"I suppose... it’s not so bad to be surprised in this way, Hanfeng."

There was mockery in Xiao Yan’s tone but not entirely. Beneath it, something faint stirred.

Xiao Yan shifted his weight, leaning more heavily on his sword as he took a slow step closer to Lin Feng.

The dense death qi around him rippled slightly, reacting to his movement like a disturbed swamp.

Up close, the aura was even more suffocating.

It was decay... ruin... the very embodiment of life reaching its end.

Yet Lin Feng stood unmoved. Their eyes met. One old and fading. The other calm and unfathomable.

"If you can heal me, young man..." Xiao Yan said slowly, each word deliberate, "...then I will reward you with anything you desire."

His lips curled into a faint smile. It looked casual. Almost careless.

But Lin Feng saw through it instantly. Deep within those dim, dying eyes... There burned a flame.

A fierce, unyielding flame. Hope.

After a million years of existence... after enduring a battle that nearly erased him from this world... after watching countless healers fail and despair take root...

This old hero... Still refused to give up.

He clung stubbornly to life, like a blade refusing to dull, like a will that even death could not completely extinguish.

Lin Feng’s gaze sharpened ever so slightly.

Interesting... A man like this... Was far from ordinary.

"I don’t need or want anything," Lin Feng said calmly. "All I want is the Medicine King title so your Medicine Pavilion stops bothering me. After that, I’ll heal whoever I want, whenever I want."

His tone was steady, almost indifferent, as if he were discussing something trivial. He stepped forward.

"Wait!" Shi Hanfeng called out sharply, his expression changing for the first time.

But Lin Feng didn’t even slow down.

He closed the distance in a few calm steps and stopped just a pace away from Xiao Yan.

The moment he did... The surrounding death qi surged.

It pressed inward like a living thing, thick and suffocating, carrying with it the stench of decay and the weight of countless years of deterioration.

For any ordinary cultivator, this alone would have been enough to shatter their mind, corrode their body, and extinguish their life.

At the very least, they would be on their knees screaming for their mama’s help.

At worst... Dead. Yet Lin Feng stood there quietly. Unaffected. Not a single fluctuation in his aura.

Not a single change in his expression. Xiao Yan’s eyes narrowed.

For the first time since their meeting, the faint amusement in his gaze completely vanished, replaced by something far more serious.

He observed Lin Feng carefully. Closely.

The death qi around him didn’t just harm, it revealed.

It peeled away disguises, exposed weaknesses, and crushed those unworthy of standing near him.

Yet this young man... Was like a stone dropped into a bottomless ocean. No ripple. No reaction. Nothing.

"I can’t see through him...?"

The thought surfaced, and for the first time in a very long while, Xiao Yan felt a trace of genuine surprise.

In his million years of existence, there were only a handful of people he couldn’t fully perceive.

Each one of them... Was a monster in their own right. Which meant...

Lin Feng was far more than he appeared to be.

The old man’s gaze deepened, his thoughts turning rapidly.

With his experience, it didn’t take long for him to piece together a possibility.

A young man. Unfathomable depth. Unshaken by death qi. Such a person...

Could only come from one place. His expression turned cold.

"Get away from me."

His voice, though weak, carried an undeniable sharpness.

"I would rather die..." he continued, spitting lightly onto the ground, "...than live with the help of some ancient clan scum."

Without another glance, Xiao Yan turned away.

Leaning on his sword, he began to walk off in slow, dragging steps each one unsteady, yet resolute.

He chose death... Over what he believed Lin Feng represented. And he did so without hesitation.

Lin Feng understood. He understood perfectly.

The hatred, the rejection, the disgust in Xiao Yan’s voice... it wasn’t baseless.

It was carved from experience, from betrayal, from things that had happened long before most people in this world were even born.

Ancient clans...

They stood at the peak of power, yet beneath that glory often lay greed, manipulation, and indifference to the lives of others.

For someone like Xiao Yan who had once fought to protect the entire continent, such forces were not allies.

They were nothing but cold hearted parasites.

"I’m not from an ancient clan," Lin Feng said calmly. "And even if I were..."

He took a small step forward, his voice turning colder.

"...would you really throw away your chance to be cured?"

A brief pause. Then his eyes sharpened.

"...knowing that the insatiable hunger from the south is still lurking and waiting to sniff out even the slightest weakness in your borders?"

The words fell like thunder. For a split second everything froze.

Then... Xiao Yan turned around abruptly.

His frail body straightened ever so slightly, and in that instant, it was as if the dying old man had vanished.

What stood there... Was a sovereign.

Boom!

An unimaginable fighting intent erupted from his body. It was vast. Ancient. Absolute!

The bloodlust that followed was even more terrifying... thick and suffocating, like an ocean of corpses and rivers of blood crashing into reality.

It burst out of the chamber, tearing through the estate and surging into the skies above the city.

The entire Dao Origin City trembled.

"Who?! Who is releasing such killing intent?!"

"Oh no... I... I can’t breathe!"

"We’re going to die!"

Weaker cultivators collapsed on the spot, their minds unable to withstand the pressure. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

One after another, they dropped like lifeless puppets, their consciousness snuffed out by the sheer weight of that aura.

Even seasoned experts felt their hearts pound violently, their legs turning weak as fear gripped them.

Within the estate, Shi Hanfeng’s expression changed drastically.