There was no victory to return with to the Black Lotus Sect. Lin Feng led the group back through the sect gates with the fragment of the Celestial Conduit in his hand. The air among the disciples was heavy. Whispers followed every step he made, full of praise and suspicion.

"Did you hear? Lin Feng defeated Jiang Yue, humiliated her in front of everyone," one of the disciples murmured.

"Some say he used forbidden techniques, though," another countered. "The Seal of Calamity… it's changing him."

Lin Feng paid the murmurs no mind. His gaze was forward, cold and focused. Jiang Yue trailed behind him, her face pale and her eyes downcast. The journey back had not softened her humiliation. If anything, her resentment had hardened into something sharper, more dangerous.

As the group reached the main hall, Zhao Qing leaned closer to Lin Feng. “The sect feels… uneasy. Be careful. Shen won’t waste this opportunity.”

Lin Feng gave a faint nod. “Let him make his move. I’ll be ready.”

---

This was night, and the Elder Council sat once more; ripples of unease ran deep within that chamber. Lin Feng stood before them; on the table beside him, the Celestial Conduit fragment lay soft, glowing with a light barely perceptible.

"The mission went according to plan," Lin Feng began. His voice was metered. "The Hidden Nexus has been destroyed, its energy locked within this fragment, and the Eclipse Sovereign suffered a severe blow."

It was the mocking laugh of Elder Shen that finally broke the silence. "A success? At what cost? The fragment's power cannot be denied, neither can the strain on the sect's resources, nor on the disciples who returned half-dead from this venture."

Qiu cut through the tense atmosphere. "The alternative, of course, was to let Nexus fall into the hands of the Eclipse Sovereign, and that is a prospect you would have preferred over this, Shen?"

Shen's eyes flashed sideward, and his tone took on a sharp angle. "And what of the rumors? Disciples whisper of Lin Feng's reliance on the Seal of Calamity of its influence growing stronger with every battle. Are we to ignore the danger it poses to the sect's stability?"

Lin Feng stepped forth. Quiet-faced but with authority in invisible currents: "The Seal is just a tool; nothing more. It will be to the service of the Sect. The true danger, however, lies in the weak that are never able to harness it-but too afraid to see that."

The murmur in the council gained weight, but finally, Elder Qiu raised his hand. "The matter of the Seal is one we will get to eventually. As for now, the key objective should be defense-the improvement of the sect-in time before Eclipse Sovereign comes to another move."

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Shen remained silent, though with knitted brows as ever to continue the disagreement later on.

---

At nighttime, Lin Feng sat alone in his chambers; the fragment of the Celestial Conduit lay in his hand. The golden glow reflected throughout the room, pulsing softly with the whispered words of the Seal of Calamity beside him.

"You see their doubt, Lin Feng," the Seal hissed. "Their fear. They will never trust you, no matter what you achieve. Crush them now, before their schemes bear fruit."

Lin Feng closed his eyes and focused his will on the fragment's energy. It stormed through him, honing his technique, his senses. Yet he knew that the Seal was surging in power, its whispered seductions now a loud buzzing in his mind.

"This power is a key, nothing more," he whispered aloud, his tone perfectly level.

The Seal laughed, the undertone dark. "And which pole will you choose, Lin Feng? Even the heavens are quivering under your ascend. You would also go to stop right in front of their couch?"

Lin Feng's lips curved a little and cold. "The heaven can wait; first I will deal with this traitors." 　

---

The days that followed Lin Feng's return saw the sect plunged into silent chaos. Tensions among the disciples reached a boiling point as factions began to form around Lin Feng and Jiang Yue, with Elder Shen working tirelessly to undermine Lin Feng's growing influence.

In the quiet room, Jiang Yue faced Shen, her face a picture of frustration and unyielding resolve. "Lin Feng humiliated me in front of everybody," she said in low, venomous tones. "Now the disciples think he is invincible. We have to do something right away."

Shen smiled wryly, his tone smooth as silk. "Patience, Jiang Yue. Lin Feng's arrogance will finally bring about his destruction. We only need to expose him for what he truly is: an opportunist consumed with ambition."

"If he doesn't make a mistake?" Jiang Yue asked.

Shen's eyes shone with light. "Then we make sure he does."

---

Meanwhile, Lin Feng had some disturbing news of his own: something was not quite right within their ranks. A loyal disciple named Xu Jin came to him with evidence that one of them was secretly feeding information to the Eclipse Sovereign.

"Whoever it is has been careful," Xu Jin said. "But their movements don't align with our operations. They're gathering intelligence on the fragment—and you."

Lin Feng's face blackened. "Do not provoke them. Let them think their plan is working. I will decide when and how to deal with them."

Privately, Lin Feng spun a plot. The spy's betrayal was a weakness-but also a chance. If the Sovereign wanted information, Lin Feng would feed them falsehoods, leading them deep into a trap of his making.

The storm came sooner than expected. That night, when Lin Feng went back to his quarters, assassins attacked him in the dark. He was attacked very fast and precisely against his vital points, full of killing intent.

But Lin Feng was quicker. His Celestial Shadow Veil burst into action, phantoms exploding from the shadows to intercept the assassins. The fight was short but brutal; he stood over their mangled bodies afterward, his eyes ice cold.

He examined their weaponry-the subtle marks that branded them as part of Elder Shen's faction. His lips curled into a gentle smile. "Desperation becomes you, Shen."

---

He got down to building the groundwork of his counterattack on the morrow morning: laying it down so events sprang subtly to implicate evidence pointing toward Shen and Jiang Yue behind the attempt on his life and to have their budding axis suspect to all the elders.

Meanwhile, Lin Feng was consolidating his power among the disciples by setting an image for himself as the only one capable of resisting the Eclipse Sovereign, while Zhao Qing and Yan Wei silently worked their magic in the ranks, cementing loyalty where it truly mattered.

He stood in his chambers that night, the fragment of the Celestial Conduit glowing softly in his hand. The Seal of Calamity fluttered in accompaniment beside him, its whispers dark, insistent.

"You hold the power to reshape this sect, Lin Feng. Why wait for them to strike again? Crush them now, before they can act."

Lin Feng’s gaze hardened, his voice quiet but resolute. “They’ll strike, yes. But only when I’ve set the board in my favor. Let them play their game—I’ll already be holding the final piece.”

The fragment’s light flared as Lin Feng turned to the window, the sect below cast in shadow as his mind churned with plans for the battles to come.