The Eternal Sin

The sky above the inner peaks stretched in muted shades of indigo and ash, vast and still. Beneath that quiet expanse, a streak of blazing light tore through the heavens with the speed and force of a shooting star.

A chariot of flame moved across the clouds. It was formed from the gathered force of surging solar fire, its shape held together by firm control of blazing qi. The roaring flames around its frame danced wildly, giving off a fierce, oppressive heat. Its wheels turned without touching anything, leaving ripples in the air as though space itself had softened under its passage.

Curtains of golden flame swayed at its sides, revealing the interior where Sun Jian sat upon vermilion cushions, maintaining a posture of regal indifference, his golden eyes fixed on the horizon.

At the vanguard of this flying chariot, two horses of pure fire galloped upon the void. Jiang Chen sat atop the beast to the left, his features carved into a mask of deep contemplation, though a faint crease lingered between his brows.

To his right, He Lan rode with a spine as stiff as a frozen blade, her cold gaze never straying from the path ahead. Behind Jiang Chen, the disfigured Meng Kai clung desperately to his robes, his existence utterly insignificant.

The wind whipped past them at a speed that devoured tens of miles in a heartbeat, yet the air within the chariot’s influence remained eerily still.

’Strange... too sudden.’ Jiang Chen allowed his mind to wander back to the events that had transpired within Sun Jian’s residence.

Just as Sun Jian had given an order for He Lan to escort Jiang Chen to the Jade Heart Plantation, a paper crane had torn through the fabric of space and landed in Sun Jian’s palm.

Jiang Chen had not seen its contents, yet he had seen the changes it had brought.

Sun Jian’s expression which had been relaxed, showed a look of shock, followed by a long silence of contemplation. Jiang Chen, at the time, was still standing in the hall, unable to depart without formal dismissal. When Sun Jian finally looked up, he offered a proposition.

"Junior Brother Jiang, fate is a fickle little thing, isn’t it? And it seems it has provided you with an opportunity to earn a great reward. What do you say? Do you dare prove your worth?" Sun Jian had said, his voice extremely friendly.

Jiang Chen understood immediately that he could not refuse this so called reward. He could only bow his head in reluctant agreement.

The chariot suddenly decelerated. Below them, the lush greenery of the sect mountain vanished, replaced by a barren expanse of cracked earth and scattered stone. The land stretched wide and empty, devoid of life, as though it had been abandoned by both heaven and earth.

The flaming steeds slowed, then detached themselves with a violent whinny before descending toward the wasteland. They touched down upon the barren earth, standing hundreds of meters apart.

Jiang Chen and He Lan dismounted in silence, their boots kicking up clouds of grey dust. The flaming horses returned to the chariot, reattaching themselves to the harness, while Meng Kai remained perched behind the driver’s seat, his eyes wide with unease.

Sun Jian pulled aside the golden curtains of the carriage, appearing like a monarch seated upon a throne of flame. He flicked his fingers toward the ground, and a single finger sized incense stick embedded itself in the dry earth, its tip igniting with a faint orange glow.

"Junior Brother Jiang, if you manage to remain standing until this stick of incense burns to ash, I shall grant you ’that’ reward. With your intellect, you surely grasp how such a gift could alter your standing within the sect hierarchy, so I suggest you do not hold back," Sun Jian called out, his carefree voice echoing across the wasteland.

He then turned his golden gaze toward the female cultivator. "As for you, He Lan, show him no mercy. Show me how far you have cultivated your Dual Polarity Origin Art."

With a casual wave of his hand, a massive hemispherical barrier of golden light manifested, encasing the two combatants in a dome hundreds of meters wide. Jiang Chen stood within the shimmering cage, his eyes tracking the thin trail of smoke rising from the incense.

’He thinks a fifteenth layer expert is an insurmountable wall for me, does he not?’ Jiang Chen scoffed inwardly, his spiritual essence beginning to churn within his meridians like a gathering storm.

He was ready to erupt in an instant, but the icy voice of He Lan cut through the rising tension.

"Junior Brother, you are but a tenth layer cultivator, while I have stood at the fifteenth layer for two years now. If I were to attack you directly, it would bring me no honor. I shall grant you three strikes as an advantage. Do not say I bullied you when you are crawling in the dirt later," He Lan declared, her beautiful face as cold as a mountain peak.

Jiang Chen blinked, as a strange silence followed.

From He Lan’s perspective, this was a matter of pride. She felt humiliated that Sun Jian would pit her against a mere tenth layer disciple, as if she were a common sparring partner meant to test a new toy. To her, the incense stick time limit was a slap in the face, implying she could not resolve such a fight in a few breaths.

Nonetheless, beneath her anger lay genuine astonishment toward her opponent. She had witnessed Jiang Chen’s analysis of the Meng family and the Enforcement Hall’s situation earlier and knew that his mind was a weapon that even Sun Jian respected.

’By granting three strikes, no one can say I relied solely on cultivation to win. At the same time, I can show Senior Brother that I possess both strength and bearing. This Jiang Chen will also have no grounds to resent me,’ she thought.

Jiang Chen looked at her with an expression that bordered on pity. ’Is this woman truly retarded? Or has that cold demeanor of hers frozen her brain too?’

Though he had such thoughts, Jiang Chen was not one to refuse such an obvious advantage.

He glanced briefly at the incense.

’Roughly five minutes, I suppose.’ Jiang Chen exhaled before his expression shifted into one of grave seriousness. He began circulating his qi slowly, his aura swelling until the ground beneath his feet cracked faintly.

He Lan sensed the shift and narrowed her eyes, her own aura rising as fire and frost intertwined around her form.

The tension in the air thickened.

Then, just as it reached its peak—

"Senior Sister, are you prepared?" Jiang Chen called out, his voice filled with solemnity.

He Lan’s expression remained cold. "Junior Brother, concern yourself with your own survival."

"Are you certain..?" Jiang Chen pressed, his brows knit in apparent worry.

"I am." He Lan’s eyes flickered.

"My strike is not something ordinary people can endure. If... if you are injured, how will I explain it to Senior Brother Sun?" Jiang Chen tilted his head slightly, still sounding doubtful.

"I am certain! I am a fifteenth layer cultivator! Stop yapping and attack!" He Lan snapped, her patience thinning.

"Then... you promise you will not dodge?" Jiang Chen asked again, almost hesitantly.

He Lan’s lips twitched, her face darkening. "I. Will. Not. Move. Even if the sky collapses, I will stand here and take your three hits! Just attack already!"

Jiang Chen stared at her deeply and nodded.

It seemed like he was finally about to attack.

Seconds passed. The wind stirred faintly across the barren land. The incense burned steadily, and Jiang Chen remained as still as a statue, his eyes closed in "deep concentration."

"Senior Sister He Lan, get ready! I am truly, definitely, absolutely about to attack now! Here it comes!" Jiang Chen roared.

’This guy..!’ He Lan pressed her lips together, forcibly swallowing the unpleasant words at the tip of her tongue. She simply focused on reinforcing her defenses, her spiritual energy condensing before her like a crystalline shield.

She waited.

And waited.

Still, nothing came.

"Jiang Chen! Why the hell are you not attacking?!" He Lan yelled at last, her voice filled with pure irritation and annoyance.

Jiang Chen slowly opened one eye, looking at her with innocent sincerity. "Senior Sister, I find myself unable to act. You are simply too beautiful. My heart is in complete disarray. Furthermore, I once promised my mother never to strike a woman. How can I go against my filial piety?"

A vein began to pulse violently on He Lan’s forehead, her face twisting in uncontrollable rage. "Spare me your nonsense! What beauty?! What mother?! Fight, or I will attack you myself and beat you into a pulp!"

Jiang Chen nodded obediently, looking troubled. "Sigh... very well. This time, I truly will attack. Prepare yourself!"

He suddenly shouted toward the sky and pounded his chest, as if steeling himself for what he was about to do. He took a step forward, performed a dramatic high flying flip in the air, and charged forward with a look of manic resolve.

’Finally!’ He Lan’s eyes flickered with a cold, murderous light as she braced for the impact.

Then her entire body stiffened.

Because Jiang Chen was sprinting with all his might in the opposite direction.

A dead silence lingered in the barrier.

He Lan’s fingers curled slowly, her nails biting into her palm. A strand of frost qi slipped from her control, dispersing unevenly into the air.

Jiang Chen halted near the barrier, shading his eyes as he scanned the empty ground. "Where did Senior Sister go..? Too fast! I cannot even see her shadow! Is she a ghost?!"

His voice rang loudly across the battlefield.

"You... you shameless, dog brained motherfucker!" He Lan nearly coughed up blood from anger. How can a person be this insufferable?

"Senior Sister? Where are you? Please do not sneak up on me!" Jiang Chen continued to shout, his back still turned to her as he poked the golden barrier with a finger.

"I AM RIGHT HERE! TURN AROUND!" He Lan screamed, her voice cracking with the strain of her rage.

"Oh! There you are!" Jiang Chen turned around, looking genuinely surprised. "When did you get there? Your movement technique is truly profound. I am in awe. Truly, I am a frog at the bottom of a well."

"I NEVER MOVED!" He Lan roared, her chest heaving as her qi began to spiral out of control. She was a fifteenth layer genius, a beauty pursued by many geniuses, but now she was being played like a cheap zither by an outer sect ant. This was intolerable.

Before she could explode any further, Sun Jian’s amused voice echoed through the barrier. "Junior Brother Jiang, that is enough. Fight properly."

"Tch. Understood," Jiang Chen shrugged indifferently, his playful eyes suddenly turning as cold as the void. He glanced at the incense. It was already half burned. The test was already halfway won without him breaking a single drop of sweat.

He Lan’s gaze darkened. The final thread of composure snapped without sound. She did not care about the "three strikes" anymore. She did not care about honor. She only wanted to erase this person from existence.

"Enough! I will tear that lying, filthy mouth from your face and feed it to the crows!" she screamed hoarsely, her voice thick with venom.

She shot forward like a bolt of dual colored lightning, her left hand erupting with a blinding solar heat that incinerated the air, while her right unleashed a freezing mist so absolute it turned the dust into jagged shards of ice. The ground beneath her shattered into glass and ash as she moved.

"Good. Bring it on." Jiang Chen laughed uncaringly. Golden light surged from his arms, his muscles swelling as the phantom heads of savage tigers materialized around his fists.

The distance between them vanished in a heartbeat. Fire and frost collided with golden brilliance.

The battlefield erupted.