The colossal stream of Qi from the High-Grade Jade Altar slammed into Jiang Yi's core. It wasn't just a surge; it was a detonation. His body convulsed, his veins bulging with the pure, refined azure liquid. The raw physical agony of the breakthrough—the crushing and reforming of bone and muscle—momentarily caused the Dust Cloak Method to flicker like a dying candle.
Meng Li saw it. For a terrifying instant, he saw the blinding, celestial blue fire of Jiang Yi's true Fourth Stage breakthrough.
"You are not Third Stage! You are a monster!" Meng Li shrieked, fueled by terror and righteous fury.
He didn't hesitate. He thrust both hands out, unleashing the strongest move in his arsenal: the Turbulent Palm Technique—a massive, swirling vortex of chaotic Fourth Stage power aimed squarely at Jiang Yi's chest.
Jiang Yi, mid-breakthrough, couldn't move or defend normally. His body was a furnace, his mind swimming in the euphoria and pain of ascending to a new realm.
I cannot let this chaotic power touch my core!
He focused the last sliver of his conscious thought, not on the incoming attack, but on the Dust Cloak.
The Dust Cloak Method was designed to pull in the spiritual static of weakness and filth. Jiang Yi didn't use it to shield; he weaponized the residue itself.
SCREECH.
He violently ripped the entire spiritual static cloak—the aura of fever, exhaustion, and failure—off his core and blasted it outward in a dense, shimmering cloud.
The cloud of spiritual filth was not solid, but when it slammed into the face of Meng Li's incoming Turbulent Palm Technique, the chaotic spiritual residue instantly disrupted the coherence of Meng Li's Qi, causing the vortex to stutter and implode harmlessly a foot away from Jiang Yi.
Meng Li roared in pain as his own technique backfired, the spiritual static cloud blinding and fouling his Fourth Stage Qi. He felt spiritually nauseous, as if he had swallowed a mouthful of the servant barracks' sewer.
"You... you threw your weakness at me!" he choked out, staggering backward, clutching his eyes.
Jiang Yi's breakthrough finished with a silent, internal clap of thunder. He felt the pure, consolidated strength of the Fourth Stage Body Tempering realm surge through him.
He was now stronger, faster, and possessed vastly greater reserves than Meng Li.
Jiang Yi used this new power instantly. He blurred forward using a terrifyingly fast Spider Step, closing the distance to the blinded, nauseated Meng Li.
He didn't strike with his fist. That would leave a clean, powerful bruise that would betray his true strength.
Instead, Jiang Yi grabbed Meng Li's wrist, and with clinical, icy precision, rotated his forearm just enough to leverage the arm's weight against the joint. With a dull, wet sound, the wrist bone cracked, and the forearm muscles seized up.
Meng Li screamed, a sound of pure agony mixed with humiliation. His right arm—his primary striking limb—was completely neutralized.
"You will stay here, Senior Brother," Jiang Yi whispered, his voice dangerously soft and entirely free of the servant's tremble. "You will wait for help, and you will report that you found a collapsing Spirit Jade Altar that overwhelmed you with volatile Qi, and that you were injured fighting the collapse."
He then performed the most important action: The Retraction.
He slammed the Dust Cloak Method back down over his core, making the brilliant Fourth Stage power vanish beneath the illusion of an extremely lucky, but still weak, new disciple. He even managed to produce a convincing, shaky cough.
Meng Li was left in a heap next to the pulverized white dust of the former Jade Altar, howling in pain, his mind torn between the impossible truth and the crippling weakness of the boy who had just shattered his wrist.
Jiang Yi melted into the shadows. He had gained a massive power boost, eliminated his primary threat's mobility, and perfectly framed the incident as a volatile spiritual collapse. The Serpent of the Outer Court was now a crippled, disbelieved witness.
But as Jiang Yi left the Archive, he saw a distant, faint flicker of light high on the Inner Mountain—a spiritual signal from Elder Xuan's peak. The Elder was watching the chaos.
Jiang Yi knew the truth: the real test was just beginning. The powerful Fourth Stage required continuous, dedicated high-grade Qi. And the only place to get it was by taking it from those who already had it.
The scavenger had become a predator.