The plaza, once filled with casual chatter, now buzzed with sharp whispers and frantic murmurs.

Disciples began backing away, forming a loose circle around Lin Mu, though none dared to attack outright.

Lin Mu looked at their panic with the same expressionless calm. His words had already sealed their perception of him. He knew that the elders would be alerted within moments, but he had no need to hide any longer. He raised his voice slightly, letting it carry over the crowd.

"Do not bother sending your messages. It is already useless. Your end has arrived."

The last word echoed ominously in the plaza, and even the servants disciples froze mid-step, staring at him with wide, frightened eyes.

For a breath, time seemed to hold still. And then, like a storm breaking across a clear sky, multiple overwhelming qi fluctuations surged through the air.

SHUA SHUA SHUA SHUA

The pressure of powerful cultivators descended on the plaza, shaking the very flagstones. Disciples staggered and fell to their knees as the oppressive waves of cultivation intent pressed down.

It was not just one or two fluctuations but several, distinct and terrifying in their might. The air crackled with power, and shadows streaked across the sky as figures descended from above.

The strike team had arrived!

They fell upon the Hidden Cave Sect like the judgment of heaven itself. Blades gleamed, techniques hummed with destructive force, and killing intent swept out in every direction. Elders who were supposed to be inside were nowhere to be seen, their presences already erased by Lin Mu and Elyon.

What remained were disciples, their weak cultivations unable to withstand even the faintest ripple of the incoming storm.

Gasps and cries of terror filled the plaza. Some disciples tried to run, their instincts screaming at them to flee, but the overwhelming force locked them in place. Others raised their arms in futile defense, calling out for their masters, unaware that the very people they relied upon were already corpses in Lin Mu’s ring.

Lin Mu stood at the center of the chaos, watching as the strike team descended.

His expression did not change, though his eyes gleamed with cold light. The time for concealment was over. The Hidden Cave Sect would pay for its crimes, and it would begin here, in the plaza, before the very eyes of its disciples.

The disciples who had first questioned him now realized the weight of his words. They stared in horror at Lin Mu, as though finally understanding that this man was no ordinary intruder but a harbinger of destruction.

One of them whispered hoarsely, "He... he meant it. He really meant it..."

Their voices were drowned out by the roar of combat as the strike team’s power tore through the sect.

.

.

.

The assault on the Hidden Cave Sect ended as suddenly as it had begun.

What had once been a plaza alive with chatter, training, and the bustle of disciples was now drowned in silence, broken only by the faint crackle of fire where techniques had scorched the stone and blood pooled like rivers in the cracks of the flagstones.

The air was heavy with the metallic tang of spilled life, and the faint cries of the last few disciples being bound and dragged away echoed through the night.

Lin Mu stood in the center of the devastation, his posture unchanged from the moment he had first declared his purpose.

He had not raised a hand, not once. He did not need to. The disciples had screamed, resisted, begged, and fought, but none of it had been directed at him. Instead, the strike team had swept through like a storm given flesh, cutting down thousands in coordinated precision.

Lin Mu had simply watched.

His eyes did not waver even as he witnessed faces twisted with terror, bodies reduced to ash, and the despair of disciples who realized their sect had already fallen long before their talismans reached anyone.

He had already played his part before this moment. The Patriarch, the elders, the hidden power of the sect, all had fallen to his hands or to Elyon’s shadows. Tonight was not his battlefield. It was theirs. He knew they needed it.

Everyone who had joined this mission wished to kill those who had threatened the peace of their world. He would not deprive them of that.

When the last scream faded and the oppressive quiet spread across the plaza, Lin Mu breathed in once, steady and calm. The air stank of burnt flesh and broken dreams, but he did not flinch. To him, this was an ending long overdue.

From the far side of the plaza, Grand Elder Huo approached.

STEP STEP STEP

His steps were slow but measured, his hands clasped behind his back as he walked over the blood-stained stones. His robes were wrinkled in places and faint marks of dust from the battle lined his arms, yet his aura remained firm and commanding.

He stopped a few paces away from Lin Mu and regarded him for a moment in silence before speaking.

"What are you thinking about?" the elder asked, his tone level, as though he were asking about something as mundane as the weather.

Lin Mu turned his head slightly, his eyes narrowing as he considered the words. "I find this all a bit irrational."

Grand Elder Huo raised his brow, his expression unreadable. "Irrational? You mean our attack on the Hidden Cave Sect?"

Lin Mu shook his head. "No. Not us. Them. The Hidden Cave Sect. I find their actions irrational." He paused, his gaze drifting over the corpses littering the plaza, then continued. "If they had chosen to live as they did here, as a ’normal’ sect, perhaps their fate would not have led them here.

From what I saw within, they were not entirely insane like the Drowned Crescent Cult. They kept order among themselves, lived what seemed like normal lives within these walls. They cultivated, trained, shared meals.

Yet outside, they were nightmares for others. They chose hypocrisy. They hid their sins beneath the surface while wearing the mask of civility."