A week passed in a blur of hollow courtesies. The Black Lotus Sect treated Lin Xuan not as a prisoner, but as a fragile, unpredictable idol. They brought him food he didn't need, asked questions he wouldn't answer, and watched him with a mixture of hope and terror. The Sect Master sought stability, while Elder Su, his eyes still holding the ghost of the abyss he'd witnessed, sought a key to unlock a power he now craved like a drug.
Lin Xuan observed them all with the detached clarity of a predator. He felt no gratitude, no irritation, no kinship. These concepts were like colors described to a man born blind. In the void where his memories and purpose should have been, there was only a cold, singular mandate: ascend.
He spent his days exploring the pitiful grounds of the Black Lotus Sect, his frail body a perfect disguise for his true nature. In his mind, he sifted through the fractured remnants of his knowledge, vast libraries of techniques and cosmic laws, now shattered and incomplete. It was during one of these internal searches that he found it: a memory fragment, sharp and brutal, of a blood-red sigil. The Devouring Array. A forbidden technique used to convert life force into raw, unrefined power.
It was inefficient. It was dangerous. And it was perfect.
He had found his path forward. These people were not a liability to be managed or a tool to be wielded. They were fuel.
That evening, he summoned the Sect Master and Elder Su. They arrived at his cavern, their faces etched with nervous anticipation.
"I have meditated on my arrival," Lin Xuan announced, his voice calm and even. "My presence here has destabilized the spiritual veins of this mountain. If we do not act to harmonize them, the sect's foundation will crumble within a month."
The Sect Master turned pale. "Crumble? What can we do?"
"There is a ritual," Lin Xuan continued, his expression unreadable. "A rite of harmonization. It requires the entire sect's participation. We must gather at the Grand Altar in the main cavern at dawn." He looked at Elder Su, whose eyes were now gleaming with suspicion and excitement. "Your knowledge of formations will be necessary to draw the primary sigil."
Elder Su's ambition overrode his caution. The chance to observe this "being" perform a ritual was too great to pass up. "Of course, Mighty One," he rasped. "I will prepare the necessary inks and brushes myself."
By the time the first rays of dawn pierced the gloom of the Azure Wood Continent, the entire Black Lotus Sect, all seventeen of them, were gathered in the main cavern. At its center was the blood-stained altar, now surrounded by a complex series of runes Lin Xuan had instructed Elder Su to draw. The old man believed it was a warning for stability. He had no idea he had just painted his tombstone.
Lin Xuan stood before the altar, looking over the small crowd. They were weak, hopeful, and entirely clueless.
"The ritual requires absolute focus," he said, his voice echoing slightly in the large chamber. "All of you, take your positions within the array and begin to cycle your Qi. I will anchor the formation from the center."
They obeyed without question. The Sect Master, the two acolytes from the first day, the handful of other disciples—they all sat down and closed their eyes, their weak Qi beginning to flow into the lines on the floor.
Elder Su remained standing beside the altar, his gaze greedy. "An incredible design," he whispered. "The way it gathers and circulates the energy… I have never seen anything like it."
"You are correct," Lin Xuan said softly. "You never will again."
He placed his palm flat on the altar's cold surface.
The Devouring Array activated.
The golden runes Elder Su had so carefully painted flared, turning a sudden, violent crimson. The flow of Qi instantly reversed. Instead of circulating, it was now being pulled, ripped from the meditating disciples. Cries of shock and pain erupted as they realized the betrayal. Their bodies convulsed, life force draining from them like water from a shattered cup, turning their skin to pale, sunken grey.
"What is this?!" the Sect Master shrieked, his eyes flying open in horror as he tried to stand, only to collapse as his strength vanished.
Elder Su stared, his face a mask of horrified comprehension. "This… this isn't a harmonization ritual! This is… a sacrifice!" He lunged, not at Lin Xuan, but towards the edge of the array, trying to escape.
He was too late. Lin Xuan flicked his fingers, and the crimson light ensnared the old man, lifting him from his feet. "You wished to see true power, Elder," Lin Xuan said, a strange emptiness in his voice. "Be honored. You are its first meaningful contribution."
The Elder screamed as his life force was siphoned away, his body withering into a dessicated husk before turning to dust. Within moments, the same fate befell all the others. The cavern fell silent, leaving only Lin Xuan and seventeen motes of swirling, pure energy being drawn into the altar.
Lin Xuan closed his eyes and began to absorb the power. It flooded his meridians, a power that reinforced his new body and refilled his depleted reserves. As the last mote of energy entered him, he felt a flicker of something, a brief, unbidden image of a laughing child, instantly consumed by a wave of shadow. For a single, terrifying moment, he felt a tearing sensation deep within his soul, as if a part of him was screaming in agony.
Then, it was gone. The power settled. The cold clarity returned. He was stronger. That was all that mattered.
He stood in the silent, empty cavern, the only remaining trace of the Black Lotus Sect being the faint scent of their terror. He felt no remorse, no triumph. He simply felt… complete.
And then, he felt something else.
A gaze that did not come from the cavern, or the continent, or even the world. It was a perception of infinite distance and crushing, absolute superiority. He felt like an ant on the ground, suddenly aware of the being in the sky, watching it through a looking glass.
The gaze was not hostile. It was not curious. It was simply… aware. It was a supreme, ancient existence so far beyond him that he couldn't even begin to comprehend its nature. He was a speck of dust, and it was the cosmos. He couldn't fight it. He couldn't hide from it. All he could do was stand there, utterly exposed.
The feeling lingered for a moment, then vanished, leaving behind an unnerving silence and a cold certainty in Lin Xuan's soul.
His pact with the Rouages had allowed him to keep his power.
He was no longer just a cultivator on a path to ascension. He was a piece of a board far larger than he had ever imagined.