“Host, what was that you just stuck on?”

The System’s voice slipped through the cave like a silver thread while Nana Toki scouted ahead.

It couldn’t read that Talisman’s function, but instinct prickled like ants under metal skin; those slips weren’t mundane.

After all, it had never seen its host pull out anything normal, like a fish in a desert.

“Eh, nothing great—just a veil to hide my aura.”

Relief first, then resolve: since her hidden space was blown, the stash inside would surface sooner or later; she might as well tell the System outright.

“Then—”

The System wanted to press, but dread pooled like cold ink; knowing her temperament, it shut up.

With a palm-sized flame fed by Spirit Energy, she moved deeper, a lone lantern on black water.

Soon she reached an open chamber, wide as a hollowed mountain heart.

No sconces for torches, no civilized notch; she pulsed her Spirit Energy and her violet fire flared, a sudden dawn washing the stone.

Chains leapt from the dark like iron serpents; thick as a grown man’s arm, they crawled from every corner and knotted at the center.

The sight was a steel forest, a storm frozen mid-whip.

Nana knew these chains; she’d seen the sketch in Shrine Water’s records—Soul-Locking Chains, eight feet long, pitch black, one enough to bind any cultivator below the Condensation stage.

How monstrous did the Nesting Phoenix have to be, to make the Great Elder use so many?

Clicking her tongue, she lifted the flame like a purple flower and walked to the center.

There, at the chains’ tangled heart, a massive crystal lay strangled, a luminous boulder wrapped in iron vines, only a slim seam showing.

If she hadn’t looked close, she would’ve missed it; the crystal barely breathed between the bars.

She raised her gaze and froze; inside, a woman curled nude as a sleeping fawn.

Her face was otherworldly, every line tuned like a zither string; hair fell like a black waterfall across her back, and a lucid spirit shimmered between her brows.

But her skin lacked blood’s blush; pallor clung like frost, and Nana’s fire painted her beauty with the hush of a cellar that never sees sun.

A three-petaled bloom was inked at her brow, a huadian like a lotus mid-bloom, immortal air drifting like morning mist.

One glance tugged the eyes like a tide; it was hard to look away.

Damn… she’s even prettier than my master.

Wonder first, then a prickle of regret as she peered through the seam; curled tight, the view hid more than it showed.

Let her out first, then take a proper look, slow as savoring tea.

System: “...”

Why does my host sound like a shameless perv?

Nana doused her palm-flame, pressed her right hand to the crystal’s slit, and eased Spirit Energy in, a stream seeping into winter earth.

Meanwhile—

Rumble… rumble…

On the tournament peak, sky-blue and cloud-white shattered without warning; clear-sky thunder cracked like a whip across silk.

Disciples below the dueling stage flinched, heads snapping up; black clouds rushed in, a lid slamming over a pot.

In a blink, wind howled; the press of cloud felt like a black tide ready to drown a city wall.

“Thunder on a clear day—an ill omen.”

At the judges’ bench, the Fourth Elder’s brows knit like tight knots, his face iron-heavy. “In all our sect tournaments, nothing like this. Is Heaven hinting at something?”

“Sect Master, perhaps we end it here,” the Fifth Elder said, unease crawling like ants. “Those clouds foretell misfortune.”

“Agreed.”

Shrine Water looked up, her eyes grave as deep wells.

Clouds rolled with a devouring will; even the tribulation cloud from her Nascent Soul ascent hadn’t squeezed the chest like this.

It felt like an army hid behind that shroud, a thousand hooves pawing; relax for a breath, and they’d trample everything beneath.

Worse, panic rose in her like a fish thrashing in a net; maybe it was fear, maybe not, but breath came thin.

“The duel’s at its peak. Cutting it short will gut morale.”

Sect Master Yunlan glanced at the two disciples trading blows, calm as a stone in rain. “And my disciple Yiling Shen goes up next. We’ll finish this bout first.”

“But Sect Master, we can’t gamble with the whole sect’s lives!”

The Fourth Elder’s heart clenched for the disciples; the more he stared at the clouds, the colder the marrow felt.

Such a heaven-shaking sign had never graced the Cloudpeak Sect.

“The Great Elder’s in seclusion. If change strikes now, Cloudpeak is in grave danger!”

Boom!

Boom!

Pfft, pfft!

Pfft, pfft!

As if to answer him, lightning lashed again; a crushing aura surged from Moonview Peak like a river breaking a dam.

Weaker disciples under the stage coughed blood in sprays and crumpled, faces bleached paper-white.

In the same breath, wind roared, and rain fell like a smashed reservoir, a sheet of knives.

Fear spread like frost on glass.

“This is demonic turbulence! Someone broke the seal!”

Sensing the pressure, Shrine Water reacted first; fingers flashed a seal, Spirit Energy surged, and she leapt onto her flying sword, arrowing toward Moonview Peak.

“Sect Master, I’ll go ahead.”

Behind her, other Elders barked orders, shepherding disciples to safety, then lit their Spirit Energy and streaked after her like comets.

Sect Master Yunlan stood alone before the chaos, his face dark as a stormfront.

Someone dared stir trouble inside his Cloudpeak Sect? courting death.

By the time Shrine Water reached the back ridge of Moonview Peak, it was already too late.

Outside the cave, phoenix fire carpeted the world, a field of red lotuses with no path through.

Demonic qi raged like a wild river; a misstep promised a bone-deep wound.

Even from afar, the heat licked her skin like a forge’s breath.

This was the very scene from the Nesting Phoenix’s old deviation into madness.

She knew all too well what monster slept sealed inside; if it rushed into the mortal world, the disaster would defy imagining.

But the strangest thorn was this—who broke the seal?

The Cloudpeak forbidden ground had layer after layer of the Great Elder’s wards, a forest of locks; no average cultivator could crack them.

And only the line of Sect Masters, the Great Elder, and herself knew of the Nesting Phoenix at all; with the Great Elder in seclusion and the seal now broken—

The timing reeked of cruel coincidence.

Unease swelled, drumbeats in her chest, a hawk’s shadow crossing the heart; it felt like a warning of a disaster waiting ahead.

Even so, duty steeled her spine; she couldn’t let a run-amok Nesting Phoenix go unchecked.

She pressed the panic down like a lid on boiling soup, stretched out her divine sense, and slipped it into the cave’s throat to scout.

Inside the cave—

The instant Nana cracked the seal, pressure hit like a mountain; a copper-sweet flood rose in her throat, and blood splashed from her lips.

“Urgh—”

She staggered back step after step, then caught the stone wall like a sinking swimmer clinging to driftwood.

Her knees turned to water; she slid down and sat hard, cold rock biting through cloth.

Her awareness blurred like ink in rain.

Panic first, then a bitter laugh in her head—was the Nesting Phoenix’s cultivation broken beyond reason?

If the System hadn’t shouldered most of it, she’d have logged out of life on the spot and hopped to the next world to play.

But it wasn’t enough.

She could feel her life leaking like sand from a split hourglass.

The System had only bought time on a dying candle.

Crack… crack…

The figure rose from crystal shards like a flower from ice; phoenix fire filmed the walls, red waves licking stone.

The Nesting Phoenix stood free, gaze hazy, a lost traveler staring at Nana crumpled not far away.

Confusion flickered like moth wings—why was there someone here?

One step, then two; each footfall left behind a blooming cluster of scarlet flame.

She was a red lotus in karmic fire, aloof and unearthly, beauty like a blade in snow.

“Fusion Flame Art?”

The Spirit Energy in Nana’s body tugged her like a scent on the wind; curiosity warmed her eyes as she crouched beside the girl, studying her like a rare treasure.

A hand rose, gentle as falling petals, and stroked Nana’s cheek.

A crimson flame bloomed on that cheek out of thin air, a brand without heat; it clung instead of burning, then crept, petal by petal, to cover her whole body.

“Mm… urgh…”

Weakness drowned Nana; blood clogged her throat like wet cotton, choking words to silence.

Her vision was a red blur, a sunset melted across the world; she didn’t realize fire sheathed her from head to toe.

Drowsiness washed in, first a warm tide on her cheeks.

Then her lips softened, and warmth slipped between them, a stream threading her mouth, sliding down her throat, flowering through her limbs.

Sleep crashed over her like a black wave.

In moments, darkness closed, and Nana Toki slumped into unconsciousness on the cave floor.