The Burning Sky family forces entered the Lin compound like a storm of fire and rage.
Vice Master Luo led them—eyes burning with barely-controlled fury, his Mortal Core Peak cultivation pressing down like physical weight. Beside him, Elder Wei and Elder Zhao, both Mortal Core Middle realm. Behind them were twelve Heaven Core cultivators and forty Qi Refinent disciples. Their killing intent saturated the air, making weaker servants who hadn’t fled collapse from the pressure alone.
They expected resistance. Expected rcenaries, perhaps allied families making desperate stands. Expected a battle with casualties but an ultimate, overwhelming victory.
What they found was a young girl standing alone at the courtyard entrance.
Huifen stood with perfect posture, her professional ’maid’ attire immaculate despite the surrounding destruction. Her expression hidden behind her veil, composed, but her hands—clasped demurely before her—trembled almost imperceptibly. Anyone looking closely would see the slight tension in her shoulders, the faint uncertainty in her dark eyes.
She looked exactly like what she appeared to be: a loyal servant trying desperately to protect her master’s interests despite being hopelessly outmatched.
Behind her, deeper in the courtyard shadows, four figures watched. Azrail stood with arms crossed, expression calm. Valencia’s golden eyes tracked probability threads. Raena smiled with predatory anticipation. Xuanyin’s cold aura surrounds.
.....
Thirty minutes earlier, Azrail had outlined the plan.
"Huifen," he’d said quietly, drawing her aside. "I need you at the front when they arrive. Alone. Visible."
She’d blinked, confusion flickering across her normally controlled expression. "Azrail? I don’t understand. If they see isolated, they’ll—"
"Attack you. Yes." His voice was gentle but firm. "They’ll see a lone servant, is all they will see, think you’re vulnerable, and strike first. Probably with lethal intent. Definitely with enough aggression to constitute a clear assault."
Understanding dawned in her eyes, followed imdiately by calculated assessnt. "You need a legitimate justification. If they attack first, unprovoked, you have moral and legal grounds for complete retaliation."
"Exactly. The difference between ’he massacred family forces’ and ’he defended the princess from unlawful assault’ is significant for future political manoeuvring. I need witnesses to see them strike first. I need them to be the aggressors."
"I’ll be watching," Azrail said, and there was sothing in his voice—absolute certainty, unshakeable promise—that made her breath catch. "Every mont. Every movent. If a single technique gets within three feet of actually harming you, I’ll stop it. You have my word, Huifen."
She’d searched his eyes, looking for deception, finding only honest intent. Then she’d nodded, a shy smile touching her lips despite the fear. "I trust you. I’ll... try not to be too frightened when they attack."
.....
Now, facing fifty-five hostile cultivators, Huifen drew a steadying breath and stepped forward into full visibility. Vice Master Luo’s eyes locked onto her, then swept the courtyard, searching for primary threats. Finding only shadows and this single servant.
"You!" he snarled. "Where are the Lin family leaders?"
"Inside," Huifen said, her voice steady despite her trembling hands. "Under protection. This compound is claid territory. You’re trespassing. Please leave before—"
"Arrogant servant thinks she’s a guard dog," one Heaven Core cultivator mocked. "Soone teach her about hierarchy."
Three Qi Refinent disciples moved forward, techniques forming. Fire claws. Blade projections. A crushing palm strike—all aid directly at Huifen with lethal intent. She didn’t move. Didn’t even flinch. Just stood there, trusting absolutely that Azrail’s promise would hold.
The techniques closed to within five feet. Four feet. Three—
And they faded away.
Not taphorically, their attacks burned away by a beautiful purple fla. The disciples who’d launched them stood confused, still channelling Qi into attacks that had... stopped.
Then Azrail stepped out of the shadow.
He moved with casual grace, walking past Huifen and gently touching her shoulder as he passed. "Well done. Step back now. This is mine."
She exhaled shakily and retreated, legs trembling now that adrenaline was catching up. Valencia materialised beside her, offering silent support. Azrail stopped ten feet from the Burning Sky forces and let his cultivation aura reveal itself.
The pressure didn’t just press down—it rewrote local reality, establishing his existence as a fundantal law that lesser powers had to acknowledge. The ground beneath him cracked in geotric patterns. The air itself scread, molecules vibrating at frequencies that made cultivators’ ears bleed.
Every single Burning Sky cultivator froze. Qi Refinent disciples collapsed outright, forced to their knees by pressure their cultivation couldn’t withstand. Heaven Core experts struggled to remain standing, spiritual defences flaring desperately. Even the three Mortal Core elders took involuntary steps backwards, faces draining of colour.
"You just attacked one of my people," Azrail said quietly, and his voice carried absolute authority despite its softness.
Azrail raised both hands. "Let show you what happens when people attack mine."
His hands ignited.
But these weren’t normal flas. Persefone ca to life.
They manifested as writhing violet fire shot through with streaks of gold, each flicker containing collapsed probability, each ember holding enough destructive potential to unmake cultivators at a conceptual level. The flas didn’t just burn—they erased, consuming matter, energy, and spiritual essence simultaneously.
Azrail shaped the Persefone Flas with casual gestures, forming them into two massive constructs—serpentine dragons of impossible fire, each one fifty feet long, bodies writhing with chaotic power that made space itself crack around them.
The fla dragons launched forward, slamming into the front ranks of Qi Refinent disciples. They tried to defend—shields, barriers, desperate evasion techniques. None of it mattered. The black-violet flas washed over them, and they simply ceased existing, converted back to formless chaos without even ti to scream. Twenty disciples vanished in three seconds, leaving nothing behind, not even ash.
It moved differently—not consuming but shattering, breaking the fundantal rules that allowed their techniques to function. One cultivator tried to counter with a blade projection. The flas touched it, and the technique collapsed, its underlying logic unmade. The backlash tore through the cultivator’s ridians, and he fell screaming, his cultivation base destroying itself from within.
"Defend!" Elder Wei roared desperately. "Formation! Everyone, defensive formation!"
The remaining Heaven Core experts and surviving Qi Refinent disciples scrambled to coordinate, pouring combined Qi into a joint barrier. It was impressive work—under normal circumstances.
Persefone Flas touched the barrier, and it shattered like glass, striking diamond. The flas poured through and consud six more cultivators before Azrail recalled them with a casual gesture.
"Elder Wei," Azrail said conversationally, walking forward as his fla dragons coiled around him protectively. He stopped directly in front of the elder, fla dragons hovering above his shoulders like divine guardians.
"The one you attacked? Her na is Huifen. She’s not just a servant—she’s the Princess of the Empire. You attacked imperial royalty."
Horror crashed across every surviving face, and with that understanding, Azrail burned away everyone else, leaving behind just one single guy.
"Please," The dude said. "Please let live—please—"
Azrail stepped back. Persefone Flas receded slightly, though they still circled him like living things. "Run. Tell your family master to lock the family away for the next 100 years. Tell him the Lin Clan is sacred ground. Tell him that if I see Burning Sky forces within five miles of this compound again, I won’t leave survivors to carry ssages."
He waved dismissively. "Go. Before I change my mind."
The dude ran, stumbling over scorched ground where his disciples had stood monts before, fleeing through the compound gates with the speed of absolute terror.
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