You pay no attention to Elder Thorne overhead. Instead, you walk over to Damian, his face ashen.
"Father, you look pretty shaken."
Damian's lips move, but no words come out.
You give a small smile, reaching into your storage ring and pulling out a plain little bronze shield, handing it over casually. "This low-grade earth tier protective treasure, the tortoise shield. It's a bit plain, but it should be able to save you at a critical moment. Consider it rent. For all these years, you let me live at the Reed estate."
Damian freezes. Every Reed clansman freezes with him, completely unable to make sense of your behaviour. With an enemy at the gates, at a moment like this, not a single thought toward the crisis. And here you are handing out treasures, and a low tier one at that.
Damian, as if compelled by some unseen force, accepts the little bronze shield.
And the instant he takes it, the system's chime sounds in your mind.
Ding. The low-grade earth tier treasure you gifted, the tortoise shield, has been accepted. Ten-thousandfold critical rebound triggered. Congratulations, player. High-grade heaven tier armour acquired. The undying dragon armour.
Before the chime even finishes, a blinding golden light erupts violently from your body. Under everyone's stunned, jaw-dropped stares, a magnificent suit of armour, forged entirely from dark golden dragon scales, coiled with the phantom forms of nine divine dragons, wraps itself around your entire body in an instant.
A pressure far older than Elder Thorne's own, far more noble, far more overwhelming, radiates outward from the armour.
The condescending expression on Elder Thorne's face freezes instantly, replaced by unparalleled shock and greed. That aura can only belong to a heaven tier treasure.
Clad in the undying dragon armour, you rise into the air, facing Elder Thorne from across the sky. The terrifying Core Formation Realm pressure he exerts on you sinks without a trace, like a stone into water, not stirring a ripple.
You stretch your limbs slightly, savouring the immense power the armour grants you, then finally lift your head, looking Elder Thorne in the eye for the first time. Your voice is flat, yet carries a judgment that strikes straight at the soul.
"Are you qualified to judge me?"
Elder Thorne's face turns liver red instantly. He, the great outer sect grand elder of the Azure Sun Sect, a Core Formation Realm powerhouse. Wherever he goes, isn't he always worshipped and revered? Today, he's being questioned by some wet-behind-the-ears brat, in front of the entire city of Bluestone, about whether he has the right to judge. What humiliation.
"Sharp tongue for a runt. You think one piece of armour lets you act this arrogant in front of this elder?"
Elder Thorne's fury turns into laughter, greed thickening in his eyes. A heaven tier treasure like this, not even he possesses one, let alone the Azure Sun Sect's own leader. If he can defeat you, this armour, along with all your secrets, will all belong to him.
"This elder will crack that armour of yours first, then your cultivation, and see just what kind of freak you really are."
Before he even finishes speaking, Elder Thorne moves, fingers forming a blade. He slashes toward you from a distance. "Sky Rending Slash."
A blue sword chi hundreds of feet long materialises out of nothing, carrying enough force to rend the heavens as it crashes down toward your head. Wherever the sword chi passes, the air beneath it is sucked completely dry, leaving a visible vacuum trail. Several buildings in the Reed estate collapse into rubble in the shock wave.
This is the full power strike of a Core Formation powerhouse. World-shattering in scale.
"My lord, watch out!" Damian below cries out in horror, his voice cracking. Every member of the Reed clan squeezes their eyes shut, unable to bear watching the bloodbath they assume is coming.
And yet, facing this world-shattering strike, your response is calm enough to chill the bone. You don't even entertain the thought of dodging, simply hovering quietly in the air, letting the sword chi, powerful enough to cleave mountains, crash down full force onto you.
Boom!
A deafening explosion rings out across all of Bluestone City. A storm of energy rages violently where you stand, shredding the clouds overhead to pieces.
On Elder Thorne's face spreads a cruel, satisfied smile. He doesn't believe anyone alive can take a hit like that with their bare flesh. This strike is strong enough that even a heaven tier suit of armour would suffer severe damage to its spiritual core.
But when the smoke and dust clear, the smile on his face freezes completely.
There, floating in midair, still stands the figure in dark golden armour. Completely unharmed. Not even the armour bears the faintest mark. Not a single scratch.
"What?" Elder Thorne's eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets.
"That was your full power strike?" You lift a hand, brushing off dust that isn't even there on your shoulder, your tone carrying obvious disappointment. "Too weak. Not even enough to give me an itch."
Elder Thorne trembles with fury, refusing to accept the reality in front of him. "Impossible. This elder refuses to believe it." He roars, spiritual energy churning wildly through his body, hands forming seals, preparing to unleash an even more devastating technique.
But you have no intention of giving him another chance.
"This game's over," you murmur softly, activating the Nine Heavens Wind Step, leaving an afterimage in place as you vanish instantly.
Elder Thorne's pupils constrict sharply, his spiritual sense sweeping wildly in every direction, unable to catch even a trace of you.
The next instant, a flat, ghostlike voice speaks right beside his ear. "Looking for me?"
Elder Thorne's blood runs cold. Without a moment's thought, he strikes backward with a palm, but hits nothing but another afterimage.
Meanwhile, your figure has already appeared a hundred metres behind him, the primordial eyes activating. In your sight, the seemingly flawless flow of spiritual power throughout Elder Thorne's body is riddled, in truth, with countless flaws. Every one of them a fatal opening.
It's over.
You slowly raise your right hand, extending your index finger.
In an instant, the wind halts, the clouds part, and an indescribable aura, ancient, primeval, desolate and dominating, capable of imprisoning everything, sweeps outward from you, engulfing the entire sky and land. In this moment, whether it's the Reed clansmen below or every living being in Bluestone City, everyone feels as if their very soul has been seized by an invisible hand, breathing itself becoming a luxury.
Elder Thorne, up in the sky, feels as if he's plunged into an abyss of ice. He discovers, horrified, that he's been completely locked in place by some mysterious force. The space around him has become as rigid as solid iron, and he can't even move a single finger. All he can do is watch, helpless, as that ordinary-looking finger slowly closes in on him.
The Sky-Piercing Finger. One finger seeks the heavens, another honours the earth.
Elder Thorne's eyes finally show endless terror and regret, letting out the final unyielding roar of his life.
That finger seems slow, yet it crosses the distance of space itself, bypassing every last one of his defences, tapping lightly against his dantian.
A soft snap.
The aura surrounding Elder Thorne bursts like a popped balloon, pouring out of him instantly. He looks down in disbelief at the dull, lightless wound on his abdomen. The cultivation he'd taken such pride in is draining away wildly, his life force cut off.
"Unwilling," he mutters, finishing his last words, and his body drops from midair, limp, with a heavy thud, slamming into the centre of the Reed estate's arena and gouging out a massive crater.
Elder Thorne, grand elder of the Azure Sun Sect's outer branch, Core Formation Realm powerhouse. Dead.
The entire city falls into stillness. Everyone who witnesses this feels their entire world view shatter, crushed to dust.
You retract your finger, slowly descending from the sky, glancing once at the lifeless body on the ground, brow furrowing slightly. "Too noisy."
With that, you turn to head back to your courtyard.