sjar Chapter 663: The Unbending Abyss
Chapter 663: The Unbending Abyss
The tense atmosphere on the marble terrace instantly thickened as the group of male saboteurs hesitated, their eyes locked onto the gleaming Spiritual Gold needle vibrating between Ethan’s fingers. The raw, mocking coldness in his baritone voice had sliced directly through their manufactured bravado, leaving them exposed in front of the massive crowd.
"Impudent brat! You think a few parlor tricks with needles give you the right to dictate terms to the elite of this sect?!"
A powerful, booming voice rolled down from the raised VIP pavilion across the square. The crowd instantly went dead silent as a senior figure slowly stood up, stepping out from the contingent of the Central Sect Headquarters. It was Elder Victor, a man whose silver-trimmed robes signified immense administrative authority back at the capital, and whose aura radiated the absolute, suffocating density of the Peak of the Golden Core Realm.
With a single, deliberate step, Victor materialized directly at the base of the pavilion’s marble stairs. He didn’t just walk; he brought the full, crushing weight of his cultivation down upon the terrace like a falling mountain. The stone beneath his boots grooved under the pressure, and several low-tier disciples in the front rows instantly collapsed to their knees, gasping for oxygen.
"Young man, your arrogance has thoroughly crossed the line of baseline tolerance," Victor stated coldly, his piercing eyes boring into Ethan’s towering frame as he unleashed his full spiritual pressure directly toward him. "You stand here on a frontier peak, yet you dare run a discriminatory enterprise that insults the male lineage of the Heavenly Sword Pavilion. Do you honestly believe that your local permits or your petty hidden backers can protect you from the central council? Fold your ridiculous rules this instant, open your doors to all disciples, or I will personally utilize my administrative veto to systematically liquidate this facility before the hour concludes!"
It was a devastating combination of absolute martial pressure, deep-seated political connections, and supreme institutional power. Victor was explicitly using his status as a capital lord to completely break Ethan’s spine in front of the entire mountain.
Yet, Ethan didn’t even flinch. His broad shoulders remained perfectly square, his magnificent crimson robes rustling softly in the volatile wind generated by Victor’s aura. His Primordial Void Body inside his soul merely swirled in the dark, effortlessly swallowing the Peak Golden Core pressure as if it were a minor breeze.
"Is that the absolute maximum density of your capital authority, Elder Victor?" Ethan asked smoothly, a dark, thoroughly amused smile curling the corners of his lips. "Because from where I am standing, your administrative threats sound remarkably hollow. My rules are forged in iron. I do not care about your veto, and I certainly do not care about your fragile ego."
"You dare defy a supreme lord of the capital?!" another voice roared from the VIP section.
Seeing that Ethan remained completely unmoved, three more Central Sect Elders rapidly descended to the terrace, their combined auras exploding outward to assist Victor. Every single one of them was an ancient master entrenched at the absolute Peak of the Golden Core Realm—men who had been desperately stuck at the bottleneck of their cultivation for over a century, starving for any medical or alchemical miracle that could clear their decaying meridians and grant them a single chance to break through into the legendary Spiritual Sea Realm.
Their desperation made them incredibly dangerous. They unleashed a combined, terrifying tempest of spiritual energy that caused the solid marble steps to visibly crack and splinter, creating a psychological guillotine meant to force Ethan to crawl and beg for their guidance.
But Ethan stood amidst the swirling vortex of their combined fury entirely unbothered, his amethyst eyes flashing with a cold, predatory light as he looked down at the four desperate old men. They thought they were cornering a defenseless rogue doctor, completely unaware that the man standing before them possessed an ancient lineage that viewed their entire existence as nothing more than dust in the wind.
He was not a naive, soft-hearted novice physician trying to win the desperate approval of the masses; he possessed the supreme, absolute memories and medical insights of the Amethyst Lord himself. Within his unique cultivation path, his growth relied on absorbing the pristine, pure Yin energy of women; helping these decaying, arrogant sacks of bones would bring him absolutely nothing but a tedious mountain of uncompensated labor and a waste of his divine medical essence.
He could not care less about what they thought of his enterprise. Fearing them? Ha! What absolute, pathetic stupidity.
The number of powerful, wealthy female cultivators currently stagnated and suffocated at their cultivation bottlenecks across the sect was not a single fraction less than that of the men. If he was strategically obligated to offend a specific gender on this mountain, he would unhesitatingly choose to offend the men every single time. Women, in Ethan’s deep cosmic experience, could be vastly more irrational in both extreme directions; if they hated you, they would destroy you, but if you cured their deepest flaws, their unshakeable loyalty and protective fanaticism would turn into an absolute shield. Being fiercely protected by a vanguard of powerful, elite women was a thousand times more operationally profitable and secure than earning the temporary, transactional favor of these four decrepit old fools.
"Have you gentlemen finished your little theatrical display?" Ethan asked, his deep tone cutting through their combined, roaring auras with a smooth, mocking clarity that left the entire plaza gasping. He casually adjusted the sleeve of his crimson robe, his amethyst eyes flashing with a cold, predatory amusement. "Let me make the structural reality perfectly clear to your ancient, decaying minds. My pavilion operates on my terms, and my terms alone. I have absolutely zero interest in wasting my spiritual gold needles on broken, withered old men who have spent a century rotting at the bottom of a bottleneck. If you do not possess a female constitution, you are entirely invisible to my eyes. Now, clear my steps before I decide to treat your insolence as a personal administrative disruption."
The four Central Sect Elders violently stiffened, their faces turning an explosive, dangerous shade of purple as Ethan’s words completely dismantled their supreme capital pride right in front of thousands of watching disciples.
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From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.
Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.
Body Refinement Realm
Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement
Spiritual Gathering Realm
Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation
Spiritual Core Realm
Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)
Spiritual Soul Realm
Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion
Golden Core Realm
Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction
Spiritual Sea Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Dao Manifestation Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Spiritual Transcendence
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
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Sword mastery levels
Sword Intent.
Sword Aura.