Chapter 607: Chapter 607: The Eye of the Storm

BOOM!

A deafening horn blasted from the highest tower of the outpost, shattering the heavy silence and signaling the official start of the countdown.

The chaos exploded instantly. The massive plaza transformed into a literal slaughterhouse in a fraction of a second. There was no preamble, no testing of waters; the desperate hunger for survival drove tens of thousands of applicants into a feral, unbridled frenzy.

"Hand over your talisman, you backwater piece of garbage!" said a core region youth. He swung a heavy iron mace downward, completely shattering the collarbone of a nearby frontier cultivator.

"Ahhhhh!" said a young woman. Her scream was cut short as a blinding flash of wind-qi sliced cleanly through her chest, her blood spraying across the icy steps like rain.

The sound of snapping bones, tearing flesh, and clashing steel rose into a deafening, terrifying roar. Talismans were violently ripped from blood-soaked robes as bodies piled up on the cobblestones, forming a gruesome carpet of flesh. Weapons glinted under the morning sun, carving through the weak and the slow without a shred of mercy. The air quickly grew thick and heavy with the pungent, metallic stench of fresh crimson fluid.

Yet, in the absolute center of this chaotic, roaring sea of violence, a bizarre phenomenon occurred.

Ethan stood completely still, his hands resting casually at his sides, his notched steel blade still strapped firmly to his back. His piercing amethyst eyes calmly watched the surrounding butchery. Around him, an empty, untouched circle of stone extended for ten paces in every direction.

"Stay away from that one!" said a desperate applicant, his face covered in someone else’s blood as he dragged himself away from Ethan’s perimeter. "He is a monster!"

Even in their blind panic, the common cultivators’ survival instincts screamed at them to avoid Ethan at all costs. The dense, suffocating mountain of pure bloodlust he naturally radiated acted as an invisible, lethal barrier. Anyone who even glanced in his direction felt a freezing spike of terror pierce their soul, forcing them to turn their weapons against easier targets.

A few dozen yards away, a similar phenomenon was happening around the heirs of the most powerful core clans. The top noble youths stood in small, isolated groups, surrounded by their own terrifying, unyielding auras. They watched the chaotic slaughter with cold, dismissive sneers, completely unbothered by the violence. No regular applicant was foolish enough to charge at them; the weak simply slaughtered the weak, desperately trying to gather enough talismans from each other while avoiding the true predators of the arena.

"Enjoy your final moments of peace, backwater trash," said a proud young mistress from a major house. She locked eyes with Ethan across the bloody battlefield, her expensive silk robes untouched by a single drop of blood. "Once the trash is cleared out, you are next."

Ethan didn’t even bother to respond. He simply let out a low, dangerous chuckle, his dominant posture remaining completely relaxed as the gruesome storm of steel and bone raged violently all around him.

"The weak have no place in the pavilion," said a ruthless core cultivator. He laughed maniacally, chasing down a fleeing applicant who had already tossed his talisman onto the floor.

Within the first hour, nearly half of the tens of thousands of participants had been brutally eliminated. Thousands of terrified youths had abandoned their talismans and tried to escape the designated perimeter, screaming that they surrendered. But the savage bloodlust of the arena did not halt for a single fraction of a second. The powerful core descendants hunted the deserters down anyway, hacking them to pieces from behind purely for their own twisted amusement.

Ethan watched the escalating chaos with completely detached, indifferent eyes. He carefully analyzed the shifting battlefield, noticing how the remaining participants were naturally clustering into distinct, organized factions. It was glaringly obvious that these core-region heirs had formed intricate alliances long before setting foot in the citadel.

Among the thousands left standing, Ethan was the only one who stood completely, utterly alone. Yet, he didn’t feel the slightest shred of nervousness. To a dominant tyrant like him, a crowd of sheep pretending to be wolves meant absolutely nothing.

"So, you are the filthy backwater bastard who crippled my family’s men and traumatized my little brother!" said a sharp, arrogant voice.

Two wealthy young cultivators—a man and a woman clad in matching, luxurious crimson robes with intricate gold embroidery—stepped through the pile of corpses, stopping directly in front of Ethan.

From behind their backs, a smaller, trembling youth crept out. It was the exact same short-fused noble brat that Roy had humiliated with the spine of his katana a week prior. Ever since Ethan had ruthlessly severed his personal guards’ hands in a single breath, a deep, paralyzing psychological terror had gripped the boy’s mind. Even now, he looked deathly pale, his hands shaking so violently that he couldn’t even grip the hilt of his rapier properly.

"I do not know who you are," said Ethan. He looked down at them with a flat, icy expression, his piercing amethyst eyes completely devoid of interest. "Do I know you?"

The words cut through the noble siblings like a serrated blade, making their blood boil with instant, uncontrollable fury. They realized with absolute humiliation that Ethan hadn’t even bothered to register their faces or remember their existence.

"You insolent, low-born piece of trash!" said the elder brother, his face twisting into a hideous snarl as he stepped forward. "I am from the grand Red Lion family! My name is—"

BOOM!

The noble youth never got the chance to finish his sentence.

Before the name could clear his mouth, Ethan’s figure blurred into a terrifying streak of motion. A heavy, iron-hard fist smashed directly into the center of the young master’s face with a gruesome, wet crunch. The impact completely shattered his nasal bone, sending fragments of bone and cartilage shooting backward as a massive spray of crimson blood erupted into the air. Ethan simply had absolutely zero interest in listening to his pathetic, long-winded nonsense.

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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 ??