Heavenly Opposers-Chapter 367 - 366-Ashes Of Mercy[2].

Floating above the banquet tables, like a projection from the heavens, the entire assassination scene unfolded again. Lin Mei walking. The assassins are emerging. The poison speech. Her response. Her awakening. They watched her crush the Heaven Core assassin into nothing.

They watched space obey her like a trained beast. They watched the others fall. There was no blood in the vision. The Stellar Void Embers hadn’t left much behind. But the implication was clear. When the replay ended, the garden-view folded back into nowhere. The air stilled.

Lin Mei lowered her hand. Silence reigned. Every cultivator in the room now knew two things: One—Lin Mei had just displayed a spatial projection of a past event inside an enclosed space, something way beyond any level of power.

Two—eight assassins had, in fact, come for her life at this banquet.

"And that," Lin Mei said calmly, "is what your ’hospitality’ looks like, Vice Master Luo’s daughter."

She turned her head slightly.

"Or do you claim those were not your men?"

Luo Ying’s face had gone pale, then flushed an ugly red. She opened her mouth to deny, to lie, to twist. Valencia whispered from above, "Watch."

In the far corner, near the servant entrance, a young servant boy trembled. His hands shook around a tray. Sweat beaded on his brow. He dropped to his knees.

"City Lord’s Manor was told to look the other way!" he screamed. "Elder Zhao said the family would handle everything! I—I heard him! Please, don’t kill me—I just—"

Huifen exhaled softly.

"There’s our witness," she murmured.

Azrail smiled. Lin Mei turned to the boy, expression gentle.

"It’s alright," she said. "You did the right thing. Go. Run to the city lord. Tell him everything. Don’t stop for anyone. Don’t look back."

The boy scrambled to his feet and fled. No one stopped him. Because all eyes were now on the Burning Sky family contingent.

"The family will not be slandered by fabricated—" Elder Zhao began.

Lin Mei snapped her fingers. Space around his throat... tightened. His words choked off. He clawed at his neck, face turning purple, talismans flaring desperately. None of them affected the concept of "distance" being wrapped around his airway.

"Elder Zhao," Lin Mei said, all warmth gone from her voice, "you sent killers into my home. You poisoned my food. You tried to make my death look like an accident."

She tilted her head.

"That’s very rude."

He dropped to his knees, eyes bulging.

"Mei’er!" Lin Hao shouted, horrified. "Stop! This will start a war—"

Lin Mei looked at her father.

"For once, Father," she said quietly, "let them be afraid of us."

She closed her hand. Space... pinched. Elder Zhao’s neck imploded inward. His head hit the table. His body followed. Silence. Then chaos.

---

The pavilion erupted. Some guests screamed. Others leapt to their feet, hands going to weapons or talismans. A few of the stronger cultivators flared their Qi defensively, eyes darting between Lin Mei and the remaining Burning Sky family members. Luo Ying staggered back, hand over her mouth, eyes wide with disbelief.

"You—" she whispered. "You killed—"

"Yes," Lin Mei said. "I killed him."

Her voice was steady.

"He deserved it."

Lin Hao grabbed her arm.

"Mei’er, do you understand what you’ve done?" he hissed. "The family—"

"The family tried to murder your daughter," Lin Mei replied, meeting his gaze. "Tried to use you as a disposable stepping stone in their internal games. Tried to erase our entire family because we were inconvenient."

Her eyes softened.

"For once, Father, stop begging for scraps from people who think we’re beneath them. Stand up."

Lin Hao’s mouth opened. No words came. Because for the first time in his life, he felt it: his daughter’s presence pressing down on him like a new sun rising. It was humbling. And terrifying. And... prideful.

Lin Rou, eyes wet, whispered, "Mei’er..."

From the balcony, Azrail watched with something resembling satisfaction.

"She’s doing it," Valencia murmured.

Huifen nodded. "If she survives the next three hours, the Lin Clan will never be the same. Nor will the Burning Sky family hold on to Scarlet Peak."

Xuanyin tilted her head, her eyes just watching. Azrail chuckled.

"I like loud," he said.

Below, three Burning Sky family disciples drew their weapons simultaneously.

"Lady Lin has fallen under possession!" one shouted desperately. "She’s clearly demonised! For the safety of everyone—"

They lunged. Lin Mei didn’t move. Reality did. Their charge... slowed. Their bodies elongated, stretched along invisible axes until their movement looked almost comically sluggish. Guests gasped as the disciples’ sword arcs took entire heartbeats to travel inches.

Lin Mei stepped forward once. Her hand traced a small circle in the air. Space inside that circle is separated from the rest of the world like a lens. The disciples’ attacks entered that circle. They did not come out. Time inside the circle...stopped.

Blades hung mid-swing. Bodies suspended mid-lunge. Lin Mei turned her wrist. The circle rotated ninety degrees, then one-eighty. She released it. The trapped space snapped back into alignment with the world. The disciples’ bodies completed their frozen movements... in the new orientation.

They struck each other. Three blades rammed through three chests. Momentum carried them to the floor. They never even had time to scream. A noblewoman fainted. Someone vomited. Lin Mei’s expression didn’t change.

"I’m done pretending," she announced to the room. "If the family sends more, they’ll die too. If anyone here thinks of joining them, choose now. Attack me, and I’ll assume you’ve chosen your side."

Her gaze swept the room. No one moved. Not because they’d all suddenly become moral, but because every survival instinct screamed that attacking the walking gravity well was suicide. Good. Lin Mei felt the Stellar Space Embers hum in satisfaction.

’Yes,’ it seemed to say. ’This is correct. This is the order of things.’

She took another breath. Addressed the room again.

"This isn’t just about me," she said. "It’s about what we’ve all tolerated for too long. The Burning Sky family has treated Scarlet Peak City as its private toy for years. They extort merchants. They crush minor clans. They decide who lives, who dies, who prospers, who starves—all under the guise of ’protection’ and ’guidance.’"

Her voice hardened.

"No more."

Murmurs rose.

"Who are you," someone called shakily, "to declare that?"

Lin Mei smiled.

"Who am I?" she repeated.

For a moment, she considered all the titles she could claim. Daughter. Noble. Victim. She discarded them.

"I am Lin Mei," she said simply. Her gaze lingered on several minor clan heads. They shifted uncomfortably.

"And I am," she added softly, "the first person in this city willing to say, out loud, that the family’s leash is not divinely ordained."

In the high hall of the city lord’s manor, a jade slip cracked.

"Lin Mei is doing what?" the city lord choked.

His aide bowed, sweating. "Calling out the Burning Sky family. Publicly. Elder Zhao is dead. Several disciples, too."

The city lord swallowed hard. Part of him screamed that he should send guards. Arrest her. Restore "order." Another part remembered years of humiliation at the family’s hands.

"...Open the observation array," he said hoarsely. "I want to see this with my own eyes."

--- 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Back in the Lin courtyard, Luo Ying snapped.

"You lunatic," she spat, composure gone. "Do you have any idea what you’ve done? You’ve doomed your entire family! The family will erase you from existence! Your name will be—"

"My name will be remembered," Lin Mei cut in. "As the first one who said no."

She tilted her head.

"Also, you’re wrong about one thing."

Luo Ying sneered. "Enlighten me, oh great Lady Lin."

"You said the family would erase us," Lin Mei said. "You keep saying ’the family’ like it’s some faceless, inevitable force. But it’s not. It’s people. People who make choices. People who can bleed."

Her eyes burned.

"And I," she said, voice dropping, "am very good at helping people realise their choices have consequences."

Luo Ying laughed, high and brittle.

"You think you can take on the entire Burning Sky family because you killed a few ants?" she demanded. "You’re delusional. You’re one girl with a trick physique. The family has elders, formations, Heav—"

She stopped. Because Lin Mei... smiled.