Three years later.
The Great Northern Capital had changed. The fall of the Holy Sanctuary had triggered a massive shift in the Collective of the Finite World. The Balance between the four empires was gone, replaced by a desperate arms race for the remaining Origin Energy.
In the hidden garden of the Third Princess's palace, a young man sat by a koi pond.
He was fifteen now. His frame had filled out, lean and corded with hidden strength. His face was calm, his eyes a deep, unfathomable black that seemed to hold no reflection. He wore the high-collared black robes of a Royal Scholar a position granted to him for his miraculous survival.
[Ink-Wash Heart: 72% Progress]
[Status:Stabilizing Third Layer of the Unwritten Library]
Xuan Ye watched the fish. To a normal observer, he was just a quiet teenager. But in his Ink-Wash Vision, the pond was a complex web of Matter and Spirit Energy. He could see the Possible Deaths of every fish in the water.
"You're late with the translations, Xuan Ye."
The voice was sharper now, more mature.
Zhao Ling stepped into the garden. She was eighteen, her beauty having blossomed into something crystalline and cold. She was now a Peak Foundation Establishment master, her Heavenly Eyes having evolved into the Jade Void Vision after years of intensive recovery.
She stopped beside him, her gaze lingering on his profile longer than was strictly necessary. Over the last three years, the page had become her closest confidant. He was the only one who didn't look at her with the greed of a suitor or the calculation of a politician.
"The records of the Ancient Twin Towers are complex, Your Highness," Xuan Ye said, standing up and bowing slightly. "The grammar of the Ancients is designed to hide the truth, not reveal it."
Zhao Ling looked at the scrolls on the table. "My father is pushing for the Ascension Trials next month. He wants me to enter the Celestial Gateway. But I still see the black shadow in my dreams, Xuan Ye. I see the world being erased."
She stepped closer, her hand brushing against his sleeve. "Sometimes... I think you're the only thing that isn't a dream."
Xuan Ye didn't move. He felt the faint, suppressed warmth of her interest. It was a variable he hadn't fully accounted for a human connection in a world of ink after everything here is written.
"I am just a scholar, Your Highness," he said, his voice soft. "I only exist because you allow me to."
"Liars are executed in this palace, Xuan Ye," she whispered, a small, rare smile playing on her lips.
Suddenly, a massive boom shook the capital. The sky turned a bruised purple, and the Lightning Tribulation Energy of the heavens began to coil around the Xuan Clan Estate in the distance.
Xuan Ye turned his head. His Ink-Wash Vision pierced through the city walls.
His cousin, Xuan Feng, was undergoing his breakthrough to the Golden Core Realm. But something was wrong. The lightning wasn't white it was a deep, forbidden red.
"A Crimson Tribulation?" Zhao Ling gasped. "That only happens when a genius threatens the balance of the Heavens."
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Any cultivator who wants to reach the next realm need to under go tribulation it is a punishment from heaven for people who cultivate in the finite world there are 9 types of tribulation
1-White lightning:for normal foundation established cultivators
2-Yellow lightning:for normal cultivators who want to reach golden core
3-Green lightning:a mutation when a cultivator who specializes in healing qi under go a tribulation it make healing more effective
4-Light blue lightning:a very powerful lightning where cultivators want to reach nascent soul it strengthens the soul
5-Orange lightning:a mutation lightning it strengthens the body
6-deep blue lightning:this type of tribulation only appears once in a millennium it strengthens the Qi in the body and soul
7-purple lightning:this type of lightning that can judge the soul and body it strengthens the laws of the universe it is so rare that none has appeared in millions of years
8-red lightning
This lighting has 3 types
1-blood lightning:the type of lightning that can strengthen the blood vessel in the Qi it is very important in cultivation
2-Scarlet Calamity lightning:a catastrophic lightning that hit 66 times each time more powerful than the previous lightning it strengthens the laws of the universes it also strengthens the soul,body and mind if you survive it can make you immune to illnesses,poison,pain,possession,death,anxiety,etc
It never appeared in billions of years
3-crimson lightning:this lightning power is unknown because it never appeared in the finite universe
9-void lightning:[error]
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Xuan Ye watched the red lightning strike the Xuan Estate. He saw his cousin screaming in the center of the storm.
It's not because he's a genius, Xuan Ye thought, his Purple Ink Core pulsing with a dark rhythm. It's because my presence in the clan is starting to leak. The Heavens are trying to find the virus, and they're looking at the closest host.
"I should go check on my family, Your Highness," Xuan Ye said, his eyes turning cold.
"I'll go with you," Zhao Ling said, her hand gripping his arm.
Xuan Ye didn't refuse. The time for hiding in the library was coming to an end. The worlds above was watching, the Emperor is plotting, and the Book of Fate won't stop until it absorb them all.
The peaceful years were over. The ink was about to flow again.