Free Web NovelChapter 163: Departure for the Forbidden Forge
The list of names burned in Lin Tian’s mind long after the guard was led away to rest. Uncle Liang. Cousin Hong. Forty others.
He stood on the pavilion’s observation platform, the night wind cold on his face, and felt the vast, silent hostility of the world beyond the sect’s protective mist. It wasn’t just politics anymore. It was a purge.
"The Volcanic Forge," he said, the words barely more than a breath.
Su Lan, standing beside him with her arms crossed, nodded. "The Sea of Eternal Embers. It’s the closest fragment on the map. If the Void Monarch’s agents are hunting Progenitor energy, that’s where they’ll strike next."
"Or where they’ve already been," Xueya added, her voice like frozen crystal. She stood on his other side, a statue of pale resolve. "We cannot wait for another list of the dead."
Yue Chan joined them, her movements silent as a spider’s. The new bond with her was a steady, pliable thread in the back of his awareness, different from Xueya’s glacial river or Su Lan’s contained furnace. "My silks are ready. They will taste the air for corruption, for the hollow feeling that guard described."
Lin Tian turned from the view. "Then we go. Not as a sect expedition. Not with permission. We go as us." He looked past them to where Lu Cang stood at attention near the pavilion steps, his newly repaired sword already strapped to his back. "Lu Cang."
"Master Lin," the disciple said, bowing deeply. The title wasn’t formality anymore. It was a vow.
"You’re with us. You handle logistics, scouting, watch rotation. You’re our general in the field."
A fierce pride flashed in Lu Cang’s eyes, quickly banked into solemn duty. "It will be done."
"Good. Everyone, gather in the main hall. We’re not leaving until we’re equipped for a war, not a training exercise."
****
The main chamber of the Sovereign’s Pavilion felt different now. The polished stone and woven tapestries were the same, but the air hummed with a new purpose. Lin Tian stood before the empty hearth, and in his mind, he called up the interface.
[Harem Link Cultivation System - Tier 2.]
[Welcome, Administrator Lin Tian.]
[Available Harem Points: 18,750.]
We’re going to spend them, he thought.
"System," he said aloud, letting them all hear. "Open the Legacy Armory. Filter for gear compatible with Ice Phoenix Divine Beast bloodline, Flowing Ember Body evolution, and Golden Silkworm Queen physique."
A shimmering, three-dimensional catalog materialized in the air before him, rotating slowly. It was no longer simple lists. It showed phantom images of armor, robes, and weapons, each pulsing with latent power.
Xueya stepped closer, her eyes reflecting the icy blue of a particular set of light plate. "That one."
[Frost-Walker’s Aegis.]
[Legacy Gear. Forged in the heart of a dying glacier. Enhances Ice Phoenix bloodline resonance by 40%. Grants passive ’Glacial Ward’ against fire and corruption-based attacks. Allows momentary phase-shift through solid ice.]
[Cost: 3,200 Harem Points.]
"It’s perfect for you," Lin Tian said. He didn’t ask. He selected it. The points deducted, and a cascade of silver-blue light coalesced in front of Xueya. It settled over her shoulders not as heavy metal, but as a mantle of living frost that fused with her own aura. The temperature in the room dropped sharply, then stabilized as she breathed out, mastering it. She flexed a hand, and a gauntlet of intricate ice formed over her fingers before dissolving again.
"Thank you," she whispered, and the bond between them vibrated with a deeper, more fortified certainty.
Su Lan was already pointing. "That robe. The one that looks like captured twilight."
[Emberheart Sage’s Raiment.]
[Legacy Gear. Woven from the ashes of a phoenix’s final molt. Synergizes with Flowing Ember Body, converting 30% of incoming damage into pure Yang energy for the wearer’s reservoir. Enables ’Cauterizing Touch’ to seal wounds and purify toxins.]
[Cost: 2,900 Harem Points.]
Lin Tian purchased it. The robe appeared, a cascade of dark fabric shot through with veins of pulsing gold. It settled onto Su Lan, and her usual clinical presence gained a new, smoldering gravity. She ran a hand down the sleeve, and a warm, healing light briefly glowed at her fingertips. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
"Practical," she said, but she couldn’t hide the slight, satisfied curve of her lips.
Yue Chan approached the display with a weaver’s scrutiny. Her fingers traced the outline of a set of almost-invisible filaments. "These. They are not clothing. They are an extension."
[Queen’s Loom Bracers.]
[Legacy Gear. Contains a self-replenishing spool of Spirit-Silk, capable of holding ten thousand pre-set formations. Silk can be deployed instantaneously for binding, cutting, or sensory nets. Amplifies the wearer’s spiritual perception by 50%. ]
[Cost: 2,700 Harem Points.]
The bracers manifested on her forearms, elegant bands of white jade that seemed to drink the light. With a thought, a thread of silver so fine it was barely there leapt from one bracer to the other, humming with potential. Yue Chan’s eyes grew distant, then focused. "I can feel the vibration of the mountain’s roots," she murmured. "And the fear in the disciples three courtyards over."
Lin Tian turned to Lu Cang. The man was watching, his expression steadfast but without expectation. He wasn’t a Linked Partner. The system wouldn’t offer him anything.
"System," Lin Tian said. "General inventory. Offensive and defensive artifacts compatible with an Earth Spirit Realm swordsman with a cracked-and-repaired foundation."
The display shifted, showing simpler but no less potent items: talismans, pill bottles, a new sword. freewebnovel.cσ๓
[Sky-Cleaver Jian.]
[High-Grade Spirit Weapon. Compensates for foundational instability by channeling the user’s intent with 95% efficiency. Edge can resonate to disrupt enemy qi flows.]
[Cost: 1,800 Harem Points.]
[Vanguard’s Pauldron.]
[Artifact. Absorbs one direct lethal strike per day, dispersing the force as kinetic energy. Grants minor enhanced strength and endurance.]
[Cost: 1,200 Harem Points.]
Lin Tian bought them both. The sword appeared in its scabbard, leaning against the wall. The pauldron, a single piece of dark grey metal etched with runes, floated to Lu Cang.
The disciple stared, his throat working. "Master Lin, I... this is too much. I have not earned such treasures."
"You earned it when you stayed in that canyon, ready to blow your core apart rather than give them my name," Lin Tian said, his voice flat. "Put it on. Your job is to watch our backs. I need you alive to do it."
Lu Cang’s composure broke for a second. He bowed, so low his forehead nearly touched the floor, before strapping the pauldron over his shoulder and taking the sword. The moment his hand closed on the hilt, his entire stance changed, solidifying like a mountain peak.
Lin Tian finally looked to his own needs. He had his domain, his physique. What he needed was versatility, a tool for the unknown.
[Chaos-Harmony Vambraces.]
[Legacy Gear (Administrator Exclusive). Acts as a mobile anchor for the Ice Flame Divine Domain, allowing for rapid, localized deployment without full expansion. Contains stored charges of ’Resonance Nullification’ capable of disrupting hostile formations and Anti-Resonance effects.]
[Cost: 4,500 Harem Points.]
He purchased them. The vambraces clamped onto his forearms, feeling less like metal and more like a second skin of condensed possibility. He felt his connection to Xueya, Su Lan, and Yue Chan sharpen, as if the bonds now had a dedicated conduit.
[Remaining Harem Points: 2,450.]
He’d spent a fortune. It didn’t matter. Points were meaningless if the network died.
"We leave at dawn," he announced, the interface winking out. "Travel light. We’re not coming back to this pavilion for a long time."
****
The first light of morning stained the eastern peaks blood-orange. They assembled at the main gate of what was once the Heart of the Peaks, now unequivocally the Sovereign’s Pavilion. A small crowd had gathered—the dozen or so disciples who had pledged to them, Xu Wen among them, his face grim.
"Hold the peak," Lin Tian told Xu Wen.
"The Grand Elder’s mandate protects this ground. Let no one from the main sect interfere. The clans will be arriving soon. Shelter them. Train those who can fight. We will return when we have the means to end this threat."
Xu Wen nodded. "We’ll be ready."
There was no grand farewell from the sect leadership. No Elder Shen arrived with warnings or blessings. Their secession was complete, their independence a quiet, acknowledged fact. The silence from the higher peaks was louder than any accusation.
Lin Tian led the way down the winding mountain path, not the polished stairway used by disciples.
This was an old trail, rugged and direct.
Xueya walked at his right, her Frost-Walker’s Aegis making the morning frost curl and dance at her feet. Su Lan was at his left, her new robe absorbing the weak sunlight, a pocket of warmth in the chill.
Yue Chan moved like a ghost behind them, her senses undoubtedly already cast far ahead like a net.
Lu Cang brought up the rear, his new sword a quiet promise of violence at their backs.
They passed the last outlying meditation hut, the last shimmering boundary marker of the Azure Snow Sword Sect. The spiritual pressure of the place, that constant weight of judgment and expectation, lifted all at once.
Lin Tian stopped and turned to look back one final time. The sect sat in its arrogant splendor, clouds obscuring its higher reaches. For over a year, it had been his entire world—his cage, his stage, his battleground.
He felt no nostalgia. Only a vast, empty space where their rules used to be, now filled by the wind and his own will.
Xueya’s hand found his. Su Lan shifted closer, her shoulder brushing his arm. Yue Chan’s presence was a steady anchor at the edge of his spirit. Lu Cang stood watchful, his loyalty a solid wall.
They were not a master and his disciples. They were not a sect and its members. They were a nucleus. A self-contained system. A sovereign power of five.
Lin Tian faced forward, toward the distant haze where the world flattened into plains, toward the rumored location of the Sea of Eternal Embers.
"Let’s go," he said, and it was not the plea of a student, or the request of a subordinate.
It was the statement of a man who had finally stepped out of the shadow of the mountain, and now owned the horizon.
He took the first step off the sanctified ground, and they followed.
End of Chapter 163
