The arena was silent.
The air hung heavy with the weight of death and devastation, as though the world itself held its breath.
Dust and fragments of shattered formations floated lazily in the sunlight, sparkling briefly before fading into the wind. The stage, once pristine, was now a battlefield marked by black streaks of Yin Devouring Aura and traces of Li Tao's golden righteous qi, twisted and dissipated into nothing.
Li Tao knelt on the ground, broken and exhausted.
His golden aura flickered weakly, barely enough to shield his frail form from the remnants of the black aura still lingering like poisonous fog.
His robes were torn, his hair matted with blood and sweat, and his face pale.
Around the stage, the onlookers were frozen.
Shen Mo, Li Meng, Wang Lie, and the other patriarchs had fallen silent, their expressions a mixture of shock, awe, and fear.
Even Su Daoxuan, the Su Patriarch, looked unusually subdued, his eyes betraying a rare sense of unease. The boy he had raised, the one he had guided for 15 years, had done more than merely defeat a cultivator of the 5th step—he had shattered the very notion of righteous qi in the minds of every witness.
Sigh~ Child, you really are raising up a storm.
Su Ye stood at the center of the arena, his black robe billowing like a shadow in the wind.
The Yin Devouring Aura still clung to him, a dark and living extension of his will. It pulsed with an almost sentient rhythm, as if the aura itself relished the chaos it had wrought.
Su Ye's crimson eyes swept the arena, lingering on the fallen Li Tao before shifting to the crowd. He was calm, his expression serene, but underneath lay a current of raw, unrelenting intensity.
This battle was completely one sided.
Li Tao struggled to his feet, gasping for breath.
His movements were slow, unsteady, and every motion seemed to cost him his very essence. His face was a mask of disbelief, pain, and something more dangerous: fear.
"Su… Ye…" he managed to rasp, his voice barely audible over the tense silence, "what… what have you become?"
Su Ye tilted his head slightly, the faintest smile ghosting across his lips.
"I became what I had to be," he said quietly. "I should thank you for your guidance."
The words cut through the arena like a knife.
Even the most hardened cultivators whispered to themselves, horrified by the implication.
"I…I've punished evil!" Li Tao shouted, desperation creeping into his voice. "I…I've done all I could to—"
Li Meng finally spoke, his voice trembling, "He…he's only mortal…yet he—"
"Mortals can choose their path too," Su Daoxuan interrupted softly, his gaze fixed on Su Ye. "And sometimes, the path of a mortal can shatter what centuries of cultivation could not."
Su Ye now looked down emotionlessly at Li Tao, "You failed. Your ideals failed. And now…your future fails too."
The spectators watched in horror as Su Ye raised his hand. The Yin Devouring Aura extended, flowing over the entire arena like a creeping tide. Every formation, every artifact, every spiritual technique in the vicinity of Li Tao began to break down, disintegrating into nothingness.
The golden sword in Li Tao's grasp dissolved. His cultivation techniques flickered and vanished.
Even the magical artifacts he had relied on for decades were undone by the sheer will of Su Ye's aura.
The Yin Devouring Aura retracted slowly, leaving the arena eerily quiet. Li Tao remained on the ground, trembling, utterly defeated. The crowd looked at Su Ye with a mixture of awe, fear, and unspoken respect.
"Only 30 years old! 30 years old!!"
Su Ye turned, walking calmly away from the arena.