Six days later, spiritual energy fluctuations shook the outer sect quarters. Liu Yan had entered secluded cultivation for his Core Formation breakthrough.
Chen Wei sat in meditation, using Pattern Recognition to observe the distant energy flows. Core Formation required gathering all the spiritual energy in one's Foundation, compressing it into a perfect sphere—the "Golden Core" that would allow a cultivator to truly defy heaven.
For two hours, the process proceeded normally. Then Chen Wei felt it—a subtle wrongness in the energy pattern, a destabilization spreading through Liu Yan's cultivation.
The contaminated pill was activating.
Liu Yan would be feeling it now: the sudden emptiness, the fire-element qi turning chaotic, and worst of all, the crystal-clear awareness of his own impending failure. The Clarity Petal ensured he'd experience every moment of his defeat with perfect lucidity.
A massive energy explosion rocked the outer sect. Disciples rushed toward Liu Yan's cultivation chamber.
Chen Wei remained seated, calculating. The explosion meant catastrophic failure but not death. Liu Yan's cultivation would have dropped to Foundation Building's Third or Fourth Layer, with his meridians damaged—not shattered like Chen Wei's, but weakened permanently.
Poetic, Chen Wei thought without satisfaction. Revenge wasn't about emotion. It was about balanced accounts.