The impact came like a thunderclap.

Namgung Hyuk's fist drove forward, qi roaring around his knuckles in a spiraling vortex of raw power. The air itself seemed to tear. Alex met it head-on, feet planted, every muscle braced.

The collision exploded outward in a shockwave that cracked stone and sent dust billowing across the ruined courtyard.

Alex's body left the ground.

He flew backward through the night air, a white-robed figure hurled like a broken doll. One hundred meters. His back slammed into the side of a half-collapsed building with a sound like splitting timber.

Ribs screamed. His left arm hung useless, bones shattered inside the sleeve. Blood filled his mouth. For a heartbeat the world went gray at the edges.

But he did not fall.

He slid down the wall, boots finding purchase on broken masonry, and stayed

upright. The five-element core inside him burned steady and deep, a foundation that had once carried him all the way to the first stage of Nascent Soul before he deliberately pressed it back.

That choice had cost him power. It had also kept him alive.

Namgung Hyuk hovered above the rubble, sword lowered, eyes wide with genuine shock. The arrogant certainty on his face cracked.

"You... didn't die."

Alex spat blood onto the stones. The taste was bitter. He straightened slowly, one arm dangling, the other clenched at his side. Pain lanced up his spine with every breath, but he lifted his chin and met the old master's gaze without flinching.

Namgung's mouth twisted. Arrogance flooded back in, hot and ugly. "Why won't you just die?"

He launched himself again, a streak of crimson qi.

The Wudang Sect Master dropped from the sky between them, sword already drawn. Steel rang against steel as he caught Namgung's descending strike and turned it aside.

The two Nascent Soul cultivators blurred into motion, trading blows faster than the eye could follow. Each clash sent shockwaves rolling across Changyi. Sword light flashed in brilliant arcs. The night filled with the scream of qi and the thunder of impacts.

Below them, Alex pushed off the wall. His broken arm swung limply. Blood dripped from his lip and spattered the dust.

He watched the aerial duel for three heartbeats, then drew breath and roared upward, voice raw but carrying.

"Bastard! Namgung Hyuk!"

Alex's eyes burned. "I tried to speak with you. I gave you the truth. And you came here to murder me in my own home. Do you truly want me as your enemy?"

Namgung broke away from Feng Taiyi and hovered, robes whipping in the wind his own qi created. His face was a mask of righteous fury.

"You collude with Prussia," he spat. "You bring their forbidden machines into Xia. For that, you die."

"I have told you," Alex answered, each word deliberate, "I have no alliance with Prussia. Every drone, every satellite, every system you see was built here. By Xia hands. With Xia minds. Reverse-engineered from designs I stole. Nothing more." "I do not believe you."

Alex took one step forward, boots grinding on broken tile.

"Then tell me what you will do."

Namgung's qi flared, a visible pressure that made the air shimmer. "I will kill you here and now."

Alex's laugh was short, cold, and without humor.

"Have you thought this through, old man? Because if you name me your enemy, I will not stop at you. I will use the Emperor's seal. I will hunt every last member of the Namgung family-every cousin, every disciple, every blood relative who carries that name and I will erase them from this Xia. Do you understand me?"

The wind died for a single, terrible second.

Namgung's face went white, then flushed dark with rage. His qi exploded outward in a violent gust that whipped dust and shattered tiles into the air. “You dare threaten my family?"

Alex did not retreat.

"I am asking you one last time, Do you truly want to make me your enemy?"

At that exact moment, the sky changed.

Ten heavy military aircraft descended through the clouds, their silhouettes massive and angular against the stars.

They moved with unnatural silence for their size, rotors and engines humming with a low, predatory thrum.

Spotlights lanced downward, pinning Namgung in brilliant white beams. The aircraft hovered in a perfect formation, weapons pods already unfolding, the faint whine of targeting systems audible even over the wind.

Namgung's head snapped up. His eyes widened.

"You..." The word came out strangled. “You really have sided with Prussia. You cannot be allowed to live."

"You old bastard." Alex spat another mouthful of blood onto the broken stones. "I know you're strong. But if you truly want to kill me, ask yourself whether your entire family can withstand everything I will unleash in return. I will not stop with you. I will not leave even your dogs breathing if you force me to name you my enemy." Namgung Hyuk went still in mid-air. For decades, cultivators across Xia had whispered his name with fear and called him the Old Monster. He did as he pleased. No one questioned him. No one threatened his bloodline. Until now.

His jaw tightened. A low growl rumbled from his chest. "You have no chivalry. No honor of a true cultivator."

"I am the Prime Minister of Xia," Alex answered. "If you raise your hand against me, then every member of the Namgung family becomes a traitor to the throne. That is the law. That is the price."

Alex took one deliberate step

forward. "Murim and the great sects

are forbidden from interfering in

imperial affairs. That has been the

covenant for centuries. Yet you flew here with the clear intent to

of

assassinate the Prime Minister I man why should

Xia. Tell me, old man

the Namgung name not be struck

from every record? Why should your

entire bloodline not be declared

traitors and hunted to the last?"

The silence that followed was absolute.

Namgung Hyuk had come to deliver justice. He had come to destroy the man he believed had betrayed Xia to foreign machines. Now the ground had shifted beneath him.

If he struck Alex down, the Emperor's seal would brand every Namgung disciple, every cousin, every child who carried that blood as enemies of the state. Heads would line the roads on spears. The name would become a curse.

He turned his head slightly. "Feng Taiyi. Has Wudang already thrown in with Prussia? Have you betrayed Xia?"

The Wudang Sect Master replied. "We protect the rightful Emperor. We stand with Xia. We took Prussian designs and made them our own so this land could grow strong again. But you, Namgung Hyuk, came here tonight with one purpose-to kill the Prime Minister. That choice was yours. And it violates the oldest rule between murim and the throne."

Namgung spoke slowly. "It is true that murim does not mix with the affairs of emperors and governorsz But this chaos began the moment Bai Xiaochun took the identity of Wudang's young sect master while sitting in the Prime Minister's chair So rask you plainly." His gaze locked onto Alex. "Which one are you? The Prime Minister of Xia... or the young master of Wudang?"

Alex met his stare without blinking.

"I am both."

"Then you are the one breaking the taboo," Namgung Hyuk's face hardened into something ancient and merciless. "And for that, you must die. At any cost."

Alex met Feng Taiyi's eyes across the ruined courtyard.

He knew the truth without needing words. His master was still only at the fourth level

of Nascent Soul. Namgung Hyuk stood a full stage higher. Feng Taiyi had held the

line this long through skill alone. He could not hold it much longer.

If the fight continued, both men might die here tonight.

Alex turned his gaze back to Namgung.

"I am Bai Xiaochun," he said. "I followed my late father into the position of city lord of Qingshui. Then became the governor of two provinces. Now I stand as Prime Minister of Xia."

Namgung hovered in silence for a moment, sword still raised. "So you claim you are not part of murim at all?"

"I was forced into Wudang," Alex answered. "It was never my choice. If I must choose between the seat of Prime Minister and my place in Wudang, then I will relinquish the latter without hesitation."

Namgung's eyes narrowed.

Alex pressed forward before the silence could settle. "The drones, the satellites, every system you see above us-I created them. They belong to the office of the Prime Minister now. They are instruments of Xia's government. Murim has no voice in what the throne chooses to build or how it chooses to defend its people."

He took another step, broken arm swinging at his side. "If you continue this attack, you will not be remembered as a righteous elder. You will be marked a traitor to Xia. And every member of your family will pay the price with you."

Namgung suddenly laughed.

“Good,” he said. “Very good. You stand there and claim you are no longer part of Wudang. But Wudang is still murim. And I am one of the people who leads the murim alliance."

"From this moment, I declare that Wudang has colluded with Prussia. They have brought forbidden foreign technology into our world. Wudang is now the enemy of every righteous sect. Our people will come. We will burn their halls to the ground."

Feng Taiyi's face flushed dark red.

Namgung's gaze shifted to Alex once more. "As Prime Minister, you will not touch Wudang. You will not aid them. If you do, you become a target of the murim alliance as well."

He turned back to Feng Taiyi, voice dropping into something colder and more final.

"You have two choices, Wudang Sect Master Accept the punishment

of the murim alliance. Close Wudang's gates for one hundred years Surrender your training realm to us. Or we will destroy you Every

disciple will dre. Every hall will fath And when the ashes cool, the murim

alliance will take everything that remains-including the realm you have hidden for so long."

Feng Taiyi lifted his chin. "I will never do that."

Namgung Hyuk smiled.

"Then Wudang dies. And everything you have built burns with it."