Li Qingxue flinched watching Han Xin suffer. She turned to face Lin Tian and brought both hands together in a slow, respectful bow.

"Please don’t harm him, Lin Tian."

"In this matter... the fault’s with us," Li Qingxue said.

Mo Lihai’s expression twisted watching her. He knew Yunlan Sect stood above Moiyi Sect in strength, but never in his years had he imagined that the untouchable woman would lower her head before anyone, let alone Lin Tian.

"HAHA! Never in all my years have I seen you bow your head like that, Sect Master Li Qingxue," Mo Lihai said, his voice thick with contempt.

"What drives you to bow so? Does he frighten you?"

Li Qingxue’s gaze cut sideways toward Mo Lihai, cold and sharp as a winter blade. It wasn’t fear. Her grand elder’s life rested in Lin Tian’s hands, and that alone stayed her.

Were it not for that, she could end Lin Tian right here, right now, with Mo Lihai watching every second of it.

"And you?" Lin Tian’s eyes shifted slowly to Mo Lihai, "You’re not afraid of me?"

One qi hand hurled the Yunlan Sect disciple down to the earth. The other closed around the Moiyi Sect disciple’s body and crushed it, a deep, resonant boom of qi force splitting the air.

Mo Lihai lurched forward, too slow to intervene. Even so, he didn’t retreat.

Disciples can be found again. A sect’s dignity, once lost, is gone forever.

"You!" Mo Lihai’s voice rose like a drawn blade, "You’re nothing more than the sect master of a broken, insignificant sect. Lingxian is dust beneath our feet. You’re nothing before us!"

"Now then... taste what true power feels like!" Mo Lihai declared.

Lin Tian watched Mo Lihai’s hands form a technique seal. He pulled his qi free from the restriction binding Han Xin, turning his full focus onto the man in black robes.

"Qingxue. Leave this place."

"...Understood."

She obeyed without another word, guiding Han Xin and the surviving disciple back toward the city.

The moment they were gone, a black qi beam tore from Mo Lihai’s hand and pierced straight up through the clouds like a spear thrown at heaven itself.

Lin Tian tilted his head back. Above him, the sky groaned and darkened, churning with black thunder.

From that darkness, five enormous black-bladed swords descended in a perfect ring, surrounding him.

Walls of qi stretched between each blade, sealing him inside a pentagonal cage.

Beneath his feet, a crimson rune unfurled across the sky like a bleeding wound. Lightning began falling from above, drawn into each of the five swords like a moth to flame.

Not a technique. A formation.

"Lightning Abyss Sword Formation... activated!" Mo Lihai’s voice cracked through the sky like a whip.

"None escape the sword formations of Moiyi Sect. Your cultivation may surpass mine, brat, but this formation’ll leave you broken and bleeding on the ground!"

"Show me what you’re truly worth," Mo Lihai said, sweeping his hand forward.

The gesture unleashed a torrent of black lightning that screamed down toward Lin Tian from every angle. Rather than flinch, he formed a seal and activated the White Dragon Technique.

The dragon surged forth from the rune blazing at his back, coiling around him in great sweeping arcs, swallowing strike after strike of black lightning before it could reach him.

I’ve only got minutes before the technique gives out. I need the formation core. Now.

Both of Lin Tian’s eyes blazed with white qi light. He turned slowly, sweeping his gaze across the formation. When he looked upward, he found them.

Two cores. Each serving a different purpose.

The first was the trigger for the black lightning. The second was the anchor for the black sword blades.

"HAHA! Is this all you can do, Lin Tian? I’ve long wondered why so many failed to destroy your pitiful sect. Now I see why. Because there wasn’t anything worth destroying!"

"Sect Master Mo Lihai." Lin Tian’s voice was unhurried. Calm as still water.

"If you intended to trap me within a formation, you should’ve buried the cores somewhere they couldn’t be found."

"WHAT?!" The color drained from Mo Lihai’s face.

Lin Tian called the Heaven Iron Sword to his hand and layered a core-shattering array rune across its blade.

The principle was simple. Any formation core struck by the Heaven Iron Sword would cease to exist.

White runes blazed along the steel, each character sharp and precise, burning with quiet certainty.

When all was ready, he raised his eyes to the sky, extended his arm, and released the sword.

It shot upward like a falling star in reverse, cutting through the white dragon’s protective ring and driving straight toward the first formation core, the one feeding the lightning.

Mo Lihai saw it and moved to intercept. He failed. The Heaven Iron Sword was simply beyond anything he could stop.

The blade struck the first core clean. The runes fractured and exploded outward in a thunderclap of qi force, and the black lightning died in an instant, its leash cut.

"Lin Tian!"

"Do you believe that’s enough to claim victory? You’re deceiving yourself!" Mo Lihai roared.

He activated all five swords and turned their points inward, aiming them at Lin Tian like the teeth of a trap closing shut.

Lin Tian looked at them and let a small smile cross his face. His hands moved into a new seal.

The Heaven Iron Sword answered his call and returned, trailing a powerful wake of qi momentum behind it.

He rose higher into the air, slow and deliberate, and wrapped his fingers around the hilt.

"HYAAAH!"

He swung in a wide, spinning arc, and the Jiuxu Mountain Sword Wind answered, a sweeping slash of devastating force.

Steel met steel. His sword energy ground against the formation blades. He raised one hand and fed wave after wave of spiritual qi into the strike, pouring himself into it without hesitation.

Slowly, steadily, the cracks began.

Mo Lihai’s eyes went wide. He thrust his hand forward immediately, pouring everything he had left into his formation.

BLAST!

The explosion came anyway.

All five formation swords detonated at once. The cage walls collapsed. The shockwave took Mo Lihai full in the chest and sent him skidding backward through the sky before dropping him to his knees.

Blood spilled from his lips. He forced his head up to look forward.

Lin Tian hadn’t moved a single inch.

"You..." Mo Lihai’s voice had lost its edge, "How can you be this strong?"

"You’ve never understood the true nature of power," Lin Tian said, his voice carrying the quiet weight of absolute certainty, "You’ve spent your entire life using strength as a hammer. Nothing more."

"Now then." His eyes settled on Mo Lihai the way a mountain settles onto the earth, "Let’s find out how much of mine you can endure."