Ning Huang was still trapped by the blood shadow.
Mei Qingxue and Shen Lanyue tried to move, but the beast hand's pressure crashed down and froze their bodies mid-breath. Mei Qingxue's needles trembled in the air. Shen Lanyue's sword light shattered into frost dust before it could rise.
Zhao Chuan cursed.
His thunder gauntlets roared, but his injured body was already half-suppressed by the Bloodmoon mark. The beast pressure slammed onto him next. His other knee bent.
He snarled and forced himself upright by a few inches, veins bulging across his neck.
"Beast Court dogs!"
Lei Yunhe's expression darkened.
He tried to turn the bronze disk, perhaps to shift part of the cage's outer thunder-mist toward the clawed hand. But the Saint artifact was already burning from the inside. Its law patterns had been activated to imprison Long Shenyu and Long Shenyin. Diverting its force now could collapse the structure completely.
His hand stopped.
That hesitation cost him.
The beast pressure pinned his spear downward.
The spearhead trembled, lightning spitting uselessly across its surface.
Above, Luo Zhenmu's face changed as well.
His earlier laughter vanished.
The Verdant Edge deacon tried to circulate Sky Qi through his sword, but Long Shenyin's wound still disrupted him. The heavy spear force left in his chest was like black iron lodged in his meridians. When the beast hand appeared, his aura shook once and sank.
Lu Jiangheng fared worse.
He had barely recovered enough to hover. Now the pressure struck him, and he nearly fell out of the sky.
Across River Ridge, every watcher understood the same thing.
They had thought the Saint Artifact meant salvation.
They had thought Heaven's Edict had restored order.
But the moment Long Shenyu and Long Shenyin vanished into the cage, all the hidden predators made their move.
Bloodmoon Rakshasa.
Heaven-Horn Desolation Court.
Verdant Edge.
Heaven's Edict.
Qin Family.
Each faction had come with its own pride, suspicion, and schemes.
Now all of that seemed ridiculous beneath one truth.
The only reason River Ridge had not already been torn apart was because Long Shenyu and Long Shenyin had been standing in the open.
Once they were sealed, everyone reached for the chain.
And the chain was Ning Huang.
The red-black blood shadow tightened.
The beast hand descended.
Ning Huang's throat constricted.
Her vision blurred for a breath, then sharpened.
The world slowed.
She saw Zhao Chuan struggling.
Lei Yunhe grimacing.
Mei Qingxue's pale face.
Shen Lanyue's frozen sword hand.
Luo Zhenmu's alarm.
The giant beast claw blocking out the sky.
And then, beyond all of it, the Thousand-Veil Thunder-Mist Judgment Cage.
Her heart turned cold.
Not with fear.
With clarity.
She had been raised in Heaven's Edict Thunder Palace. She had been taught to look at battlefields without flinching. She had seen disciples crippled for weakness, elders execute traitors without expression, and geniuses break because they mistook status for strength.
She understood politics.
She understood leverage.
She understood, with bitter precision, why both demons and beasts had chosen this moment.
They did not want her because of who she was as a person.
They wanted the reaction she would create.
They wanted Heaven's Edict's war-heiress.
They wanted Long Shenyu's woman.
That thought should have angered her.
Instead, it made her heartbeat tremble.
Long Shenyu's woman.
If he had said it, she would have snapped at him.
If Mei Qingxue had teased her with it, she would have denied it.
If Shen Lanyue had looked at her knowingly, she would have pretended not to notice.
But now, with blood at her lips and death reaching down from the sky, her own heart betrayed her more honestly than her mouth ever had.
She did not think of Heaven's Edict.
She did not think of Zhao Chuan or Lei Yunhe.
She did not think of sect law, reputation, or what Elder Mu Jingfei would say when this report reached the Judgment Hall.
Subconsciously, her eyes flickered toward the thunder-mist sphere.
She thought of only one man.
Long Shenyu.
…
The cage pulsed.
Inside the Thousand-Veil Thunder-Mist Judgment Cage, the world was no longer River Ridge.
There was no sky above.
No earth below.
No city, no rooftops, no river, no frightened crowd, no trembling Qin Family elders watching from the shadows.
Only mist.
Blue-gray thunder mist folded endlessly over itself, veil after veil, layer after layer, each one moving in a different direction. Some spun outward like blooming storm clouds. Some sank inward like whirlpools. Some drifted sideways, bending sight and instinct until even the idea of distance became unreliable.
Thin strands of law ran through the mist.
They were old. Damaged. Incomplete.
But they were still Saint-level laws.
To a true Sage Ruler, such a thing would have been troublesome. To a weaker Sage Ruler, it would have been dangerous. To a normal Origin Core cultivator, it would have been a death sentence before the first breath.
Long Shenyu stood calmly inside that storm.
Long Shenyin stood a few steps away from him, Black Sun Tyrant Spear resting across one shoulder, her dark eyes colder than the thunder around them.
Neither of them looked afraid.
But neither moved recklessly either.
The mist was not merely blocking their path. It pressed into their senses. Divine sense, aura judgment, spatial instinct, even the body's natural sense of balance—all of them were being twisted by the endless veils. A normal cultivator trapped here would not even know if they were walking forward or deeper into the seal.
Long Shenyu released a faint wave of Origin Qi.
The mist rippled.
Only rippled.
Long Shenyin's killing intent rolled outward next. Black-red smoke crawled along her spear shaft, and the surrounding veils trembled as if a beast had opened its eyes beneath them.
Still, the cage held.
For a brief moment, they were truly trapped.
Not helpless.
Not defeated.
But trapped.
At their current cultivation, even with their monstrous bloodlines, divine souls, Heaven Rank weapons, and memories from the God Realms, they were still Origin Core cultivators. Their foundation allowed them to cross impossible gaps, but impossible did not mean costless.
A Saint Artifact designed to delay Early Layer Sage Rulers could not be ignored simply because they were Long Shenyu and Long Shenyin.
Long Shenyin clicked her tongue.
The sound was sharp with disgust.
"Sage Rulers are trash. I expected that." Her fingers tightened around her spear. "But this is still beyond garbage. Just a little bit of effort and this will break."
Long Shenyu glanced at her.
"A little bit of effort?" He scoffed. "Please. You and I both know that with our current cultivation, we need most of our power to face Sage Rulers. We are not breaking this by relying on our base forms."
Long Shenyin sneered.
"Shut the hell up. Being caught like this is already embarrassing. We should have killed everyone outside from the start."
Long Shenyu did not answer immediately.
He lifted one hand and let a strand of mist curl around his fingers.
The thunder within it tried to bite into his skin. The law strand hidden inside tried to numb his perception, disrupt his circulation, and mark his soul with a false direction. It was crude by his standards, but not weak by this world's standards.
He crushed it between two fingers.
The mist hissed and scattered.
"I wanted to get somewhat familiar with these mortals," he said.
Long Shenyin gave him a sideways look full of open mockery.
"For what purpose? Other than mindless dual cultivation?"
Long Shenyu's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Because I do not have a narrow mind like you."
"Oh?"
"Anything can happen on the path of the Dao. A thrown stone can reveal a hidden spring. A dying city can hide a useful seed. A weak woman can possess a physique that fools every expert around her. A foolish enemy can carry an artifact worth studying." His mouth curved faintly. "Unlike you, I do not only see whether something can be stabbed."
Long Shenyin's smile became dangerous.
"That is because stabbing solves most problems."
"It solves simple problems."
"The world is simple. The weak complicate it because they cannot win."
Long Shenyu almost laughed.
Then he stopped.
The change was instant.
One breath ago, his expression carried lazy amusement. The next, every trace of ease vanished from his face. His eyes sharpened, but not with anger. Anger was too hot, too wasteful.
What appeared there was colder.
Dead calm.
Long Shenyin noticed.
For all her arrogance, for all her cruelty, she knew her brother better than anyone alive. She had seen him smile through ambushes, laugh through betrayal, and tease women while standing on battlefields filled with corpses.
She had also seen what happened when that smile disappeared.
Her brows lifted.
"What?" she asked, voice tinged with mockery. "They touched one of those women?"
Long Shenyu did not answer.
The cage was suppressing his senses too heavily. Under normal circumstances, even he would not have been able to clearly see what happened outside. His divine sense was bent by the veils. His aura perception was slowed and dragged sideways through false space. Even sound arrived in fragments, broken by thunder.
But his soul was not normal.
His Primordial Dragon Soul stirred.
Deep within him, something ancient opened one eye.
Through the distorted mist, through the damaged Saint-level law, through the spinning veils and thunder threads, Long Shenyu felt it.
A violent blood-corruption trying to invade familiar lightning.
A beast pressure descending from above.
Mei Qingxue's panic flaring like frost under sunlight.
Shen Lanyue's killing intent freezing into something thin and murderous.
And Ning Huang.
Her aura had sharpened.
Trembled.
Then something filthy had caught it.
Long Shenyu's face became expressionless.
That expression was worse than rage.
Long Shenyin sighed, not with concern, but irritation.
"You are going to steal all my kills before I get any enjoyment."
Long Shenyu's eyes gained a faint dragon hue.
"You can complain after I kill them."
Then his hand moved.
The Sky-Severing Narrowblade slid free.
There was no roar.
No grand sword cry.
No heaven-shaking declaration of technique.
The narrow blade simply appeared in his hand, light and quiet, as though it had been waiting all along. Long Shenyu poured Origin Qi into it first. Then soul force. Then a trace of devouring law so faint that any Sky Lord watching would have missed it completely.
The blade changed.
It did not brighten.
It dimmed.
Its edge seemed to vanish from sight, not because it became dull, but because the space around it could no longer decide where the edge truly was. The sword did not look sharp. It looked like a line reality had failed to protect.
The thunder mist sensed danger.
The entire cage contracted.
Veils collapsed inward. Thunder strands thickened. The damaged Saint-level law patterns flared one after another, trying to crush his body, seal his Qi, blur his soul, and force his senses into dead loops.
Long Shenyin's eyes brightened.
Now this was a bit interesting.
Long Shenyu raised the sword.
He found it.
One old law strand, buried beneath nine rotating veils, connected the damaged Saint patterns together.
It was not the thickest strand.
Not the brightest.
But it was the knot.
Long Shenyu slashed.
One sword light appeared.
Thin.
Clean.
Absolute.
It passed through the mist without resistance.
For the briefest instant, nothing happened.
Then every veil stopped moving.
Long Shenyin's lips curled.
Outside, the massive blue-gray sphere hanging above River Ridge City split down the middle.
The sound came after the cut.
Thunder erupted in every direction.
The sky turned white-blue.
Formation flags across the city burst apart. Roof tiles shattered. Windows cracked. Courtyard walls split. Spirit lamps exploded in merchant halls. Defensive arrays lit up for half a breath and then died screaming under the backlash.
Weaker cultivators dropped to their knees, clutching their ears as blood ran from between their fingers. Nascent Essence cultivators felt their meridians twist. Origin Core experts spat blood. Hidden Sky Lords felt their dantians shake as if an invisible hammer had struck them from within.
The Saint Artifact screamed.
Not with a voice.
With law.
The sound rolled across River Ridge like a dying storm.
Lei Yunhe coughed blood instantly.
His palm was still pressed against the bronze disk's control seal when the seal shattered beneath his hand. Cracks raced across the disk from the center outward, bright and jagged, like lightning frozen in broken ice.
His eyes widened.
"No—"
That was all he managed.
The bronze disk exploded.
Fragments shot outward, each piece carrying enough residual law force to pierce stone. Lei Yunhe threw up a barrier of thunder by instinct, but the backlash had already entered his meridians. His body folded around the pain. Blood burst from his mouth, nose, and ears.
Zhao Chuan fared no better.
The thunder gauntlets on his hands cracked from wrist to knuckle. The artifact backlash struck his already-wounded body and sent him tumbling backward through the air like a broken kite. He spat blood once. Twice. A third time before he managed to stabilize himself.
His eyes were full of disbelief.
The cage was gone.