The sun hung high over **Heaven's Ring Platform**, casting long shadows over the crowd of disciples and elders gathered in tiers. It wasn't every day that a *dump-born orphan* was allowed to challenge the favored son of a noble family.
Whispers stirred like insects.
> "He won't come."
> "Li Xuan's in the Sixth Layer already. This will be a slaughter."
> "That orphan… he should've bowed out."
**Li Xuan**, tall and arrogant, stood at the center of the arena shirtless, his body etched with flame runes and Qi marks. Sparks danced at his fingertips as he cracked his knuckles.
> "Disrespect a direct challenge from the Li Clan? Coward."
Then—
A single step echoed up the stone stairs.
**Ren Wei** emerged.
No sect robes. No companions. Just calm eyes and silent confidence.
He walked barefoot. No visible weapon at his side. Just a cloth-bound hilt tucked into his waist.
Li Xuan scoffed.
> "No armor? No sword? Maybe the rumors were wrong — maybe you really are just trash."
Ren Wei didn't respond. He untied the cloth slowly, revealing **Echo Fang** — the saber he had forged with sweat and shattered will.
It didn't shine. It didn't gleam.
It looked like scrap iron, dulled and worn — until it moved.
Li Xuan snorted.
> "Let's end this."
He struck first.
> **[Blazing Crane Palm]** — compressed fire Qi launched in the form of twin crane wings, spiraling toward Ren Wei in a searing arc.
Ren Wei stepped forward, eyes steady, and swung Echo Fang.
A crackle. A hiss.
The flame didn't impact — it was **drawn in**.
Echo Fang trembled.
Its dull edge began to glow. Not white-hot, but red — like metal just beginning to awaken in a furnace.
More attacks came. Each one Ren Wei cut through. Each one, Echo Fang drank.
And with each strike, the saber burned brighter.
> "You call this flame?"
> "My blade was born in ash."
Li Xuan flinched — just for a moment — and struck with a surge of full-body flame Qi.
But the saber had changed.
No longer dull. No longer lifeless.
When Ren Wei struck this time, **flames trailed** his arc.
Echo Fang screamed like steel reborn.
> **[Flame-Eating Saber] – Activated**
> → *Passive Trait: Absorbs hostile fire Qi to evolve edge and heat tolerance.*
He slashed across the incoming wave.
And **split** it.
The crowd gasped.
Li Xuan stumbled back.
The platform — once loud with anticipation — fell deathly silent.
Even the wind seemed to hesitate.
Ren Wei stood still, blade at his side, smoke curling from its edge.
He exhaled.
> "Your fire fed my saber.
> Now watch what it forged."
---
Li Xuan's breath came in ragged bursts, rage boiling in his veins.
"You... you think this is enough?!"
He roared and struck the ground, unleashing a final technique —
**[Nine-Flame Lotus Arts – Blazing Crown]**
Rings of fire spun around him, growing hotter, faster, brighter.
Each one a symbol of the Li Clan's legacy.
> "I'm the prodigy of the Li Clan! You're just trash that crawled out of the gutter!"
Ren Wei stepped forward.
Unshaken. Unimpressed.
> "You can wrap garbage in gold…
> But it still burns the same."
---
> *Ding!*
> **System Alert:**
> *Combat Intent Synchronization – 5 minutes activated.*
Everything slowed.
Every movement Li Xuan made became visible — predictable.
Ren Wei moved.
With each step, his saber pulsed.
> **[Ash Vein Fang – First Form: Embers to Silence]**
> → A fluid, curved arc that silences fire and stills Qi with a single cut.
The first strike shattered the first lotus.
The second carved through flame armor.
The third — a reverse swing — sent Li Xuan crashing to the platform with a **bone-snapping** thud.
Silence.
Even the air dared not whisper.
Li Xuan lay still, face down, groaning.
---
In the distance, on a raised viewing platform, **Elder Huo** of the Li Clan clenched the armrest of his seat.
> "Impossible… that brat suppressed our main heir…"
Beside him, a calm voice broke the tension.
**Han Suiren's emissary** — draped in white with the Han Crest emblazoned across his chest — rose to his feet and addressed the crowd.
> "Today, Ren Wei has proven himself — not only in skill but in will."
> "As of now, he is officially chosen as the **Representative Warrior of the Han Crest**."
The man's voice rang across the Heaven's Ring like a bell.
> "All of you here, remember this face. Tomorrow, we fight again. And we expect to see you all present for the second challenge."
Murmurs rippled through the disciples.
Some eyes held awe. Others fear.
Sheng Lian smiled faintly in the back.
> "You made them all look."
---
Ren Wei turned his back to the defeated Li Xuan and walked off the platform.
> *Ding!*
> **Side Quest Completed: "Crush the Heaven's Ring"**
> *Reward: +1 Trait Awakening Token*
He didn't speak.
But the echo of his saber's last strike still hummed in the bones of every spectator.
Tomorrow…
the heavens would bleed again.