Alex stood in the rubble, blood dripping from his split lip onto the broken stone. His left arm hung useless at his side, the bones shattered from Namgung Hyuk's earlier blow.

He ignored it. Pain was a luxury he could not afford. He raised his good hand.

"Attack now!"

Feng Taiyi charged forward without hesitation, pouring every ounce of his strength into the assault. But Namgung Hyuk was older and stronger.

"You will never win," Namgung Hyuk sneered.

The two Nascent Soul masters collided high in the dark sky. Their swords clashed with explosive force, sending streaks of sword light flashing like silver lightning weaving through turbulent storm clouds.

Then, without warning, five thousand Wudang disciples emerged in perfect unison. They appeared on every rooftop, in every shadowed courtyard, and from every hidden vantage point surrounding the Prime Minister's pavilion. A sea of white robes rippled as one, silent and disciplined, like an avalanche ready to descend.

They had been waiting. They formed a vast Taichi diagram across the ground and lower air, bodies locking into perfect symmetry.

Qi flowed between them in rivers of silver light. The symbol pulsed once, deep and resonant, then sent its gathered power surging upward into their Sect Master.

Feng Taiyi felt it connected to him like a second wind. His next strike landed heavier, faster, more certain. The air around his blade thickened.

Namgung Hyuk's eyes widened. "Blue Heaven Boundless Sword!"

He answered with his clan's signature technique, the one that had made the Namgung name feared for generations. Sword qi exploded outward in a twisting storm of phantom blades, each one carrying the weight of a falling mountain.

Feng Taiyi met it with the Wudang Nine Moons. The ancient technique built in phases, each strike deeper and more profound than the last. Their blades met in the center of the sky. The impact detonated with a sound like the world cracking. Feng Taiyi was driven back a single step, boots skidding through empty air.

Then the formation below roared.

Power flooded into the Wudang Sect Master in a single, unstoppable wave. His sword light swelled into a colossal crescent moon of pure qi that swallowed Namgung's technique whole and forced the older man to give ground for the first time that night.

The longer they fought, the stronger Feng Taiyi became. The formation fed him without limit.

Namgung Hyuk's face twisted. He had come to kill. Now he saw the trap closing around him. If this continued, he would not leave this city alive.

"All of you force me to this," he snarled.

He pushed his cultivation past every limit he had ever respected. Life force

converted directly into raw power. Crimson light bled from his skin. His body

shuddered under the strain, veins standing out like ropes across his neck and arms. He would burn himself to ash before he let them take him.

He gathered everything for one final strike that would end the fight. "Heavenly Thunder Emperor Sword!"

Feng Taiyi saw the gathering storm. He took one deliberate step back in the air, creating the smallest opening.

Triumph flashed across Namgung Hyuk's face. The old fool was afraid after all. He never got the chance to strike.

High above, the ten heavy aircraft that had been hovering in perfect silence opened fire as one. Their plasma cannons discharged in synchronized lances of searing blue-white energy.

The beams screamed downward and slammed into Namgung's hastily raised barrier with the force of a meteor. Heat washed over the city.

The old master's shield buckled and flared, forcing him to pour every burning drop

of his life force into holding the line. It was all he could do to keep from being erased where he floated.

At the same moment, five thousand drones dropped from the aircraft. They swarmed like a living cloud of black metal and lightning. Precise arcs of electricity crackled between them, then lashed out in chaining bolts that hammered Namgung's already cracking defenses.

His qi flow stuttered and broke under the relentless electrical disruption.

Then the swords came.

As one, the five thousand disciples drew their blades. The weapons rose into the night in a single glittering wave and launched skyward.

Thousands of flying swords streaked toward Namgung from every angle, guided by the formation's unified will. They struck his failing barrier like silver rain, probing, piercing, finding every fracture the plasma and lightning had created.

Even one of the five greatest living cultivators in Xia could not hold forever.

Namgung Hyuk's barrier shattered in a cascade of dying light. Swords found flesh. Lightning jolted through his core. Blood flew in dark arcs. His famous sword slipped from fingers gone numb. His power hemorrhaged with every passing second. That was when Feng Taiyi moved.

The Wudang Sect Master descended like judgment. He executed the Nine Moons Sealing Technique.

He moved through nine precise steps in the air, each footfall leaving a glowing sigil in its wake.

With each step he struck a vital meridian point on Namgung's body with surgical precision. Not to kill. To lock.

One.

Two.

Three.

By the fifth step, horror flooded Namgung Hyuk's eyes. He felt his dantian slam shut like a vault door. His meridians sealed one after another. The raging qi inside him had nowhere to go and nowhere to draw from.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

On the final step, Feng Taiyi's palm pressed flat against the old master's chest. A complex web of light flared across Namgung's body, chaining every remaining source of power.

The roar died in Namgung Hyuk's throat.

His body went slack. The last of his qi guttered out. He fell from the sky like a broken puppet and crashed into the rubble of the courtyard.

The aircraft held position, spotlights pinning the fallen figure. The drones formed a tight perimeter.

The five thousand disciples stood motionless in their Taichi formation, swords still faintly glowing. No cheers. No wasted movement. Only disciplined silence. Dust drifted through the beams of light.

Alex walked forward through the debris. He stopped beside the fallen legend and looked down.

Namgung Hyuk's eyes fluttered open, unfocused, filled with disbelief that was already turning into something colder.

Alex crouched slightly.

"You came to kill the Prime Minister of Xia. You declared war on Wudang. You threatened my family and my people." He paused. "Now you will answer for every one of those choices."

With his good hand he reached into his robe and withdrew a small silver Gaia band. The device glowed faintly as he pressed it against the back of

the old master's neck Natof

flinched once, powerless to resist. The band locked into place with a soft click and a pulse of light.

“Namgung Hyuk. For daring to try to kill me in my own home, I now command Wudang and every force under my control to destroy the Namgung family."

Five thousand voices answered as one.

"We accept the order!"

The Wudang disciples moved as one, without hesitation or fear. In perfect synchrony, they summoned their flying swords back to their feet and shot into the sky like a storm of white meteors, racing toward the hovering aircraft above.

They streamed aboard the waiting heavy transports with disciplined speed. Heavy ramps hissed shut and locked. Advanced camouflage fields shimmered across the armored hulls, warping fight until the entire fleet melted into the night sky.

A faint, deep hum was all that remained - and then even that disappeared. The invisible armada sped away, vanishing in the direction of Anhui Province.

"You said you would let Wudang go," Namgung Hyuk rasped. "You said you would relinquish your place among them."

Alex looked down at him. A cold smile touched his mouth but never reached his

eyes.

"I said whatever was necessary to buy time for the Wudang disciples to arrive and

take up their positions in formation," Namgung Hyuk said calmly. "Every single word was a lie."

"But here is the truth. You will watch your entire clan die because of the choice you made tonight."

Namgung's face twisted. Fresh blood welled at his lips.

"How dare you!"

"I know exactly where your family resides," Alex continued, voice steady. "Anhui province. Under Yuan Shao's control. You flew here with the clear intent to assassinate the

Prime Minister of Xia. That makes you his blade. I assume he sent you."

Namgung's gaze shifted to Feng Taiyi, who stood a few paces away, sword still in

hand, white robes marked with dust and smoke.

"Feng Taiyi! Will you stand by and let this happen? The murim alliance will never forgive Wudang for this. They will come for you. All of you."

The Wudang Sect Master met the old man's stare without flinching. He shook his

head once.

"The murim alliance has always wanted what Wudang holds. Our realm. This changes nothing. They were coming for us either way."

Namgung's eyes widened with something close to despair. He opened his mouth,

but no more words came. Only a ragged breath.

A few hours later the night sky over Anhui province split open.

The camouflaged aircraft decloaked directly above the main Namgung clan compound. Ramps dropped.

Five thousand Wudang disciples poured out like a silver flood from the heavens.

They fell in disciplined waves, white robes streaming, swords already drawn and glowing. Some landed on rooftops. Others dropped straight into the central courtyards. The formation they had used in Changyi re-formed in the air, qi linking them into a single coordinated force.

A clear voice rang out across the compound, amplified by the aircraft's systems.

“Capture them all! Whoever resists-kill them!"

The attack struck without warning.

Swords flashed in the dark. Qi techniques lit the night like sudden lightning.

Namgung clan guards barely had time to shout before the first wave hit them. Bodies fell.

Alarms began to wail, too late. Buildings caught fire as controlled bursts of flame qi

spread from targeted strikes. The main hall, the ancestral shrine, the armories— everything that represented the clan's power began to burn.

"Wudang! How dare you attack us!" the Namgung disciple roared in utter disbelief, his face twisted in fury.

Before the words even faded, Liu Piao's thunderous voice cut through the night: "Kill every last one who refuses to surrender!"

Disciples moved in tight units, overwhelming resistance with numbers and precision.

Those who surrendered were bound and dragged aside.

Those who fought died quickly. The air filled with the crack of breaking steel, the roar of flames, and the screams of the surprised and the dying.