Three days.
That was the time given.
The moment Ji Yunlan tossed the bone-wrapped pill into his room, Lin Xuan understood the message: You're marked. Either rise or be crushed.
Most outer disciples would be flattered to receive attention from an Inner Disciple. But Lin Xuan was not like most.
He did not crave acknowledgment.
He craved silence—the silence that came from unmaking his enemies.
Beneath the Sect
The fissure where Lin Xuan first discovered the Void Scripture had changed.
Now, it whispered.
The runes on the stone pedestal glowed faintly with each passing hour, as though reacting to Lin Xuan's progress.
Sitting cross-legged before the altar, he bled a drop of spiritual essence into the stone.
The void responded.
The second volume of the scripture unfolded in his mind—no words, only understanding. As if the knowledge had always been there, waiting to be remembered.
Void Scripture of the Eternal Abyss – Volume II
"What is form, but a memory of matter? What is matter, but a promise of loss?"
Lin Xuan unlocked:
New Technique: Black Spiral Thread
Manifest a spiraling thread of void essence that bores through spiritual defenses.
Eats qi formations, glyphs, even protective talismans.
Appears as a nearly invisible thread of distortion.
Usage: Woven through fingers or injected via palm strikes.
New Technique: Veil of Unbeing
Converts spiritual pressure into invisibility of presence.
Not true stealth—conceptual absence.
Spiritual sense, tracking, and soul perception fail to detect the user.
Leaves behind no karmic ripple.
Side Effect: Increasing use begins to affect user's sense of self.
Heaven's Warning
As Lin Xuan completed the first cycle of the Veil of Unbeing, the chamber dimmed.
Not just in light—but in truth.
The walls cracked.
A chill wind seeped in—not of the world.
He felt it.
A pressure from above.
From far above.
From Heaven.
A presence that did not recognize him… because he no longer belonged to the natural order.
"Anomaly detected.""Correction queued."
Lin Xuan opened his eyes, drenched in sweat.
"So… it begins."
The Heavenly Correction—a force that descends on cultivators who deviate too far from the world's established Dao. It could be tribulations. It could be distortion of fate. Or worse—celestial entities tasked with unmaking those who trespass into the anti-heavenly path.
The Next Morning – Outer Arena
Disciples were whispering.
"He's really going to do it."
"Challenge an Inner Disciple with no sect techniques? He's suicidal."
"No… didn't you see what he did to Wei Hu? That wasn't a sealing technique. That was void."
Across the arena, Ji Yunlan stood dressed in crimson and black, a faint flame-wind dancing around him. His eyes glowed with ancestral bloodline fire—his body saturated with Marrow Flame Essence, the third stage of the Ashen Root internal arts.
Lin Xuan arrived in silence.
No fanfare. No glare.
But when their eyes met, even the sky above seemed to flinch.
Zhao Wuren stepped forward.
"Trial sanctioned. Outcome irreversible. Begin."