I did not stop running until the sounds of the shattered courtyard and the awful, triumphant shouts of the Pavilion assassins were nothing more than faint, dying echoes behind me. I had used the ancestral hall not as a final refuge, but as a path. The Patriarch knew of a secret, crumbling service passage meant for moving relics, a path I had once discovered while being a clumsy, curious child.
I scrambled through the narrow, dirt-floored passage. The air inside was thick with dust and the smell of ancient, forgotten incense. My side was slick with blood where the assassin's blade had grazed me, and the shoulder where the palm strike landed felt numb, a throbbing testament to my utter lack of power.
The true agony, however, resided in my head. The Demon Eye was an unruly beast. It pulsed with relentless heat, and the migraine was now a white-hot spike driving behind my right temple. I had pushed it past it's limit in the courtyard, forcing it to track multiple high-level assassins at once. Now, the constant, flickering overlay of spiritual threads and weakness points was chaotic, blurring the line between physical truth and the Eye's vision.
I finally burst out into the pre-dawn darkness of the Shadow-Wood Forest and ran until I collapsed. I found cover beneath the massive, gnarled roots of a millennia-old Ironbark tree, gasping for breath.
I lay there for a long time, forcing my breathing into the slow, steady rhythm of the Calm Heart Sutra. The pain was a distraction I could not afford. I needed to think.
The Heaven's Gaze Pavilion knew the Demon Eye was awake and unstable. They would send the next tier of hunters. My body had a deep cut and minor internal Qi trauma. My Qi reserves were near zero. My goal was simple: survive long enough to reach a level where I could resist Foundation Realm assassins. I needed to reach Meridian Foundation as quickly as possible.
I needed three things: a secure place to rest, a spiritual node to replenish Qi, and a reliable technique to advance and heal.
I forced my aching body into a sitting position and cautiously activated the Demon Eye again. I did not focus on the forest floor or the distance. I focused only on my immediate surroundings, seeking the truth of the earth right here.
The Ironbark tree's roots, which looked like impenetrable black wood to normal sight, were revealed by the Eye as a precise network of nutrient paths. Just past the root structure, the ground glowed with a faint, almost imperceptible silver sheen a minor Qi accumulation point. Perfect.
Now, the hiding spot.
I turned my focus toward the trunk. The massive wood looked solid, but as the Insight of Ruin as I've started to call it, sharpened I saw it: a tiny, darkened circle barely the size of my finger on the south side, where the roots met the trunk.
I crawled to the spot and scraped away the heavy, dark moss. The Eye's vision showed a faint, almost invisible fault line radiating from that circle, curving into the dense wood.
I pressed my hand against the spot and pushed lightly with the meager, newly circulating Qi in my hand.
CRACK.
A section of the Ironbark, roughly my size, caved inward, revealing a small, dry, naturally-formed hollow spot within the trunk. It was pitch black, perfectly hidden, and smelled faintly of earth and dry leaves. A minor spatial fluctuation suggested a rudimentary, natural dampening effect against spiritual detection.
I slipped inside, pushing the heavy wooden section back into place. I was safe for the moment.
I pressed my back against the cool wood, the adrenaline finally starting to recede, leaving behind a crushing fatigue.
The Technique.
I desperately needed a healing or refinement technique, but the Longwei Clan's focus had been on formation scripts and ocular cultivation, not brute force or rapid healing. The only method I knew was the generic, slow Calm Heart Sutra.
I closed my physical eyes, focusing the Demon Eye inward. I applied the Insight of Ruin to myself.
I saw the damage, the tear in the muscles near my floating rib, the bruised, fragmented Qi surrounding my shoulder meridian, and the major, glaring flaw, the raw volatile state of my own awakened eye, constantly drawing Qi to sustain itself.
But I also saw the flow. I saw the path of the Calm Heart Sutra as a gentle, slow path designed for stability.
And next to it, the Eye highlighted every single untapped potential path in my body. My meridians were like a wide river with dozens of unused tributaries.
If I use the Qi to push through the major blockages, I can open those tributaries, increasing the flow rate ten-fold.
It was a suicidal risk. Forcing Qi through blockages could cause permanent internal damage. This was why cultivators sought flawless, proven techniques.
But I had the Demon Eye. I did not need a map. I could see the truth of the terrain.
I began to cultivate, slowly at first. I did not follow the Sutra's gentle path. I guided my Qi to the most significant blockage a subtle twist in the Qi Vein that ran down my left leg.
Using the Eye's vision, I saw the exact angle, the exact pressure needed. I exerted a minute, perfect burst of Qi.
POP.
The sensation was not pain, but a rush of cool, clear energy. The blockage dissolved. Qi surged through the newly cleared path, instantly boosting the efficiency of my circulation.
I continued, systematically eliminating the minor flaws in my internal structure. I was not just cultivating; I was refining my meridians, pushing my body toward the Meridian Foundation realm before I had even properly stabilized my Qi Vein Opening.
Hours passed. Outside, the Shadow-Wood Forest began to fill with the sounds of the day.
I eliminated ninety percent of the minor structural flaws in my Qi channels. My cultivation base, which had been erratic and weak, now felt utterly stable and powerful for my realm. I had officially solidified the Qi Vein Opening stage and was on the doorstep of Meridian Foundation.
More importantly, the damage from the attack had healed significantly, pulled together and cleansed by the perfectly guided Qi.
I opened my eyes. The migraine had dulled to a manageable ache. The Eye was still hot, but no longer searing.
The Insight of Ruin had proven its greatest initial value: perfect efficiency and rapid self-refinement. I had condensed months of blind, painful cultivation into a single, focused session.
Now, for the last piece: The Path.
I needed to choose a direction. The Shadow-Wood Forest was vast, but the Heaven's Gaze Pavilion would fan out, searching for any disturbance.
I forced the Demon Eye open, pushing its focus outward, further than before. The migraine flared instantly, warning me. I needed to do this I was not safe, not yet.
I ignored it. Truth cannot be hidden.
The Eye expanded its vision past the Ironbark tree, past the forest edge.
I saw the invisible threads of the world.
The path North was thick with knots of red, danger. The path West led directly into Azure Serpent Sect territory, our enemies, suicide. The path East was a faint, winding thread leading toward a cluster of distant, rugged mountains the Silent Peaks. The thread was thinner, almost hidden, but it was clear and unknotted. It led toward an area dominated by small, independent martial sects and ruins, far from the central control of the Nine Great Sects.
The Silent Peaks. A place of relative obscurity, perfect for a fugitive to lie low.
As I watched the thread, a new pattern overlayed the vision. Faint, ethereal strands of light, like silver webbing, began to appear near the end of the Silent Peaks path.
The Silver Web. I recognized the spiritual signature of a powerful, illusion-based defensive formation, the kind used to seal off a sacred or forbidden site.
A Sect.
A small, likely minor sect had sealed itself away in the Silent Peaks. They were too far from the Nine Great Sects to be major power players, and their seclusion suggested they valued privacy over political influence.
A sect that values privacy. A secluded, unknotted path. A place to hide and grow.
It was risky, but the thread was cleaner than the others. I had to enter a sect to learn proper cultivation techniques and accelerate my growth toward the Core realms. If I stayed in the wilderness, my progress would stall.
My chosen destination, The Silent Peaks, and whatever sect was hidden there.
I lowered the Eye's power, shutting down the terrifying, beautiful vision. The white-hot migraine subsided, leaving me exhausted but resolute.
Just as I was about to move, a sudden, powerful fluctuation in Qi hit the surrounding area.
Not near the tree. Directly into the forest, two miles to the west.
The assassins were close. They were not sweeping the area; they were moving to cut off the exits.
I saw four figures: three in the indigo robes of the Heaven's Gaze Pavilion, and one in the blue-and-gold of the Azure Serpent Sect a higher-level Core Condensation expert.
And I saw something else: a large, shimmering thread of vibrant crimson fate that pulsed around the four men a shared destiny line. They were moving with unified purpose.
They are hunting my Eyes.
But I also saw the flaw in their coordination. The Azure Serpent expert was powerful but rash; his line of movement was slightly ahead of the others, creating a minor, tactical gap in the formation.
I moved silently out of the Ironbark's embrace. I left the spiritual node behind, turning my back on the easy source of Qi. I had to move fast, using the distraction of the hunt.
I turned East, toward the clean, unknotted path of the Silent Peaks, my eyes burning with controlled rage and the terrifying knowledge of the truth.
I would enter the sect, not as a disciple, but as a flaw in their system, a spy in plain sight, using my sight to harvest their knowledge and power. My survival depended on being the most effective parasite the cultivation world had ever seen.