Night.
The moon hung over Cloudmist like a watchful eye, silver light bathing the peaks, valleys, and sleeping disciples.
The sect was calm. Peaceful.
Even the beasts had curled beneath spirit lanterns.
It had been nearly eleven years since Kang Woo first defied heaven.
Lately, he had smiled more.
Spoken lighter.
Taught longer.
He'd even sat and shared wine with the Sect Leader and Hajin beneath the starlit pavilion.
For once… everything felt right.
Then it happened.
---
Midnight
A silence deeper than silence fell.
One by one, spirit lanterns dimmed.
Formation cores pulsed… then flickered… then died.
And through the broken night…
they came.
One hundred of them.
Quasi-Immortals.
Forged in the upper realms.
Stronger than any mortal had ever faced.
Cloaked in silver, armed with divine seals and weapons dripping in cosmic qi.
They didn't march.
They descended — like blades falling from the sky.
They didn't yell.
They erased.
---
The Ambush
Cloudmist Sect's first line of defense — gone in seconds.
Guard towers fell.
Inner disciples woke to fire.
Outer disciples never even saw the blade.
> "SEAL THEIR QI!"
The lead quasi-immortal threw down a divine talisman that spread across the mountain range like a chain-link of light.
Every cultivator — from the newest student to peak-stage elders — felt their spiritual roots collapse.
They gasped.
They tried to circulate qi — but nothing answered.
Panic.
Screams.
Desperation.
> "They're sealing us—!"
> "We can't fight—!"
> "Where is Kang Woo?!"
---
The Butchering
Elder Hui was sliced apart defending the Scripture Hall.
The Sect Leader was caught trying to hold the barrier core — stabbed through by four lances before he could take a breath.
Kang Woo's fellow instructors — the men and women he taught beside for 20 years — were dragged into the night and dismembered.
The students…
Some tried to run.
Others tried to fight with sticks, knives, or bare fists.
None survived.
And in the center of it…
Hajin.
> "I won't kneel… to false gods."
He stood alone, sword shattered, face bloodied — holding the burned flag of Cloudmist Sect in front of the disciples' shrine.
He was the last to die.
---
Kang Woo — Awakening
He arrived seconds too late.
His foot touched the plaza.
He saw the bodies.
The blood.
The burning scrolls.
The broken banners.
His gaze stopped at Hajin's corpse — still standing, impaled upright, eyes closed like he was still trying to protect someone.
Then…
> Kang Woo knelt.
For the first time…
The man who had never once lowered his back…
Fell to his knees.
And cried.
---
The ground cracked.
The air burned.
His body began to steam.
> "You… took my students."
"My brothers."
"My… family…"
He didn't shout.
He whispered.
But the world heard.
The heavens above twisted.
Storms blackened the stars.
> "You gave me time to prepare."
"But you should've killed me first."
His qi erupted — but it wasn't like before.
This wasn't Great Ascension.
It wasn't immortal essence.
It was pure, unfiltered, burning grief wrapped in hatred.
Kang Woo's dantian shattered.
His cultivation path — destroyed.
His spiritual roots — bleeding.
But instead of death… he rose.
> Not as a cultivator.
Not as a teacher.
As a demon.
---
The Butcher of Cloudmist
Every quasi-immortal who touched mortal soil that night…
Died.
Some were burned alive.
Some imploded from the pressure.
Some were turned into statues of ash with no time to scream.
Those who tried to flee were caught mid-sky and ripped apart by black lightning.
Kang Woo didn't move like a man.
He moved like karma manifest.
He didn't speak.
He didn't blink.
Only when every last enemy had been reduced to dust… did he stop.
He walked to the central altar.
Carved one line in stone with his finger.
> "You sent a hundred. Send a thousand next."
> "I'll bury them too."