Tianlei bolted through the academy streets like a man pursued by demons, his heart hammering against his ribs. The Beast Hall's proximity to the dormitories was the only mercy the heavens had granted him.
if it had been farther, he wasn't sure his legs would have carried him this far without collapsing.
He burst into the room and slammed the door shut behind him with enough force to rattle the frame.
His roommate whose name he still didn't know looked up from his bed, eyes widening in disbelief.
"I heard you got transferred to the military branch," the young man said, voice laced with dry amusement.
"Never thought you'd come back with your mind half-gone."
Tianlei barely registered the words. If that was meant as a joke, it fell flat against the storm raging inside him.
Without a reply, he rushed into the small attached bathroom and twisted the shower knob to full blast. Hot water cascaded over him while he was still fully clothed in the tattered provisional Executor uniform.
He scrubbed at his face with a rough brush, desperate to erase the unnatural hue, but the misty translucence clung stubbornly to his skin like a second layer.
Finally, he peeled off the drenched fabric, wrapped a towel around his waist, and stormed back out toward his bed's drawer.
"What is going on with you lately…?" his roommate started, trailing off as Tianlei ignored him completely.
"Damn it," Tianlei muttered, rummaging through the drawer until his fingers closed around a neatly folded set of academy robes.
His roommate sighed and fell back onto his bed. "Clearly he doesn't care what I think. Why should I bother?"
Tianlei retreated to the bathroom again, emerging moments later fully dressed in the crisp uniform. The misty pallor still lingered on his exposed skin, faint but unmistakable under the room's light.
"It seems you weren't treated well out there," his roommate observed quietly, sitting up.
Tianlei forced himself to breathe, to calm the frantic pulse in his throat.
"At least… I managed to benefit from it," he replied, voice steadier than he felt.
His roommate rose from the bed. "Miss Xue told me to inform you the moment you returned—to see her immediately."
"Alright."
Tianlei took two steps toward the door, then halted. A sudden wave of shame washed over him. All this time sharing a room, and he had never once asked the other boy's name. The arrogance had been his, not the roommate's.
"My apologies," he said, turning back. "I'm usually not this… cold."
The other boy's eyes narrowed slightly, curious.
"I'm Feng Tianlei," he continued, softening his tone deliberately. "May I know your name?"
"Huh. Just call me Xiao Yao."
"Xiao Yao… intriguing. So you're from the Xiao family?"
"Hmm, not exactly." Xiao Yao gave a small, self-deprecating shrug. "Just a normal family that happens to bear the name Xiao."
"Alright."
Xiao Yao straightened, taking a few steps closer. "This is our first real conversation. It's an honor talking to someone from the Feng Earth Tower."
He extended his hand.
Tianlei's eyes widened. "How did you know I was from…?"
"The chaos you caused in Silver Town almost got me fired," Xiao Yao said with a wry grin.
Tianlei let out a short, surprised laugh. He remembered that day vividly ; the furious clash with the three guards from the Feng Earth Tower. That incident had been the final straw, the reason he'd been shipped off to the military branch for "disciplinary action."
Without hesitation, he clasped Xiao Yao's hand firmly.
"Once again… my apologies."
Xiao Yao's grin widened. "Good to know you're not the arrogant rich-kid type."
Arrogant rich kid? The words almost made Tianlei laugh again, bitterly this time. Abandoned by his own family, forced to scrape by in the slums, serving tyrannical households, he had never once been called that. The irony stung, but he let it pass.
Xiao Yao waved a hand casually and headed for the door. "Your skin looks pale. You should heal it."
Tianlei nodded.
"I'll grab some food too. Want anything?"
Tianlei managed a small, genuine smile and nodded again. A flicker of warmth stirred in his chest. After everything, the prospect of even one or two friends felt like an unexpected victory.
The door clicked shut behind Xiao Yao, leaving the room wrapped in sudden, heavy quiet.
Tianlei sank to the floor in the center of the room, crossing his legs into a meditation stance.
"I think I should cure this…" he murmured, staring at his hands.
Patches of misty, ethereal hue mingled with his original skin tone. The Great Di Forest had hidden the change under its dim, diffused light but the harsh sun of the human world had exposed it mercilessly.
He raised his hands to chest level, then slowly lowered them to rest on his thighs.
His spirit core ignited in response, sending waves of demonic flame-heat radiating through his chest. The energy surged along his blood vessels, clashing against the lingering cold essence that had saturated his body for over a month.
The cold had been pervasive, not truly icy, but enough to make his body resist any foreign element. Thankfully, his spirit core forged from Xue Ren's demon heart flame was far more potent than mere chilled air.
The demonic qi flowed like molten fire through his veins. Gradually, the misty patches on his skin began to fade, retreating until his flesh regained a more human warmth and color.
When the cleansing finished, however, his overall strength had… diminished. Not drastically, but noticeably.
"How come my strength has slightly reduced?" Tianlei whispered.
"Could it be…"
"Old Ghost Shi," he called softly. "Does merging two opposing essences in one body affect overall strength?"
The storage ring flared with silver light, and a tired, rasping voice echoed out.
"For a cultivator with a weak foundation, yes it does. Your demon qi carries flame essence; the cold air you absorbed carries icy essence. It's like fire and ice warring for dominance inside you."
Tianlei rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Does that mean my strength will keep degrading now that I'm back in the human world?"
Old Ghost Shi exhaled wearily. "You forcibly advanced from 3-star to 7-star using that cold air. Your foundation is fragile. Without stabilization, your gains will erode."
Tianlei gritted his teeth, anger flaring like a storm within him. All that struggle, all that pain and it had been borrowed power after all.
"Does that mean I can't advance further?"
"Correct. Not until your foundation is solid. It's like building a house on water."
Tianlei forced himself to calm. "All that struggle… amounted to nothing."
The ring's light dimmed slightly, mirroring the ghost's exhaustion. "As long as you find something to stabilize your foundation, all is not lost."
"I guess that's for later."
With a flick of his wrist, the storage ring ignited fully. The massive, crippled Hell Minotaur materialized and collapsed heavily onto the floor before him.
The level 3 beast still breathed . It was shallow, ragged but its meridians were shattered. It could not move, could not resist.
Yet even in defeat, the oppressive aura of a level 3 lingered in the air.
Tianlei touched his forehead and closed his eyes.
"Drowning Cursed Mind technique," he whispered.
An aura rippled outward from his mind, but he held it back from attacking. Instead, he probed deeper.
Silence enveloped the room.
"The Drowning Cursed Mind technique is complex," he murmured. "It has many stages I have yet to understand. Grandfather must have left all the inscriptions embedded in my mind."
Sixteen floating symbols appeared before his inner vision—intricate patterns of interlocking letters, digits, and ancient runes. His gaze moved from one to the next.
"Mind Cursing Art… Three Illusion Art… Star Cursing Gaze…" All of them were profound, high-tier heavenly techniques far beyond his current realm.
The current version of Drowning Cursed Mind felt like a weak mother giving birth to powerful offspring.
His attention finally settled on one particular inscription.
"Mind Manipulating Art."
The symbol drifted toward him. Tianlei extended a finger and touched it.
The surface rippled like water, and a calm, familiar voice echoed in his mind.
"The Mind Manipulating Art is a low-tier technique that allows you to extract and manipulate an opponent's skills, provided their mental state is weakened."
A slow smile spread across Tianlei's face.
"Perfect. This will help me learn the Gravity of Light technique."
He touched the inscription again. It liquefied into shimmering droplets that flowed into his forehead, forming a small circle with three intertwining triangles.
A sharp spike of pain lanced through his skull. He flinched but quickly steadied himself.
He pressed a finger to the new symbol. A matching mark emerged at his fingertip.
With a wave, he sent it flying toward the Hell Minotaur's forehead. The symbol embedded itself with a faint pulse.
Access to the beast's memories flooded in immediately—blurry at first, then sharpening into flashes of slaughter, of harvesting weak Bodhi Vein Grasses under the Mad Bull King's command. The images resisted, the beast fighting back even in its broken state.
But the technique persisted until deeper inscriptions surfaced.
Tianlei slowly opened his eyes.
"It seems all of the Hell Minotaur's techniques are imprinted in its bloodline. Extracting them will require the core."
He leaned forward, voice cold and commanding.
"Give me your core, and I will let you live."
Even crippled, the beast's will flared in defiance. The symbol on its forehead cracked and shattered.
Tianlei scoffed softly.
"It seems I'll have to take it myself—even if that means ripping it out of you."