The moment Li Yuan focused on the golden halo, the world tilted and he entered the vision.

  ——

  Xu Chen woke in his own dilapidated room. Some concerned disciples having dragged him back here after he lost consciousness.

  He tried to circulate his qi. But to his great despair, nothing answered.

  Xu Chen's eyes widened as he pushed again, harder this time, and felt it then, the horrifying hollowness where his cultivation should have been.

  He sat up too fast, dizziness washing over him as he came to terms with his situation. He'd fallen down another major realm.

  He was not even in Qi Condensation realm anymore.

  He had downgraded to the Body Tempering Realm.

  Worse. Even that strength was unstable, slowly slipping through his fingers like sand.

  He stared at his trembling hands, unsure of what to do. Or what he could do in this situation. Even his teacher had failed to find what was wrong despite all her efforts, so what could he do himself.

  A short while later, the door creaked open and a servant stepped in, looking at Xu Chen like he was looking at the shit beneath his boot.

  "Xu Chen," the man said, his voice devoid of warmth. "By order of the Outer Sect administration, you are to leave Nine Peak Sect before nightfall."

  Xu Chen looked up slowly.

  "…I understand," he said after a pause. Because what else could he say.

  No one helped him pack. No one escorted him out. By the time the sun dipped lower in the sky, Xu Chen stood outside the sect gates with nothing but a small bundle of belongings and a dream that had died a long time ago.

  So, with one last look at the Sect mountain, he turned and headed home.

  He didn't get far.

  Not long after he left the Nine Peak city, he was surrounded by cultivators.

  He recognised them immediately. The lackeys of a Core Disciple that he had casually insulted in the past when he was still on the top of the world.

  'So even now,' he thought bitterly, 'you won't let me leave.'

  He didn't waste words.

  Xu Chen tore a talisman from his sleeve and crushed it between his fingers. Light exploded outward, a shockwave of force ripping through the clearing. Two of the attackers were torn apart instantly, bodies flung back like broken dolls.

  The others hesitated.

  That hesitation saved him.

  Xu Chen ran.

  A blade caught him in the side as he burst through the undergrowth, the impact spinning him off his feet. He crashed through brush and rock, and then fell down a cliff.

  Cold water swallowed him whole as he vanished into the river.

  He came back to consciousness choking, water pouring from his lungs as he coughed and retched against cold stone. His body ached everywhere. And he felt weak.

  Xu Chen dragged himself away from the water and collapsed against the cave wall.

  It was an underground cavern, narrow and uneven, water dripping constantly from above. And scattered around him were pale shapes— bloated remains of hundreds of animals and spirit beasts that had been swept in by the raging river and never made it out.

  He laughed weakly.

  "So this is how it ends," he muttered.

  Right at that moment, his body betrayed him again.

  Pain unlike anything before tore through his meridians. Xu Chen screamed as his strength began to drain, layer by layer.

  Peak Body Tempering.

  Late.

  Mid.

  Early.

  And then—

  Nothing.

  The last trace of his cultivation vanished entirely.

  Xu Chen lay there, shaking in despair, a mortal once again.

  A weak chuckle broke out of out, and before long that weak chuckle turned into mad laughter, filled with despair.

  A heartbeat later, that laughter turned into a painful scream as something burned behind his forehead.

  Light erupted outward, blinding white and gold, forcing him to shield his eyes as the cave filled with radiance.

  Then, something emerged from his forehead.

  A slab of stone slammed into the ground before him with a deafening boom.

  A stele.

  It was Black-grey in colour, and gave off an ancient feeling. The Stele was covered in ineligible symbols that hurt to look at directly.

  Xu Chen stared at it in incomprehension, his breath ragged.

  And then—memories surged back in his mind.

  Not new ones. But old ones that he had somehow forgotten up till now.

  Understanding flooded him, and with it came rage so pure it made his hands shake.

  "…You," Xu Chen whispered. "You did this to me. YOU!!! IT ALL STARTED WHEN I FOUND YOU IN THAT CAVE! IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!!!"

  He staggered to his feet and kicked the stele.

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  Pain exploded through his toes as the kick only served to harm him. His skin split open and blood spilled onto the stone.

  A moment later, the stele absorbed that blood.

  The surface rippled faintly, runes flickered to life dimly before going dark again. Then…

  INSUFFICIENT

  The word etched itself upon the surface of the Stele. And a moment later, the words changed.

  PROVIDE MORE ESSENCE TO ACTIVATE

  Xu Chen stared at the writing on the stone, chest rising and falling slowly. The pain in his body had dulled into a constant ache by this point.

  "Essence…" he muttered hoarsely. "What essence?"

  The Stele didn't reply, thought he had an idea of his own.

  He swept his gaze around the cavern again.

  Dozens—no, hundreds—of corpses lay scattered along the uneven stone floor and half-submerged in shallow pools of water. Bloated animal bodies. Broken limbs. Sightless eyes with worms crawling out of the sockets. Creatures that had fallen into the river upstream and been dragged here to rot.

  Xu Chen grimaced, bile rising in his throat.

  "This is sick," he said quietly but then his current situation hit him once again.

  "Fuck." He let out a long breath and laughed weakly. "Like I'm in any position to complain."

  There was no way out of the cave. He had no cultivation. No strength. And no one coming to save him.

  So he moved.

  The first corpse was the hardest.

  It was large—some kind of horned beast, its body swollen grotesquely from spending days submerged in the water. Xu Chen braced his shoulder against it and pushed. The corpse didn't budge. He grunted, his muscles screaming in protest as he tried again.

  The corpse moved an inch. So he tried again.

  And again.

  And again.

  His entire body shook from exhaustion. And his vision blurred as he slipped on a wet patch and slammed into the ground, breath knocked from his lungs.

  He lay there for a long moment, staring at the cavern ceiling.

  Then he dragged himself back up.

  "Fine," he rasped. "Fine. I'll do this even if it kills me."

  Bit by bit, inch by inch, he pushed the corpse toward the stele. When it finally reached the stone slab, Xu Chen grabbed a loose rock and smashed it down on the corpse with all the strength he had left.

  The skull cracked open with a wet, ugly sound. And blood splashed across the stele.

  The reaction was immediate. The stone absorbed the blood. It slow at first, but soon enough, the Stele was hungrily devouring its blood.

  Blood flowed upward against gravity, pulled into the Stele's dark surface. A moment later, the creature's flesh withered and got pulled toward the Stele. A moment after that, its bones turned brittle and grey, then collapsed into powder before being dragged into the Stele as well.

  In seconds, the entire corpse was gone, reduced to nothing.

  Xu Chen staggered back, heart hammering in fear and trepidation.

  "What was that." He murmured and then watched as a new line was added on the Stele.

  1% COMPLETE

  PROVIDE MORE ESSENCE TO ACTIVATE

  Xu Chen stared.

  "…That's it?" he whispered. "Only 1%." A hollow laugh escaped him. "You're kidding me."

  The stele remained silent.

  He looked at the cavern again. At the corpses. At the long, dark hours stretching ahead of him.

  Then he rolled his shoulders, wincing.

  "Alright, you bastard" he said quietly. "You win."

  The rest of the day blurred into pain.

  He dragged corpse after corpse across the rocky ground that tore open his palms and knees. His hands blistered, then split. Blood soaked into his sleeves, his breath turning ragged and shallow. Each body vanished the moment it touched the Stele, leaving behind nothing but cold hard stone.

  Night passed unnoticed and so did the next day.

  Xu Chen stopped counting time somewhere along the day and kept working.

  By next day his movements were mechanical, his mind empty except for one stubborn thought:

  Just one more corpse.

  At last, one more corpse was absorbed by the Stele, and the Stele flared brightly as the number on its surfaced changed. Going from 99% to-

  100% Complete

  The cavern trembled.

  Light burst outward, flooding the space and forcing Xu Chen to shield his eyes. The stele's surface rearranged itself, runes flowing like liquid stone as new words appeared. In bright golden colour this time.

  PRIMORDIAL ASSIMILATION STELE ACTIVATED

  The the words changed.

  PLACE A DROP OF BLOOD TO FORM A BOND

  Xu Chen didn't hesitate. His fingers were already blistered and bleeding so he simply placed it on the stone.

  The stele pulsed.

  Something cold and vast brushed against his mind, then settled into his consciousness.

  The words on the Stele changed a moment later. And a panel of information formed before his eyes.

  NAME: Xu Chen

  AGE: 17

  CULTIVATION: None

  Below it, lines of text unfolded. The lines showing every single cultivation related skill he had ever learned.

  His cultivation technique.

  His sword art.

  His movement technique.

  Basic alchemy knowledge he'd picked up out of boredom years ago.

  Even the Dual Cultivation method he'd once learned out of curiosity but never truly used showed up on the Stele.

  Yin-Yang Great Heaven — 1 / 75 (Minor Accomplishment)

  "…"

  And at the bottom of the Stele…

  CURRENT POINTS: 0

  Xu Chen stared at it, his mind racing.

  "So how do I earn points?" he asked aloud, not really expecting any answer. Which is probably why he was so surprised when the Stele responded instantly.

  PROVIDE ESSENCE.

  Xu Chen exhaled slowly.

  He then went back and dragged another corpse forward. A 1st grade Three Eyed Lightning Fox. The stele absorbed instantly, and new words showed on his surface.

  +37 POINTS

  Xu Chen blinked.

  Then he laughed.

  His first genuine laugh in years.

  For the first time since everything had started falling apart, a spark lit behind his eyes as his ambitions reignited.

  "…So that's how it is," he said softly.

  And then the vision shattered.

  ——

  Li Yuan gasped as the training field snapped back into place. Xu Chen was still there, unconscious, making for a rather pitiful sight. While most of the disciples who had gathered around to watch the drama had already left.

  His heart beat sped up as he thought on the Cheat power that Xu Chen was about to receive in a few days.

  A Stele that absorbed corpses and turned them into points to improve one's skills.

  And only one thought remained on his mind.

  'Could I steal this opportunity as well?'

  —————

  Li Yuan reached the cliff well before dusk.

  It was a narrow stretch of road overlooking a churning river far below, mist rising in slow coils where the current smashed itself against jagged rock.

  The path here was seldom used—too dangerous due to being so close to the Forbidden Forest, too easy for accidents to happen without witnesses.

  The perfect place to kill Xu Chen, or so those assassins must've thought.

  A part of him wondered why Xu Chen went through this area in the first place. He must've known that someone from the sect who held hatred against him might send people to kill him. And if not them, then there's a decent chance that he might die against Spirit beasts.

  'Maybe that was his plan in the first place.' Li Yuan thought. 'Maybe Xu Chen wanted to die after all and chose this way to go out.'

  Li Yuan shook his head to disperse such unnecessary thoughts and climbed down carefully. By the time he reached the narrow ledge halfway down, his fingers were starting to hurt. But he'd finally reached where he wanted to be.

  Now, it was time to wait.

  Time stretched.

  The sun dipped lower. The shadows lengthened. Wind whispered through the gorge, carrying the distant roar of water. Li Yuan stayed motionless, pressed flat against the cliff face, his senses extended.

  Minutes passed.

  Then hours.

  Then, just as doubt began to creep in, something finally happened.

  A figure tumbled from the cliff above him and splashed down into the river below.

  Li Yuan's gaze sharpened instantly.

  Xu Chen. It was definitely him.

  Li Yuan moved without hesitation.

  He kicked off the cliff and plunged after him.

  They were swept downstream fast. He caught sight of Xu Chen's figure floating down the river and swam after him.

  After ten long minutes of swimming after Xu Chen, he finally reached an impasse.

  A waterfall.

  Li Yuan barely had time to inhale before the edge rushed up to meet them.

  He slapped a Waterbreathing Talisman against his chest and poured qi into it just as the river dropped away.

  The fall was brutal.

  Water hammered him from all sides, wrenching his body downward. He hit the plunge hard, the impact rattling his bones despite his reinforced physique. Pain flared through his shoulders and spine as he was dragged under again.

  If not for being at the fifth stage of Qi Condensation, he would have definitely broken an arm or more. God only knows how Xu Chen had survived that fall. He supposed the protagonist types were just built different.

  He surfaced upward, and immediately searched for Xu Chen.

  Xu Chen was still ahead. Still unconscious and being carried away by the river like debris.

  'Keep your focus,' Li Yuan reminded himself as he forced himself to swim onward.

  The river eventually narrowed, funnelling into a jagged opening half-hidden behind curtains of falling water. Li Yuan followed as Xu Chen's body was sucked inside, the light dimming abruptly as stone swallowed sound.

  The underground ravine opened up just as the vision had shown.

  And just like in the vision, Xu Chen's body washed up with a soft thud and didn't move again.

  Li Yuan hauled himself onto a higher ledge and crouched there, breath silent, as he hid in the darkness. Then, he waited.

  It didn't take long.

  Xu Chen stirred and coughed out a lung full of water. Then, he dragged himself out of the water with shaking arms.

  Li Yuan watched it all, his shoulders tense with anticipation. He watched as the old boy realised what a fucked up situation he'd fallen into.

  Then it happened.

  Xu Chen screamed as his cultivation abruptly fell from the Peak stage of Body Tempering to nothing within moments. The sudden loss of his remaining cultivation drove Xu Chen over the edge of despair, and he started laughing madly… until he suddenly screamed in pain once eagain.

  Li Yuan felt it before he saw it.

  A heavy pressure bloomed in the air as light erupted from Xu Chen.

  Then, the stele emerged from Xu Chen's forehead and slammed into the ground with a weight that made the entire cavern shudder.

  Xu Chen staggered back, eyes wide. Then, the memories returned to him all at once. And rage followed.

  "…You," Xu Chen whispered. "You did this to me. YOU!!! IT ALL STARTED WHEN I FOUND—"

  Li Yuan didn't let him finish. He dropped from the ledge without a sound.

  Steel flashed once in the dim light. Xu Chen never saw him. Never even realised what was going on.

  The blade passed through his neck cleanly, momentum carrying Li Yuan a step past as the body behind him collapsed with its head separated from the neck. Blood splashed across stone and water, as the once great genius of Nine Peak Sect finally died. Meeting an ignoble end, with no one to mourn him.

  The golden halo above Xu Chen's head flickered once, twice, as if trying to revive Xu Chen despite his decapitation. Then, the halo flickered one last time... and went out.

  Silence reclaimed the cavern.

  Li Yuan straightened slowly, sword dripping red, and looked at the corpse of the genius.

  "I'm sorry." He said, genuinely meaning those words. Not that it would bring Xu Chen back to life or something.

  This was different from his murder of Shu Wen and his goons. Xu Chen had done him no wrong, and he had killed the guy in cold blood.

  In fact, a part of him still had a hard time believing that he'd succeeded at all. Shouldn't a Son of Heaven be much harder to kill...

  He suppose his own Fortune stealing ability had counteracted Xu Chen's plot armour this time. Because nothing else made sense.

  He carefully placed Xu Chen's corpse within his Ancient Spatial Ring. intending to bury the guy in a nice enough place. Maybe it would put his soul to rest, or something.

  Then, he turned to face the Stele.

  "So," he said quietly, voice steady, "this is where your Xu Chen's cheat item. Sadly for that guy, this cheat item would now belong to me."

  Then, he dragged over a nearby Spirit beast corpse and fed it to the Stele.

  An hour later.

  He fed one last corpse to the Stele and watched as it went from 99% to 100%. Then, the words written on the Stele changed once again. Just as shown in the vision.

  PRIMORDIAL ASSIMILATION STELE ACTIVATED.

  Then they changed again.

  PLACE A DROP OF BLOOD TO FORM A BOND.

  Li Yuan didn't hesitate. He made a cut on his finger and then placed it atop the stone.

  The stele pulsed as it absorbed his blood and he felt something vast and ancient enter his mind and shift through his memories. The presence seemed confused, as if his mind was different than the one it had imagined. But in the end, it settled within his consciousness nonetheless.

  A moment later, the words on the Stele changed. And a new panel of information formed in front of his eyes.

  NAME: Li Yuan

  AGE: 14

  CULTIVATION: 5th Stage of Qi Condensation.

  …

  And he smiled.