Reon slowly lifted his head, his expression eerily calm, yet beh that stillness y a chilling, bone-deep ess.

  His grip on his sword tightened slightly as he prepared to set his pn into motion.

  "So what if I am Xue Taiyang?" he said, his voice steady and pierg as he locked eyes with the leader of the group.

  "What will you do about it?"

  The leader's lips curled into a sneer, his eyes narrowing with triumph.

  "So you admit it!" he barked.

  "Xue Taiyang, you bastard! We've been looking for you for a month, and now—at st—we have you."

  Malice dripped from his voice like venom.

  "Of course, you won't leave this pce alive. It's the will of Young Master Niu. He ordered your death for defying him—for your betrayal."

  Reon's gaze didn't waver, his lips curving into a faint, humorless smile.

  "I see. So you're the dogs of that spoiled brat, Niu Ling."

  The leader's face twisted with fury.

  "Watouth!" he snapped.

  "Don't insult Young Master Niu! Do you think you stand a ce against us? Just because your Mist Cloud Fox defeated a few Outer Sect trash, you think you're invincible?"

  Reon tilted his head slightly, his voice calm, yet carrying an uone of quiet menace.

  "You're n."

  The smirk on his lips deepened, sending an uling chill through the air.

  "Cloudia wouldn't have stood a ce against you before… that is, if she were still in her previous state. But things have ged."

  His voice dropped to a murmur. "You'll find out soon enough."

  The leader opened his mouth to respond.

  "What do you mea—"

  Before he could finish, Reon's voice cut through the air, cold and sharp as a bde.

  "Before we go any further, answer me this."

  His gaze darkened, his voice l to a chilling whisper.

  "Were you the ones who injured her—my little cat?"

  For a moment, silence.

  Then, the leader let out a low, dark chuckle.

  "Since you won't be leaving here alive, I suppose there's no harm in telling you."

  He sneered.

  "Yes. It was us."

  His voice carried the smug satisfa of a predator toying with its prey.

  "That beast was nothing more than a stepping stolory, but it dared to resist."

  He clicked his tongue in mock disappoi.

  "A creature with a Legendary Lineage like that 't be bound by forto a tract, so we had no choice but to break it. I. Subdue it with a Sve Colr."

  "It was meant to serve Young Master Niu, whether it liked it or not."

  The sneer barely had time to settle on his face before something ged.

  The moment the words left his mouth, the temperature seemed to plummet.

  The wind stilled.

  The world hushed.

  Reon didn’t explode in rage.

  He didn’t yell.

  He didn’t curse.

  Instead, he simply stared at them—his expression unreadable, his eyes twin voids of quiet, bottomless fury.

  That silence was more terrifying than any outburst.

  Then—

  A sound.

  A soft hum, low and ominous.

  The Dark Blue Moonlit Fang in Reon's grasp trembled faintly, its surface rippling like liquid shadow before being swallowed whole by an Inky-Bck Aura.

  Dark. Unnatural.

  Alive.

  The shift was instant.

  The oppressive weight of his presence crashed down like an uidal wave.

  The group of cultivators stiffened.

  Their leader faltered, his sneer wavering, his bravado crag as he felt it.

  The suffog force of something beyond the ordinary.

  "I-is that… Sword Aura?" he stammered, his voice breaking.

  "But… it’s bck? That’s impossible! And how in world... did it cover his sword so fast? It should take at least... two mio fully ma!"

  His mind reeled.

  Even the most gifted Heavenly Gehose who awakened Golden Sword Aura, hirty to forty seds to fully form it.

  But Xue Taiyang?

  Not even ten seds.

  "And this pressure…" Another disciple trembled, his voice quivering with barely tained panic.

  "Big Brother… this isn’t ordinary Sword Aura. This is…"

  His words stu his throat, choked by fear.

  "It's far strohan even... Young Master Niu's Sword Aura!"

  "Shut up!" the leader snapped, but his voice cked its former strength.

  "It must be some kind of forbidden item, imbued with Death Qi. There’s no way a Bck Sword Aura actually exists!"

  One of his subordinates—Yin Shan—shook his head violently.

  He swallowed hard, gng nervously at the leader.

  "Big Brother, it’s not just the color… Look at the iy!" He stepped bavoluntarily, his breath ing in shasps.

  "This isn’t just Sword Aura—this is Pinage Sword Aura!"

  "Enough!" the leader roared, his voice shaking slightly as he forced himself to stand his ground.

  "Stop panig like cowards! He’s just using some lowly, forbidden artifact to create an illusion of power!"

  He drew his sword with a swift, anding motion, desperately ging to trol.

  "It may look intimidating, but don’t be deceived! We have the advantage—numbers, higher cultivation and years of experience!

  His sneer returned, but it was thinner now, forced.

  "We are Inner Disciples, the elite of the sect, while he is nothing more than a frail weakling who couldn't even stand against a seewer."

  "Surround him! Now!"

  "Yes, Big Brother!" The others echoed his and, their voices filled with forced fidence.

  But their eyes? Their eyes betrayed them.

  Fear still lingered beh the surface, gnawing at them like a festering wound.

  The leader gripped his bde tightly, eling energy into it.

  The faint hum of Mastery-Stage Sky-Blue Color Sword Aura began to emanate from its surface.

  "I’ll put ao this farce myself!" he decred, a sharp edge of determination in his voice.

  He braced himself, ready to unleash his full strength.

  But then—

  Reon took a siep forward.

  One.

  The bck aura around his sword fred—twisting, writhing, a liviy of shadows ah.

  And then—

  He spoke.

  Soft. Cold. Final.

  "Activate your Sword Aura?"

  His eyes, filled with quiet certainty, locked onto the leader.

  His lips curled into a whisper of a smirk.

  "You won’t have the ce."