Void Saint: Eternal Ascendancy

At high noon, the sky did not brighten.

Instead, it screamed.

A rift tore open above Lanxu, bleeding violet-black energy into the air. It hissed against the wards, poisoning the spirit mist. From it fell beasts unlike the demons before—Void-touched constructs, shaped by something ancient and malevolent.

One stepped forth, eyes glowing with inverted flame, six arms ending in bone-spears, its aura already suppressing nearby cultivators.

Xuanye didn't hesitate. He ordered formation positions, his voice sharp and steady.

"Lin, quadrant five. Shan, block north flank. Ruo, burn wide. Chányīn—you're with me."

And they moved.

Yuè Chányīn's ice lotus sword pierced the first void-beast, freezing its internal core. Xuanye's blade cracked it with thunder. When three more emerged, Huo Shan slammed them down into burning pits conjured by Feng Ruo's barrier field.

Suddenly, the enemy changed tactics. Smaller voidspawn darted into the forest, flanking from the mist. Shui Lin spotted them first and raised an illusion field, multiplying the trees tenfold. Lost in a maze of false vision, the lesser demons turned on one another.

Xuanye split from the group, chasing a shadow that felt... familiar. It whispered in a voice he almost recognized—his own, but not. Behind a ruined barn, he met a humanoid void creature, cloaked in black fog, its face shaped like a mask of thunder.

It laughed.

"So young... so loud... You have not yet begun to scream."

They clashed. Xuanye's blade sang in resonance with his soul. The creature moved like ink in water. Thunder collided with void in a dance of silence and storm. He barely won. The creature dissolved into mist, leaving behind a corrupted jade shard.

In the command pavilion far above, sect elders argued over intervention.

"We must extract the disciples—this is beyond testing."

"They will die. Or worse."

But Ling Tianlan did not speak. He closed his eyes and reached gently toward a jade token that pulsed in his sleeve—the blood-bound token that linked him to his son.

Not to control. But to protect, if needed.

Below, the Qingling team stood atop the bodies of the voidspawn, bloodied but breathing. Xuanye held in his hand the first uncorrupted soul core—a glowing, violet-gold ember. It pulsed in rhythm with something ancient inside him.

A voice echoed again.

"More. Let them come."

He closed his palm.

At that moment, a sixth figure approached the smoking field.

Red robe. Fiery braid. Amber eyes that held fire and rebellion.

Su Feilí had arrived.

"Looks like you had fun," she said, surveying the carnage.

Xuanye turned.

"Depends who you ask. You must be our sixth."

"I'm your worst nightmare."

Feng Ruo chuckled. "Oh, good. Another one."

Su Feilí tossed a satchel of cores on the ground. "These are from the southern ridge. Took care of them myself."

Yuè Chányīn didn't react.

But Xuanye smiled. Not his usual smirk. Something quieter. As though recognizing a storm.

Behind them, the sky began to stitch itself shut.

The world would think the battle had ended.

But for the Qingling team, and especially for Ling Xuanye, the war was only beginning.

To be continued...