The silence in the training courtyard was a physical presence, thick and heavy. It was broken only by Bai Gang's ragged gasps as he pushed himself up from the ground, his face a mixture of humiliation, pain, and sheer, uncomprehending terror. He stared at the patch of earth that had betrayed him, then at Li Wei's retreating back, as if looking at a ghost.
No one laughed. No one jeered. The disciples simply watched Li Wei walk away, their worldviews quietly crumbling. A cripple had not just won; he had redefined the meaning of combat.
Li Wei felt their stares like physical pressure, but his mind was elsewhere. The effort of the "frictionless plane" edit had been significant. The silvery energy from the Xinxi Catalyst was nearly depleted, and a dull throb had begun behind his eyes.
[SYSTEM POWER: 9%. CONCEPTUAL AUTHORITY EXERTION HAS ACCELERATED ENERGY DEPLETION.]
[ZERO: WORTH IT! DID YOU SEE THEIR FACES? THEY LOOKED LIKE THEY'D SEEN A GHOST IN THE MACHINE!]
[APEX: THE DISPLAY WAS WASTEFUL. WE HAVE ATTRACTED THE DIRECT ATTENTION OF A SECT ELDER. ASSIMILATION PROBABILITY HAS INCREASED TO 31%.]
As Li Wei reached the path leading back to his hut, a shadow fell across him. It was not a disciple.
Two inner sect guards in polished silver armor stood blocking his way, their expressions stern and impersonal. Their auras were sharp, disciplined, a world away from the chaotic energy of the outer sect disciples.
"Li Wei," the one on the right intoned, his voice devoid of inflection. "By the order of Elder Guo, you are summoned to the Hall of Reflection. Immediately."
This was it. The controlled experiment was over. The lab rats were now reporting to the scientists.
[ZERO: OOOOH, A SUMMONS! THE PLOT THICKENS! REMEMBER, BE MYSTERIOUS. DON'T LET THEM KNOW HOW DRAINED WE ARE.]
[APEX: THIS IS A CAPTURE SCENARIO. RECOMMEND COMPLIANCE. ANY HOSTILE ACTION WILL BE MET WITH OVERWHELMING FORCE. SURVIVAL PROBABILITY IN DIRECT CONFLICT: 0.4%.]
Li Wei simply nodded. "Lead the way."
The Hall of Reflection was not a place of punishment, but of judgment. It was a stark, circular chamber of white jade and polished dark wood, lit by glowing orbs that cast no shadows. In the center of the room, Elder Guo sat on a raised dais, his stout frame radiating palpable power and simmering anger. To his right, standing with an ethereal calm that seemed to cool the very air, was Su Lian.
Li Wei was made to stand in the center of the room, the two guards taking positions by the door. The atmosphere was heavy, charged with unspoken questions and the weight of authority.
Elder Guo leaned forward, his eyes boring into Li Wei. "What you did in the courtyard was not a technique. It was an abomination."
Li Wei met his gaze, his own eyes calm. "It was a correction."
"A correction?" Elder Guo's voice rose. "You manipulated the very earth! You twisted a fundamental law without a shred of spiritual energy! How?"
[ZERO: HE'S ANGRY AND CONFUSED. PERFECT. DON'T GIVE HIM A SATISFYING ANSWER.]
[APEX: PROVIDING ANY INFORMATION WILL BE USED TO FORMULATE A COUNTER-STRATEGY. SILENCE IS THE OPTIMAL DEFENSE.]
Li Wei remained silent, his face an unreadable mask.
Elder Guo's fist clenched. "Are you possessed? Have you made a pact with some Outer Realm Devil? Speak, boy, or I will pry the answers from your soul myself!"
A wave of crushing spiritual pressure descended upon Li Wei, intending to force him to his knees. It was like a mountain had been placed on his shoulders. His bones groaned. His newly healed muscles screamed in protest.
[WARNING! EXTERNAL SPIRITUAL SUPPRESSION DETECTED. HOST PHYSICAL INTEGRITY AT RISK.]
[SYSTEM POWER: 8%... 7%...]
He could not fight this pressure with force. But he didn't have to.
Activating his First Glimpse, he looked at the pressure not as a force, but as a data-stream. It was a command from Elder Guo's will, transmitted through Qi, intended to enforce the "kneel" status on his body. It was a simple, brute-force algorithm.
Li Wei didn't try to block it. He introduced a single, elegant line of code into his own being's local definition.
[if (external_force.intent == "suppress") then status = "rooted"]
The pressure was still there, immense and terrifying. But its intended effect—to make him kneel—was nullified. His body was now defined as "rooted" to the spot. He swayed, his face pale with strain, sweat beading on his forehead, but his legs remained locked, his back straight.
Elder Guo's eyes widened in shock. He increased the pressure, pouring more of his power into the suppression. The wooden floor around Li Wei's feet began to splinter, but Li Wei himself remained standing, a rock in a spiritual hurricane.
"It is as I suspected, Elder Guo," Su Lian's voice cut through the tension, cool and clear. "He is not resisting you. He is... ignoring you."
Elder Guo recoiled as if struck. "Ignoring me? That's impossible!"
"Not if he does not acknowledge the authority you are invoking," she said, her gaze fixed on Li Wei, analyzing him like a complex theorem. "You are using the Law of Superior Force, a principle embedded in our world's Qi. He seems to operate outside that particular jurisdiction."
Frustrated and humiliated, Elder Guo roared, "Enough of this! Guards! Seize him! We will conduct a full spiritual inquisition! We will find the source of this heresy!"
The two guards moved forward, their hands glowing with restraining seals.
This was the tipping point. A spiritual inquisition would tear his mind apart and undoubtedly discover the System. It was an existential threat.
[APEX: CATASTROPHIC FAILURE IMMINENT. ASSIMILATION PROTOCOLS OVERRIDDEN. SURVIVAL IS PARAMOUNT.]
[ZERO: TIME FOR A MIRACLE, HOST! THINK! WHAT'S THE BIGGEST GLITCH YOU CAN THROW?]
Li Wei's mind raced. He was low on power. He couldn't fight them all. He couldn't edit reality on a large scale. But he didn't need to. He just needed to create a distraction. A single, profound, and terrifying anomaly.
As the guards' hands reached for him, Li Wei focused every last drop of his remaining energy. He wasn't looking at the guards, or Elder Guo, or even Su Lian.
He was looking at the light in the room.
He focused on the nearest glowing orb, the source of the shadowless illumination. With his First Glimpse, he saw it as a simple emitter of photons, a data-stream of "brightness."
He didn't try to shatter it. He didn't try to dim it.
He edited a single property for the entire room, for the duration of a single, heart-stopping second.
He changed the universal constant of the speed of light.
It wasn't a major change. Just a fractional, almost imperceptible reduction. But the effect was instantaneous and horrifying.
The light from the orbs slowed. For that one second, the entire Hall of Reflection was plunged into a deep, reddish twilight, as if the world had been submerged in blood. The shadows, which had been banished, now stretched and twisted in impossible, lagging directions. The guards froze mid-step, their movements seeming to drag. Elder Guo's face was frozen in a mask of shock, painted in the eerie crimson light.
It was a violation of a fundamental law so deep that every living being felt it in their soul. It was a shudder in the fabric of existence.
Then, just as suddenly, it was over. The light returned to normal.
But the damage was done.
The two guards had fallen to their knees, vomiting, their senses revolting against the brief cosmic wrongness. Elder Guo was pale, clutching his chest, his cultivation base deeply unsettled.
Only Su Lian remained standing, perfectly composed. But her eyes were wide, and for the first time, Li Wei saw true, unadulterated shock in them. She hadn't just seen a technique; she had witnessed a blasphemy against reality itself.
Li Wei, utterly drained, slumped to one knee, breathing heavily. He had nothing left.
[SYSTEM POWER: 1%. ENTERING SAFE MODE...]
[WARNING: FURTHER EXERTION WILL RESULT IN CORE COLLAPSE.]
He looked up at Su Lian, their eyes meeting across the chamber. In that glance, a silent understanding passed between them. He was not a demon. He was not a heretic. He was something far more dangerous and profound.
Before Elder Guo could recover, a new voice, ancient and resonant, filled the hall, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"Enough."
The single word carried an authority that made Elder Guo's power feel like a child's tantrum. It was the voice of the Sect Master.
"Elder Guo, stand down. Su Lian, bring the boy to the Quiet Peak. I will speak with him myself."
The command brooked no argument. The crisis was, for now, averted.
As Su Lian stepped forward, her expression unreadable once more, Li Wei knew one thing for certain. His life in the shadows was over. He was now a person of interest to the highest power in the sect.
And the attention of the heavens above had just sharpened to a razor's edge.
To be continued...