"Hey... come look at this," a master scout from the third faction whispered, his voice trembling as he knelt down beside the massive, severed torso of a three-meter adult specimen. He dipped his gloved fingers into the fresh, bubbling green ichor.

"What is it?" a female mercenary leader demanded, her hand shaking as she gripped her twin daggers. "Is it an elder from the Heavenly Sword Pavilion? Did a Core Formation master come down from the inner peaks?"

"No," the scout whispered, his face turning completely pale as he looked up at the perfectly smooth, microscopic edge of the cut carapace. "Look at the trajectory. The strike entered from the front flank and exited through the rear spinneret in a single uninterrupted slash. There is no residual spiritual mist from a high-tier cultivation technique... but the ambient air around this wound is still vibrating."

"Vibrating with what?!" the one-eyed leader snarled, grabbing the scout by his collar and lifting him up. "Speak, damn it!"

"Sword Intent," the scout gasped out, his eyes wide with pure, unadulterated terror. "It’s pure, conceptual Sword Intent! And look at the footprints in the mud... there are no heavy boots from a vanguard unit. There is only one set of tracks following the trail. A single swordsman walked into this infested valley entirely alone... and he is butchering the entire mountain ridge like he’s harvesting wheat!"

A collective gasp rippled through the two hundred mercenaries. The heavy siege equipment, the ballistas, and the expensive explosive talismans in their hands suddenly felt completely useless, transformed into absolute toys before the terrifying reality in front of them.

The heavy, suffocating silence hung over the two hundred mercenaries like a physical weight. The master scout’s words had driven a cold spike of dread into the hearts of the vanguard, and many of them began to hesitantly glance backward toward the safety of the valley gates.

"Boss..." a bearded enforcer whispered, his knuckles loosening around the shaft of his heavy battleaxe. "Maybe we should pull back. If we stumble into a Core Formation monster who has already mastered conceptual Sword Intent, he might take our intrusion as a declaration of war. We won’t even leave enough meat behind to feed the crows."

The one-eyed leader ground his yellowed teeth together so hard a faint clicking sound echoed from his jaw. His single eye burned with a volatile mixture of lingering fear and absolute, uncontrollable greed. They had spent three months of hard-earned capital preparing for this campaign; turning back now meant absolute financial ruin for his faction.

"Shut your damn mouths!" the leader hissed, slamming the butt of his giant greatsword into the mud. "Look at the trails! The ichor on these carcasses is still steaming. Whoever did this just finished the fight minutes ago. Even if he’s a supreme genius from the inner peaks, no one can slaughter an entire valley of spiritual spiders without draining their restricted core to absolute emptiness! He’s bound to be exhausted, if not heavily injured. We have two hundred fresh blades, siege ballistas, and spiritual prison talismans. We don’t back down. Advance!"

Driven by their leader’s fierce desperation, the massive coalition hardened their hearts and broke through the final curtain of dense, humid mist, spilling out into the central nesting grounds.

The moment they entered the wide clearing, the sheer, staggering reality of the harvest hit them like a physical blow.

Directly in front of them, Mary, Roy, and Louisa were frantically working over the massive, four-meter-wide elite carcasses, their hands covered in green ichor as they pried loose the valuable mandibles. Behind them lay the colossal, six-meter-wide body of the decapitated spider matriarch. Though her massive head had been cleanly severed, her bloated abdomen remained completely intact, her skin bulging with thousands of kilograms of pristine, unharvested silver silk. Nearby, the three wooden cargo sledges they had constructed were already piled impossibly high with compound eyes, venomous stingers, and shimmering silver spools, looking like a literal mountain of supreme treasure resting in the dirt.

And right beside the central redwood, Ethan sat perfectly still, his eyes closed and his back resting against the bark, his midnight-black suit visibly torn across the midsection, stained with a dark patch of his own blood.

The one-eyed leader’s gaze scanned the scene, his eye instantly locking onto the tear in Ethan’s armor and his closed eyelids. A dark, viciously arrogant smirk crept across his bald face. "I knew it," he thought internally, his heart leaping with absolute ecstasy. "The brat fought the matriarch alone and got himself impaled. He’s completely drained, using high-grade medicine just to keep his viscera from leaking out."

"Well, well, well," the leader bellowed, his deep, mocking voice echoing across the clearing as the two hundred mercenaries quickly fanned out, forming a massive, intimidating wall of steel and iron around the family’s small position. "Look what the tide dragged in. A few dirty scavengers from the slums trying to haul away the entire fortune of the northern mountain ridge."

Mary instantly dropped her hunting knife, snapping her longbow from her shoulder and nocking an iron arrow in a single microsecond, her body shielding Louisa. Roy drew his steel katana, dropping into a low stance, his teeth bared in fury as he looked at the massive horde surrounding them.

"This territory was cleared entirely by our party!" Roy shouted, his voice cracking with righteous anger but remaining fiercely firm. "We pulled the notice from the central board! Every single beast here was slain by Master Ethan’s blade! Get your filthy hands off our cargo and get out of this valley!"

"Master Ethan? Is that the dying brat resting against the tree?" the leader mocked, gesturing toward Ethan with his massive greatsword. "Listen to me closely, woman. My coalition spent over three months of hard capital preparing to secure this valley. We brought siege equipment, we brought talismans, and we spent thousands of low-grade stones to mobilize two hundred men. We didn’t come all this way just to watch a bunch of slum-dwelling orphans drag a mountain of treasure back to the luxury inns."

-------------------

From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.

Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.

Body Refinement Realm

Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement

Spiritual Gathering Realm

Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation

Spiritual Core Realm

Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)

Spiritual Soul Realm

Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion

Golden Core Realm

Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction

Spiritual Sea Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Dao Manifestation Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Spiritual Transcendence

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??