The moment Yan Shuo’s knuckles brushed against the heavy, profound iron doors, the dozens of glowing starlight arrays instantly flared to life. They were designed to reflect kinetic force, meaning anyone who tried to smash the doors would have their own attack rebounded directly into their chest.
But Yan Shuo didn’t use explosive force. He used sheer, unadulterated weight.
He funneled the terrifying, crushing density of the Abyssal Star-Core into his fist.
CRUNCH.
There was no grand explosion. There was no blinding flash of light. The heavy iron doors simply groaned in agonizing defeat. The metal directly beneath Yan Shuo’s knuckles violently warped inward, instantly crumpling like a piece of cheap, thin paper crushed by a giant’s hand.
The starlight arrays didn’t even have time to reflect the attack; the sheer gravitational pressure ripped the runes apart, tearing the spiritual pathways to shreds.
With a sickening screech of tearing metal, the massive doors collapsed entirely, folding into a dense, compacted ball of scrap iron that plummeted heavily to the floor, shaking the entire courtyard.
Yan Shuo lowered his fist, casually flexing his fingers.
"Well," Yan Shuo murmured, stepping over the crumpled iron. "They certainly don’t forge doors like they used to."
Tantai Zhi immediately rushed forward. She didn’t look at the obliterated, supreme-tier defensive gates. She grabbed Yan Shuo’s right hand, her golden eyes filled with frantic worry as she carefully inspected his knuckles.
"Husband! Why did you use your bare hand?!" she scolded softly, gently blowing a cool breath of air over his skin. "What if the ugly door scraped your skin? I told you I could have cut it down! Look, your skin is slightly red!"
"It’s just a little dust, Zhi’er," Yan Shuo chuckled, letting her fuss over him.
Standing exactly ten paces behind them, holding her burlap sack, Su Mei felt pushing her Dao heart to the brink of collapse.
Her fox ears twitched wildly as she stared at the crumpled ball of profound iron on the floor. But it wasn’t the absurd display of physical strength that was causing her current spiritual crisis.
It was what Yan Shuo had said just a moment ago.
It has been a very long time since I visited an old friend.
Su Mei’s mind, rigorously trained in the shadow arts, spun in chaotic, panicked circles. Old friend?! He just called the Faceless Scholar his old friend! Lord Yan is a fifteen-year-old youth from the Outer Sect! The Faceless Scholar is an ancient, supreme array master who arrived in the Central Continent three years ago! How could they possibly be old friends?!
It made absolutely no logical sense. A fifteen-year-old youth who had been crippled his entire life couldn’t possibly have a long-standing karmic history with a mysterious grandmaster. It defied all heavenly logic. The cycle of years was entirely contradictory.
Su Mei stared at the back of Yan Shuo’s head, her terror deepening. The boy wasn’t just hiding his cultivation; he was hiding an identity so vast and ancient it defied the natural order of the mortal realm.
She quickly looked at Tantai Zhi, fully expecting the majestic, world-ending Saintess to finally ask the obvious question. She expected Tantai Zhi to narrow her eyes and say, Husband, how do you know a man in the Central Continent? But Tantai Zhi didn’t ask anything.
The Saintess was currently using a pristine silk handkerchief to wipe a microscopic speck of dust off Yan Shuo’s fingernail, completely absorbed in her task. She didn’t care about the impossible flow of time. She didn’t care about the mysterious old friend.
Why aren’t you questioning him?! Su Mei screamed internally, wanting to pull her own hair out. You are a peak expert! You lived for a century! Use your Dao heart! The boy you married is clearly an ancient monster wearing a youth’s skin! Ask him!
But as Su Mei watched Tantai Zhi gaze up at Yan Shuo with an expression of pure, unadulterated, obsessive worship, the terrifying truth finally hit the fox maid.
Tantai Zhi wasn’t stupid. She just didn’t care.
Even if Yan Shuo suddenly turned into a literal demonic dragon right in front of her, Tantai Zhi would probably just ask if his scales needed polishing. Her love was an absolute, blind madness that completely overrode all heavenly reason and survival instincts.
"Miss Su," Yan Shuo’s calm voice suddenly snapped Su Mei out of her mental tribulation. "Keep close. Do not step on the floor tiles unless I step on them first."
"Y-Yes, Lord Yan!" Su Mei squeaked, instantly snapping back to reality and gripping her burlap sack tightly. She didn’t care who he really was anymore. She just wanted to survive the day.
Yan Shuo took Tantai Zhi’s hand, and together they stepped over the threshold and into the Star-Gazing Pavilion.
The interior of the tower was entirely different from the opulent, golden halls of the Patriarch’s palace.
It was a spatial domain. The moment they stepped inside, the stone walls vanished, replaced by an endless, sprawling expanse of absolute darkness. It felt as though they had walked directly into the night sky.
Beneath their feet was a narrow, winding pathway made of translucent crystal. All around them, suspended in the endless void, were thousands of glowing, silver orbs that looked exactly like floating stars.
"Void manipulation," Tantai Zhi noted, her golden eyes narrowing as she surveyed the dark expanse. She instinctively stepped closer to Yan Shuo, her aura flaring to form a protective crimson shield around them. "This bug has some skill in the Dao of Space. Husband, do not look directly at the lights. They carry a soul-draining illusion."
Yan Shuo didn’t look at the lights. He looked straight up, toward the peak of the endless darkness, where the narrow crystal pathway eventually led.
"He always liked making things overly dramatic," Yan Shuo murmured softly, a dark, nostalgic chill settling in his chest.
Suddenly, the absolute silence of the spatial domain was broken by a slow, echoing applause.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
The sound seemed to come from every direction at once, disorienting the senses.
"You broke my door," the smooth, incredibly calm voice of the Faceless Scholar drifted down from the void above. "A profound iron gate, shattered by raw physical density. No elemental Qi. No sword intent. Just pure, crushing weight."
The thousands of silver stars floating in the void suddenly stopped drifting. They all slowly rotated, locking their glowing centers directly onto Yan Shuo.
"I must admit, little anomaly," the Scholar’s voice continued, echoing with a paranoid, calculating edge. "When I saw you swallow my Yin Fire, I thought a ghost had returned to haunt me. I thought the nightmare of the ancient era had crawled out of his grave."
Tantai Zhi’s grip on Yan Shuo’s hand tightened. She didn’t like the way this unseen man was speaking to her husband. She didn’t like the familiarity in his tone.
"Show yourself, coward," Tantai Zhi demanded, her voice ringing out with a demonic resonance that made the crystal pathway shudder. "Come down here so I can tear your tongue out."
"The Saintess of the Azure Sword," the Scholar chuckled, a sound entirely devoid of warmth. "A flawless sword, entirely devoted to a youth who hides his true nature. Tell me, Saintess, do you even know what kind of foundation your beloved husband is cultivating?"
"I don’t care," Tantai Zhi answered instantly, without a single microsecond of hesitation. "If his foundation is heavy, I will carry it for him. If his foundation is demonic, I will slaughter the Heavens for him. Now come down here and die."
In the back, Su Mei violently nodded in agreement with the crazy woman. Exactly! She doesn’t care! Stop trying to reason with a demoness consumed by love-madness!
A heavy silence stretched across the void. The Scholar clearly hadn’t expected such an immediate, blindly unhinged response.
"Blind devotion is a fatal flaw," the Scholar finally sighed, his voice growing cold. "But I am not here to fight the Saintess. I am here to test the shadow hiding behind her."
The ambient Qi in the endless void violently spiked.
The thousands of glowing silver stars surrounding the crystal pathway suddenly elongated. The soft, ethereal light peeled away, revealing their true forms.
They weren’t stars. They were thousands of supreme-tier, silver flying swords.
They hovered in the darkness, all pointing directly at the narrow crystal bridge.
"The Starlight Execution Array," the Scholar announced, his voice dropping into a ruthless, echoing decree. "A formation I designed specifically to pierce through heavy, gravitational defenses. Let us see if your little trick can swallow a thousand blades at once, anomaly."
"Husband, stay behind me," Tantai Zhi ordered sharply.
She didn’t wait for the swords to attack. She let go of Yan Shuo’s hand and stepped forward. Her crimson sword materialized in her grasp, blazing with a terrifying, apocalyptic light that completely overshadowed the silver blades.
She prepared to unleash a supreme sword domain that would shatter the entire spatial void in a single strike.
But before she could swing, the crystal pathway beneath her feet violently shifted.
The Scholar wasn’t foolish enough to fight her head-on. The crystal bridge suddenly fractured. The section Tantai Zhi was standing on rapidly shot backward, carried away by a void current, instantly creating a massive, yawning chasm between her and Yan Shuo.
"Husband!" Tantai Zhi screamed, her eyes widening in pure panic as she was forcefully separated from him. She immediately gathered her Qi to leap across the void.
"Ah, ah, ah," the Scholar’s voice warned coldly. "If you step off the crystal path, Saintess, the spatial void will collapse. You might survive it, but the resulting dimensional storm will instantly tear your fragile husband to pieces."
Tantai Zhi froze at the edge of the broken bridge. Her foot hovered over the darkness. The threat of Yan Shuo getting hurt completely paralyzed her. She gripped her crimson sword so hard her knuckles turned white, tears of absolute, furious frustration pooling in her golden eyes.
"If he loses a single drop of blood," Tantai Zhi whispered, her voice shaking with a world-ending rage, "I swear upon my Dao soul, I will refine this entire continent into a wasteland."
Across the chasm, Yan Shuo stood alone on the crystal path. Su Mei had been swept backward with Tantai Zhi, leaving him entirely isolated.
Yan Shuo didn’t look panicked. He didn’t look afraid.
He casually closed his paper fan and tucked it into his pristine white sash. He looked up at the thousands of silver swords hovering in the dark sky, aiming directly at his heart.
The Faceless Scholar wanted to isolate the shadow from the light. He wanted to force Yan Shuo to fight without his overpowered wife, to see if he was truly a vessel, an inheritor, or the nightmare himself.
"You always were a coward when it came to fair fights," Yan Shuo murmured softly to himself.
He slowly reached down to his waist. His fingers wrapped around the hilt of the plain, unadorned black iron sword he had taken from his vault.
It was time to remind his old friend why the heavens used to tremble.