Chapter Eight : The Ancestral Arena
They did not tell Lin Chi anything.
They did not need to.
When he and his companions stepped forward, the ground split on its own, revealing a vast circular arena carved with thousands of overlapping runes.
Han Ruo went pale.
"This isn't an arena… this is a slaughterhouse."
Xiao Yin clenched her fist.
"Anyone who enters here… is tested by every path."
Lin Chi stepped forward.
The legacy did not object.
The new path responded.
[Entry: Ancestral Arena]
[All paths active]
[Survival favors the strongest—or the smartest]
The next instant—
They appeared.
Sect heirs.
Geniuses.
Human monsters forged from childhood.
No one waited for a signal.
Combat erupted.
Blood That Belonged to No Sect
Lin Chi did not face a single person.
He faced entire systems.
Chained techniques.
Coordinated assaults.
Attempts at total suppression.
He did not respond in kind.
The Path of Transformed Nothingness activated something new.
[Manifestation: Rewrite of Engagement]
A strike that should have hit him—
became a strike that never happened.
A technique that should have detonated—
went out.
His opponents recoiled in shock.
"This is impossible!"
Lin Chi did not speak.
One strike…
brought down the heir of a major sect.
Han Ruo fought beside him, his spear now an extension of intent, not technique.
Xiao Yin vanished, reappeared, vanished again—becoming a shadow that could not be grasped.
The Ancestral Arena began to collapse.
The Treasure Everyone Refused
At the heart of the arena, something appeared that was never part of the plan.
An ancient box—no energy, no protection.
Yet everyone who looked at it…
felt fear.
[Primordial Treasure]
Name: Core of the Beginning
Description: Origin of an incomplete path
Warning: Whoever takes it… will no longer belong to the world
Everyone stopped.
Lin Chi stepped forward.
Each step was heavier than the last.
When he touched the box—
Visions opened.
Worlds being born.
Worlds failing.
Paths created… then erased.
He opened the box.
Inside—
There was nothing.
And… everything.
[Forced Fusion]
[No Return]
Screams filled the arena.
The sky split.
The Birth of an Era
When everything finally settled—
The Ancestral Arena was in ruins.
The sects withdrew.
The geniuses fled.
Only three remained standing.
Lin Chi at the center.
Han Ruo bleeding, but smiling.
Xiao Yin staring at the sky as if seeing it for the first time.
The path within Lin Chi was no longer a path.
It had become a reference.
In distant places, other paths began to change.
Some collapsed.
Some twisted.
And one thing became clear:
The world was no longer what it had been.
And it would not return.
Lin Chi raised his head.
"From now on…"
He smiled.
"Those who wish to survive… will learn to change."
And deep within the sky—
Something moved.
It had been waiting since the beginning of time.