Fang Yu Zhao's boots crunched on the polished jade paths of the inner sect, the weight of his new token a cold promise at his waist. Whispers slithered from clusters of outer disciples pressed against the walls: *The beggar? Layer 4 in a night? He's consorting with demons!* Their fear was a balm, sharpening his senses. The inner district unfolded like a dream of excess—pavilions suspended on swirling qi clouds, spirit springs that bubbled with liquid essence thick enough to chew, and air humming with ambient power that made his meridians twitch hungrily.
But dreams hid thorns. Eyes tracked him from shadowed alcoves: jealous juniors, scheming seniors, perhaps even elder spies. *Power is a beacon for blades,* Fang Yu Zhao reflected, his face a mask of calm as he wove suppression arts to cap his aura at Layer 3. *Forge mine keener than theirs.*
Cloudpeak Pavilion #47 awaited—a squat tower of white marble veined with spirit crystal, its door wards parting at his token's pulse. Inside, luxury assaulted: a grand hall with silk cushions embroidered in gold, a private alchemy forge, and a spirit gathering array etched into the floor, pulling qi from heaven and earth at tenfold speed. No more mud pits and stolen stones. This was the sect's bribe to bind talents.
He claimed the central cultivation chamber, robes discarded as he assumed the lotus position amid glowing runes. *Devouring Phantom Meridian* cycled, stolen essences from Wang Lei and the trials weaving into his voids like threads into a noose. Layer 4 Peak solidified, shadows dancing across his skin like living tattoos.
Then, the whisper came—not a mechanical chime, but a voice like grinding grave stones, resonant and ancient, blooming in his sea of consciousness.
**"Heir of the endless voids... the essences settle. Your meridian labyrinth expands. Behold your ascent: Qi Condensation Layer 4, at its zenith."**
The jade pendant at his chest warmed to a fever pitch, projecting flickering runes in archaic script—pre-cataclysm tongue from the Immortal Desolation Era. No sterile panels or gamified prompts. Just this *Eldritch Sovereign*, the pendant's core intelligence, stirring more insistently since the mutation. It spoke as mentor, tallied gains, manifested rewards. Yet each word carried a subtle undercurrent, like fingers testing the edges of his soul.
**"Harvest the array's bounty: 500 units of ambient qi drawn into your voids. As decreed, a reward takes form—the Meridian Expansion Pellet. Devour it, and widen the paths of power."**
A matte-black pill materialized in his palm, coiling shadows within. Fang Yu Zhao ingested it without hesitation, feeling qi flood his channels, stretching them like heated iron. The sovereign's presence lingered, a faint probe brushing his thoughts—curious, possessive?
*Counselor or warden?* The question gnawed, but power drowned it. For now.
A sharp rap echoed. The door wards shimmered, admitting Li Xue without invitation. Her frost-silk robes clung like glacial mist, accentuating the lethal curves beneath. Foundation Establishment Early aura chilled the chamber to hoarfrost, spirit steam rising from her breath. Prodigy of the ice lineage, whispered to have drained three male geniuses via "dual cultivation" pacts, their foundations shattered in her bedchambers.
"Such meteoric rise, Junior Brother Fang," she purred, eyes raking him appraisingly. "Wang Lei's token looks far better on you than his corpse ever did."
No warmth in her gaze—only the cold calculus of ambition. Ally potential? Or a vine that strangled its host?
"Senior Sister Li graces this humble peak," Fang Yu Zhao replied evenly, shadows subtly coiling at his feet. "Dawn business, or midnight schemes?"
She flicked a jade slip his way, iridescent with embedded map runes. "Abyssal Ruins fragment. Forbidden Peak's hidden maw. Elders' wards falter under tonight's qi storm. Inside: nascent soul herbs to forge pills, demonic inheritances to eclipse orthodox trash. We split 50/50. Your devouring art clears beasts; my ice seals paths."
The slip synced with his pendant's rune-map: a labyrinthine cavern system beneath the peak, puppet guardians at the threshold, a Layer 7 abyssal wyrm coiled at its heart. Irresistible. But her inclusion? *She scents my secrets like blood in water.*
"60/40. I lead," he countered, imprinting the paths.
Li Xue's lips curved in a frost-kissed smile. "Insolent for a fresh inner. 55/45. Midnight at the peak base. Betray me, and your marrow freezes eternal."
She turned, hips swaying, qi trail lingering like scented venom.
**"The ice witch covets your voids, heir,"** the sovereign murmured, voice dripping disdain. **"Her frost would temper not your dao, but chain it. Discard when ripe for harvest."**
*Your verdict weighs heavy,* Fang Yu Zhao projected silently. *What stake have you?*
**"Eons of dominion. Heed, and the cosmos kneels."** A chuckle, like crumbling tombs.
Sun climbed as Fang Yu Zhao refined further, hitting Layer 5 Early amid puppet spoils from mental simulations. Storm clouds gathered by dusk—perfect veil.
***
### The Storm's Embrace: Descent into the Maw
Midnight winds screamed like damned souls as they reached Forbidden Peak's shadowed foothills. Lightning veins split the sky, qi turbulence fraying elder wards into flickering blue haze. The cavern entrance gaped—a jagged throat exhaling miasmic fog thick with abyssal essence, promising both fortune and oblivion.
Li Xue moved first, frost qi weaving translucent bridges over bottomless chasms where void winds howled. "Puppet sentinels inbound. Earth golems bound by soul strings—sever them, or they regenerate endlessly."
Shadows boiled from Fang Yu Zhao's form. Ten colossal hulks lumbered from the gloom, rune-etched stone fists the size of millstones, eyes glowing with enslaved beast souls.
He unleashed first: Phantom Maw yawned cavern-wide, latching onto the invisible qi strings animating them. Essence unraveled in threads of gray smoke, golems crumbling to rubble like felled titans. Li Xue followed, ice spears lancing the stragglers, flash-freezing joints before shattering.
**"Puppet cores claimed: 450 units of bound qi. Layer 4 zenith breached—Layer 5 Early manifests. Slay efficiently, heir."**
"Such a devouring art," Li Xue noted, voice laced with hunger as she eyed the dissipating shadows. "Fang Clan lost legacy? Or something fouler?"
Press on. Tunnels forked into a maze, floors etched with kill-traps: venom darts whistling from walls, illusion arrays conjuring phantom sect armies mid-charge. Fang Yu Zhao's ruthless intuition pierced the mirages—claws batting darts into maws that devoured their poison outright. Li Xue's domain iced mechanisms solid.
Hours bled in the depths. A crystal grotto opened: veins of pure abyssal essence throbbing like arteries. At center, the prize—*Void Devour Lotus*, petals black as sin, nascent soul grade, capable of birthing a second spirit root mutation.
Li Xue lunged like a striking viper. "This lotus is mine!"
Frost chains lashed out, binding stem and roots. Fang Yu Zhao's claws flashed, severing her bindings mid-pull, his maw claiming the larger half in a vortex of petals.
Betrayal ignited—her palm cratered into his back with *Frozen Heart Seal*, glacial qi invading like needles of eternity, freezing meridians from within.
*Predictable.* Shadows inverted the flow, phantom voids siphoning her foundation essence in retaliation. Li Xue staggered, porcelain skin paling to ghost-white, lips parting in shock.
"You dare—reverse my art?!"
"55/45," Fang Yu Zhao snarled, shadows retracting. "Or walk empty-handed."
Fury warred with pragmatism in her eyes. The ruins held more. "Truce... this time."
***
### The Wyrm's Coiled Wrath
Deeper veins pulsed denser, air turning to qi tar that clung to lungs. Earthquakes heralded the guardian: an Abyssal Wyrm, colossal serpent at Qi Condensation Layer 7 Peak, scales etched with natural void runes, maw a bottomless eclipse devouring light itself.
It erupted from a subterranean lava sea, coils spanning the cavern, roar shaking stalactites to dust. "Flesh sacks... your souls shall weave my nest!"
Li Xue countered instantly: *Glacial Sovereign Domain*—a blizzard maelstrom encasing scales in meter-thick ice. The wyrm thrashed, tail whipcracking her into a crystal wall with bone-jarring force, cracks spiderwebbing her guard.
Fang Yu Zhao evaded coils, eyes locked on patterns: *Breath weapon core-vulnerable. Maw-starved for abyssal match.*
**"The beast's soul-shard resonates, heir,"** the sovereign intoned urgently. **"Intercept its void breath. Claim the lineage blood."**
The wyrm inhaled, cavern dimming as it exhaled—a beam of pure nothingness erasing boulders to atoms. Fang Yu Zhao met it head-on, Phantom Maw dilating impossibly, gorging on the deluge.
**"Essence deluge: 1200 units. Vessel strains—refining. Layer 5 Early ascends to Mid. Wyrm bloodline fragment imprints."**
Enraged, the wyrm lunged, fangs like void lances piercing Fang Yu Zhao's shoulder. Venom seared meridians, a corrosive tide. Agony transmuted to fuel—voids twisted, devouring toxin into adaptive strength, scales faintly budding on his wound.
Claws raked the armored underbelly, gouging deep. Li Xue rallied, *Eternal Ice Lance* drilling through flank scales amid her bloodied coughs. Distracted agony exposed the pulsing core beneath ribs.
Final gambit: Maw engulfed the core, imploding it in a cataclysmic suck. Essence tsunami crashed through Fang Yu Zhao's frame.
**"Guardian slain. Core secured for your foundation forge. Abyssal scale armor blueprint etched to soul-sea. Layer 5 Mid surges to Peak. Venom veil grants lesser poison dominion."**
Li Xue hauled herself up, gaze ravenous on the glowing core. "Share it! My domain faltered for your kill!"
He palmed it away. "Distraction earned scraps. Victory claims the prize."
Her qi flared—then quelled. Deeper riches beckoned. "The inheritance chamber. Partner onward."
***
### Codex of Forgotten Eons
The final sanctum dwarfed priors: vaulted dome inlaid with star-maps of devoured realms, a skeletal throne cradling the *Abyssal Codex*—a fist-sized jade pulsing with soul-devouring scripts. Aura promised meridian evolutions, soul-rending strikes.
Pendant ignited. **"The codex sings to kin-arts. Integrate fully. Soul Phantom Rend unlocks upon Foundation threshold. Imperative: Attain Foundation within 30 lunar cycles. Gate to higher realms unlocks thereafter."**
But klaxons wailed—elder soul-scans piercing the storm, wards reactivating.
"Flee!" Fang Yu Zhao barked. Collapsing tunnels ahead—Li Xue flash-froze a viable path through rubble. They erupted topside as lightning climaxed, seals slamming shut behind.
***
### Echoes of Fractured Oaths
Dawn gilded Cloudpeak as spoils partitioned: lotus halves halved further by greed, scales queued for forging, codex solely his—absorbed into pendant depths.
Li Xue paused at his threshold, disheveled beauty masking bruises. "Your voids... they intrigue beyond measure. Forge a dual cultivation pact? My glacial essence tempers your shadows to diamond."
**"Decline outright,"** the sovereign rasped. **"She hungers for supremacy, not symbiosis. Her bed is a grave for the unwary."**
"Consider it later," Fang Yu Zhao said aloud, tone neutral. "Equals only."
Her laughter echoed cold as she vanished into mists. *Honed edge, indeed.*
Solitude claimed, he devoured the wyrm core. Qi detonated—meridians ballooning, voids deepening.
**"Ascension: Qi Condensation Layer 6 Early. Foundation Pellet coalesces within. Heir, your frame ripens gloriously."**
Inner sect awoke to rumors: ruins breached, wyrm silenced. Elders stirred, hunts brewing.
*Bring your hounds. Their marrow sweetens the path.*
The sovereign's murmur faded: **"Eons align for the devouring sovereign. Advance unrelenting."**