A deathly silence swallowed the valley.
No one moved. No one breathed.
Every cultivator present stared at the empty space where their most ferocious companion had stood only seconds earlier.
Minds reeled, unable to process what their eyes had just witnessed.
There had been no gesture, no ripple of energy, no warning flare of aura from Aaron. Nothing.
"How..." one of the sect masters whispered, voice cracking.
Aaron finally raised his eyes. He swept his gaze across the frozen crowd once more.
"I will say it one more ti," he stated, tone flat and final. "Are you all here to pay your respects?"
This ti he did not ask politely.
His soul pressure erupted outward like an invisible tidal wave, cold, vast, and utterly suffocating.
It rolled over the entire gathering in an instant, pressing down with the weight of an entire realm.
Every single cultivator dropped.
Knees slamd into the dirt. Backs bowed. Faces pressed toward the ground in involuntary submission.
Sect masters, clan heads, lone experts, n and won who had once commanded fear and respect across the eastern continent, now knelt like mortals before a god. Not one could resist. Not one could even lift a finger.
Lin Guo stood rooted in place, mouth slightly open, eyes wide with speechless awe.
These were the sa figures he had once feared so deeply he wouldn’t dare sneeze in their presence.
Now they groveled at Aaron’s feet, trembling under an aura they could not comprehend.
"Better," Aaron said simply, giving a small nod of approval.
The word carried the quiet certainty of soone correcting a minor but obvious mistake, as though their current state of humiliation was exactly how things ought to be.
His gaze shifted to the heavily made-up old woman from the Moon Clan. She knelt among the others, face pale beneath layers of powder, body shaking uncontrollably.
"And you," Aaron continued, stepping forward slowly. Each footfall seed to echo in the silence. "You wished to make your sex toy?"
"I... I’m sorry!" she stamred, voice high and broken. "I was unable to recognize Mount Tai! Please... forgive my insolence!"
"Indeed. You failed to do exactly that." Aaron stopped directly in front of her. "I will make sure on your behalf, that you never make such a mistake again."
He extended one hand.
A faint, silvery light gathered at his fingertips.
It condensed into a small, intricate mark, elegant yet cruel, and branded itself onto the center of her forehead with a soft hiss.
The woman gasped as the Mark of Immortality took root, searing into her soul.
"Since you could not control your hunger," Aaron said calmly, "perhaps starving for all eternity will teach you restraint."
The old hag’s eyes widened in pure horror. She understood instantly. Immortality without sustenance. Eternal life without satisfaction.
A punishnt far worse than death.
She lunged forward desperately, hands clawing toward Aaron’s feet in supplication.
Tears carved tracks through her thick makeup as she begged incoherently, voice cracking with terror.
"Please... no... rcy... I’ll do anything..."
Aaron did not respond. He simply turned away, leaving her trembling on the ground, forever marked by her own insatiable greed.
But she couldn’t move. Not even an inch.
The crushing weight of Aaron’s soul pressure pinned her in place like an invisible mountain, her trembling arms frozen mid-reach toward his feet.
Her painted face twisted in terror, eyes wide and glassy with dread.
Aaron raised a single finger. Space itself rippled around the old hag, folding inward until a perfect one-ter sphere isolated her completely.
The barrier shimred faintly, then hardened into sothing unbreakable, reinforced by layers of his transcendent control over reality.
Inside that tiny prison, she could breathe, she could blink, but nothing more. She was trapped in her own personal eternity.
"Now, for the rest of you," Aaron said, turning his gaze back to the kneeling crowd.
His voice remained calm, almost conversational. "Acting arrogant in front of like you were gods. What should be the best punishnt for all of you?"
To every cultivator present, Aaron no longer looked human.
He was a living deity descended into their world, untouchable, absolute, rciless.
The Sect Master of the Flying Phoenix Sect was the first to break the silence. His voice shook, but he forced the words out with grim resolve. "Abolish my cultivation."
Aaron tilted his head slightly, considering. "Hmm. I see. That’s a good enough punishnt for you."
The instant the words left his lips, a sharp, invisible crack echoed through the air.
The Sect Master’s dantian core shattered like fragile glass.
Spiritual energy leaked out in a violent rush before vanishing entirely.
The man’s face paled to the color of death; he collapsed forward onto his hands, gasping, but he made no sound of complaint.
"Consider yourself lucky," Aaron told him softly. "You received a great reward from despite your arrogance."
Then, just as suddenly as it had descended, the soul pressure vanished.
It disappeared like mist burned away by the sun.
The cultivators gasped in unison, chests heaving as though a boulder had finally been lifted from their lungs.
Sweat poured down their faces in rivers, soaking robes and dripping onto the ground. So trembled so violently their teeth chattered.
Aaron had originally planned to erase them all. A single thought would have sufficed.
But if he was going to fulfill his promise to Lin Guo and raise the Splitting Heaven Sect to true supremacy, he needed witnesses.
He needed the entire eastern continent to see what happened when Lin Guo’s sect rose. Fear and awe would spread faster than any rumor.
"All of you, leave," Aaron commanded. "Three months from now, there will be a tournant hosted by . The best cultivator will receive unimaginable gifts. And should that cultivator have a clan or sect backing them, they too will receive great fortune."
He paused, letting the words sink in. "Forgive , my lord," the broken Sect Master of the Flying Phoenix Sect managed, steeling what little courage remained.
"But... I fear the competition will be unfair with your interference. We worry we might not be able to offer much if our opponents face you."
"I won’t be interfering," Aaron replied evenly. "And you don’t need to worry. The tournant will have two divisions: one between sect masters, and one between disciples."
"I see, my lord. Thank you for the clarification!" The sect master bowed deeply, forehead touching the dirt in genuine gratitude mixed with lingering terror.
"You all may leave now. I have matters to attend to."
With a casual swipe of his hand, space twisted once more.
Every single cultivator vanished in a blink, teleported back to their sects, clans, or hidden retreats.
The valley fell silent again, save for the gentle rustle of wind through the trees.
"Now," Aaron murmured, a small, dangerous smile curving his lips, "to deal with the rats."
---
Three shadowy figures lurked at the edge of perception, concealed within layers of darkness and illusion.
They observed Aaron with cold calculation, their presence so perfectly masked that even divine sense would have passed them by.
"Where did soone that powerful co from?" one whispered, voice low and tense. "He’s going to interfere with our plans at this rate."
"You’re right," the second replied. "We can’t allow it. We have to do sothing about him."
"I knew I slled you demonic rats."
The two hidden figures froze in absolute shock. The voice had co from directly behind them.
They spun around, only to find Aaron standing there, hands casually in his pockets, expression relaxed and faintly amused.
"Escape!" the leader barked, body already dissolving into black mist.
"Have I given you permission to leave?" Aaron asked, his tone mild.
Ti itself froze within a perfect sphere around them.
The leader’s eyes bulged in horror; his escape technique halted mid-formation, suspended like an insect in amber.
Thanks to his newly strengthened soul and absolute dominion over ti and space, the mortal realm could offer him no aningful resistance.
"Hmm. Now, what exactly were you people up to?" Aaron asked, tilting his head with genuine curiosity.
"There’s no way we’re going to tell you," the leader snarled. He bit down hard on the poison capsule hidden in his cheek.
But nothing happened.
Instead of agony and death, a strange warmth spread through his body. His qi felt clearer, stronger. He felt... healthier.
"It’s foolish to think you can die without my permission," Aaron said softly.
"And besides," he continued, "I don’t really need you to tell anything."
His eyes spun like twin galaxies, then flared crimson.
He drove straight into their minds, ripping through every ntal barrier, every hidden mory, every secret plan.
Information flooded into him in an instant, plans, nas, locations, tilines, betrayals.
"Oh?" Aaron muttered, a wide, almost boyish smile spreading across his face. "That’s quite the crazy plan for insects like you."
In the end, the mortal realm wouldn’t be as boring as he had first expected.
And that realization filled him with genuine, wicked joy.
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