"Boom——"

The Mountain Protection Array of the Yiming Ghost Sect roared to life.

Layer upon layer of dark ghost energy surged upward like a tide, condensing into a towering barrier that blotted out the sky. The entire mountain range seemed to shudder, as though a sleeping beast had suddenly opened its eyes.

Within the sect, bells tolled in rapid succession — the emergency alarm.

Cultivators at every level scrambled into position. Qi Refinement disciples fled to designated shelter zones. Foundation Establishment elders rushed to man the array nodes. Core Formation cultivators rose into the air, gathering in formation behind the Ghost Ship where Yinming Ghost King and Ghost Bat True Master stood.

From the outside, the Yiming Ghost Sect resembled a coiled serpent — fully armored, fangs bared, but not yet striking.

Because they did not yet know what they were dealing with. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Great Elder." Yinming Ghost King kept his voice low, his eyes fixed on the golden figure hovering beyond the array's boundary. "Your assessment?"

Ghost Bat True Master's complexion was still ashen. The wounds from the Blood Burning Technique were not the kind that faded quickly. Each breath cost him effort he was working to conceal.

"His cultivation base..." He paused. "I cannot read the bottom of it."

That alone was enough to make Yinming Ghost King's eyes narrow.

Ghost Bat True Master had reached the late stage of Core Formation decades ago. For him to be unable to gauge someone's foundation was not a matter of carelessness — it was a genuine warning.

"The Golden-Winged Heavenly Peng," Ghost Bat True Master continued, his voice tight with barely contained disbelief, "is his mount. And he controls it completely."

Silence.

The Ghost Ship creaked softly beneath them, buffeted by the residual shockwaves still rolling across the sky from the earlier clash.

Yinming Ghost King looked at the golden bird circling slowly beneath that black-robed figure like a loyal hound. He had seen powerful cultivators before. He had seen rare magical treasures and formidable demon beasts.

He had never seen anything quite like this.

"And the two he brought with him?"

"The woman in white is Fairy Qingyi of the Qingyun Sect." Ghost Bat True Master's jaw tightened. "Nascent Soul cultivator."

Another silence. Longer this time.

"The Qingyun Sect." Yinming Ghost King exhaled slowly through his nose. "He travels with a Nascent Soul cultivator from the Qingyun Sect, commands a Golden-Winged Heavenly Peng, and arrived at our gates within a breath of the Ghost Shadow Elder's capture."

He turned to look at Ghost Bat True Master fully.

"Great Elder. Who exactly did the Ghost Demon True Master provoke?"

Ghost Bat True Master said nothing. He genuinely did not know.

Beyond the array's boundary, Lu Changsheng stood quietly atop the Golden-Winged Heavenly Peng.

He was not in a hurry.

Patience was not something he lacked, and there was a particular kind of pressure in simply waiting — in making the other side feel the weight of your presence without needing to move or speak.

He had learned that from years of navigating the cultivation world. Sometimes the most effective statement was silence held long enough that the other party filled it themselves.

Behind him, he was aware of Chu Qingyi and Lu Quanzhen still within the Tianyuan Lotus. He had not released them yet. The situation outside was not yet settled enough.

Ghost Demon True Master, he thought.

The name settled in his mind like a stone dropped in still water.

A Nascent Soul cultivator who had, for reasons yet unexplained, attacked Lu Quanzhen — his son — and left him half-crippled. The audacity of that act was almost incomprehensible. Attacking someone's child. Leaving them maimed.

Lu Changsheng had been calm when he first received the news. He had remained calm as he mobilized. He had been calm through the entire pursuit.

He was still calm now.

But it was the calm of still water over great depth — not the calm of someone who had forgiven or forgotten.

You will give me the Ghost Demon True Master, he thought simply. Or I will demonstrate, in terms your entire sect can understand, exactly why that is the correct decision.

"The array is fully active." The Golden-Winged Heavenly Peng's presence beneath him shifted slightly, its feathers bristling with readiness. It had not forgiven the interruption of its earlier pursuit either.

Lu Changsheng placed one hand lightly on the creature's neck — a small gesture, but enough. The Peng stilled.

Not yet.

Inside the array, he could see movement. Cultivators assembling. The Ghost Ship repositioning. A brief, tense consultation between two figures in dark robes.

They were deciding.

He gave them the time to decide.

"The Supreme Elder cannot be disturbed." Ghost Bat True Master's voice was flat. "Not unless we have exhausted every other option. A breakthrough to Nascent Soul is not something that can be interrupted without catastrophic consequence."

Yinming Ghost King's expression was stormy. "Then our options are limited."

"Our options are: fight, negotiate, or stall."

"Can we fight?"

Ghost Bat True Master was quiet for a moment that stretched uncomfortably long.

"Not," he said finally, "without significant losses. Possibly severe ones."

Yinming Ghost King looked again at the figure waiting beyond the boundary. Unhurried. Composed. Standing at the gates of their sect like a man visiting a marketplace.

He had seen arrogance before. What this was — this quiet, absolute confidence — was something different.

"Then we negotiate," Yinming Ghost King said.

The Mountain Protection Array shimmered.

A gap opened — not wide, not welcoming, but deliberate. An invitation to speak rather than fight.

Yinming Ghost King stepped forward on the Ghost Ship, his voice carrying the cultivated authority of a sect master.

"Daoist. You have demonstrated your strength. This King is willing to hear what you have to say."

Lu Changsheng's expression did not change.

He raised one hand.

The Tianyuan Lotus opened, and Chu Qingyi and Lu Quanzhen stepped out onto the Golden-Winged Heavenly Peng beside him.

Then he looked at the Yiming Ghost Sect's gathered forces — at the array humming with defensive power, at the pale-faced Great Elder, at the Sect Master standing rigid with suppressed fury — and spoke in a voice that carried without effort across the entire expanse between them.

"I am Yangming. Your sect's Ghost Demon True Master, as a Nascent Soul Cultivator, shamelessly attacked my son, leaving him half-crippled. I have come to your Yiming Ghost Sect to demand an explanation."