Fang Yuan turned sharply, the weight of chaos still heavy in the room.
He snapped his fingers with quiet finality. "Felicia."
The doors eased open before the echo had faded, and Felicia stepped through with practiced grace.
Without needing to ask, she assessed the scene, the crumpled figure of Elder i on the floor, breath shallow.
Fang Yuan’s voice lowered, gentle yet commanding.
"Take Elder i to Doctor Mu. See that she’s tended to carefully."
Felicia bowed, a deep, respectful nod. "As you wish, Clan Head."
Then, with surprising strength for her slender fra, she knelt and cradled Elder i, lifting her effortlessly into her arms.
Fang i’s head lolled lightly against Felicia’s shoulder.
Not a word more was said.
Her footsteps were soft as she carried the unconscious girl out of the hall, the air behind her parting like silk.
Only once she was gone did Fang Yuan turn back to the gathered elders, his expression unreadable.
Fang Yuan stood at the front, composed as always, his robes immaculate, his hands behind his back.
But this ti... there was weight behind his presence, an unspoken density in the air, like the mont before a thunderstrike.
"Before we prepare and plan for any counterasures," he said calmly, "I want to share a secret of mine with you all."
The room shifted, uneasy.
All eyes turned toward him by instinct.
Fang Chen paused mid-step and Elder Jingyi lowered her cup, frowning faintly.
Fang Yuan closed his eyes briefly, inhaled deeply, then exhaled.
His voice ca even, yet carried like a bell struck in the heart:
"I am currently at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, not the initial stage."
soundless beat followed, a mont so heavy it seed to crush thought itself.
The air hung motionless, thick with revelation.
Every elder in the room sat frozen, their minds blank, their breath caught mid-chest.
All their fears, their strategies, their doubts... suspended.
No one dared speak. No one even blinked.
They weren’t just shocked.
They were overwheld.
Except for one.... Elder Yin was the first to crack the spell.
She opened her mouth, closed it, tried again, and finally blurted, "Clan head! You’re amazing!"
Her words weren’t elegant, but they were honest.
The strangeness of hearing sense from the clan’s most unpredictable elder hit a few of the others like a welco slap, and even Fang Yuan couldn’t help but let out a sudden, unguarded laugh.
Emboldened, Elder Yin spun to the others, her voice ringing:
"Hey, it’s good news, what are you all jaw-dropping for?"
For once, she seed to be the only one who could speak plainly, as if chaos had found her right at ho.
The cultivation hierarchy was clear: Qi Realisation, followed by Qi Condensation, then Qi Transformation, Golden Core, and finally, the Nascent Soul Realm.
Among those present in the hall, the elders were all firmly established at the Qi Transformation stage, a realm already considered formidable across most clans.
But Fang Yuan...
He stood two entire major realms above them.
He hadn’t just broken into the Golden Core Realm, which alone would have placed him in the upper echelon of the kingdom.
No, he had ascended to the Nascent Soul Realm. And not just the early stage. Not mid. Not high.
Peak.
The final step before the next great ascension.
Initial, mid, high... and then peak.
It was a path that broke geniuses, drained sects of generations’ worth of resources, and buried countless hopefuls under the weight of their ambition.
And Fang Yuan had climbed it alone.
The air in the hall was thick with disbelief.
The elders, all seasoned cultivators in their own right, struggled to digest the weight of what they had just heard.
Expressions flickered between awe, intimidation, and quiet uncertainty.
Except for Elder Fang Yin.
She wore no mask of confusion or envy. Only a soft, almost proud smile.
As though, for her, it had never been a question.
Of course their clan head was at the peak.
Of course the heavens would bend to him.
So elders blinked as if trying to clear a dream: knuckles easing from the white grip of anxiety, eyes darting from Fang Yuan to each other as if silently asking for permission to believe.
Fang Chen, managed to stamr out, "Clan head, c-can you honestly tell when you reached that realm?"
His words wavered, his composure far from him. Fang Yuan inhaled, held the world quiet for a breath, and answered his uncle, "A month before my thirtieth birthday."
Fang Chen stared, stunned. A beat of silence hung, heavy and uncertain.
Then he sat.
Sipped his tea.
Rose, paced a tight square, jumped, once, twice, thrice and then sank down again, and clasped trembling hands in his lap.
"I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay," he whispered, a mantra more to himself than anyone else.
Others watched, teetering on the edge between laughter and disbelief.
But it was Fang Jingyi who steadied them, her gentle, dignified voice carrying unexpected certainty.
"Well, nephew Yuan, if what you’ve said is true...I believe we have a bit of breathing room in this disaster then...."
Her smile, tired yet genuine, seed to snap a cord: the weight in the room shifted palpably.
At her words, murmurs, so tentative only monts ago swelled into life.
The elders straightened; for the first ti, the lines of worry on their faces eased.
Where their thoughts had been claws digging at the possibility of disaster, the room now humd with the first tremors of hope.
Just monts ago, dread had hung heavy in the hall, every elder weighed down by the looming threat of the Tharz Kingdom, their thoughts haunted by images of ruin, war, and helpless surrender.
And then all of a sudden, those thoughts had vanished, blown away like mist under the sun.
Fang Yuan’s words struck not like thunder, but like the sky itself shifting.
Their minds had reeled. Their hearts pounded furiously.
How could their attention not be shaken?
This wasn’t just a matter of good news, it was a revelation that fractured everything they thought they understood.
In the entire recorded history of the Tharz kingdom, only one cultivators had ever reached the peak of the Nascent Soul realm.
The reclusive sect master of the Divine Ice Sect, an ancient monster of power rumored to freeze rivers with a sigh.
And now there’s was a second one....
Fang Yuan.
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