From the perspective of Zhuge Yui Lan
The silence that preceded the start of the test was far too dense to be called simple expectation.
It was a living silence, made of held breaths, of hearts beating out of rhythm, of thousands of eyes fixed on the arena as if the entire world would be decided there.
When the formations lit up—golden lines intertwining like sleeping dragons beneath the earth—the weight fell.
There was no warning.
There was no mercy.
The pressure of the heavens poured down upon the arena like an invisible wall, crushing shoulders, bending knees, forcing many to stagger before even taking their first step.
Yui Lan closed her eyes for a moment, breathing in slowly. She knew that burden. She knew the bones that creaked under it, the meridians that cried out for surrender, the mind that bowed before the body did.
The first test was never about walking. It was always about existing under the merciless gaze of the heavens.
And yet…
Three figures advanced.
At once, the roar of the crowd echoed like thunder.
The first was expected: the Imperial Prince Feng Yu Han.
His upright bearing was an affront to gravity, as if the heavens weighed less on one who was born with the sun in his veins. The crowd acclaimed him not merely as a candidate, but as a symbol. The youngest of the princes, heir of the imperial bloodline, the prodigy who seemed to carry a throne in every gesture.
But Yui Lan knew.
He did not carry only gifts. He carried the vigilance of brothers and sisters who would never accept his ascension without conflict.
And, moreover, the throne was not a prize to be contested. It was already consolidated in the hands of his eldest sister, the current Empress Feng Yue, whose authority ruled the White Flame Empire with an iron hand. For Feng Yu Han, there was no inheritance to claim—only the constant need to survive the weight of palace intrigues, to resist the invisible siege of his own siblings.
His calm, to her eyes, was not only talent—it was defense.
Beside him, the second figure blazed like a flame under oppressive weight: Dugu Liao Liao.
Her fiery red hair seemed to burn beneath the arena's light, and her eyes shone with the ferocity only someone of the Dugu family could have. The only daughter among seven brothers, the only young woman of her generation… it was the kind of birth that could easily have turned into spoiled arrogance, into decorated fragility.
But no.
The blood of the Dugu family did not allow that.
She advanced as one born to fight against everything—even against destiny itself. Every step of hers was a declaration. A promise that she would never yield, no matter the weight.
The crowd went wild.
To them, it was a perfect scene: prince and general, prestige and blade. The predestined couple, as many already whispered, destined to shape the future of the White Flame Empire.
Yui Lan observed in silence.
She saw no romance, no destiny. Only two distinct flames, burning side by side, still unaware that the same sky that applauded them now could, tomorrow, crush them mercilessly.
And then… the third.
Not beside them.
Not in their shadow.
But ahead.
Zhuge Yu Jin.
The weight that forced many to their knees seemed, for him, nothing more than another resistance to be torn apart.
His steps were simple, without theatrics, without the calculated aura of one who knows he is being watched. And yet, each movement opened the way, as if the very burden yielded before his determination.
Yui Lan felt her heart tighten.
Not in surprise.
But in recognition.
No one there, except her, knew what it meant to see that young man advance.
To the crowd, he was a name newly sprung from a forgotten city.
To the nobles, he was just another competitor destined to vanish beneath the brilliance of the capital's heirs.
But to her… he was the same brother who, in another life, set the whole world ablaze.
That was why, when the arena resounded with the names of Feng Yu Han and Dugu Liao Liao, Yui Lan merely smiled in silence.
Because she knew that among the three figures who defied the weight of the heavens, only one truly made the heavens hesitate.
Her brother.
Zhuge Yu Jin.
Yui Lan knew him better than anyone.
Yu Jin was not a strategist.
He was not calculating.
He did not possess the cold patience that Yeon cultivated as if he had been born with it. Even she—who carried four thousand years of memories—had needed countless mistakes and scars to learn how to observe, to wait, to measure every step like one reading an invisible board.
Yu Jin, however, had never been like that.
He was fire.
And fire does not draft plans.
Fire does not hide among crowds.
Every step of his was only that: his best.
Without reserves. Without disguises. As if the flame in his chest was incapable of bending to anything else but expressing itself to the fullest.
It had been so in his past life.
And it was so again, before her eyes.
There was no waiting.
There was no hesitation.
While others still trembled under the weight of the first test, Yu Jin was already advancing as if the heavens were incapable of holding him back. Murmurs rose in waves around the arena, voices clashing in questions, theories, incredulity.
— Who is that?
— A hidden star from some great clan?
— No… must be only luck.
Luck.
Yui Lan almost laughed at the word. Anyone who looked at him with mortal eyes might believe that. But she knew what she saw was not luck—it was destiny in combustion.
Within minutes, the impossible was revealed.
Yu Jin was the first to reach the second test.
First, before the acclaimed geniuses, before the prince who carried the sun, before the battle-rose of the Dugu.
Time flowed. Twenty minutes later, while most contestants still struggled to cross the invisible wall of the first challenge, he had already finished the second. Again, in first place.
And then… he stopped.
He simply waited.
Without seeking gazes.
Without pride.
Not because he wished to seem magnanimous, but because the third test could only begin once all had completed the previous two. So there he stood: the only cultivator approved in the two tests, isolated before thousands.
The scene lasted little—perhaps ten minutes, perhaps less—but it was enough.
Enough for every gaze in the stands to engrave his presence.
Enough for every elder of the sects and every clan patriarch to murmur the same thought in silence:
"Who is this unknown young man?"
When the forty-fifth minute sounded and Dugu Liao Liao finally received her approval, the arena's tension eased for a moment. But for Yui Lan, it was already too late.
Her brother's name was not only before her.
Now… it was imprinted in the memory of the entire White Flame Empire.
The murmurs of the stands spread like uncontrollable flames, but to Yui Lan none of it was truly new.
Yu Jin's talent had been noticed.
Even the most bored elders, accustomed to centuries of selections, raised their brows. Her brother's name already circulated in whispers: someone to watch, someone to recruit.
But worst of all… Yui Lan knew.
She knew this was only the beginning.
Until now, Yu Jin had done only that: draw attention. Become the momentary talk of the sects and clans. Nothing more than a newly discovered name among thousands.
And for them, that was nothing more than another spark.
After all, how many geniuses had the White Flame Empire not produced?
How many prodigies had risen and fallen, generation after generation?
Even far from the Great World, even relegated to the shadow of greater realms, that empire had already witnessed more talents than men's memories could hold.
And the fate of most had always been the same: to disappear.
A genius was only a genius… until he grew.
Until he proved, with his own fists, that he could bend time and fortune to his will.
For the clans, the reasoning was simple:
If Yu Jin could be recruited, excellent.
If not… it didn't matter either.
In the end, how many of those youths shone only to be consumed by their own flames?
How many fell before reaching even half their potential?
The world was cruel.
And the heavens… the heavens even more.
— The heavens hate geniuses too strong. — Yui Lan thought, her eyes narrowing.
Still, one memory made her smile bitterly.
"Well… perhaps they don't hate all."
Because if it were truly an immutable law, her brother Yeon would never have existed.
The silence in her heart lasted little.
Her eyes returned to Yu Jin, standing still after conquering two tests.
He still waited.
But Yui Lan knew.
The decisive moment was not this one.
It was not his speed, nor the strength that made him seem like fire in flesh.
No.
The moment when the entire capital would truly tremble would be another.
When Yu Jin stepped onto the platform.
When the brilliance of his Spiritual Potential revealed itself before tens of thousands.
At that moment… there would be no ignoring him anymore.