Cultivation starts with picking up attributes
Chapter 112: Ch-112: Black Lotus Heart Fragment

Chapter 112: Ch-112: Black Lotus Heart Fragment

The Mirror Pavilion cracked open like a rotten fruit.

From its heart, black vines surged across the courtyard—twisting, lashing, and sprouting thorns pulsing with demonic Qi.

Buildings trembled, and the sky dimmed as if the sun itself recoiled from the corruption rising below.

"Go!"

The Sect Master’s voice cut through the chaos.

Disciples charged forward in tight formation, talismans flaring in arcs of light.

Explosions bloomed across the southern ridge as suppression glyphs activated—sealing off the escape tunnels and locking down the leyline nodes.

The clash of steel, the flare of spells, and the cries of beasts rose together in a chaotic chorus.

Tian Shen drew his sword in one smooth motion. The air around him cracked with pressure as his Qi surged.

*Shriek*

A corrupted beast—once a qilin, now deformed and seething with shadow—burst from the ground in front of him, its antlers laced with curse runes.

Its eyes dripped with red mist, and its aura warped the air around it.

Tian Shen didn’t hesitate. With a flash of light, he appeared above the beast, sword descending like a comet.

The impact split the earth. A shockwave rolled across the battlefield.

『Host killed 4-Star corrupted beast and gained Physique Points ×950.』

『Host gains Spiritual Qi Points ×1000.』

『Host gains Soul Points ×750.』

He landed with one knee on the ground, with the dropped attribute bubbles slipping towards him on their own.

His eyes narrowed as three more corrupted cultivators rushed from the vine-wrapped Pavilion.

Their robes were those of Feilun disciples—but their eyes were hollow, gleaming with bloodlust.

"Traitors!"

He growled.

A talisman flared in Feng Yin’s hand behind him.

"Don’t hold back, Tian Shen!"

"I wasn’t planning to."

He spun his blade in a wide arc. Lightning cracked across the battlefield.

『Host killed 4th grade Core Formation Cultivator and gained Physique Points ×1000 and a Low-grade Spiritual Qi Core.』

『Host gains Spiritual Qi Points ×1000.』

『Host gains "Titan Gauntlet" — 5-Star equipment.』

A burst of golden light surged from his arm as a heavy gauntlet manifested around his forearm, etched with ancient runes. It crackled with stored impact force.

Tian Shen flexed his fingers, eyes glinting.

"Now we’re talking."

...

On the west flank, Little Mei had taken her fox form—an argent streak darting through the smoke.

She tore into corrupted beast handlers, claws leaving nothing but shredded robes and broken bones. Every slash of her tails sent enemies reeling, their auras dissipating into smoke.

Lian Hua’s phoenix flames burned through the eastern vines.

Her pendant unleashed a wave of spiritual fire that purified everything it touched, searing through runes and exposing the hidden burrows beneath.

"Strike deeper!"

She cried.

"They’re shielding the core!"

Explosions rocked the nearby slope as enchanted barriers shattered.

Feilun’s disciples fought with grit and desperation, striking against mutated beasts and aberrant puppets summoned from twisted Techniques.

...

In the center, Elder Su hovered high above, her right arm glowing with dense layers of formation rings.

She chanted, and pillars of light erupted from the four corners of the southern grounds—each one a lock on the leyline artery.

"We sever their flow now!"

Below, Feng Yin cut through a corrupted disciple with a single gesture. Her talismans burned with white flame—pure and unrelenting.

She moved with precision, each step calculated to preserve formation integrity around Tian Shen.

"We’re close."

She said through clenched teeth.

Then, the ground split open.

A gnarled hand emerged—flesh twisted into bark, eyes embedded along its length blinking with corrupted Qi.

Elder Huai, Huai Zhu rose from the darkness.

"No more kid games."

He rasped, his voice layered with dozens of echoes.

"You want the heart, right? Then feel its hatred."

The black lotus behind him unfurled fully.

Energy surged in from every corrupted disciple that fell, feeding the root system.

"Every one you kill... feeds me."

Tian Shen looked up, blood spattered across his cheek. But the Titan Gauntlet pulsed in his hand.

"Then I’ll carve through your roots until nothing’s left to drink."

He dashed forward—light bursting from beneath his feet.

Huai Zhu raised a clawed hand.

A volley of cursed Qi bolts shot toward him.

Feng Yin raised a barrier just in time.

"Go!"

Tian Shen broke through with a roar, slamming his gauntlet into Huai Zhu’s chest.

*Crack*

The black lotus shuddered.

Huai Zhu shrieked, flinging him back—but Tian Shen landed on his feet, panting.

"Did you think I came unprepared?"

Around him, Feilun disciples surged forward with renewed morale. The Sect banners unfurled in spiritual wind. The battle had turned.

...

From high above, Elder Su swept her arm forward.

"Seal the second node!"

She cried.

A chorus of Cultivators chanted, and the ground erupted in a flood of white light.

One of the leyline threads snapped visibly, severed from its corrupted conduit.

Below, vines recoiled, writhing in agony. The black lotus at the Pavilion’s center dimmed slightly.

Huai Zhu snarled, blood pouring from his chest wound.

"You think severing roots matters? The seed has already sprouted!"

He raised his arms, and from the Pavilion’s corpse-like remains, more disciples emerged—but these were warped, their bodies altered, limbs too long and eyes glowing red. They were but pure Aberrations.

Feng Yin drew her sword, its edge shimmering with spirit fire.

"Then We will cut the seed out."

She and Tian Shen moved in tandem, weaving through the aberrant cultivators with silent precision. For every enemy cut down, Tian Shen’s system responded.

『Host killed a 3rd stage Core Formation Corrupted Cultivator and gained Luck Points ×500.』

『Host killed 3-star aberrant beast and gained Soul Points ×200.』

The battlefield turned into a glow of notifications and blood-soaked wind.

Elder Su, her hair whipping in the rising storm, lifted her hand.

"Let the world be Damned, ECLIPSE!!!"

Light surged upward. The third leyline fractured like ice under a hammer.

Elder Huai screamed, his form cracking as lotus petals burned away.

Tian Shen leapt through the smoke—the Titan Gauntlet primed.

The black lotus pulsed erratically.

Huai Zhu dropped to one knee.

"You... Fuc...!"

But the Sect would not be silenced.

From the Sky, Elder Su unleashed a final phoenix-shaped burst.

"Burn to nothing."

The lotus exploded in white fire.

...

When the flames cleared, only ash remained.

Elder Huai was gone.

And the Mirror Pavilion had crumbled.

Tian Shen stood amid the smoke, heart racing.

Feng Yin stepped beside him, her eyes fierce.

"It’s over."

He nodded.

"This root’s been cut."

And for the first time in many years, the Feilun Sect began to breathe again.

...

Ash still drifted through the morning haze, like snow falling over a battlefield of broken stone and scorched soil.

The Mirror Pavilion was no more—reduced to a crater laced with blackened roots and scattered bones.

The twisted qi had receded, leaving behind a void where corruption had once pulsed.

But silence didn’t mean safety.

Tian Shen sat on a fragment of stone, gauntlet resting beside him. His breath came slow now. Not from exhaustion—but from the weight of what had been won... and what it might’ve cost.

『Host gains Spiritual Qi Points ×950.』

『Host gains Charm points ×500.』

『Host Gains a Black Lotus Heart Fragment.』

The attributes chimed ip to him as he blinked at the last one.

"Black Lotus Heart Fragment...?"

The small shard floated in his palm—a speck of ink-colored crystal radiating dormant, cold energy.

When he closed his fingers around it, a vision flashed across his mind: a sprawling network beneath the Pavilion, deeper than anyone had reached.

Still pulsing.

Still alive.

"Tian Shen."

Feng Yin knelt beside him, her hands warm against his shoulder. Her eyes were steady, though her robe was torn and stained from battle.

"It’s not fully over, is it?"

He gave a small shake of his head.

"This was only the root... but not the seed."

She sighed, then helped him up. Around them, medics tended to wounded disciples, while talismanists scanned the ruins for lingering curses.

Elder Su stood atop the wreckage, conversing with the Sect Master, both grim-faced.

"Tian Shen."

Lian Hua approached, her flame pendant flickering dimly now.

"The altar beneath the Pavilion was destroyed, but when we mapped the residual formation lines—"

"They kept branching."

Little Mei finished for her, leaping down from a fallen tree.

"There’s a secondary node deeper underground. Some kind of incubation site."

Feng Yin’s expression darkened.

"You mean they planned for this loss."

"They invited it," Tian Shen muttered. His gaze drifted across the battlefield. "All that energy Huai Zhu absorbed... most of it was channeled away just before he died."

"Then it’s a decoy," Elder Su said, having descended quietly behind them. "The real altar may lie beneath the sect itself. This was merely a diversion to weaken our defenses."

The Sect Master joined them at that moment. His aura remained calm—but the phoenix crest on his robe glowed with rare intensity.

"We will mourn the fallen," he said, voice steady. "But we do not stop here."

He looked at Tian Shen directly.

"You’ve glimpsed the corruption’s path more clearly than most. From this point forward, you’ll lead a special detachment—Root Division."

Tian Shen stiffened, surprised.

"I... understand."

"Good," the Sect Master said. "We strike again. But next time, not just to survive—but to eradicate."

Behind them, the black lotus fragment pulsed once—quietly.

As if laughing.

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