Woa and Seol-Ah moved toward the Academy's training grounds for the Entry Assessment. The air was thick with tension; today, the disciples would be sorted, and the victors would receive the Demonic Pearl—a treasure containing twenty years of refined Qi.
"I won't let them take your pearl, Young Lord," Seol-Ah whispered, clutching her small wooden staff.
"We just have to make it to the pavilion," Woa replied, leaning heavily on her shoulder to fake a limp.
"Leaving so soon, little rat?"
Cheon Jingu, the 2nd Young Master, stepped out from behind a stone pillar. Behind him stood three high-ranking lackeys. Jingu's face was twisted in a cruel sneer. "I heard the 1st Elder checked you. A 'Dead Vessel.' If you're a cripple, you won't be needing that pearl. Hand it over, and maybe I'll only break your other leg."
Woa looked at Seol-Ah. "Run to the pavilion. I'll distract them."
"But—"
"Go!" Woa shouted. As soon as Seol-Ah bolted, Woa turned and bolted toward the dense Obsidian Forest at the edge of the Academy.
"After him!" Jingu roared. "Don't let the trash escape!"
Woa skidded into a dark grove, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He wasn't fast enough yet—his body was still human, while Jingu had years of Qi training. Jingu and his lackeys surrounded him within seconds.
"Nowhere left to hide," Jingu panted, drawing a steel saber.
[Warning: Host's physical frame is 42% weaker than Target: Cheon Jingu.]
[Strategy: Defensive Attrition. I will guide your movements to minimize fatal damage while looking for an opening.]
'Just give me one chance,' Woa thought.
The fight was brutal. Woa moved with the Phantom Flicker, but without Qi, his muscles began to tear under the strain. He took a heavy punch to the ribs from a lackey—Crack—and a shallow slash from Jingu's saber across his arm.
Woa was a mess of blood and bruises, but he waited. As Jingu stepped in for a finishing strike, overconfident and sloppy, Woa's golden eyes flared.
[Opening Detected: Right Femoral Pressure Point.]
Woa lunged. He took a brutal shoulder-check from Jingu, but in exchange, he drove his fingers into Jingu's leg with mechanical precision.
"ARGH!" Jingu collapsed, his leg buckling. He slashed wildly, catching Woa in the side, sending the boy tumbling into the dirt.
"You... you little monster!" Jingu hissed, clutching his paralyzed leg. "This isn't over! I'll be back to peel the skin from your bones, Cheon Woa! Mark my words!"
Jingu, unable to walk and fearing the Academy patrols, signaled his lackeys to retreat, dragging him away. Woa lay in the dirt, clutching his bleeding side. In his hand, he held a silk pouch he'd snatched from Jingu's belt during the scuffle Inside was the Demonic Pearl.
Woa crawled into a hollow tree trunk, his vision blurring. 'Machine... I can't... I can't move.'
[Host has sustained internal bleeding and three fractured ribs. Commencing emergency consumption of the Demonic Pearl.]
Woa forced the pearl down his throat. It felt like swallowing a sun.
[Demonic Pearl detected. Twenty years of raw, unrefined Qi entering the system.]
[Warning: Host's 'Dead Vessel' cannot contain this pressure. Commencing 'Dao-Refining' process.]
Inside Woa's mind, he saw the pearl shatter. Instead of a chaotic explosion of energy that would have killed a normal child, the Dao Machine deployed thousands of golden runic threads. They caught every single drop of Qi, spinning them into organized, high-density spirals.
[Refining... 10%... 30%...]
[Reconstructing Meridians to handle increased load. This will be painful.]
'Aaaagh!' Woa screamed internally. He felt his veins being widened, the "walls" of his Qi Sea being reinforced with shimmering gold light. It wasn't just cultivation; it was a total structural upgrade.
[Integration Complete. Twenty years of Qi has been condensed into '5 Years of Pure Divine-Demonic Qi' for maximum efficiency.]
Woa's eyes snapped open. The blood on his face dried and flaked off. He stood up, and for the first time, he didn't feel like a weak, He felt a hum of power vibrating from his very marrow.