The Flaw in the Foundation
As Elder Ming's apprentice, Wú Jié spent his days in the Formation Archives, a silent chamber filled with thousands of glowing, annotated scrolls. His work cataloguing structural decay was tedious, but the reward was invaluable: access to the spiritual nervous system of the Cloud Ascent Sect.
He wasn't cataloguing decay; he was searching for a weak point.
His target was the Grand Spirit Lake, the sect's primary Qi repository, located deep beneath the Inner Sect plaza. It was shielded by the Vast Cloud Sealing Array, a structure so complex it was believed impenetrable.
Wú Jié knelt, tracing a line on an ancient schematic. The Vast Cloud Sealing Array is magnificent, he mused. But it was built 800 years ago, and 800 years of Qi flow always creates an entropy point.
He found it: a minor pressure valve near the northern access tunnel, designed to bleed off excess spiritual vapor. In the public records, this was noted as a stable output. In the secret schematics, Wú Jié identified a cyclical weakness every 77 days at the peak of the Yin Tide, the valve's defense array suffered a four-second latency spike.
The Yin Tide was tonight.
He prepared a small, inconspicuous toolkit: a needle-thin drill infused with the Heart-Cleansing Jade Essence (perfect for cutting through array defenses without setting off purity alarms), and a pouch of Silent Dust, a refined spiritual powder from his past life that could temporarily deaden Qi detection within a three-foot radius.
Wú Jié knew that raiding the Lake was an act of high treason. The array's sensors were redundant, and a patrol would certainly be near the valve during the Yin Tide. This was not a flaw, but a necessity. He didn't just want the Qi; he needed a public display of strength to secure his position among the Inner Disciples, a warning to anyone considering him an easy target.
He needed a sacrifice. He needed an interruption.
He would use the patrol as bait.
Calculated Ambush
Under the cold crescent moon, Wú Jié moved like smoke toward the northern tunnel. He felt the heavy, thrumming spiritual energy of the Grand Spirit Lake array pressing down on the environment.
He reached the pressure valve—a brass-covered disc set into the stone floor. He glanced at the surrounding shadows. The patrol was late. Good. He had time.
He sprinkled the Silent Dust around the valve, creating a small, invisible bubble of deadened detection. He then carefully drilled a precise, hair-thin hole in the brass cover, just large enough for his spiritual sense to penetrate, not large enough to trigger an alarm.
He was waiting for the four-second window of latency. One minute until the peak.
Just then, two figures emerged from the gloom: Zhao Fei, a boastful Inner Disciple two layers above Wú Jié (Mortal Realm: Fifth Layer), and his apprentice. Zhao Fei had a reputation for aggressive enforcement and a habit of abusing low-ranking disciples.
Wú Jié had been counting on Zhao Fei's arrogance.
Zhao Fei immediately spotted Wú Jié's grey Outer Sect robes (he was still transitioning) and the subtle sheen of the Silent Dust on the ground.
"You! Scum!" Zhao Fei roared, drawing his Qi-infused blade. "Trespassing near the Grand Lake tunnel? You have nerve! This is a death sentence, beggar."
Wú Jié straightened slowly, his hand already gripping the prepared spiritual drill. He smiled—the cold, unnerving smile of a hunter who has just seen the prey walk directly into his snare.
"Your patrol route is inefficient, Brother Zhao," Wú Jié observed, his voice calm. "And your blade is dull."
The Unrestrained Blade
Zhao Fei, enraged by the disrespect, attacked instantly, launching a sweeping arc of sharp, wind-elemental Qi.
This was Wú Jié's first true fight in this life, and he had no interest in a prolonged exchange of flashy spells. He had only seconds before the array's full defenses came online.
Instead of dodging backward, Wú Jié lunged forward into the wind arc. Zhao Fei, surprised, expected a clash of shields or a frantic retreat.
What he received was silence.
Wú Jié didn't attack Zhao Fei's body; he attacked the Qi flow itself. As he closed the distance, his hands moved in a blur, using a technique from his past life: The Flowing Meridian Strike. He tapped Zhao Fei's wrist, the inside of his elbow, and the back of his knee three innocuous, non-lethal points.
The blows were subtle, delivered with surgical precision, using a concentrated burst of impure, metallic Qi from the Lesser Meridian. The impure Qi did not damage the muscle; it merely disrupted the subtle spiritual pressure that regulated Zhao Fei's movement.
Zhao Fei's wind arc suddenly lost cohesion, wobbling mid-air as if its master had hesitated.
"What?" Zhao Fei stammered, his body feeling oddly heavy. His spiritual flow, which had been smooth and powerful moments ago, was now stuttering like a pipe clogged with sand.
Wú Jié used the fractional hesitation to deliver his final, devastating blow. He pressed his palm directly onto Zhao Fei's Dantian Shield. He didn't use force; he used knowledge. He activated the Silent Dust pouch, creating a localized void of Qi detection, then used the spiritual drill to rapidly etch three complex, self-destructing suppression runes into the disciple's protective Qi shield.
The entire exchange took less than two seconds.
Crack.
The runes detonated internally. Zhao Fei's Dantian Shield his defense and his source of power shattered into a thousand pieces of spiritual static. The raw force slammed back into his core. Zhao Fei gasped, clutching his stomach, his cultivation base instantly reduced to rubble. He wasn't dead, but he was crippled forever trapped at the First Layer of the Mortal Realm.
Wú Jié stepped back, his face serene. He didn't even breathe heavily.
Zhao Fei's apprentice, who had been watching in paralyzed horror, dropped his weapon and fled, screaming, toward the Inner Sect barracks.
Devouring The Tide
Wú Jié ignored the fleeing apprentice. He glanced at the pressure valve. The latency spike the window was open now.
He didn't waste time looking at the broken Zhao Fei. He plunged his hand through the drilled hole, activating the Boundless Void Sutra at full power.
This was not the trickle of Qi from the polluted Outer Sect well; this was the Grand Spirit Lake a massive ocean of pure, high-grade spiritual essence.
The Sutra roared to life. A dark, terrifying spiritual vortex erupted beneath the stone floor. It didn't just absorb the Qi; it violently sucked it out in torrents. The spiritual pressure in the entire area dropped sharply.
Wú Jié's body acted as a perfect channel. The pure Qi, filtered and stabilized by the Heart-Cleansing Jade Essence he had consumed days earlier, washed away the last traces of pollution from his Lesser Meridian foundation. His Dantian pulsed, expanding rapidly.
Mortal Realm: Fourth Layer—Break! Mortal Realm: Fifth Layer—Break! Mortal Realm: Sixth Layer—Break!
He consumed the energy of months of slow cultivation in a matter of seconds. He was now operating at a level that surpassed the crippled Zhao Fei's original strength.
The powerful surge lasted exactly four seconds.
As the latency window snapped shut, Wú Jié withdrew his hand, his eyes now blazing with a terrifying, golden light that quickly faded back to their cold obsidian color. The Grand Spirit Lake Array had not failed, but it had been utterly violated.
He quickly patched the needle hole with a self-sealing rune, removing all traces of his presence, save for the ruined cultivator lying on the ground.
Let them find Zhao Fei and the shattered array, Wú Jié thought, feeling the immense, cold power settle in his core. They will assume it was a rare array backlash, or perhaps a temporary corruption triggered by a weak-willed fool. They will never suspect a thief.
Wú Jié walked away, leaving the crippled Zhao Fei as the sole piece of evidence the perfect explanation for a catastrophic, untraceable spiritual loss. His debut was complete. He had taken everything he wanted, and his enemy had paid the ultimate price, all without breaking a single rule of the sect... that could be proven.
The Boundless Calamity was now a true Inner Disciple, armed with the power of the Lake and the silence of the Dao.