Tian Lei nodded. "Trial Peak...?"
"Yes," ixue confird. "In our sect, aside from the Nine Main Peaks, there are dozens of trial peaks—less formal places led by elders or disciples pursuing niche paths."
She held up a finger. "There’s the tal Peak, led by the Forging Pavilion. Spear Peak, ho to the Azure Lance Hall. Ice Feather Peak, which is just a glorified herb garden for ice-type spirit plants. Most trial peaks don’t last long or produce steady disciples, so they’re not part of the core structure."
"Understood," Tian Lei said with interest. "A system for experintation, then."
"Exactly," ixue nodded with a smile. "Now co on, we’re almost there."
Just as she said it, the great black gates of Void Peak ca into view. Towering and carved with shifting runes that shimred like starlight, they pulsed with the faint echo of spatial energy. The wind here felt thinner—space itself more compressed.
Tian Lei narrowed his eyes slightly as he stepped forward. The quality of Void Qi here... it was denser than anything he had sensed so far in the sect.
A slow smile tugged at his lips.
"So this... is Void Peak."
ixue led him past the threshold of the Void Peak gates. The mont they stepped through, the world shifted.
Spatial qi here warped subtly, bending sound and light in strange ways. Structures floated mid-air, connected by threads of energy instead of bridges. Several pavilions were built atop inverted cliffs, as if gravity politely asked permission to function here.
As Tian Lei walked beside her, he noticed other disciples erging from ditation halls and light barrier formations, their eyes tracking him with thinly veiled curiosity.
So were dressed in Void-robes—black and violet silk interwoven with faint starlight threads. Others clearly ca from other peaks, bearing different embroidery patterns. It seed Grand Elder Haiyun’s summons had stirred more than just a simple guest reception.
Whispers rippled in his wake.
"Who’s that? Is he from the Alchemy Peak?"
"No way. I heard he just joined the sect recently..."
"Did ixue bring him here personally? Wait—is he hers?"
"Don’t be stupid. She’s never even smiled at anyone. Maybe he’s a test subject for that new Void Reversal Array."
Tian Lei, of course, heard all of this perfectly. His hearing had already evolved to monstrous levels. He resisted the urge to sigh.
Do cultivators ever not gossip?
Still, sothing else caught his eye.
Across the courtyard, walking with a confident gait, was a tall man dressed in silver-accented Void robes.
As Tian Lei and ixue passed nearby, the man glanced at ixue.
She, in turn, didn’t even spare him a glance.
Not a flicker of acknowledgnt.
Tian Lei raised an eyebrow. Interesting.
The man’s expression twitched for a second before he turned away, lips tightening. Clearly, he noticed the cold shoulder. Or rather... the sheer absence of attention.
ixue kept walking as if the entire world had beco background noise.
"Was that soone important?" Tian Lei asked, playing innocent.
"Not really," ixue replied breezily. "Just soone who talks too much during lectures and never learned the value of shutting up."
Tian Lei chuckled softly. That sounded... personal.
"So... you’ve got a stalker?" he asked, one brow raised.
She rolled her eyes in response but didn’t deny it.
He glanced at her sideways. "You don’t seem too bothered."
"Because I’m not," she said flatly. Then, after a pause, she turned her gaze on him, a curious flicker in her eyes. "By the way... why are you so calm around ?"
"Hm?"
"I an, do you even know who I am?"
He tilted his head slightly. "ixue. Disciple of Grand Elder Haiyun. From Void Peak."
She gave a soft, almost amused huff. "That’s not what I ant. I’m known as one of the Five Ethereal Fairies of the Eastern Continent. Which, in case you’ve been living under a boulder, ans I’m one of the top five most desired won in this entire region."
Tian Lei blinked. "That... sounds exhausting."
She looked at him like he’d spoken in another language. "Most n would have tried to flirt by now. Or at least stared a little too long."
He shrugged. "You’re beautiful. But so is everyone else. That doesn’t impress ."
His voice was calm. Honest. And perhaps a little too direct.
For the first ti, ixue was caught off guard. She didn’t say anything more as they arrived at a tall set of double doors carved from obsidian stone, rippling with Void Qi like oil on water.
She gestured with a sweep of her sleeve. "This is the Void Hall—the residence and cultivation domain of Grand Elder Haiyun."
He nodded, stepping forward. But before he passed the threshold, ixue added, "You can go in. He’s expecting you. But be respectful... he’s not as patient with sarcasm as I am."
Tian Lei smirked. "I’ll try to behave."
As he stepped through the doors and disappeared into the void-tinged halls, ixue stood silently for a few seconds, watching the entrance close behind him.
Then, very softly, she murmured under her breath, "just...who is he?"
Tian Lei stepped into the Void Hall, the doors sealing shut behind him with a low hum. The air inside felt heavier—not in pressure, but in presence. Dense Void Qi swirled lazily through the chamber like drifting stardust, drawn toward the seated figure at the center.
Grand Elder Haiyun.
An middle aged man dressed in dark indigo robes sat atop a lotus-like platform suspended in midair. His hair was silvered but not thin, tied in a single low knot behind his head. His eyes were closed, yet the feeling he radiated made it clear—he’d known Tian Lei had entered the mont his foot crossed the threshold.
"Yo, old man," Tian Lei called casually, breaking the solemnity like cracking ice. "You’re still alive, huh?"
One of Haiyun’s eyes cracked open, the corner of his lip twitching in what might’ve been a grin—or a grimace. "Still rude, I see."
Tian Lei offered a casual shrug, tone unbothered. "So things don’t change, old man."
Haiyun scoffed, his voice low and dry. "You’ve got so nerve, showing your face here after all this ti."
Tian Lei raised a brow. "What, missed ?"
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