Chapter 122: The Timely Intervention

Chapter 122: The Timely Intervention

The five black swords rose together in terrifying unison.

The killing formation shifted.

KRRRRR...

Jagged lines of dark, viscous energy spread rapidly across the stone floor, locking the five black-robed figures into a single, cohesive network.

The atmospheric pressure skyrocketed, pressing down on the young cultivators’ shoulders like a falling vault.

Asher’s expression turned to iron. "Everyone! Defend!"

The five young cultivators moved instantly.

BOOM!

The black formation exploded forward with blinding speed.

The heavy swordsman lunged straight at Asher. CLANG! Asher caught the bone-crushing blow on his golden blade, his boots skidding across the stone.

At the same time, the assassin-type swordsman flickered out of existence.

Jules’s eyes widened as survival instinct flared. "Behind me!"

SHING!

Jules whipped around. A torrent of blinding silver lightning erupted from his palms, forcing the invisible assassin’s blade away at the last microsecond.

Across the room—

BOOM!

Arvessa clashed head-on with the speed swordsman, a violent storm of wind and flame detonating upon impact. Annelle’s Wind Qi swept across the battlefield to clear the shockwaves, while Ambiel’s leather whip cracked like thunder, attempting to bind the formation master.

For several intense moments, the five young heirs managed to hold their ground. They were finally fighting as a synchronized unit, covering each other’s blind spots.

But the black-robed figures were adapting.

Again. And again.

Every time the five youths found a temporary opening, the formation corrected itself instantly. Every time they forced one enemy back, another immediately filled the gap.

Standing dead center at the core of the chaos was the formation master. His sword remained pointed downward, yet every kinetic shift, every blade stroke, and every spatial movement around him was orchestrated directly by his weapon.

Asher’s eyes narrowed through the dust. He’s controlling the entire grid.

"Ambiel!" Asher yelled over the din of battle.

"I see him!"

Ambiel’s whip snapped forward like a striking viper. PAH!

The leather strap wrapped tightly around the formation master’s descending blade. She yanked with all her might.

The man’s body shifted half a step. Only half a step.

But in a battle of this caliber, that half-step was all they needed.

"Jules!"

Jules understood instantly. Silver lightning surged through his veins. CRACKLE! He slammed both palms violently against the ground, channeling the electric current straight into the enemy’s runic lines.

BOOOOM!

The central node flickered violently. The five black-robed figures staggered in unison, their movements stuttering.

Arvessa caught the opening. "Now!"

Her sword erupted with roaring flames, compressed and razor-sharp by swirling wind Qi. She shot forward like a meteor. WHOOSH!

Her flaming blade descended directly toward the vulnerable formation master.

Clang!

The heavy swordsman materialized out of nowhere, intercepting the blow with his massive frame. The brutal impact threw Arvessa backward through the air.

"Arvessa!" Annelle cried out, moving to catch her sister.

Before Annelle could reach her, the speed swordsman intercepted her path.

SHING! Annelle barely ducked under a decapitating arc.

Shing!

The assassination swordsman vanished from sight.

Jules’s pupils contracted to pinpricks. Again?!

A cold edge materialized beside his throat. Jules twisted his torso purely on instinct. CLANG! Sparks and silver lightning exploded between them. He survived the strike by less than an inch, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "This is getting ridiculous!"

"Focus!" Asher barked, parrying another heavy strike.

"I am focused!"

Then—

The entire Ancient Palace groaned.

THUMP.

Every combatant froze mid-strike. The five black-robed figures halted instantly. The young cultivators stared around in alarm.

A second heartbeat echoed through the stone.

THUMP.

The crimson runes covering the walls flared into blinding, bloody light. The architecture itself was undergoing a radical shift.

Asher’s expression turned grim. "This... this isn’t part of their formation."

Ambiel slowly turned her head toward the deeper, blue-lit corridor. "No." Her voice dropped to a tense whisper. "Something else is waking up."

BOOM!

A massive fissure split the stone floor right beneath the central array. A violent, suffocating geyser of crimson-black energy erupted from the depths.

Responding to the new energy, the five black-robed figures moved as one.

They converged at the center. Their five black swords crossed blades in mid-air.

The formation mutated, drawing upon the palace’s subterranean power. Five distinct streams of Sword Qi merged into a single, colossal, terrifying blade of dark energy.

The giant blade descended.

"MOVE!" Asher roared.

They scattered in all directions.

BOOOOOOM!

The enormous blade smashed into the flagstones, pulverizing the center of the chamber into a crater of flying stone fragments and dust.

Arvessa stumbled from the shockwave. Annelle grabbed her arm, while Ambiel whipped them both clear of a falling pillar.

Asher rolled across the fractured stone, instantly springing back to his feet with his golden blade raised. Jules landed heavily on one knee, his eyes wide with horror.

The attack had been exponentially stronger than anything before it.

And before they could even catch their breath, the five black-robed figures raised their swords once more. The dark formation began condensing energy for an even more devastating strike.

Arvessa looked up, her face pale. "We can’t dodge that."

Annelle gritted her teeth, stepping in front of her sister. "Then we stop it."

Ambiel’s leather whip tightened around her palm until her knuckles turned white. "Together."

Asher channeled every ounce of remaining Metal Qi into his sword. Jules’s silver lightning crackled into a blinding aura.

They prepared for a final, desperate clash.

Then, the formation released.

BOOOOOOOOM!

A gigantic wall of consolidated Sword Qi tore across the chamber.

The five young cultivators unleashed everything they had simultaneously—Golden Metal Qi, Silver Lightning, searing Fire, sweeping Wind, and cracking whip-strikes.

Five distinct powers collided against the incoming tsunami of Qi.

For a terrifying second, they held it back.

Then their boots began sliding backward across the stone.

Asher gritted his teeth, blood vessels bursting in his forehead. "It’s...

too strong!"

Annelle’s arms trembled violently under the pressure. "Don’t yield!"

Arvessa pushed her flaming sword forward with a desperate cry. "I can still—!"

Suddenly, the incoming Sword Qi twisted mid-air.

The trajectory warped violently, bypassing Asher, bypassing Ambiel, and bypassing Annelle entirely.

It locked directly onto Jules.

Jules’s pupils contracted to absolute nothingness.

The colossal attack was already bearing down on him like an executioner’s axe. If that hits me, I’m dead.

Panic clawed at his chest. In that fraction of a second, years of arrogant noble conditioning collided with raw, animalistic survival instinct.

There was no time to think. No time to coordinate. No time to find another solution.

Self-preservation took over.

Jules lunged violently toward Arvessa. His hand shot out, clamping around her arm with a desperate, crushing grip.

"Jules—?!" Arvessa gasped.

Before she could react, he violently heaved her body directly into the path of the incoming Sword Qi!

For a horrifying fraction of an instant, Arvessa became the human shield between Jules and the fatal blast.

Her eyes widened in absolute, frozen disbelief. "You—!"

Jules’s face drained of every drop of color. Even as he did it, the crushing weight of his own cowardice hit him.

He hadn’t planned it. He hadn’t wanted her dead. But when faced with his own mortality, he had chosen his life over hers.

The enormous wave of Sword Qi was inches away from Arvessa.

She raised her trembling sword, tears of betrayal stinging her eyes. I can’t stop it...

The attack was about to obliterate her.

Then—

CLANG!

A sound so pure, sharp, and authoritative echoed through the battlefield that it temporarily deafened the roar of the Qi.

Everyone’s head snapped toward the sound.

Arvessa froze.

Something was standing directly between her and the doom bearing down upon her.

A sword.

A black, unadorned blade had materialized out of thin air. It didn’t intercept the colossal Sword Qi with explosive force or blinding light.

It simply was there.

Holding a tsunami of pure destruction entirely in place with effortless stillness.

Arvessa’s wide eyes slowly tracked upward along the black metal.

And then she saw the hand gripping the hilt.

A slender hand. Smooth, pale, almost jade-like beneath the dim crimson glow of the chamber.

The fingers tightened.

The wrist twisted by a microscopic fraction.

KRRR...

Thick, volatile crimson Qi suddenly coiled around the black blade like a living dragon.

That single, minute shift in geometry changed the laws of the space around it.

The massive wave of incoming Sword Qi wrapped around the crimson blade, its momentum completely hijacked.

Then—

BOOOOOOM!

The entire attack was violently redirected backward!

The concentrated wave of destruction inverted, surging straight toward the five astonished black-robed figures.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The five entities were blasted off their feet in an instant, their dark formation shattering into sparkling shards of light. The concussive shockwave swept the chamber, sending dust and shattered stone billowing into the air.

Arvessa remained rooted to the spot, breathless, staring at the weapon hovering inches from her face.

Then, she slowly looked up at the person holding it.

A woman stood silently before her.

She wore flowing, blood-red silk robes that draped like liquid fire. Long, ink-black hair cascaded down her back.

And her face was entirely concealed behind a porcelain red mask decorated with a delicate flower motif.

Her black sword remained poised in the air, crimson Qi slowly coiling around the steel.

She had appeared without warning, without a sound, and without a single trace of prior presence.

No grand declaration. No overwhelming, oppressive aura to announce her arrival. She had simply stepped into reality—and casually swatted aside an attack that should have turned the young heirs to ash.

Arvessa swallowed hard, her voice trembling. "Who... are you?"

The masked woman did not answer.

She slowly lowered the black blade, the crimson Qi receding back into the steel.

As the dust began to settle across the ruined chamber, Asher dragged himself up, his golden eyes locking onto the masked figure.

His survival instincts screamed a single word: Danger.

Yet, strangely, he couldn’t sense her true cultivation realm. There was almost zero Qi leakage, no terrifying pressure matching the reality-bending strike she had just unleashed.

That absence of a detectable aura made her infinitely more terrifying than the black-robed puppets.

Ambiel tightened her grip on her leather whip, her guard at absolute maximum. "Who goes there?"

Absolute silence.

The masked woman did not acknowledge them. Her gaze slowly swept across the battlefield.

First, she looked at the five battered black-robed figures picking themselves up from the rubble.

Then, her gaze drifted to Asher. Then Annelle. Then Ambiel.

Finally, her dark, emotionless eyes paused on Jules.

Jules instinctively shrank back, his face white as a sheet, unable to meet her gaze.

At last, her eyes shifted to Arvessa, lingering for a brief, unreadable second.

Then, she turned her head toward the deep, ancient corridor leading to the heart of the Palace.

Her expression remained hidden behind the porcelain flower mask.

FWOOSH...

The black blade in her hand began to hum once more, resonating with the pulsing her heartbeat.

SHING.

She raised the sword slightly.

Across the chamber, the five black-robed figures struggled back onto their feet. Their black swords rose in response.

But for the first time since the battle began—

They hesitated.

The masked woman took one slow, deliberate step forward.

Not toward the young cultivators.

Toward the five guardians of the trial.

Her blade remained pointed forward. The crimson Qi began to densify once more, wrapping the hall in an uneasy, terrifying quiet.

Then—

THUMP.

The Ancient Palace trembled beneath them.

Another pulse.

THUMP.

The masked woman stood entirely still.

Five young elites. Five black-robed executioners.

And now, a single, terrifying anomaly standing between them all.​