The return to the Soaring Cloud Sect was a somber, silent affair. Kang, his arrogance shattered, gave a clipped, official report to the mission hall: "Encountered a powerful, dormant demonic entity. The team was ambushed upon attempting to harvest resources. Disciples Ling and Tie fell in battle. The mine is lost." He made no mention of Li Yao's role, of the seal, or the Soul-Devourer Mantis's true nature. The truth was a millstone around his own neck, and he dared not lift it.
Li Yao gave no report at all. He was a junior disciple; his testimony was irrelevant unless called for. He slipped back into the rhythm of the Inner Sect, the ghost of the Serpent's Spine haunting his steps. The experience had carved something out of him, leaving behind a colder, harder substance.
He threw himself into the orthodox training with a new, terrifying focus. He practiced the [Soaring Cloud Sword Art] until his one good arm ached, his movements becoming not just precise, but brutally efficient. He no longer saw the techniques as clumsy; he saw them as a language, and he was learning to speak it with a deadly fluency that even Elder Zhu noted with a raised eyebrow.
But his true efforts were hidden, focused on integration. The strain of the mission had forced a breakthrough, not in realm, but in application.
"[Law of Spatial Anchoring] Understanding: 2.1%. Proto-Limb functionality upgraded. Can now channel low-level Qi, enabling basic reinforcement and energy deflection. Limb can now manifest a low-frequency spatial vibration, capable of disrupting low-grade spiritual constructs."
His ghostly arm was no longer just a placeholder. It was a tool. A weapon. He could now parry a spiritual attack with it, the solidified space acting as an immovable object. He could vibrate it to disrupt a simple warding talisman. It was still far from the power of his flesh-and-blood arm, but it was no longer a liability. It was his first true artifact, forged from his own will and understanding of law.
This secret progress was his anchor in the swirling currents of sect politics. The official story of the failed mission was a stone dropped in a pond, and the ripples were reaching shore.
He felt it first during an alchemy lecture. The topic was the purification of corrupted spiritual herbs. The instructor, a dour man named Elder Feng, was detailing a complex, seven-step process involving solar infusion and lunar condensation.
Li Yao, his perception now permanently tuned to the underlying laws of energy, saw the inefficiency immediately. The process was fighting the corruption, not harmonizing with it.
Without thinking, he spoke. "The method is flawed. You're treating the corruption as a poison to be expelled. It's a dissonant energy signature. You should use a resonant frequency to cancel it out, not brute-force purification." He outlined a simpler, two-step process based on the [Law of Energetic Resonance], using opposing elemental frequencies to achieve neutralization.
The lecture hall fell silent. Elder Feng stared at him, his mouth slightly agape. The theory Li Yao had just espoused was not in any sect manual. It was heretical, brilliant, and undeniably correct.
"Where did you learn this?" Elder Feng asked, his voice tight.
"I… observed the patterns," Li Yao said, realizing his mistake too late. "During the mission in the Serpent's Spine. The corruption there had a rhythmic pulse. It made me think."
It was a weak excuse, but it was all he had. The damage was done. He had drawn the attention of another powerful elder, and this time, not for his combat prowess or will, but for his mind.
The second ripple came from an unexpected direction: Wang Jin.
A month after their return, the Young Master approached him in the library. He looked… different. The hollow despair was still there, but it was now overlaid with a grim determination. The leash Li Yao had placed on him had chafed, but it had also forced a kind of discipline. His new, weaker core was stable, his foundation, while humble, was solid.
"I need to get stronger," Wang Jin said, his voice low, devoid of its former bluster. It was a statement of fact. "The orthodox path is too slow. I cannot rely on the Stellar Core Method anymore. You have… other knowledge."
He wasn't asking for a handout. He was proposing a new transaction. He had accepted his dependency and was now seeking to leverage it.
Li Yao studied him. The spoiled Young Master was gone, replaced by a desperate, calculating survivor. He was still a threat, but he was a predictable one. A controlled one.
"What do you offer?" Li Yao asked.
"Information," Wang Jin said. "My father's network hears things. There are whispers. About you. Kang is broken, but he talks in his cups. He mutters about 'spatial heresy' and 'demonic pacts.' The rumors are spreading. Elder Guo is listening. And others… others who are not so forgiving of unorthodoxy."
A cold knot formed in Li Yao's stomach. The secret was out. Not the whole truth, but a distorted, dangerous version of it. Kang's bitter gossip was a poison seeping into the sect's foundations.
"What others?" Li Yao pressed.
"The 'Orthodoxy Faction,'" Wang Jin whispered. "Led by Elder Hong. They believe any deviation from the sect's canon is a betrayal. They purge what they cannot control. They've been quiet for years, but your name… and your methods… are drawing their attention."
This was a new level of danger. Elder Guo was a pragmatist. He would use a useful heretic. Elder Hong, from Wang Jin's description, would simply eliminate one.
Wang Jin had delivered a vital warning. And in doing so, he had proven his value.
Li Yao nodded slowly. "Very well. I will provide you with a new cultivation guide. A method to refine your core's stability and increase its energy density without triggering the spatial flaw. It will be slow. It will be difficult. But it will work."
It was another carefully crafted cage. The method would make Wang Jin stronger, but it would also deepen the imprint of Li Yao's spiritual signature on his core, making him even more dependent.
Wang Jin nodded, a flicker of grim satisfaction in his eyes. He understood the bargain. Power in exchange for perpetual servitude. It was a deal with a devil, but it was the only deal on the table.
As Wang Jin left, Li Yao looked out the library window at the cloud-wreathed peaks of the Soaring Cloud Sect. It was no longer just a place of learning or a gilded cage. It was a battlefield. He had enemies he could see, like Kang, and enemies he couldn't, like the shadowy Orthodoxy Faction. He had a dependent in Wang Jin and a wary patron in Elder Guo.
He had advanced to the cusp of the Mid Core Formation stage. His spatial arm was now a functional tool. His comprehension of law was a seed waiting to sprout.
But the higher he climbed, the more the winds threatened to tear him down. The ghosts of the Serpent's Spine had followed him home, and they were whispering his name. The slow, meticulous burn was now a race against the shadows gathering at his back. The Eternal Ascension Path demanded not just power, but the cunning to survive the predators it attracted.