Li Tian stood alone in the ruins of the training courtyard, the scent of scorched earth and broken stone still thick in the air. Where once disciples trained beneath fluttering banners, only silence remained, broken by the occasional flicker of fire from a collapsed pavilion.
Xiao Chen approached with caution, his boots crunching on cracked tiles. He paused a few steps behind his master. "The Zhao envoy escaped. Just as you predicted."
Li Tian didn't turn. His voice was quiet, yet each word struck like a chisel on marble. "Let him run. He'll spread fear faster than a thousand soldiers."
The System responded in kind, its voice echoing in his mind:
[Villain Mission Complete: Use the Zhao Envoy as bait. Influence +5%]
[New Side Mission Unlocked: The Serpent's Whisper Investigate the spy within the inner court.]
His fingers curled into a fist. It was always like this one enemy fled, another crawled out of the shadows. Victory was never the end, only the next beginning.
Back inside the hall, the surviving elders gathered with subdued faces. Blood from the earlier skirmish had been scrubbed from the marble floors, but tension still clung to the walls. Fearful eyes followed Li Tian as he entered.
One of them, Elder Yu, cleared his throat. "Young Master, this act will spark open war. Zhao Yun will not overlook such an insult."
Li Tian sat upon the patriarch's seat with a calm that unsettled even the boldest among them.
"Then let him bring war," he replied. "We will not kneel."
"But our allies "
"Will respect strength," Li Tian cut in. "And abandon weakness. Which one are we, Elder Yu?"
The old man looked away.
From the shadows, Mu Lian emerged. Her clothes were torn from battle, but her eyes still burned with defiance.
"You called for me?" she asked.
Li Tian nodded. "I need you to find the traitor."
She arched a brow. "You're certain there is one?"
He tossed a bloodied scroll onto the floor between them. "That was found in the envoy's sleeve. It's encoded the same cipher our inner court uses."
Xiao Chen's jaw clenched. "Someone fed them our movements."
Li Tian stood and approached Mu Lian, lowering his voice. "Use any means necessary. Discretion is your blade."
Mu Lian smiled grimly. "Then I'll sharpen it."
As she vanished through the back corridor, Li Tian returned to his seat, eyes scanning the flickering flames of the hall's lanterns. Each danced wildly, as if disturbed by an unseen wind.
He closed his eyes for a moment.
[System Notice: Villain Prestige Rising — Reputation Shift in Outer Sects (Current Rating: Dangerous)]
Outside the sect's walls, in the forested hills where moonlight glistened on dew-drenched leaves, a pair of cloaked figures knelt before a stone altar. Their chants were low, rhythmic, and in a dialect older than any sect tongue.
One figure looked up, face hidden by a mask carved with serpent scales. "The Li boy has awakened the cycle too soon."
The second pulled back her hood, revealing a woman with pale silver eyes. "Then we must guide him. Or destroy him."
The masked one drew a blade and let blood spill onto the altar stone. "Let the spirits decide."
Back at the Li compound, night fell like a shroud. Li Tian stood on a balcony overlooking the moonlit mountains. His mind wandered to his father's teachings — to the weight of legacy and the chains of expectation.
He murmured to himself, "I was never meant to lead. But I was never meant to follow either."
The wind carried whispers through the valley. Whether from the System or something older, he no longer cared. He would rise, even if it meant becoming the monster they feared.
Because monsters survived.
And Li Tian had no intention of dying.