The skies over Heaven-Splitting Peak simmered with a strange stillness.
Jiang Yunfan sat on his usual cliff, posture straight, the broken zither resting beside him and his chipped sword across his lap.But he wasn't playing.He wasn't laughing.
He was listening.
Far to the west, beyond the Wailing Spirit Forest, something ancient stirred.
A low, deep bell tolled once.
Then, silence.
Then the world whispered:
"九天封剑台 The Nine Heavens Sword-Sealing Platform has reawakened…"
The Nine Heavens Sword-Sealing Platform.
A mythical ruin sealed between realms.A place where swords that defied heaven were once judged, some sealed, some exalted, and others... erased.
At dusk, all outer sect disciples were summoned.
Hundreds gathered before the grand altar. Body cultivators. Alchemists. Qi formation masters. A few sword users. All outer sect, all young, most unsure.
Elder Thunderpeak stood tall.
"The Nine Heavens Sword-Sealing Platform has returned. The void has opened, and our sect has been called. All outer disciples will enter."
Murmurs of confusion spread.
"But that's a sword cultivator trial…"
"I'm not a swordsman what if I can't even walk in?"
"There must be some mistake."
Elder Thunderpeak raised a hand and silenced them all.
"The platform does not call only swordsmen. It calls fates. Survive… or do not. There will be no second chance."
As tension spread, the sky darkened unnaturally.Thunder rolled once, and the earth cracked beneath Yunfan's feet.
He hadn't moved.
No Qi flared.
But something pressed down from his presence alone.
Subtle. Heavy. Unnatural.
A disciple next to him stumbled back, gasping.
Another clutched their forehead, whispering, "What... was that?"
Mu Qingxue, standing silently beside the Pavilion envoys, narrowed her gaze. Her eyes flicked once toward Yunfan.
But he looked bored. As usual.
A fool. Right?
She frowned. "Liar."
High above, the Sect Patriarch watched from his cloud platform.
He leaned forward, gaze locked on Yunfan.
"…Interesting," he murmured. "A pressure without release. And yet, no Qi moved."
"Not release," Thunderpeak said beside him. "Restraint."
Yunfan said nothing.
He didn't brag.He didn't demonstrate.He didn't even meet their eyes.
But he knew.
Something had changed.
The sword had answered him. And it would not be silenced again.
That night, while the other disciples scrambled to prepare, Yunfan sat once more at the cliff.
No music.No grin.No meditation beads.
Just his sword. His zither. And the storm above that knew his name.
Far within the void, the entrance to the Nine Heavens Sword-Sealing Platform cracked open like the edge of a sealed scroll.
Floating black steps spiraled into the rift above the Wailing Spirit Forest. A gate carved with ancient blade marks shimmered in gold.
No one else could hear it.But Yunfan did.
"Come test yourself, Fool of Thunder. Let your sword speak."
And he smiled just a little.