The journey to the Azure Cloud Sect took seven days on foot. Liu Yun spent each night cultivating under the emperor's guidance, absorbing spiritual energy from the wilderness around him. Plants withered in his presence, small animals dropped dead when they strayed too close, their life essence flowing into the jade pendant that had fully merged with his palm.
"The Devouring Sky Scripture is the foundation of my cultivation method," the emperor instructed on the third night. "Considered heretical by the self-righteous sects, but unmatched in efficiency. While others spend decades slowly accumulating spiritual energy, we take what we need from everything around us."
"Why was it labeled heretical?" Liu Yun asked, watching dispassionately as a flowering meadow turned gray and lifeless around him.
"Jealousy disguised as moral outrage," the emperor sneered. "The so-called righteous path requires generations of gradual advancement. My methods allowed me to ascend from mortal to immortal in a single century."
By the seventh day, Liu Yun had advanced from a complete novice to the third stage of Qi Condensation—an achievement that would normally take years of dedicated practice. His body had grown leaner, harder, his eyes perpetually gleaming with predatory awareness. The spiritual energy flowing through his meridians had begun altering his physical appearance, his once unkempt features sharpening, taking on an unnatural attractiveness that nevertheless carried an aura of danger.
As he crested the final hill, the Azure Cloud Sect came into view—a sprawling complex of white jade buildings that ascended the massive mountain like steps to heaven itself. The highest peaks remained hidden in perpetual clouds, where the inner disciples and elders resided.
At the mountain's base, thousands of young hopefuls had gathered for the recruitment trials, which occurred only once every five years. Most were from cultivator families who had prepared their children since birth for this opportunity. They arrived in palanquins carried by servants or on flying swords and spiritual beasts, their expensive robes and confident bearings marking them as the elite of this generation.
Liu Yun, in his blood-stained traveler's clothes, drew sneers and whispers as he approached the registration area.
"Look at that beggar," laughed a young man in azure silk robes, his hair bound with gold ornaments that marked him as a member of a wealthy clan. "Does he think the Azure Cloud Sect accepts street trash?"
His companions laughed, making no effort to lower their voices. One of them, a girl with a face like carved jade, wrinkled her nose. "He reeks of blood and death. Probably some bandit hoping to escape justice by joining a sect."
Liu Yun didn't spare them a glance. Insects weren't worth his attention.
"Their mockery will turn to fear soon enough," the emperor promised. "Remember their faces. Revenge tastes sweetest when served after long anticipation."
At the registration pavilion, an austere disciple looked Liu Yun over with barely concealed disdain. "Name and background?"
"Liu Yun. No sect. No clan."
The disciple raised an eyebrow. "Cultivation level?"
"Third stage of Qi Condensation."
This elicited a snort of disbelief. "A commoner reaching the third stage without guidance? Do not waste our time with lies, peasant. The punishment for deception is—"
Liu Yun released a measured portion of his spiritual pressure—not enough to provoke an attack, but sufficient to prove his claim. The jade-tinted energy crackled around him, causing recording slips on the table to flutter.
The disciple's eyes widened marginally. "Irregular cultivation method," he noted on the registry. "You'll be tested for demonic influence before being allowed to proceed."
"As you wish," Liu Yun replied indifferently.
The initial tests were designed to eliminate the weakest candidates. Physical trials of endurance, basic spiritual energy manipulation, and recitation of fundamental cultivation principles. Liu Yun passed each with minimal effort, though the examining elders noted his unorthodox energy signature with increasing suspicion.
By sunset, the initial field of thousands had been reduced to five hundred. They were herded into a vast courtyard where an imposing figure awaited on a elevated platform—a middle-aged man with a face like chiseled stone, wearing the white and azure robes of an inner court elder.
"I am Elder Feng, overseer of outer court discipline," he announced, his voice carrying effortlessly across the courtyard. "Tomorrow begins the true selection. Tonight, you will be divided into groups of twenty-five. Each group will share accommodations."
"Perfect," the emperor murmured as Liu Yun was assigned to a dormitory with twenty-four other candidates. "The night offers opportunities the day does not."
The dormitory was a long hall with simple pallets arranged in rows. As Liu Yun entered, the conversations immediately ceased. The other candidates—mostly from minor clans or smaller sects—regarded the blood-stained newcomer with wary eyes.
A muscular youth with the accent of the western provinces broke the silence. "What backwater did you crawl from, dirty one? Your stench offends my spiritual sense."
Liu Yun set his meager possessions beside the furthest pallet. "Careful. Some might take your words as a challenge."
The youth laughed. "A challenge? From gutter trash? I am Sun Kang of the Iron Spirit Dojo. My master holds thirty-six mountains in the western ranges. Who are you to challenge me?"
Liu Yun smiled then—a cold expression that never reached his eyes. "No one of consequence. Yet."
What followed was predictable. Sun Kang, his pride wounded by Liu Yun's dismissive attitude, attacked with a standard Iron Fist technique taught by second-rate martial sects. It was a competent strike that would have shattered stone.
Liu Yun caught the fist in his bare hand, the impact sending a shockwave through the dormitory that rattled wooden supports and extinguished half the oil lamps.
"As I thought," Liu Yun said quietly. "Barely worth the effort of killing."
Before anyone could react, the jade energy blade manifested around Liu Yun's free hand, and Sun Kang's head separated cleanly from his shoulders. Blood sprayed across shocked faces as the body collapsed.
Absolute silence fell. Twenty-three pairs of eyes stared in horror and disbelief.
"Now," the emperor instructed. "While their guard is down. Their combined essence will accelerate your cultivation significantly."
The slaughter was brief and absolute. None escaped the dormitory. None had the chance to cry out. When it was over, Liu Yun sat cross-legged in the center of the carnage, absorbing the spiritual essence of twenty-four cultivators who, individually, had been his equals or betters.
By dawn, he had broken through to the fifth stage of Qi Condensation.
When servants came to summon the candidates for the next trial, they found only Liu Yun meditating peacefully on his pallet. The dormitory was immaculate, with no sign of the other twenty-four occupants.
"Where are the others?" a servant asked nervously, sensing something profoundly wrong despite the room's clean appearance.
Liu Yun opened his eyes, now a permanent jade green with vertical pupils like a predator's. "They must have left early. Perhaps they lost their nerve."
The servant wasn't convinced but lacked the courage to question further. He hurriedly led Liu Yun to the next trial location—a vast arena where the remaining candidates would fight for the right to become outer court disciples.
Elder Feng's eyes narrowed as Liu Yun took his place among the candidates. The elder's spiritual sense swept over him, probing, analyzing.
"Candidate Liu Yun," he called out, his voice cutting through the pre-battle chatter. "Your cultivation has advanced overnight. Most irregular."
Liu Yun bowed with perfect formality. "This humble one had a breakthrough while meditating, Elder. The spiritual environment of the Azure Cloud Sect is truly conducive to advancement."
Several nearby candidates who had witnessed his arrival the previous day murmured in disbelief. Fifth stage of Qi Condensation from third in a single night was virtually unheard of.
Elder Feng's expression darkened. "And your dormitory companions?"
"I cannot account for their movements, Elder. When I completed my meditation, they had already departed."
A cold smile touched the elder's lips. "Indeed. How curious that twenty-four candidates would simultaneously abandon the opportunity of a lifetime." His eyes bored into Liu Yun. "Even more curious that the sect's boundary formations detected no one leaving."
The tension in the arena thickened. Other candidates began edging away from Liu Yun, sensing imminent conflict.
"They suspect but cannot prove," the emperor advised. "Without bodies or witnesses, they can take no direct action against you without losing face. Nevertheless, prepare for combat."
Elder Feng raised his voice to address all candidates. "The rules of the combat trial have changed. All remaining candidates will face Disciple Liu Yun simultaneously. If he survives for one incense stick's burning, he will be granted immediate entry to the outer court. If he falls... well, justice will have been served."
The other candidates looked confused but eagerly took positions surrounding Liu Yun. Nearly four hundred cultivators against one—regardless of the circumstances, such odds seemed insurmountable.
Liu Yun merely smiled. "As the elder wishes."
"They've given us a gift," the emperor's voice held dark amusement. "Four hundred vessels of spiritual energy, freely offered."
When the incense was lit and the signal given, four hundred cultivators attacked as one—a tsunami of spiritual energy and martial techniques converging on a single point.
What they couldn't know was that the slaughter in the dormitory had been more than a cultivation boost. Each absorbed essence had also yielded fragments of martial knowledge, cultivation insights, and spiritual techniques that now resided within Liu Yun's consciousness.
The jade energy blade extended from his hand, then multiplied—two, four, eight blades of varying lengths orbiting his body in a deadly formation that the emperor called the Eight Tyrants Devouring Heaven Array.
The first wave of attackers literally disintegrated upon contact with the formation. The second wave, witnessing this, faltered—their hesitation costing them their lives as Liu Yun went on the offensive.
He moved through their ranks like a harvester through wheat, each slash leaving a trail of dissolving bodies whose spiritual essence flowed into the jade pendant embedded in his palm. With each absorption, the blades grew sharper, longer, more substantial.
"Demonic cultivation!" Elder Feng shouted from his observation platform. "Disciples of Azure Cloud, retreat! This is no longer a trial but an extermination!"
But it was too late. The arena had become a killing field, and Liu Yun stood at its center, a maelstrom of jade light and harvested power. When senior disciples attempted to intervene, they too were caught in the Eight Tyrants formation, their superior cultivation providing even richer essence for absorption.
By the time the incense stick had burned halfway, three hundred and seventy-two cultivators had fallen. The survivors had fled beyond the arena boundaries, and a dozen inner court disciples had formed a containment formation around Liu Yun, their faces grim with determination.
Elder Feng descended from his platform, spiritual energy rolling off him in palpable waves. "Whatever demonic entity you harbor, it ends here. Surrender for questioning, or be destroyed."
Liu Yun cocked his head, as though listening to advice from an unseen source. Then he smiled—the expression now entirely inhuman on his increasingly refined features.
"I think not, Elder. I've passed your trial according to the terms you set. The Azure Cloud Sect prides itself on honoring its word, does it not?"
Elder Feng's expression contorted with rage. "You dare lecture me on honor after massacring our disciples?"
"I defended myself against opponents you yourself set against me," Liu Yun countered smoothly. "If the Azure Cloud Sect retracts its promises so easily, perhaps the other great sects should be informed of this... inconsistency."
A tense silence followed. Face and reputation were everything in the cultivation world. If word spread that the Azure Cloud Sect had violated its own trial terms, their standing would suffer tremendously.
"You are no cultivator," Elder Feng finally spat. "You are a calamity in human form."
Liu Yun bowed with exaggerated courtesy. "I am whatever I need to be to walk the path of immortality. Now, about my admission to the outer court..."
"Perfect," the emperor's voice purred with satisfaction. "Their rage blinds them to the opportunity we present."
"What opportunity could they possibly see in me now?" Liu Yun asked mentally.
"The wise predator recognizes when it encounters a superior hunter," the emperor explained. "They can kill you and gain nothing, or they can attempt to harness your potential. Their pride is wounded, but their ambition remains intact."
As if confirming these words, a new voice rang out across the arena. "That's quite enough, Elder Feng."
A slender figure descended from the clouds above—a woman of ageless beauty wearing robes of such pure white they seemed to glow from within. The spiritual pressure that accompanied her arrival forced everyone, including Elder Feng, to take a respectful step back.
"Peak Master Su," the elder acknowledged with a bow. "This disciple was about to eliminate a demonic cultivator who has infiltrated our selection trials."
The woman's eyes—entirely white without pupil or iris—fixed on Liu Yun with unsettling intensity. "Is that so? All I see is a candidate who passed the trial according to terms you yourself established." Her voice was melodious yet carried absolute authority. "Unusual methods, certainly, but when has true greatness ever followed conventional paths?"
Elder Feng looked shocked. "Peak Master, he slaughtered—"
"Lesser talents," she completed dismissively. "If they could not survive one opponent, how would they fare against the tribulations of the immortal path?" She floated closer to Liu Yun, examining him as one might inspect a rare specimen. "Tell me, young cultivator, what do you seek from the Azure Cloud Sect?"
Liu Yun met her pupilless gaze without flinching. "Knowledge. Resources. A stepping stone to greater power."
"Honest, at least," she noted with a cold smile. "And the entity that shares your consciousness? What does it seek?"
The directness of the question caught both Liu Yun and the emperor by surprise.
"She is more perceptive than anticipated," the emperor admitted. "A true Nascent Soul cultivator, perhaps even approaching Tribulation."
Liu Yun decided truth would serve better than deception. "Resurrection. Vengeance. Domination."
Peak Master Su laughed—a sound like ice crystals chiming in winter air. "Refreshingly forthright. Very well, Liu Yun, you shall have your place in the Azure Cloud Sect, not as an outer court disciple, but as my direct subordinate."
Gasps arose from the surviving disciples. Elder Feng's face turned ashen.
"Peak Master, the risk—"
"Is mine to take," she interrupted. "I recognize the cultivation method this boy uses. It has not been seen in the Nine Provinces for five thousand years." Her white eyes narrowed. "Not since the tyranny of the Demon Sword Emperor."
Elder Feng took a step back, genuine fear crossing his face. "Impossible. The Demon Emperor was destroyed utterly by the combined might of six immortal sects."
"So the official history claims," Peak Master Su agreed with a enigmatic smile. "Yet here stands a boy wielding the Devouring Sky Scripture and the Eight Tyrants formation. Curious, wouldn't you say?"
She turned back to Liu Yun. "You will come with me to Frost Pinnacle. Your training begins immediately."
As Liu Yun followed the Peak Master toward the highest reaches of the mountain, the emperor's voice stirred with cautious interest.
"The Azure Cloud Sect was nothing in my time," he mused. "This Peak Master... she knows more than she should. Be wary, vessel. We are no longer the predator here, but potentially the prey."
Liu Yun mentally nodded, his face betraying nothing as they ascended beyond the clouds. "Everyone is prey until proven otherwise. But prey can become predator when the moment is right."
"You learn quickly," the emperor approved. "Perhaps too quickly for comfort."
The implications of that statement hung between them as they reached Frost Pinnacle—a palace of perpetual ice floating among the highest clouds, isolated from the rest of the sect. Here, Liu Yun suspected, his true education in power, manipulation, and the dark secrets of the cultivation world would begin.
And if Peak Master Su thought she could use him as a pawn in whatever game she played, she would learn the costly error of underestimating a village boy who had tasted power and found it to his liking.