Aboard the Immortal Sect's flagship, the Celestial Vanguard, Grand Elder Huo Tianming stood on the command deck, his Dao Integration aura pressing down like a contained supernova.

The massive vessel—a leviathan of reinforced spirit wood and formation-etched metal—sliced through the southern skies at blinding speed.

Its hull thrummed with the power of a thousand bound spirit beasts.

Two dozen sister ships flanked it, each a floating fortress bristling with artifact cannons, elite disciples, and war puppets ready for slaughter.

The formation moved like a spear of white-robed vengeance aimed at the heart of the disturbance shaking the realms.

"Grand Elder," Captain Liang Wei reported from the navigation array, his Nascent Soul aura flickering as he tracked the ethereal displays. "We're closing in on the epicenter. Energy readings are… anomalous. The tribulation signature has vanished, but the residual qi is immeasurable. It's as if the heavens themselves bowed to whatever caused this."

Huo Tianming's wrinkled face twisted into a scowl, his white beard trembling with fury. "Bowed? Foolishness. Whatever abomination birthed that pillar mocked the natural order. The Sect Master has decreed its eradication. Signal the fleet: full assault on arrival. No survivors. No negotiations. We excise this tumor before it spreads."

"Aye, Grand Elder." Liang Wei snapped to it, activating the communication crystals. His voice carried across the armada through linked arrays: "All ships, this is Vanguard Command. Assume delta formation. Primary weapons to full charge. Target is the anomalous powerhouse at the given coordinates. Exterminate on sight. For the Immortal Sect's eternal glory!"

Acknowledgments thundered back one after another: "Delta formation confirmed." "Weapons primed." "Glory to the Sect!" "No mercy for the deviant!"

From the deck of the Stormbreaker, Lieutenant Shao Lin braced against the wind, her Core Formation qi shielding her as she addressed her squad of inner disciples.

Their pristine white robes gleamed, sect emblems glowing on their chests.

"Remember your training. Whatever this 'emperor' claims to be, he's nothing but a rogue bloated on stolen power. We strike fast, we strike true."

A disciple, Wei Jun, nodded eagerly, flying sword humming at his side. "Lieutenant, the readings show multiple signatures. Could he have reinforcements?"

Shao Lin smirked. "Let them come. Our fleet could erase a minor sect in minutes. This is overkill for one upstart."

As the fleet crested the final mountains, the battlefield came into view—a valley scarred by craters and unnatural blooms.

On the central ridge stood a lone man in black, aura so vast the detection arrays wailed in protest.

Three women flanked him, their energies intertwined in ways that defied logic.

"Target acquired," Liang Wei announced aboard the Vanguard. "Power levels… Grand Elder, the main one is Great Vehicle realm. Confirmed. The women—all Peak Soul Formation, linked by some kind of harmony array."

Huo Tianming's eyes narrowed. "Great Vehicle? Here, in this wasteland? Absurd. Charge the Void Cannon. One strike will erase this farce."

The fleet accelerated, thrusters blazing with qi-fire.

Ships aligned in perfect symmetry, artifact weapons glowing as disciples poured onto decks, flying swords drawn.

"Fire on my mark," Huo Tianming commanded, hand raised. "Three… two… o—"

The earth exploded.

Enormous trunks burst from the ground like vengeful titans, each as thick as a ship's hull and rising hundreds of feet in moments.

Bark etched in glowing runes, vines thicker than chains whipped through the air, ensnaring lead vessels with bone-crushing force.

"What in the nine hells?!" Huo Tianming roared as the Vanguard shuddered violently.

A colossal trunk smashed into the starboard, shattering reinforced plating.

Alarms blared as defensive arrays faltered.

"Grand Elder! Nature Dao assault!" Liang Wei shouted over the chaos. "The trees are alive—regenerating faster than we can damage them!"

Across the fleet, pandemonium erupted.

The Stormbreaker was strangled mid-air, vines crushing its thrusters until metal screamed.

Shao Lin's squad spilled onto the deck, swords flashing.

"Cut them down!" she ordered, igniting her blade with qi-fire to sever a vine thicker than her waist.

But for every cut, two more sprouted, lashing leaves like blades.

A disciple screamed as a branch impaled his shoulder, dragging him into the writhing forest below.

On the Dawn's Fury, Captain Rong Kai fired his artifact cannon—searing light blasted through a trunk, only for it to regenerate instantly, rustling louder as though enraged. "Impossible! It heals faster than a demon beast!"

Hundreds of cultivators leapt from trapped ships, flying swords streaking down like a white storm. "Formation attack! Sever the roots!" an elder bellowed, leading a squad in coordinated strikes.

Glowing arcs of qi-swords carved through wood, spraying sap like blood.

Yet the forest fought back—branches lashed, roots burst from the ground to trap ankles, vines seized swords mid-swing.

A Nascent Soul expert roared, unleashing a tide of flame that devoured a cluster—only for fresh trunks to erupt beneath him, slamming into his chest with bone-cracking force.

"These aren't normal plants!" Wei Jun shouted, ducking a branch. "They're infused with divine qi—like the tribulation empowered them!"

Shao Lin parried a vine strike, her arms shaking from the impact. "Focus! The source is the ridge—the woman in green! She's channeling it!"

All eyes shifted to the distant figures.

The man in black watched impassively, while the curvaceous woman in verdant robes knelt with palms to the earth, aura pulsing in rhythm with the living forest.

"That woman is doing this!" Rong Kai snarled from the Dawn's Fury. "All units, converge on the ridge! Take out the summoner—"

He never finished.

A blur.

A hand.

Tianlong appeared like a shadow made solid, fingers clamping around Huo Tianming's throat.

The Dao Integration elder's eyes bulged, void energy flaring desperately from his palms.

Futile.

Crackle Szzl

Golden fire erupted from Huo Tianming's pores, devouring flesh, bone, and qi in seconds.

He crumbled into ash, scattered on the wind, his attack snuffed out like nothing.

Silence fell across the fleet.

Officers froze, weapons half-raised.

Shao Lin halted mid-flight, sword trembling as she stared.

Liang Wei's lips quivered. "G-Great Vehicle realm…" His whisper rippled through the fleet like thunder.

Disciples faltered, terror surging in their ranks. "The pillar… it was him."

Tianlong brushed ash from his palm with indifference.

He stood tall, aura vast, his black suit stretched across a physique carved in divine lines—broad shoulders, rippling muscle, a face that blended rugged strength with cold beauty.

"Tell me," his voice rolled out, low and commanding, heavy with inevitability. "Where is your Sect Leader?"

Captain Liang Wei made a decision born of pure terror. "The Sect Leader... Sect Leader Bai Zhengming remains at Heavenly Cloud Peak! He... he sent us as the advance force while he consults with the other Grand Elders!"

"There's a good boy," Tianlong said approvingly, and Liang Wei flinched as if struck. "And how many more forces are coming?"

"Three more fleets!" The words tumbled out before Liang Wei could stop them. "Seven hundred disciples, twelve elders, and... and the Sect's Guardian Array! They're mobilizing everything!"

A murmur of dismay rippled through his own crew.

Revealing operational details to an enemy was treason of the highest order, but faced with this overwhelming presence, survival instincts overrode military discipline.

Tianlong nodded thoughtfully. "Everything? How flattering. It's been a long time since anyone considered me worth that much effort."

He looked up at the nearest ship, where Shao Lin still knelt on the deck, her disciples huddled around her in protective formation.

Their white robes, so pristine and proud when they'd arrived, now seemed fragile as paper in the face of cosmic forces.

"Tell me, Lieutenant," Tianlong called out, his voice carrying a note of genuine curiosity. "Do you know why your sect really wants to destroy my empire? What they're truly after?"

Shao Lin struggled to her feet, using her sword as a crutch. "Resources... territorial expansion... you're a threat to the established order—"

"Wrong on all counts," Tianlong interrupted gently. "They want the Draconic Spiritual Vine. They've been mining it for months, thinking it's a treasure that will grant them passage to higher realms. They have no idea what it really is."

The color drained from Liang Wei's face. "You... you know about the Vine?"

"I know everything about it," Tianlong said with dark amusement. "Including what happens when its essence finally depletes. Tell me, Captain—did your superiors mention that when the Vine's power runs out, it will detonate with enough force to erase everything within a thousand miles?"

Horror rippled through the fleet.

Several disciples exchanged panicked glances, pieces of a larger puzzle suddenly clicking into place.

The rushed mobilization, the desperate urgency, the willingness to commit their entire military force...

"They... they wouldn't..." Shao Lin whispered.

"They don't know," Tianlong corrected. "They're being manipulated by someone who wants to see both your sect and my empire destroyed. You're all just pieces on a board, and you don't even know who's moving you."

Tianlong raised his hand, and the crushing pressure of his aura eased slightly.

Several cultivators gasped in relief, air rushing back into lungs that had felt compressed by invisible weights.

"I'm going to make you the same offer I made the others," he said, gesturing toward the ridge where nearly a thousand former enemies now knelt in submission. "Serve willingly, and share in the advancement I can provide. Continue serving masters who see you as disposable tools, and face the consequences when their schemes inevitably collapse."

He paused, studying their faces with those unsettling, firm eyes, before he played his game—a game to attract heaven's attention. As he did, he instantly leaked out his killing intent to affirm his declaration like an oath.

"But first, I want you to carry a message back to Sect Leader Bai Zhengming. Tell him that Emperor Zhao Tianlong has returned, and that I will make sure to get rid of Lily Quin, kill her with my own hands."

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