Leander's finger flicked-clean, precise. It punched straight through Edis' forehead.The former Master of the Fable Court-now a Chief Arbitrator-went slack, eyes emptying in an instant.A dark hole opened at the center of his brow, running straight through to the back of his skull.Yet not a drop of blood flowed out.noveldramaHis expression didn't even twist. If anything, a faint smile tugged at his lips.Leander's eyes narrowed. The wound wasn't a wound at all.It was hollow-so hollow he could clearly see the mountain ridge behind Edis, like the blow had turned the space transparent."Jeff, I'll give it to you your fighting strength is outrageous. But killing me? You've still got a long way to go!"The void at his brow began knitting together.Edis barked out a laugh and sprang back. His body blurred, turning thin and hazy, as if he could scatter into the air itself."A wind-element metahuman?" Leander muttered, genuinely surprised.So Edis was an elemental too, and one of the slipperiest types in the natural line: wind.Unlike the fire wielders-the Flame Witch and Halia-a wind user could dissolve into formless currents, disappearing into the faintest breeze.Any wisp of air could hide his true body. He could drift with the wind, flow with the gusts, utterly impossible to pinpoint."Jeff, I'll come for you one day. I'll remember this humiliation. I swear it."His eerie, disembodied voice rolled across the sky as his presence faded farther and farther. The onlookers shivered, goosebumps rising.Leander stayed still, hovering midair like carved stone. Then his eyes snapped open, and a wicked grin tugged at his mouth."No one I decide to kill escapes. Not even a wind user."Flames bloomed across his hands, weaving and lacing together until they formed a brilliant, otherworldly fire whip.With a single sweep of his arm, the flaming whip cracked across the sky, stretching over a hundred feet.Winds howled. A vortex of fire spiraled open in the heavens."Argh!"A scream of pure despair tore through the void.Shredded currents of wind were sucked into the whirling blaze, dragged tighter and tighter-until they condensed back into Edis' physical form.Terror twisted his face. He looked like he was staring at a nightmare.Everyone knew the rule: to deal with elementals who could transform into pure essence, you needed either elemental mastery or rare Profound Force.But wind users?Even experts in Profound Force struggled to track them.To kill one, you usually needed city-level techniques—wide-area cleansers that could wipe out everything at once.Otherwise, the wind user would break into countless threads and vanish into the world's currents. His true body could split into thousands of pieces.Hurting him was already hard-killing him was nearly impossible.Edis knew Leander could kill fire-types, so he assumed Leander understood Profound Force.But what wrapped around him now was something beyond Profound Force.The massive firestorm howled with vicious suction, dragging every scrap of air within hundreds of feet into its core.Even if he scattered into a thousand streams of wind, the vortex would reel him back in. There was no escape.The blazing heat wrapped around him tighter and tighter. He could feel his limbs, his body, beginning to melt away."Jeff, spare me! From today on, I'll be your servant! I'll obey you completely! I'll never betray you-I swear!" Edis' scream cracked inside the inferno.Pride gone.All he wanted was one thing to live."Too bad. I don't take servants."Leander didn't blink. His palms pressed together, and the firestorm clenched like a flaming cage. It crushed inward.Edis was erased inside, body and soul. Not even a final scream remained.Leander curled his fingers. The flames dissolved and faded into the night wind.Silence settled over the mountains again, as if nothing had happened at all.Only the scorched craters and shattered cliffs proved that a slaughter had just taken place here.High above, Leander stoodalone-calm, steady, untouchable.He slowly closed his hand, lifted hischin toward the moon, and his expression softened as the Ninefold Nirvana Energy inside him surged wildly. sŵnovelsThe entire field trembled. Awe, fear, disbelief—every gaze rose toward that lone, towering figure in the sky.After all the carnage, his clothes were merely torn in a few places. Not a scratch on him.His hair whipped behind him, wild and free, and his face—sharp, perfect—looked almost divine in the moonlight.Halia-the cold, venomous woman who claimed nothing about a man could shake her heart-felt it pounding out of rhythm.She couldn't steady herself.She saw nothing but that fearless, unrivaled silhouette in the sky."After tonight... not even the Arbitration Office can bury Jeff's name," she whispered, trembling.The elite fighters from the International Combat Units list stood frozen. Leander was ranked No. 5, but plenty had mocked the ranking, saying he'd reached it by luck.After all, back then at Southern Shore, aside from the young Astrian elites, only thefour great houses of Highcliffe saw him fight.News came through them-no hard evidence for the rest of the world.Could he really kill the monsters on that list?Many doubted it.But here, on the Aorinth Peaks, he proved it beyond question.He first beat Halia bare-handed.Then he killed three top-ranked powerhouses one after another—including the Godof Madness, Khaedor, the man who held the No. 1 spot.And when the Arbitration Office sent its elites—fifteen Chief Arbitrators—he wiped them all out alone.That kind of dominance? Insanity. A level far beyond any typical Transcendent.No one doubted him anymore. Tonight, Leander wasn't just "No. 5." He became the symbol of the entire list.No fighter in the list's history had ever reached a peak like this.Then Asgard Galen-veteranpowerhouse ranked No. 6-stepped forward, clasped his fists, and declared in a ringing voice,"Congratulations, Sovereign-ontakingthe No. position in the1International Combat Units! Fromthis moment on, unless a KingPhase arises, you standunmatched!" As Asgard bowed, the others followed suit. Even Halia—wild, proud, and born of thenatural elements-lowered her head."Congratulations, Sovereign!"The shout rippled through the valley, rising and falling like thunder.The Aorinth Peaks, once roaring with storms and battling giants, rang with only one name-Leander Ashcroft.Starlight flickered through Leander's eyes.He didn't show much emotion.He simply reached out and pulled the hot spring below detonated, and a goldenbeam shot upward into his hand.The Bloodjadea. A treasure only the strongest could claim.Leander gazed at the radiant, glass-bright herb and finally smiled.Then, he looked over the crowd and spoke in a calm, cutting voice, "After tonight spread this across the internationalmartial world no oneruns wild on Astrian soil while I live Anyone who offends Astria... dies."From that moment on, Astria became forbidden territory for martial titans andTranscendent metahumans across the world.