1. The Mindscape Fractures
The arena didn't just tremble—it fractured reality.
To everyone outside, Lee Haneul and Liang Bao stood still, unmoving, locked in a psychic battle no ordinary cultivator could witness.
But inside their Mind Domain, chaos reigned.
Haneul's inner world was elegant—surreal lotus trees growing from floating waterfalls, silent bells ringing through moonlight valleys. It was peace forged by pressure. Serenity carved through suffering.
But Liang Bao?
He was rot made manifest.
His half-corrupted Dantian birthed nightmarish echoes: screams of the cultivators he had consumed, warped sect techniques fused into monstrous shapes, and a sky that wept black ichor. His domain was a corrupted archive of stolen futures.
"I am what comes after enlightenment," Liang roared, his form melting into a thousand mirror-shards of himself. "I've seen what lies beyond 'transcendence'—and it's a graveyard!"
Haneul's eyes opened in the mindscape for the first time.
"Then you've only stared at yourself."
The lotus above his head split—into three.
The second Dantian—the Spirit Core near his chest—lit up, and the Mind Domain shifted instantly.
No longer passive.
Now it fought back.
2. Ghosts in the Origin Veins
Far below the coliseum, Lee Haeun had not left the hidden altar. He was still staring at the mural… but now something new had appeared.
A trail of silver blood ran down the side of the wall.
He touched it—and visions rushed into his mind.
Not dreams. Not memories. Messages.
Three names. Three past wielders of the Origin Manual. All dead. All forgotten by history.
And beneath their faces, a single phrase repeated like a heartbeat:
"We were never supposed to survive the first bloom."
"The Code is broken."
"He's watching us from the Mirror Realm."
Haeun stepped back, gasping.
He wasn't alone down here anymore.
A robed figure stood in the shadows, face hidden, voice like cracking glass.
"The Nameless One never died. He divided."
3. Arena Above: War of Presence
Outside the Mind Domain, onlookers were beginning to feel it.
A pressure—not of brute force, but of Presence.
A handful of elders began coughing up blood. One young prodigy fainted.
The First King gripped the railing. "This isn't a normal duel. This is a clash of wills layered across time itself."
Inside the domain, Haneul no longer moved. He simply breathed.
With every breath, the images of those Liang had consumed began unbinding. Their fragmented souls tore free from the corrupted Qi, drifting toward the sky.
Liang Bao screamed.
"NO—THEY'RE MINE!"
Haneul raised his hand, and the air itself twisted.
A single silent strike descended—not with a blade, but a thought.
And the Mind Domain shattered into lotus petals.
Liang's body crumpled.
4. The Crown Unseen
Back in reality, the match ended without blood.
Haneul stood as if untouched. Liang Bao lay unconscious, but not dead—Qi drained, spirit shattered.
The crowd was silent.
Then a single elder in the back stood and muttered, almost involuntarily:
"He wears the Quiet Crown…"
And in that moment, those who truly understood cultivation felt it.
Lee Haneul didn't just win the match.
He claimed something ancient.
A title not given, but awakened.
The Quiet Crown—a mantle whispered in legend. Worn only by one other:
The Nameless One.
5. The Banquet Ends in Fire
Back in the hidden banquet chamber, alarms flared.
Void seals shattered.
A black-robed assassin stumbled into the room, bleeding from the chest.
"Liang Bao failed."
The robed figures stood. Their sand bowl cracked. The Godless Banner dimmed.
"Move the plan forward," said the tattooed man. "Forget the Alliance Leader. Kill Lee Haneul instead."
"He wears the Quiet Crown."
One figure hesitated. "But if he awakens the third Dantian—"
The tattooed man smiled with cracked teeth.
"Then we'll die in style."