Lin Yi then took a moment, letting his thoughts settle. He considered various names, testing their sounds, their implications. His mind searched for something that would feel natural enough, something that would slip from his tongue without a second thought, ensuring he wouldn’t hesitate or stumble if someone were to address him by it. After a brief internal deliberation, a name surfaced.

"Xu Mu," he said aloud, testing the sound, feeling how it settled within him.

Something almost imperceptible flickered across Xu Ling’s expression, a fleeting shadow or a subtle tightening around her eyes. It was brief, vanishing instantly, gone before it could be properly read or assigned any specific meaning. She simply nodded once, a gesture of acceptance.

"Fifth," she continued,"The two ruling families you must be aware of are the Xiao Family and the Zhao Family. Between them, they have continuously held stewardship over the Ninefold Heaven Gate Mountain for several hundred years, a lineage steeped in power and tradition. The patriarchs of both families hold Deity class appointments, operating with the revered ten Buddha wheel structure, indicating immense cultivation and spiritual power. Directly beneath these patriarchs, the senior family members typically begin their cultivation at level 220, representing a formidable tier of power. Furthermore, outer members are strictly not permitted full family recognition if their cultivation falls below level 180, setting a very high baseline for even ancillary figures."

She looked at him steadily, emphasizing the point. "Most of the people you are likely to encounter in any formal setting on this planet, any place where important figures gather, are already at or are very rapidly approaching cultivation level 250. And it’s important to note that some among them have even surpassed that, being Ascendants who have returned from higher realms specifically to manage critical family affairs." A brief, impactful pause hung in the air. "Be exceptionally careful."

"Understood," Lin Yi acknowledged, the sheer power dynamics of Tianyuan Star becoming chillingly clear.

"That is everything you need to know for now," she concluded, her voice conveying a sense of finality.

Lin Yi’s gaze instinctively dropped to the Abyssal Celestial Lord Blade still clipped to his waist. With a deliberate motion, he unclipped it, feeling its familiar weight for a moment in his hand.

Then, with a practiced command, he stored it within the secure confines of the Emperor’s Pouch through the tattoo interface. He felt the sub-space accept the blade, the slight tremor in his arm a reminder of its power, now safely hidden. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

He knew he needed a weapon, despite the warnings. The blade at his waist was too significant, too recognizable.

He reached into the Emperor’s Pouch again, his consciousness navigating the internal sub-space. He specifically sought out a section of the pouch containing items he had carefully placed there from his own inventory before ever departing Blue Star, knowing there might be moments where his primary weapons were unsuitable.

But as he searched, he found no weapon suitable for his current strength. As someone who was now at Level 230, any weapon below the Mythical grade was simply inefficient as an attack weapon. Everything there was only Legendary-ranked, making it useless to him.

Then, seeing him, Xu Ling knew she had to intervene, and with focused intent, she materialized a blade in front of him.

"Take it," she said. "It’s obviously weaker than the true Celestial Emperor Blade, but stronger than the last weapon you used."

Lin Yi gripped the blade, and the very first thing that registered was its significant weight. It wasn’t heavy in the unwieldy way that some broad weapons can be, where the mass feels inefficiently distributed. Instead, it possessed a deliberate, centered heft, the kind of weight that spoke of a weapon forged with the intention of having a substantial presence in the hand, designed to feel like an extension of the wielder rather than merely a functional tool attached to them.

It was slightly broader than the Celestial Lord Blade and notably longer, extending approximately fifteen centimeters beyond its predecessor. Its surface was a deep, formidable gunmetal grey, a color that conveyed a sense of profound depth rather than a simple hue, almost absorbing the light around it.

He quickly called up the system panel, a familiar interface overlaying his vision.

[Thunder Surge Blade]

Rank: Abyssal

Base Attack Power: 3,100

Set Attribute Core Weapon Bonus: +4,500

Total Listed Attack Power: 7,600

[An Abyssal-grade weapon containing a dormant Thunder Spirit within its core. The spirit awakens after sustaining 10 consecutive strikes against a target. Once awakened, the blade releases a lightning-attribute Sword Qi alongside all physical strikes for the remainder of the engagement.]

[The Thunder Spirit’s awakened state enhances all lightning-attribute output from the wielder by a scaling multiplier during the active window.]

[Thunder Spirit: Dormant — Awakens after 10 strikes]

He read through the details, his mind rapidly processing the implications.

The blade boasted a listed attack power of 7,600, a clear step above the Celestial Lord Blade’s 6,900. It had a higher base, and the same robust attribute bonus applied.

Crucially, it possessed the unique Thunder Spirit component, an element the Celestial Lord Blade lacked entirely. This spirit added a powerful, secondary output channel that would activate reliably after just ten consecutive strikes against an opponent, and then, remarkably, would continue to operate for the entire duration of the engagement without requiring any further conditions or specific triggers. It was a weapon designed for sustained combat.

He turned the blade once in his hand, feeling its balance, testing its potential.

Xu Ling watched him, a knowing expression on her face.

"The lightning output from that weapon will not carry a celestial signature," she explained. "To anyone with sufficiently sensitive perception, it will register as a standard, albeit exceptionally high-grade, lighting-attribute weapon. It will certainly attract attention due to its sheer power and quality, but it will not draw the specific, dangerous scrutiny that the celestial signature would instantly provoke."

Her eyes lingered on the gunmetal blade for a moment. "The Thunder Spirit residing within it is very old. It has been waiting, dormant in that weapon, for a very long time. When it finally wakes, it will not be subtle."

"How long after those ten strikes will it awaken?" Lin Yi asked, ever pragmatic.

"Immediately," she replied, her voice crisp. "The tenth strike is the direct trigger. The eleventh strike will already carry the full force of the spirit’s output."

He carefully sheathed the Thunder Surge Blade at his waist, placing it in the exact position the Celestial Lord Blade had previously occupied.

The weight distribution felt subtly different, a minor adjustment he would need to make through habit and practice. He would adapt.

He lifted his gaze, taking in the vast landscape of Tianyuan Star stretching out before them. Dense forest carpeted the ground, extending endlessly toward a formidable mountain range that loomed in the middle distance.

These peaks, however, were not natural formations. The distinct, angular quality of their upper faces, almost too precise, too geometric, clearly communicated that whatever stood at their summits had been deliberately constructed, rather than sculpted by naturally.

And, at the far end of this imposing range, barely discernible at this vast distance, rose an colossal structure. It soared above the other peaks in a way that defied any geological explanation, an impossible edifice reaching for the sky.