Gen and Liang stood at the edge of the stone circle, staring into the space between the five huge jade needles. The air hummed with a low, quiet power.
"I'll be the first to the middle," Gen declared, puffing out his chest.
"No chance," Liang shot back, a competitive glint in his eye. "My feet are faster."
"Oh yeah? What's the bet?"
Liang thought for a second, then grinned. "Whoever loses has to go ask Madame Su to tell us her past. And we have to keep asking until she agrees."
Gen barked out a laugh, the sound sharp in the quiet forest. The image was perfect—and terrifying. Both of them, bruised and begging, pestering their stern guardian about her secrets. They'd be running punishment drills for a month. "Deal. You're going to get us both killed."
They stepped forward together, crossing the invisible line where the forest floor met the smooth, worn stone at the base of the nearest needle.
A deep hum resonated through the pillars, a single bass note that vibrated in their bones. But nothing else happened. No crushing weight, no visions.
Gen's mind, always looking for the angle, saw his chance. *If I use my Jingdao now, I can blast past Liang before he even gets started.* A devilish smirk touched his lips.
"See you in the middle, slowpoke!" he yelled, and golden light flared around him as he activated the **Eternal Body's First Door**. He shot forward like a released arrow.
"Cheater!" Liang shouted, but he was already moving, pouring energy into his own legs to give chase, though he was more careful, his senses stretched thin.
They made it ten steps.
The air in front of Gen shimmered and solidified. A figure made of pure, transparent light appeared, wearing the simple robes of a Jade Palace disciple from a bygone era. It had no face, just a smooth, blank oval where features should be.
It raised a hand. With a fluid, unmistakable motion of **Shidow** manipulation, it gathered the dense energy of the clearing and fired a bolt of jade-blue force straight at Gen's chest.
Gen twisted mid-stride, the bolt grazing his shoulder with a sizzle. It slammed into the ground behind him, tearing a smoking furrow in the ancient stone. Liang skidded to a halt beside him, eyes wide.
They both spun to look back at Li Fen, who was watching from the safe tree line. "You didn't say it would shoot at us!" Gen accused.
Li Fen's carefully composed face showed genuine surprise. "You… you weren't knocked out by the first guardian. That's… unusual." She recovered, her voice cool. "It's not a cultivator. It's the will of a disciple who once stopped at this very step. Their imprint, their lingering resolve to defend the path. The further you go, the stronger the wills you face become. They only use basic energy blasts, but the power behind them grows."
She nodded toward the center of the circle, where the light seemed thickest. "In the very middle, they say the wills are of those who mastered the Fifth Wheel. Beings equal to Tiang Feng. To the Lost Triangle Master."
Gen and Liang exchanged a look. The fear was there, but underneath it, a hotter excitement sparked. If they could reach the middle… it meant their potential stretched that far. It was a promise, written in light and violence.
"Let's go," Gen said, his voice tight.
They moved forward, together this time. The first will-construct, a simple swordsman of light, was straightforward. Gen let its energy blade skitter off his reinforced forearm and drove his other fist through its center, shattering it into motes. Liang, beside him, faced a spearman. A thin, precise lance of **white lightning** from his Kalash severed the construct's weapon arm at the shoulder, and it faded away.
These were the echoes of the weakest students. They pushed past.
The next ring was different. The pressure was a physical thing now, pushing on their chests, making their steps heavy. The guardian here was another Jingdao user, but its power was of a different world. It didn't assume a stance. It simply threw a punch.
The air *screamed*. A visible shockwave of pure force ripped outward. Trees at the edge of the forest groaned, their leaves torn away. The stone beneath their feet cracked in a web of fissures. Gen and Liang braced, their own energy flaring, but they were driven back, boots scraping stone.
They attacked together. Gen's reinforced punches met an immovable wall of light. Liang's white lightning was deflected by a shimmering, unseen shield. For a full minute, they were stuck, battering against a will that had mastered the First Wheel to a degree they couldn't match.
Then Gen saw it—a tiny hitch in the construct's flow after a particularly heavy counter. He didn't think. He roared, throwing his entire weight into a single, desperate **Jingdao** punch, not to break the guardian, but to meet its next strike head-on and halt its momentum.
***CRACK-BOOM!***
The collision of forces staggered the light-figure for a single, crucial second. Its guard dipped.
Liang was already there. He didn't use lightning. He formed a short, dense blade of solidified earth from his Kalash and drove it like a dagger into the space where the construct's heart would be.
The guardian shattered silently.
Both boys were breathing hard, sweat and blood mixing on their skin from small cuts. They didn't stop. They pushed forward, into the third ring.
Li Fen, watching from the trees, frowned deeply. This ring was where most inner disciples failed. To see these two, newcomers, wounded and panting but still standing here… it was disturbing. It spoke of a brutal, untamed potential.
The guardian in this ring was different. It was still made of light, but it wore the faint, transparent outline of a mask over its blank face. It held no weapon. It simply waited.
"He's see-through," Gen wheezed, trying to mock the tension. "Fancy mask can't hide that."
"Be careful," Liang warned, his Master's Eyes seeing not a form, but a dense, terrifying knot of solidified intent. "This one is—"
The masked figure moved. It didn't run. It was simply in front of Liang, having covered the distance in the space between blinks. It raised a single finger. The gesture was gentle, almost scholarly.
It touched the air in front of Liang's forehead.
The five Jade Needles erupted with light, a silent, blinding flash that shot into the sky like a beacon. Across the mountain, in the training grounds and pavilions, disciples and elders alike stopped and turned, eyes wide.
Liang felt no pain. Only a vast, gentle, and utterly unstoppable pressure. It lifted him off his feet and carried him back, as if on a soft cushion of air, depositing him gently but firmly outside the stone circle, next to a stunned Li Fen. He was unharmed, but his spirit felt… politely dismissed.
"Gen! Get back!" Liang yelled, scrambling up.
Li Fen's calm was gone, replaced by real alarm. "Retreat now! That will… it's said to be the imprint of the Jade Palace founder himself! He doesn't use spells. He uses the **Jingdao of the World's End**. The needles aren't the trial! They're the *cage* for things like that!"
Gen understood. The terrible, humming power in the masked figure wasn't a challenge for students. It was a warning. A boundary. His body trembled. His heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird. Every instinct screamed to run.
But beneath the fear was the other feeling. The one he'd come here for. The raw, real danger he couldn't find in a sparring ring. The feeling that made his blood sing and his mind go clear and cold.
He didn't run.
"Gen, NO!" Liang screamed.
Gen charged. It wasn't a clever attack. It was a raw, roaring surge forward, his Eternal Body glowing like a dying star.
The masked figure watched him come. It sidestepped Gen's wild, powerful swing with an effortless grace. As Gen stumbled past, off-balance, the figure raised that same single finger.
It did not touch Gen. It touched the thin, glowing barrier of protective energy the needles had placed around him the moment he entered their circle.
The effect was not gentle.
A soundless, concussive **FORCE** slammed into Gen. He didn't fly; he was *erased* from the circle. One moment he was there, the next he was a blur crashing through the forest, snapping saplings and smashing into the trunks of older trees with a series of sickening thuds.
He came to a stop thirty yards away, slumped against a broken pine. His vision swam. His whole body was one massive bruise. With a thick, wet cough, he spat a mouthful of bright red blood onto the moss.
Through the haze of pain, he could just make out the five Jade Needles, standing silent and impassive in the distance. The masked guardian was gone. The only sound was Liang and Li Fen shouting his name as they ran toward him through the broken trees.