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: Wings of Defiance – Flight Against the Divine
The scent of charred earth still lingered in the night air. Smoke coiled upward from where divine assassins had fallen. Blood, both human and beast, soaked into the ancient altar stones like a cursed offering.
Lin Fan stood beneath the moonless sky, his eyes half-closed as the final echoes of battle slowly faded from his mind. His muscles trembled—not from fear or exhaustion, but from something awakening deep within.
A transformation.
The Dragon State Overclock had receded, but it had left behind traces of its fury. His skin still burned faintly with streaks of red light, and his bones groaned as if re-forging themselves with each breath he took. The moment he'd crossed blades with Core Forming assassins and emerged victorious, something inside him had shifted. His foundation, once fragile and unstable, had now solidified into something entirely different—something monstrous.
And in the silence after war, the system spoke.
> [System Notification: Dragon Wing Step unlocked.]
[Type: Bloodline Skill]
[Effect: Allows the host to manifest partial draconic flight using condensed bloodline energy.]
[Status: Incomplete – Host's current spiritual veins insufficient for full control.]
Lin Fan's brows furrowed slightly. He raised his hand and instinctively focused on the energy channels flowing through his back. They were swollen, humming, and burning like molten metal coursing through veins of stone.
A sharp crack echoed as something split open behind him.
Then—wings. Not fully formed, not feathered or scaled like a complete beast's, but arcs of pure condensed energy, flickering like blood-hued lightning streaked with dragonfire. The wings spread wide, seven feet across, humming with chaotic pressure.
"...So this is flight," Lin Fan muttered.
He flapped once—and the wind screamed.
The ground shattered beneath his feet. Trees bent backward. Stones launched into the air like shattered glass. Yan Yue, resting nearby against a moss-covered pillar, shielded her face from the force, her eyes widening.
"You—! You can fly now?"
Lin Fan turned toward her. "Not for long. A few minutes at most. The energy drain is... insane. But long enough for what I'm about to do."
Yan Yue frowned. "What are you planning?"
He stepped toward her and crouched. "Rest. Heal your shoulder. You'll need your strength."
"Lin Fan..."
He met her gaze, and for a brief moment, she saw the loneliness again — not weakness, but distance, like the kind of solitude a man carried when he had chosen to walk a road no one else dared.
"I'm going to war," he said simply. "I'm not waiting for them to keep sending assassins. I'll strike first."
---
The Target – Crimson Eyes Clan Outpost
Lin Fan soared through the night like a storm born from vengeance.
His wings flickered with unstable arcs of dragonfire, each flap sending him hurtling through clouds and shadows, through the silent wind-swept canopies of the Beast Wastes. The cold air bit into his skin, but the fire within him burned brighter.
He wasn't just fleeing anymore. He was hunting.
And his prey?
The Eastern Crimson Eyes Clan Outpost — a minor but strategic watchpost nestled on a high cliff above the Vermilion River. It was the outpost where his bounty had first been issued. Where his portrait had been painted in blood and distributed across ten provinces. Where they celebrated his status as a thief.
He was going to make them rewrite the story.
---
Crimson Eyes Clan – Outpost Watchtower
"Sir, we've lost contact with the fifth scouting party," a disciple in red robes whispered, bowing before the senior elder. "And the beast warding array at the northern rim has... stopped responding."
The elder's brow creased. He was in his late fifties, his beard flowing, and his eyes carrying the calm arrogance of a man who had never been challenged in a hundred years. His cultivation—Core Forming Realm 5th Layer—was more than enough to crush city lords with a flick of his fingers.
"Hmph. Just some wild beasts," he muttered. "Or perhaps a few mercenaries chasing that foolish bounty."
But then—
BOOOOOM!
The entire eastern wall of the outpost exploded in a thunderous burst of crimson lightning.
The night lit up like dawn. Dragonfire roared across the walls, burning runes and melting defensive sigils in seconds. Disciple guards screamed as they were flung backward, their bodies twisting mid-air before smashing into stone pillars.
A single figure dropped from the sky, wings folding behind him like a cloak of judgment.
Lin Fan had arrived.
---
Declaration of War
"I heard you were the ones who put my name on a scroll," Lin Fan said softly, his voice amplified by spiritual energy. "How brave you are behind your walls."
The elder leapt into the air, saber blazing. "You dare—! Do you know who I am?! I am Elder Xu of the Crimson Eyes—"
SPLAT.
Lin Fan didn't let him finish. A single movement — a combination of Dragon Wing Step and Void Split Saber — sliced through air, light, and flesh. The elder's body fell in two neat halves, blood painting the night red.
The outpost guards hesitated. Some screamed and tried to flee. Others stood paralyzed. They had never seen a cultivator so young unleash such devastation. The name Crimson Thief had once sounded like a joke.
But now... it was a curse.
---
Planting the Flag
Lin Fan walked to the center of the courtyard. The burning corpses of assassins and elders surrounded him. With a single motion, he pulled a torn black cloth from his storage ring and unfurled it.
Upon it was a symbol he had drawn with his own blood: a crimson lightning bolt piercing a divine eye.
He tied the banner to a broken pole and rammed it into the ground.
> "From this day forward," Lin Fan's voice echoed across the heavens,
"I declare myself the enemy of every divine clan in this world."
"You call me thief, I call myself taker of fate."
"Send your assassins. Send your armies. I will steal your bloodlines, your secrets, your pride, and your heavens."
"Come find me."
"I am Lin Fan, the Crimson Lightning."
---
System Notification
> "Infamy Level: Increased."
"You have declared open war against the Divine Clans."
"Divine Response Imminent."
"Hidden Trait Unlocked: Heavenbane Rebellion."
"Warning: All major sects have been alerted. Elite Heaven Envoy Inquisition will be dispatched."
And still, Lin Fan didn't flinch.
He sat at the center of the burning outpost, legs crossed beneath the banner he had planted in blood.
The war had truly begun.
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