“Dare you accept my challenge, a battle of Dao and will?” The words, laced with Lu Fuzi’s somber fury, echoed across the star-strewn void.

Wang Lin shook his head, his gaze sweeping past the Confucian sage. “Such contests of wit weary me.” His eyes settled upon the ashen, terror-stricken Blood God Child cowering behind Lu Fuzi. With deliberate strides, Wang Lin advanced, intending to bypass the sage and confront his quarry directly!

Already simmering with resentment from the artifact forging, Lu Fuzi erupted in rage at this blatant disregard. With a flick of his sleeves, he unleashed the full power of his third-step cultivation, a torrent of energy marking the pinnacle of the Kong Nie realm. He stood as if upon the very zenith of the cosmos!

His aura surged like a tempest, amplified by the manifestation of his mastery over the Essence of Wind. The very stars trembled. Around him, winds howled, coalescing into nine colossal wind dragons, each a league in length, their roars cleaving the heavens.

Their earth-shattering cries echoed like the birth of a celestial apocalypse, a maelstrom of unimaginable force engulfing the Luo Tian starfield!

The wind’s voice reverberated, shaping and churning all that surrounded it.

“Wang Lin! Do you truly believe I dare not face you in battle?! You crave war? Then war you shall have!” With a roar of fury, Lu Fuzi slashed his right hand before him, tearing open a rift in space. From its depths, a fragment of a blade materialized, its shattered form pulsing with a fearsome, ethereal energy.

This broken blade, known as the Remnant Dusk, radiated a tempest of sorrow, an aura that had once pierced the eight-starred flesh of the Ancient God Tu Si.

With the Remnant Dusk manifested, Lu Fuzi executed a series of arcane hand seals, pointing skyward. The starfield trembled, and a wave of unseen force swept outward, driving the tens of thousands of nearby cultivators into a hasty retreat.

Simultaneously, an illusion, vast and breathtaking, materialized behind Lu Fuzi. It was not a person, but an entire world!

The Wind Immortal Realm!

The entirety of the Wind Immortal Realm shimmered into existence behind him.

Yet, this was not the ravaged realm Wang Lin had once witnessed. This ethereal copy, though filled with gales, bore no mark of ruin. Immortal energy swirled within it, ethereal figures roamed freely, and the land remained unbroken, pristine.

At the heart of the Immortal Realm, a colossal stone gate stood resplendent, before which countless Immortals knelt, as if in supplication.

Waves of celestial energy radiated outward, instantly enveloping the entire Luo Tian star domain.

Melodious Immortal harmonies flowed forth, instilling a sense of profound serenity. Mythical beasts of the Immortal Realm, countless in number, roamed free.

Within the immortal aura, a faint, yet potent, incense permeated all, flowing directly towards Lu Fuzi, who inhaled it greedily. The Wind Immortal Realm was the very key to Lu Fuzi’s ascension to the third step!

He drew the incense required for his cultivation from this ethereal replica.

“The Wind Immortal Realm is the foundation of my cultivation, the source of my incense! Though your physical body may be formidable, you have not reached the third step. You possess no incense. How can you hope to contend with me?!

Know this, mortal: It is incense that elevates us, third-step cultivators, to the pinnacle of existence! It is the foundation of the incense-based Divine Abilities that only those of our stature can wield!” Lu Fuzi, resolute in his decision to battle, was imbued with boundless confidence by the presence of the Wind Immortal Realm behind him. As a third-step cultivator, he possessed an unparalleled power, a sheer weight of existence!

Wang Lin’s gaze remained tranquil, watching as Lu Fuzi unleashed his enchantments, his aura climbing towards its apex. His expression remained unchanged.

In his eyes, Lu Fuzi was… insufficient.

His calm demeanor, however, unnerved Lu Fuzi, fostering a sense of unfathomable mystery. He could not discern what manner of power allowed Wang Lin to remain so composed!

“Even if he has suppressed his cultivation, he cannot hide it from my sight. This unwavering calm… it is unsettling! I shall see what gives him such assurance!”

All this transpired in an instant. The sorrow of the Remnant Dusk raged before Lu Fuzi, while the Wind Immortal Realm unleashed waves of celestial energy behind him, coalescing into strands of incense that swirled around his body.

Lu Fuzi appeared as a true Immortal, his presence radiating unmatched might.

He formed a hand seal and pointed towards the star formation below. Instantly, the Luo Tian Grand Formation, woven from hundreds of cultivation stars, roared to life, the presence of star souls surging through the void!

As the formation activated, the power of the star souls intensified, shaking the Luo Tian starfield. Its influence extended outwards, reaching even the distant Wind, Rain, and Lightning Realms!

“This formation was prepared for the invaders from beyond the realms. Since you crave battle, mortal, I shall see how you fare within it!” Lu Fuzi’s hair swirled, his robes billowed, and upon the star formation below, vortices of star soul energy erupted, swallowing the surrounding space in an aura of terrifying power!

Countless star souls swirled throughout the heavens, creating the illusion of an entirely separate realm!

And Wang Lin stood at the very center of it all!

“Wang Lin, you insignificant whelp! Come, face me in battle!” Lu Fuzi’s eyes burned with fierce determination, the calm of his opponent gnawing at his senses. Casting aside any doubts, he roared and charged towards Wang Lin. The Wind Immortal Realm quaked behind him, and countless Immortal figures surged forth, as if launching a grand, celestial assault!

The Remnant Dusk howled as it followed Lu Fuzi, aimed directly at Wang Lin!

The star formation below churned with unimaginable force, the hundreds of star souls whirling in a cosmic dance of destruction!

Wang Lin’s expression remained placid. As Lu Fuzi drew near, the Ancient God’s seven stars between his brows spun, unleashing an aura of power that dwarfed even a third-step cultivator!

For the first time since his return to Luo Tian, Wang Lin unleashed the full, unrestrained power of his seven-star Ancient God heritage, a storm of pure, unbridled might!
Lufu Zi, the forward-rushing cultivator, felt a sudden chill grip his very soul. His pupils constricted to pinpricks, but retreat was a thought he banished. He closed the distance to Wang Lin, now a mere fifty paces distant! Yet, in his foe’s eyes, he saw only that unsettling calm. An unshakeable serenity that offered no hint, no clue to the power Wang Lin possessed.

“What sorcery does he wield?! If it were merely the aura he projects, my Astral Array would make short work of him!”

As Lufu Zi hurtled closer, his mind raced, and in that fleeting instant, a sigh, faint as the whisper of wind through ancient ruins, emanated from Wang Lin. He raised his right hand to his brow, and with a resonant hum, the Celestial Furnace shimmered into being.

“Awaken, Ancient Thrall!” Wang Lin intoned, his voice a low, resonant command. A spectral light erupted from the furnace’s depths, coalescing before him into the formidable form of the Ancient Lingdong.

In that instant, the raw power of a Third Step Ascendant surged from Lingdong, a tangible force that pressed upon the very fabric of reality!

Above him, the void itself tore asunder, revealing a maelstrom of violet energy, a swirling tempest of boundless incense, a testament to Lingdong’s profound power.

“A Third Step Ascendant!!!” The words were wrenched from Lufu Zi’s throat, his face contorted in an expression of utter disbelief. His advance ground to a halt, his eyes wide with incredulity.

“He…he commands a Third Step Ascendant! This is the key to his composure, the source of his unshakeable confidence! By the Heavens…what is his true nature? How could he possibly command such a being?”

Even Lufu Zi, a cultivator seasoned by millennia, was utterly humbled by the sudden emergence of Lingdong.

Now, all became clear. The reason for Wang Lin’s serenity, his unwavering defiance in the face of Lufu Zi’s own formidable skills. He understood why Wang Lin had scorned the offer of a favor, why he had so casually dismissed the notion of a gentleman’s duel.

With Lingdong’s arrival, the scales fell from Lufu Zi’s eyes. He saw the truth, stark and terrifying.

And even more alarming was the swirling chaos above Lingdong, that endless tide of incense that rendered Lufu Zi speechless. Its sheer concentration defied comprehension.

“Such incense! What manner of Ascendant is this? I know the Ascendants of this realm, and none match this power. Who… who is he?” Lufu Zi’s countenance shifted wildly. If he, with his vast experience, was so shaken, what of the others?

Within the swirling vortex, Yan Leizi stared, his mind numb. Never in his thousands of years of cultivation had he experienced such a profound shock. Wang Lin’s own power had already been a revelation, but the fact that he possessed an enslaved Ascendant was beyond imagining.

Ancient Thrall! The words echoed in the minds of all who heard them, for none could mistake the identity of Lingdong.

A mere servant would have been nothing of consequence. But this… this was a Third Step Ascendant!

Such a thing would spark riots and wars in even the most lawless reaches of the Outer Realms. Here, in this realm where Ascendants were rarities, it was simply unthinkable.

Were he told that the entire Luo Tian Starfield was about to collapse, it would not compare to the shock that wracked Yan Leizi’s soul.

The arrival of Lingdong, the strange power that clung to him like a second skin, the aura that could shake the stars themselves, a presence comparable to the ancient ancestor of Luo Tian and perhaps even exceeding him, all of it pointed to one inescapable truth!

This being was a Third Step Ascendant.

Yan Leizi’s mind reeled, his thoughts scattered like leaves in a hurricane, his eyes glazed with disbelief.

“What…what manner of fortune has befallen him? To rival the Ascendants himself is one thing, but to command one as a thrall… A Third Step! I have known but one Third Step, Lufu Zi himself! No… this cannot be! It is beyond belief!” Yan Leizi’s mind teetered on the brink of madness. He could not accept what he saw, the impossible reality of a Third Step Ascendant, a slave to Wang Lin!