second, Li-Wen appeared directly in front of the terrified Wu-Tian, stepping within his personal guard.
"NO! SPARE ME—" Wu-Tian shrieked in horror.
Li-Wen didn't hesitate for a single heartbeat. With a flick of his wrist, he drove the Seven-Night Paralysis Needle straight into Wu-Tian's remaining good shoulder, sinking the entire length of the black steel into his flesh!
Puk!
"AAAGHHH!"
Wu-Tian let out a choked, blood-curdling scream that tore through the sky.
The dark green venom instantly dissolved into his main arterial pathway. Within a single second, the skin on Wu-Tian's neck and chest turned a nauseating shade of bruised purple. His eyes bloodshot, his lips turning black as he collapsed onto his knees, clutching his throat, wheezing desperately for air as the poison began paralyzing his lungs and freezing his blood!
"Tian'er!" Second Elder Wu-Guang roared in madness, vaulting over the wooden railing of the high pavilion. His peak Sixth-Stage Ki erupted like a volcano, smashing through the air as he dove toward the Iron-Cage Arena like a frantic predator. "You little bastard! If you kill my son, I will tear you limb from limb!"
Wu-Guang's palm turned into a massive, silver-bladed wind-blade as he struck directly at the heavy iron lock of the cage door, trying to shatter the steel and burst inside to save his dying son!
BOOM!
The iron cage shuddered, the steel bars groaning under Wu-Guang's desperate strike. But before Wu-Guang could land a second blow to break the gate, a powerful, dark navy shockwave slammed into his chest from the side!
BANG!
Wu-Guang was knocked back ten paces, his boots skidding across the cobblestones as he coughed up a breath of stale air.
Standing between Wu-Guang and the iron cage was Clan Head Wu-Wen! His Sixth-Stage Peak aura burned with a steady, magnificent brilliance, his eyes flashing with long-suppressed authority.
"Step back, Second Elder!" Wu-Wen barked, his voice echoing over the entire shocked audience. "You altered the rules! You demanded a death match! You brought an Academy judge to enforce it! Now that your son has fallen to his own venom, you dare to breach the sacred arena gate?!"
"Get out of my way, Wu-Wen!" Wu-Guang screamed, his eyes bloodshot with rage and fear as he watched his son thrashing on the stone floor inside the cage. "He used poison on Tian'er!"
"Your son brought the poison needle into the cage himself! Hundreds of eyes saw it!" Wu-Wen roared back, his aura locking onto Wu-Guang, preventing him from moving an inch forward. "If you take one more step toward that gate, I will execute you right here for treason against the Clan Head!"
Inside the iron cage, the silence was suffocating.
Wu-Tian lay on his back, his body twitching weakly as the dark green venom rapidly consumed his life force. His black-lipped mouth opened and closed like a dying fish, his pupils dilated with absolute, pathetic horror. He reached out a trembling, blackened hand toward Li-Wen, silent tears of desperation mixing with the sweat on his purple face.
Li-Wen stood beside him, looking down at the dying 'genius' of the Wu clan with cold, detached indifference. To a former God Emperor who had seen celestial empires crumble to dust, a fallen mortal who relied on underhanded tricks deserved neither sympathy nor hatred.
Li-Wen raised his right foot, hovering his boot right over Wu-Tian's primary Dantian center.
"You wanted to send me to the border coal mines to dig rocks until I died," Li-Wen said softly, his voice meant only for Wu-Tian's ears. "You wanted to break my father and hand our family assets to dark assassins."
Wu-Tian shook his head frantically in silent, agonizing terror, his throat producing only wet, gurgling rasps.
"Consider this a mercy," Li-Wen murmured.
THUMP!
Li-Wen brought his boot down with a firm, precise pressure.
A sharp wave of Third-Stage Ki shot straight into Wu-Tian's Dantian, forcefully neutralizing the spreading venom by utterly shattering the energy core inside his stomach!
Puk!
A cloud of dark, foul-smelling black blood erupted from Wu-Tian's mouth, splashing onto the cobblestones. The purple hue on his skin slowly receded, saving his life from the lethal poison—but the core of his cultivation was permanently destroyed. His meridians were shattered, his energy center annihilated.
Wu-Tian slumped onto the stone floor, unconscious, devoid of all Ki—now a complete, permanent cripple for the rest of his natural life.
Li-Wen casually turned around, walking toward the iron gate.
He didn't look back at the ruined youth on the floor, nor did he look at the trembling, furious elders in the pavilion. He simply raised his bare hand and tapped against the heavy steel deadbolt locking the cage from the outside.
CRACK!
Under the crushing force of his Abyssal Bone Rune, the two-inch-thick solid iron deadbolt snapped like a brittle dry twig.
Li-Wen pushed the heavy iron gate open, stepping out into the bright morning sunlight before the hundreds of frozen, speech-bound spectators of Azure Mist City.
"The match is over," Li-Wen announced smoothly, his golden-tinged eyes fixing directly onto the pale, trembling face of Deacon Han in the high pavilion. "Who is next?"
See you in next chapter.....