Chapter 160 | Collision

Chapter 160: 160 | Collision

Lin Tian stood at the edge of the western ridge, his gaze fixed on the massive, overhanging boulders resting above the choke point. The blistering heat radiating from the crater below warped the air into shimmering mirages, twisting stone and sky into waves.

He knelt and placed his palms flat against the solid rock.

Closing his eyes, he extended his spiritual sense deep into the earth. It slid through layers of fractured stone, mapping hidden fault lines, tracing the exact load-bearing nodes that held the massive boulders in place. The rock was old. Centuries of intense Yang heat had baked it brittle, and it held together only by a fragile web of spiritual energy, thin as spider silk.

He calculated the volume of stone required to crush the beast’s reinforced skeleton. He calculated the angle of fall, the width of the gorge, the margin of error. The numbers settled in his mind, cold and precise.

Then he channeled a dense, piercing needle of Primordial Yang Qi into the primary fault line.

The energy traveled silently through the stone. It expanded rapidly inside the tiny cracks, pressing outward from within. The pressure multiplied in a fraction of a second, turning solid rock into a bomb of kinetic force waiting to detonate.

Lin Tian pulled his hands back and leaped away from the ridge. He landed softly on a stable pillar fifty meters away, his boots barely whispering against the stone.

Below, the Guardian Beast’s ears twitched.

It sensed the sudden shift in the stone’s spiritual resonance. Slowly, it turned its massive head toward the ridge, jaws opening to release a warning roar that would shake the crater walls.

It never finished the sound.

RUMBLE!

The structural integrity of the ridge failed completely. Thousands of tons of solid black rock fractured and detached from the cliff face, peeling away like a scab torn from a wound.

The massive boulders plummeted directly into the narrow gorge.

The confined space turned the falling rocks into a deadly hammer. The Guardian Beast tried to dodge, claws scraping furiously against stone, but the gorge was too narrow. Its massive frame, usually its greatest advantage, became a fatal liability.

CRACK! BOOM!

The first boulder smashed into the beast’s back, shattering its thick crimson scales like dry glass. Shards of scale sprayed into the air, glowing faintly with residual heat. The creature let out a horrific, gurgling shriek as the sheer weight pinned it to the ground. The impact was so violent that the ground beneath Lin Tian’s feet trembled.

More rocks followed, raining down in a continuous, deafening cascade. The narrow walls of the gorge amplified the sound, bouncing it back and forth until the air itself became a vibrating shockwave of pure destruction.

The beast’s desperate struggles were quickly silenced under the crushing weight of the mountain.

Dust and pulverized stone exploded outward, filling the crater with a thick, choking cloud.

Then, silence.

Lin Tian waited for the dust to settle. His expression remained completely calm. He had not wasted a single drop of Qi on a direct fight.

When the air cleared, the narrow gorge was completely sealed. The Guardian Beast was buried under a mountain of solid rock, its life force completely extinguished.

***

Lin Tian descended carefully into the crater.

The blistering heat was still intense, pressing against him from every side. But without the beast’s massive aura amplifying it, the air felt slightly more manageable.

He walked directly to the scorched earth.

Floating above the blackened stone was the Pure-Yang Lotus.

Nine translucent crimson petals surrounded its golden-red center. The flower pulsed with a dense, blinding flow of pure Yang energy, each pulse slow and rhythmic, like a heartbeat. The heat radiating from it was so concentrated that the air shimmered and warped around the stem.

Lin Tian did not hesitate. He did not waste time admiring the harvest.

He analyzed the root structure first. The lotus was drawing energy directly from the leylines beneath the crater, drinking from them like a child at its mother’s breast. If he simply pulled it, the spiritual backlash would shatter the petals and ruin the herb in an instant.

He formed a sharp, condensed blade of Qi at his fingertips. He sliced through the air, severing the invisible spiritual threads connecting the flower to the earth one by one. With one precise, controlled movement, he cut the physical root.

He caught the radiant lotus before it could fall. Immediately, he wrapped it in a layer of insulating Yin energy, sealing its intense heat before it could leak into the air and announce his position. He stored it securely.

The red glow across the crater instantly weakened. Without the lotus’s concentrated energy, the surrounding steam slowly thinned, revealing more of the blackened stone beneath.

Lin Tian’s gaze swept the immediate area. The dense spiritual energy of the crater had nurtured several secondary materials, small but valuable.

He quickly gathered three clusters of Fire-Marrow Moss and two Ash-Wood Roots growing near the base of the rocks, sealed their essence, and moved on. The entire harvest took less than two minutes.

***

He turned toward the northern route, preparing to leave the crater.

A faint shadow shifted on a flat stone to his left.

Lin Tian’s hand rested near his sword hilt, but he did not draw it. His spiritual sense had already identified the cold, familiar signature.

Lady Yun stepped out from the shifting mist.

She did not blend into the shadows or hide her presence. She stood openly on the ridge, her dark robes still, her expression completely professional.

"Three scavenger groups are approaching from the east and west," she said quietly. Her voice was calm, carrying no unnecessary emotion. "The battle and the collapse attracted them. They will reach the crater in less than five minutes."

Lin Tian nodded. He had expected this. The noise of the gorge collapsing would echo for miles through the core area, calling to every greedy ear within range.

"How many cultivators?" he asked.

"Approximately twelve. Mostly Early and Middle Stage. They are moving fast, driven by greed."

Lin Tian’s mind instantly calculated the factors. Twelve cultivators meant three separate teams. They would not cooperate. Their greed would make them reckless, and their suspicion of each other would slow them down. Disorganized, distracted, and pointing blades at one another, they were no threat at all.

"I will leave first," Lin Tian said.

He chose a steep, rocky incline on the western side of the crater. The terrain was rough and difficult to cross, but it offered deep shadows and thick spiritual disturbance that would hide his tracks from the approaching scavengers.

Lady Yun gave a single, slight nod. She did not ask where he was going. She simply melted back into the shifting mist, taking up her position in the canopy to cover his blind spots once again.

Lin Tian adjusted his breathing and began to climb. His movements were measured and silent. He placed his boots only on stable stones, leaving no obvious trail behind him.

***

Less than five minutes later, the first inner sect team arrived at the edge of the crater.

They moved cautiously, weapons drawn, their eyes wide with anticipation. They had felt the massive spiritual fluctuation of the gorge collapse and assumed a fierce battle over a high-tier treasure was still underway.

The leader, a tall disciple with a scarred face, peered over the ridge.

He stopped dead in his tracks.

The crater was empty. The red glow was gone. In the center, the Pure-Yang Lotus was missing. And to the north, the narrow V-shaped gorge was completely sealed by a massive, fresh avalanche of black rock.

The heavy, lingering scent of crushed beast scales and pulverized stone filled the air.

"Where is it?" the leader whispered, his voice tight with disbelief.

A second team arrived from the eastern path, followed quickly by a third from the south. The three groups stared at the sealed gorge and the empty center of the crater, and no one spoke.

"Someone beat us to it," a cultivator from the second group muttered, his face pale with frustration. "And they brought the entire mountain down on the Guardian Beast. Who has that kind of power?"

The leader of the first team narrowed his eyes. He looked at the second group, his hand resting on his sword hilt. "Did your people do this?"

"Don’t be stupid," the second leader snapped back. "If we had that kind of power, we wouldn’t be scavenging the outer rim."

The second leader stepped forward, his spiritual energy flaring aggressively. "We didn’t take it. But if your team is hiding something in that rubble, we will find it."

"You dare threaten us?" The first leader drew his sword an inch from its scabbard. "This crater is in the central zone. The sect rules state that the first team to claim a resource keeps it. If you try to take it by force, you are violating sect law."

"Sect law doesn’t apply when no one is watching," the second leader sneered.

Tension instantly filled the air. The three teams, united only by greed a moment ago, were now eyeing each other with deep suspicion. Each assumed one of the others had tried to hog the treasure and failed.

"Search the surroundings," the first leader ordered his team, his voice cold. "They couldn’t have gone far. And keep an eye on them," he added, glaring at the other two groups.

But high above the western ridge, hidden deep within the spiritual disturbance of the rough terrain, Lin Tian was already far away.

He moved steadily north, putting miles of dangerous, unstable ground between himself and the crater.

His mind operated with cold, ruthless efficiency, reviewing the ledger of the last few hours.

The main objective was secured. The factors had been perfectly managed. Gu Yan’s team was crippled and fleeing, the Guardian Beast was dead, and the scavengers were left with nothing but dust and paranoia.

He did not feel pride, and he did not feel pity. He only felt the quiet satisfaction of a flawless formation, every piece placed exactly where it belonged.

The Secret Realm was still dangerous, and the two-week limit was approaching. But for now, the path ahead was clear.

Lin Tian continued his steady walk into the deep core area, his aura completely concealed, leaving the chaos of the crater far behind him.​