The silence following Shadow's words hung thick in the air, like the calm before a storm that could level a continent.
"I know," Han Yuelin had said, the coldest smile dancing beneath her veil.
But now, that moment had passed.
Shadow took a single step back, subtle-but telling.
Han Yuelin tilted her head slightly. "Oh my," she murmured, her voice a blend of curiosity and warning. "You're afraid?"
Her hand, wrapped delicately around the porcelain teacup, remained perfectly still. Even the rising steam that curled from it seemed to hesitate.
"If I wanted you dead," she said softly, "you would've died before setting foot in this room."
Shadow inhaled deeply, his heart beating a little faster. But he didn't deny it. "It's not wrong to be afraid," he said evenly. "Fear keeps you alive. It's instinct."
He stepped forward again, regaining the ground he'd yielded.
"But do you know why I called you a monster?"
Yuelin said nothing. She took another slow sip of tea, her gaze unreadable.
"Not because of your strength. Not because of the killing aura you've long stopped hiding. But because there's no word in the world that fits you better."
She raised an eyebrow behind her veil.
Shadow continued, his voice low and thoughtful. "If someone is a genius in a village, they're revered. In a city, they stand out. In a kingdom, they're respected. But in an empire, they're average. And beyond that?"
He paused, meeting her gaze directly.
"They're considered trash. But you... you don't even belong on that scale. You're beyond genius, beyond talent. You're not a phenomenon. You're something unnatural."
A silence fell.
"You left the genius category long ago," Shadow said. "That's why I called you a monster."
Yuelin's cold smile remained. But her eyes had sharpened.
Shadow took a breath, steadying himself. "Unfortunately, you only have two months left to live."
The cup in her hand paused midair. Her smile faltered-not entirely, but enough to reveal the ice beneath.
"Poison," he said quietly. "Your cultivation didn't collapse because you failed the baptism. It happened because the ritual contradicted your physique."
Yuelin stood slowly. Her height eclipsed his by half a head, her presence suddenly suffocating. She didn't speak, but her gaze locked onto him with such intensity it felt like a blade poised at his throat.
Shadow's lips quirked faintly.
"You thought you had the Thunder Phoenix Physique. But what you have... is far more terrifying."
Still, she said nothing.
"I once read a book, deep within the old records of the wilderness continent. It spoke of a rare constitution-one feared by every sect, clan, and empire. The Three Heaven Devouring Physique."
Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
"He was a cultivator who could devour three physiques and merge them into one. Spirit. Immortal. Innate Energy. He was called a demon, a devil. He died trying to ascend to Martial Artist-his body exploded under tribulation."
Shadow walked slowly to the table, pouring himself a cup of cold tea.
"His final note said this: 'They believe I am the strongest... but I am just a defective prototype.'"
He looked up at her.
"Because the real physique was never three."
Han Yuelin's killing aura began to stir like a gathering storm.
Shadow's next words silenced the air.
"You're not the Three Heaven Devouring Physique. You're the Nine."
She froze.
Shadow stared into her cold, soul-burying eyes.
"You are the complete version. The true body. The Nine Heaven Devouring Physique."
Her fingers gripped the porcelain cup a little tighter.
Shadow continued, his voice quiet but unshakable. "That's why you collapsed during the baptism. Your body wasn't rejecting power. It was resisting limitation. The ritual couldn't contain your true nature."
Her killing aura surged.
But Shadow didn't flinch.
"When I held your hand," he said calmly, "I saw it. And I knew... If anyone in this world has the ability to destroy the heavens-"
He pointed at her chest with two fingers.
"-it's you."
And for the first time in her life, Han Yuelin didn't know whether she should kill him-
-or listen.
---
**End of Chapter 44**