The air screamed as hundreds of spiritual needles, glowing with unstable, chaotic energy, slammed into Senior Brother Lin.
"Jade Rain Torrent!" Mei cried out, her voice cracking with the strain of channeling every ounce of her remaining Qi into the attack.
Blind and disoriented from the flash-powder, Lin roared in frustration. He flared his Foundation Establishment aura, summoning a hastily constructed barrier of jade light.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
The needles hammered against the barrier like hail on a tin roof. Cracks spider-webbed across the jade light. Lin was powerful, but he was reacting, not controlling. He was on the defensive against his own subordinate's signature technique.
"Mei! You traitorous wrench!" Lin bellowed, his spiritual pressure wavering as he tried to stabilize his defense. "I will flay the skin from your—"
He never finished the threat.
Rylan was there.
He had moved in the split second of chaos, slipping through the gap Mei's barrage had created. His right fist shone with a heavy, earthen gold light—the concentrated essence of the Earth-Shattering Hammer technique, amplified by his Peak Stage Qi Condensation cultivation.
He didn't aim for the barrier. He aimed for the ground directly beneath Lin's feet, just inside the wavering shield.
"Kneel," Rylan growled.
BOOM!
Rylan's fist struck the earth. The ground didn't just crack; it liquefied under the sheer concussive force of the spiritual impact. The shockwave traveled upwards, bypassing Lin's frontal barrier entirely and blasting into his legs.
The Foundation Establishment cultivator's balance shattered. His knees buckled, and for the first time in his life, Senior Brother Lin was forced to kneel before a "lesser" being.
As Lin fell forward, his concentration broke. The jade barrier dissipated into motes of light.
Rylan didn't hesitate. He spun, channeling momentum into a vicious roundhouse kick aimed squarely at Lin's exposed temple.
CRACK.
Lin's head snapped to the side. His body was launched like a ragdoll, skipping across the dirt before crashing into the trunk of an ancient oak tree, splintering the wood.
Silence descended on the hillside.
The two other Vanguard members were down—one unconscious, the other panting heavily with her gauntlets smoking. The remaining fifty soldiers of the Jade Empire stood frozen, weapons wavering. They had just watched their invincible leader, a Foundation Establishment expert, get dismantled by a local lord.
Rylan straightened up, exhaling a plume of white steam. His knuckles were bruised, and his spiritual energy was churning violently, but he stood tall.
He walked slowly toward the tree where Lin lay slumped.
Lin groaned, blood trickling from his ear and mouth. He tried to push himself up, his eyes unfocused, swimming with concussion and rage.
"Im... impossible," Lin wheezed, spitting out a broken tooth. "You... mere... ant..."
Rylan stopped a few paces away. He looked down at the fallen cultivator with cold, imperious eyes.
"You called me a rogue," Rylan said, his voice calm but projected so every soldier could hear. "You called me trash. But look at you now."
He raised his hand. The Stone Serpent Grapple flared to life again, but this time, it manifested as a heavy, spectral claw. It clamped around Lin's throat, pinning him against the tree.
"You are not the dragon you think you are, Lin. You are just a snake without fangs."
Rylan tightened the spiritual grip. He could kill him. It would be easy. But the System had taught him that death was the end of utility. A dead enemy was just a corpse; a broken enemy was a message.
He reached out and placed his palm on Lin's abdomen—directly over his Dantian.
"Consider this a mercy," Rylan whispered.
He pulsed his own spiritual energy, not to destroy, but to seal. He drove a spike of disruptive Qi into Lin's foundation. It wouldn't destroy his cultivation forever, but it would shatter his current stability, forcefully regressing his Foundation Establishment realm and leaving him in agonizing spiritual recoil.
"ARGHHHH!" Lin screamed, his body seizing as his power collapsed inward.
He slumped forward, unconscious, his aura extinguished.
[Ding! Major Threat Neutralized: Senior Brother Lin (Foundation Establishment - Early Stage)] [Combat Rating: S (Dominating Victory via Tactics and Psychological Warfare)]
The familiar blue screen exploded into Rylan's vision, shining brighter than ever before.
[Reward Calculated: "Extreme Challenge" Completed!] [Reward 1: Jade Empire Cultivation Manual (High Grade) - "The Azure Dragon's Breath"] [Reward 2: Rare Spiritual Ore Vein Location (Map Updated)] [Reward 3: Breakthrough Imminent...]
Rylan felt it. The reward wasn't just an item; it was energy. A torrent of pure, unadulterated spiritual essence—the System's bounty for toppling a superior foe—flooded into his body.
It was too much for a Qi Condensation vessel.
His Dantian roared. The "barrier" between the mortal realms and the true path of cultivation trembled.
Rylan fell to one knee, clutching his chest.
"Master!" Elara's voice cried out from the tree line. She broke cover, rushing toward him, followed closely by Lyra and Lena.
"Stay back!" Rylan gritted out, holding up a hand. The energy swirling around him was volatile. The air grew heavy, pressing down on the entire clearing.
He closed his eyes. Focus. Absorb. Ascend.
He visualized the energy not as a flood, but as a foundation. He took the chaotic Qi and began to lay it down, brick by spiritual brick, inside his core. The gas-like state of his Qi Condensation energy began to compress, dripping down into a liquid pool of pure power.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Then, a roar, like a dragon waking up in his soul.
A shockwave of golden energy blasted outward from Rylan's body, flattening the grass in a twenty-meter radius. The Jade Empire soldiers shielded their eyes, terrified.
When the light faded, Rylan stood up.
He looked different. His skin seemed to hold a faint, inner luminescence. His eyes were sharper, deeper, holding the weight of the world. The ambient spiritual energy of the forest didn't just flow around him anymore; it seemed to bow to him, drawn into his body with every breath.
[Ding! CONGRATULATIONS!] [Host has successfully advanced to the FOUNDATION ESTABLISHMENT REALM (Early Stage)!] [All Stats Increased Significantly.] [New System Feature Unlocked: "Imperial Aura".]
Rylan exhaled, and the breath sounded like a sword being drawn from a sheath. He felt powerful. Infinitely more powerful than before.
He turned his gaze to Mei.
The woman was still on her knees, staring at him. She looked at her defeated Senior Brother, then at the soldiers who were slowly backing away, and finally at Rylan—the man who glowed with the light of a freshly ascended master.
She lowered her head until it touched the dirt.
"This one... submits," Mei whispered, her voice trembling. "My life is yours, Master."
[Ding! Harem Conquest Successful: Mei] [Reward: New Harem Member Added (3/4 -> 4/5)] [Trait Acquired: "Spirit Artificer's Insight" (Allows host to sense structural weaknesses in artifacts and formations).]
Rylan walked over to her. He reached down and lifted her chin. Her eyes were teary, filled with a mix of fear and awe.
"Rise, Mei," Rylan said, his voice smoother, commanding a natural authority he hadn't possessed minutes ago. "You are no longer a servant of the Jade Empire. You are the architect of a new one."
He looked out at the terrified soldiers of the vanguard.
"Take your fallen leader," Rylan commanded, his voice booming without effort. "Go back to your masters. Tell them that Rylan Sterling has stepped onto the path of the Heavens. And tell them..."
His eyes flashed gold.
"...if they want Oakhaven, they will have to send an army."
End of Chapter 28