When I came out the other end, I noticed the difference immediately.

  Being inside the Proving Sanctum felt totally different than watching Wu Kangming and Luo Yichen’s battle on the formation screens. Through the viewing array, the Crystal Realm had looked beautiful but distant, like watching a play performed on a stage.

  Standing inside it, I could feel every surface alive.

  The walls weren’t just reflecting the light anymore. They were reflecting everything about me. My spiritual energy, my intentions, even my thoughts seemed to shimmer back at me from multiple angles. The geometric patterns etched into the crystal surfaces weren’t just decorations. They were moving, shifting, reacting to something I couldn’t quite determine.

  But more than anything else, I was glad to be fighting in my own body again.

  All of the previous battles in inner worlds had required me to have a vessel, to cultivate through other peoples’ bodies and cultivation systems. The Realm of Living Lyrics with Mo Yuhang, the Realm of the Chosen with Du Yanze, the Mortal Martial World with Jinghui. Each time, I’d had to adjust to different physical forms, learn new energy systems, operate within the limitations of somebody else’s cultivation base.

  Fighting in my own body allowed me to utilize my full range of techniques without worrying about compatibility problems. I did not have to convert my qi into harmonic essence or find ways to integrate runes with martial energy. Just me, my cultivation base, and all of the abilities I’d spent months developing and refining.

  That’s when it happened.

  My vision began to blur as an unseen force grasped my soul and started yanking it directly out of my body with the force of a hurricane ripping a tree from the ground.

  For a moment, I thought I was going to be ripped from Ke Yin’s body, exposing my true self as an imposter in front of thousands of spectators and the sect’s most powerful elders. I could feel my soul stretching, thinning and becoming translucent as the forces governing this realm attempted to separate me from my vessel.

  Then the Genesis Seed’s roots, those vast network of spiritual connections that had developed throughout my inner world, wrapped around my soul, protecting me with the full power of the World Tree Sutra.

  The sensation of being pulled stopped instantly, leaving me gasping but unharmed.

  Outwardly, nothing had changed. I remained in the exact location, still breathing normally, still seeming to be simply Ke Yin preparing for his semifinal match. Nobody watching would ever know what had just happened. But internally, I was shaken to my core.

  “Master,” Azure said softly in my mind. “That was the realm testing you. This realm functions according to the principles of the Dao of Truth. It sought to expose what it perceived to be deception, to force the genuine version of you to separate from the fake identity you’ve been wearing.”

  I suppressed a frown as my mind whirred through implications of what that could mean for me.

  Was the Proving Sanctum specifically selected to expose me?

  Did Sect Master Yuan or someone else in the sect think I’m not actually Ke Yin?

  The possibility made my stomach knot with fear. That was my greatest secret.

  But no, that didn’t make sense. I hadn’t shown any clear signs of being an impersonator.

  Ke Yin was recently recruited when I took over his body, and I knew his memories, his relationships, his history. If the sect leadership suspected me of being a body snatcher or a possession victim, they would drag me to a private room and torture me with methods I probably couldn’t survive.

  It was much more likely that this was what Elder Wan meant when he mentioned that the Proving Sanctum was created for testing disciples at the highest level of training. They wanted to know what type of person their most promising students were. The Dao of Truth would reveal hidden weaknesses of character, expose secret ambitions, force individuals to face who they were at their core beneath all their masks and social roles.

  Luckily, the Genesis Seed had managed to protect the largest lie of my existence. Whatever protection the World Tree Sutra provided went deep enough to fool even a realm based on absolute truth.

  And I had to admit; the situation wasn’t entirely bad.

  Maybe the Dao of Truth could allow me to finally understand what was happening with my friend?

  The red tint of demonic energy in Wei Lin’s eyes was even more intense now, and I could detect something in his posture that seemed different. More aggressive, more predator-like than the calculating yet amicable merchant I had grown used to.

  We locked eyes across the polished crystal floor, and Wei Lin spoke.

  “You know, Ke Yin,” he said, his tone casual yet containing an undertone I didn’t recognize, “from the moment you joined the sect, I knew that there was something special about you.”

  I didn’t respond; I simply watched his face carefully.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “It was a smart business decision to befriend you,” Wei Lin continued, with a faint smile spreading across his lips. “I could tell you had potential, which made you a valuable connection. Simple cost-benefit analysis.”

  I nodded slightly. That was clear to me already due to the fact that Wei Lin was so obviously focused on business profit. He had never concealed his merchant family history or the fact that he viewed interpersonal relationships in terms of how they could provide him with benefits. It was somewhat refreshing to see how he had changed over time and even gone out of his way to help my own cultivation.

  “But then I discovered that you weren’t like everybody else. Regardless of whether it was the arrogant clan disciples who saw themselves above all others or the village children who were so eager to demonstrate their worth that they would trample on anyone’s back, you were just… simple. Sincere.”

  A flash of both confusion and resistance crossed his face, as if he was resisting from expressing something. It vanished rapidly, but I caught it. The Dao of Truth was clearly at work here, forcing him to express thoughts he normally would have kept to himself.

  “You helped people without expecting anything in return,” he said, with a hint of tension creeping into his voice. “Although you were secretive regarding your own cultivation techniques. You genuinely cared when Lin Mei struggled with her cultivation, when Liu Chen was concerned about Rocky, and when I was irritated with my marketplace progress. You weren’t looking for a reward. You just wanted to see your friends succeed. And I will never forget how you saved my father’s life and my own.”

  I felt a sense of warmth in my chest at his words, regardless of the fact that they were being expressed due to the realm’s influence. It was good to know that my efforts to be a good person had been noticed and appreciated.

  Wei Lin laughed, but there was a sharpness to the laughter. “When I broke through to Qi Condensation ninth stage and was ahead of you for the first time, I was so proud. I had finally accomplished something before you. I was in the lead, rather than trailing behind.” His gaze met mine, and I could see both anguish and the red coloration of demonic energy within them. “You meditated for what, a couple of hours? And then you came back out as a ninth stage cultivator like nothing had happened.”

  The walls surrounding us pulsed with increased brightness, as if the walls were responding to the depth of emotion in his words.

  “And when I broke through to the tenth stage,” Wei Lin continued, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, “a realm that is supposedly legendary, that most cultivators can hardly envision achieving, you achieved Pseudo-Elemental Realm. It appears no matter what I accomplish, no matter how hard I work or how clever my techniques are, you will always remain one step ahead.”

  “Wei Lin,” I said, attempting to maintain a soft and soothing tone, “we are best friends. It doesn’t matter what realm we have reached, or how large of a gap exists between our cultivation levels, that is never going to change. You are one of the most important people in my life.”

  Wei Lin smiled, but it was a faint, sorrowful expression that failed to touch his eyes. He shook his head slowly. “I understand how the world of cultivation works, Ke Yin. People who are unable to keep pace get left behind. They are overlooked. Old childhood friends fade into distant memories once one person ascends to the heavens and the other remains crawling through the dirt.”

  I understand what he was saying, it was a real concern that I had read many times.

  “That will never happen with us,” I protested, but Wei Lin interrupted me with a sudden explosion of qi that caused waves throughout the chamber. The floor around his feet cracked, and the geometric patterns on the walls glowed.

  “Today,” he said, his voice filled with a sense of unwavering resolve, “I am going to prove that I am your equal. I will show that I deserve to stand alongside you, not behind you.”

  Without hesitation, his fist erupted into flames.

  The flames were not typical cultivation energy, but a darker, blood-red essence of demonic qi from his marketplace. He fired a blazing fist with immense force, a concentrated blast of flames hurtling towards me at an incredibly rapid rate.

  I reacted solely on instinct, throwing the seeds from my storage ring into the air.

  They spread in a wide arc across the battlefield, each seed imbued with just sufficient qi to serve as an anchor point for my Verduring Step technique.

  The blazing fist was mere inches from my face when I suddenly vanished, green light flowing through the space between dimensions as I teleported to one of the seeds behind Wei Lin.

  I reappeared already positioned for a Phantom Strike, my palm directed at the middle of his back, where the force transfer would be the strongest.

  However, Wei Lin had anticipated this.

  When my strike contacted, his body became partially intangible,

  My Phantom Strike passed harmlessly through him and I lost my footing.

  Wei Lin immediately spun about, his hand extended to capture my wrist, but I had already activated Verduring Step again.

  Green light swirled around me as I teleported to another seed far across the chamber.

  I activated the Hawk’s Eye rune to gain a better understanding of the current situation.

  With enhanced perception, I could see the flow of Wei Lin’s spiritual energy, the state of readiness of his various techniques, and maybe even predict his moves before he could make them.

  The only way I could defeat Wei Lin was by facing him in hand-to-hand combat and mixing in some plant attacks. If I used any energy attacks to fight at long-range, he would only absorb them into his stalls and then fire them back at me with modified attributes.

  But before I could decide on what to do first, Wei Lin opened his mouth and screamed.

  It was more than just a loud noise.

  The technique channelled his spiritual energy through his vocal cords; a massive sonic wave was generated and sent directly at me. The crystal walls magnified and concentrated the sound wave, turning the entire chamber into a sonic amplifier.

  I responded immediately, using the lung resonator modification for the first time during actual combat.

  The technique was powered by blue sun energy, which meant I couldn’t risk having Wei Lin absorb the energy into his stalls if I used it offensively. So, instead I used it defensively, generating my own scream that produced a barrier of sound.

  The two techniques collided in the space between us with explosive results.

  And once the echoes of the sonic waves had faded, we were left standing in the middle of a battle-scarred arena, littered with spider-web cracks and fragments of broken crystal.

  Both of us were panting heavily from the sheer exertion of the energy we had expended, but neither of us had gained the upper hand.

  I frowned, my mind racing with possible approaches and eliminating them one after another.

  I had always thought of myself as adaptable, able to adjust to different opponents and scenarios with my combination of cultivation techniques, runic abilities, and experience as a fighter.

  But Wei Lin was likely the most versatile opponent I had ever faced.

  His marketplace cultivation method gave him access to multiple energy types, his demonic qi stall provided unpredictable shadow techniques, and his merchant background made him excellent at reading cost-benefit analyses in real time.

  The guy could counter almost anything I threw at him, absorb my attacks to fuel his own, and adapt his strategy based on whatever I revealed.

  Yeah, this was not going to be an easy battle.

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