The blue light of the confinement barrier hummed with a low, electric buzz. It bathed the interior of the woodshed in a sickly, aquatic glow.
Outside, the Law Enforcement disciples had settled into a rhythm. They weren't attacking—they were waiting. They knew that inside the shed, there was no food, no water, and only enough air until the barrier recycled it into staleness.
Wuxu sat in the center of the 3-Chi radius. His stomach was a tight knot of pain, but his mind was drifting.
The sight of those blue robes... the specific crest of the Scales of Justice embroidered on their chests... it peeled back the scab of his memory. It wasn't just the hunger making him lightheaded; it was the phantom pain in his lower abdomen.
He looked through the cracks in the wood at Elder Han, who was meditating on a floating cushion outside the barrier.
'Han,' Wuxu thought, his eyes cold. 'You were there.'
The memory seized him, dragging him out of the shed and back three months into the past.
[Three Months Ago: The Hall of Impartiality]
The air in the hall smelled of ozone and sterilized steel.
Wuxu was not kneeling; he was pinned. A gravity array, set to ten times the mortal standard, pressed him into the cold obsidian floor. His ribs were cracking.
Above him sat the Tribunal. Three elders. In the center was the High Enforcer. To his right, looking bored and irritated, was Elder Han.
And standing freely to the side was Wei Chen—Wuxu's cousin. Wei Chen looked radiant, his aura vibrating with the verge of a breakthrough, but stalled. He needed a catalyst.
"The accused, Wei Wuxu," Elder Han read from a scroll, his voice echoing in the vast chamber. "Charges: Theft of Sect resources, practicing forbidden demonic arts, and harboring malicious intent toward a Core Disciple."
"Lies!" Wuxu gasped, blood bubbling from his lips. "I... I only cultivated... the standard scripture..."
"Silence," Han commanded. He waved a hand, and the gravity increased. Wuxu's scream was crushed back into his throat.
"The investigation is concluded," Han continued, looking at his fingernails. "Your meridians show signs of... irregularity. Your cultivation speed is too fast for a mortal root. Therefore, you must be stealing luck or using blood arts."
It was a farce. Everyone knew it. Wuxu had awakened the Heavenly Void Root—a one-in-a-billion talent. But Wuxu had no parents, no backers. Wei Chen had the Clan Patriarch behind him.
In the cultivation world, talent without backing was a sin. It was a resource waiting to be mined.
"The Sentence," the High Enforcer declared. "Confiscation of the irregular spiritual root to prevent demonic backlash. It shall be purified and transplanted into Wei Chen, whose righteous Qi can suppress its evil nature."
Wuxu stared at them. They weren't angry. They weren't hateful. They were just... efficient. He was a cow, and they were hungry.
"Proceed," Han ordered.
Two disciples in medical aprons stepped forward. They didn't offer anesthesia. Pain was part of the purification.
Wuxu saw the knife. It was made of green jade.
He screamed until his vocal cords tore as they cut him open. He felt the cold air enter his gut. He felt Elder Han's spiritual hand reach inside him, grabbing the glowing, ethereal network of the Void Root hooked into his spine.
YANK.
The world turned white. The connection to the Heavens was severed.
As Wuxu lay dying on the floor, a hollowed husk, he saw Wei Chen accept the bloody, glowing root in a jar. Wei Chen bowed deeply to Elder Han.
"Thank you, Elder. I will put this resource to good use."
"Take the trash to Corpse Valley," Han said, wiping his hands on a cloth. "If the beasts eat him, it saves us the burial cost."
[Present Day]
Wuxu blinked. The woodshed returned.
He touched the scar on his stomach. It was jagged and ugly.
Outside, Elder Han opened his eyes and looked at the shed. He couldn't see Wuxu clearly through the wood, but he sensed the boy was still alive.
"Stubborn," Han muttered.
Inside the dark shed, Wuxu's lips curled into a smile that would have terrified a demon.
"You took the root to build a god," Wuxu whispered to the 3-Chi silence. "But you forgot to fill the hole you left behind."