The Frost-Veined Ginseng felt like a shard of ice against Kael's palm. Back in the safety of his dormitory, he locked the door and sat cross-legged on the cold floor. The moon cast a pale, judgmental light across his shoulders.
"The girl is a variable we cannot control," the relic said, its voice resonating within his skull. "But her fear will keep her silent for now. People do not rush to speak of horrors they cannot explain. Use this time. Consume the catalyst."
Kael didn't hesitate. He bit into the root. It didn't taste like earth, it tasted like liquid winter. The cold rushed down his throat, spreading through his chest until his lungs felt brittle.
"Now," the relic commanded. "Release the suppression. Let the Qi hunt the Mana."
Inside him, the dam burst. The heat of his bound Qi meridians flared white-hot, clashing violently with the suppressed mana heart. Usually, this would result in the agonizing "Flicker" that left him gasping. But the ginseng acted as a freezing conduit.
The ice of the herb met the fire of his blood.
CRACK.
It was a sound only Kael could hear, the sound of the first seal on his Qi pathways shattering.
His body convulsed. Blood leaked from his pores, dark and turgid, as years of forced suppression were purged in a single, violent heartbeat. His vision exploded into a kaleidoscope of gold and silver. For a moment, he wasn't Kael Ashborne, he was a bridge between heaven and earth, like a vessel being hollowed out and reforged by two warring gods.
"Endure!" the relic roared. "If you lose focus now, the collapse will be irreversible!"
Kael screamed into his own mind, clutching his knees until his knuckles popped. He forced the icy mana to wrap around his burning meridians, stitching them back together even as the Qi expanded them. It was the balance he had practiced, but magnified a hundredfold.
Then, the storm subsided.
Kael slumped forward, face-pressing into the floorboards. He was drenched in sweat and foul-smelling impurities, but he felt... light. For the first time in his life, his body didn't feel like a heavy suit of armor. It felt like a weapon.
He squeezed his fist. The wood of the floorboard splintered beneath his knuckles without him even trying.
"The first lock is open," the relic said, sounding uncharacteristically weary. "Your physical strength has quadrupled. Your mana circulation is no longer a leak, it is a stream. You are still weak, but you are no longer a victim."
"I feel... alive," Kael whispered, his voice rasping.
"Don't get too comfortable," the relic warned. "The world is about to get much louder."
~~~
The next morning, the "Quiet" was gone, replaced by a roar of excitement that shook the very foundations of Arcanum Academy.
When Kael stepped into the Grand Hall, he didn't see the usual rows of bored students. He saw a sea of anxious faces and shimmering armor. At the front of the hall, the Headmaster, a man whose presence was like a mountain of crushing gravity, stood with his hands tucked into his sleeves.
Instructor Halvek stepped forward, his voice amplified by a thunderous spell-array.
"Silence!"
The hall went still.
"The Council has spoken," Halvek announced, his eyes scanning the crowd with a grim intensity. "The borders of the empire are thinning. The resources of the inner towers are depleted. To ensure the strength of the next generation, we will not wait for graduation."
He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in.
"In three days, the entire second and third-year classes will be transported to the Wild Abyss."
A collective gasp rippled through the hall. The Wild Abyss was a fractured dimension, a place where mana was feral and the beasts were ancient. It was a graveyard for the unprepared.
"This is not a field trip," Halvek barked. "This is the Abyssal Harvest. You will form groups of four. You will hunt. You will gather. You will compete. The groups with the highest-grade resources will receive inner-sanctum cultivation techniques and spirit-stones."
His gaze turned icy.
"But be warned. The Abyss does not care for your noble lineages or your academic records. It is a place of absolute lawlessness. Lives will be lost. If you are afraid, withdraw now and leave the Academy forever. There is no room for cowards in the age to come."
Kael felt a chill that had nothing to do with the ginseng. In the crowd, he saw Lucien smiling, his eyes already searching for the strongest teammates. Then, his gaze drifted to the corner of the hall.
Luna was there.
She looked pale, her eyes dark-rimmed as if she hadn't slept. The moment she felt Kael looking at her, she flinched, her hand instinctively moving to the daggers at her waist.
"Four paths, one goal," the relic whispered. "The Abyss is the perfect place for a 'Flicker Core' to disappear... and for a Dual Cultivator to rise."
Kael tightened his grip on his sleeves. The "Quiet" was over. The hunt was about to begin.