"Close the door behind you," Defying Sun said as he gathered a stack of papers from a side table and settled behind a broad desk made from the same flawless marble as the rest of the building.
Lyn closed the heavy door before approaching. "Do I have to sign all of these?"
"Yes. It's Sect policy."
Vilen glanced at the top page as though refreshing his memory. "But I should tell you what you are agreeing to first. Right. You will abide by Morninglight's rules. They are simple. Attending class is not mandatory, but appearing for the monthly trials is." He shuffled one page aside and continued.
"You will be assigned quarters and given a key. Food, equipment, and shards all require Merit Points. You can earn them by attending classes, completing assigned tasks, passing trials, or duelling another student. There is only one important rule: avoid killing anyone if possible. It causes a massive point deduction."
A dry, humourless scoff escaped him "Stealing is also... not tolerated. We are still a 'virtuous sect,' after all. "He turned another page. "Shards can be exchanged or purchased with materials or points. You will also be placed into a class according to your initial assessment."
Vilen checked the back of the final sheet. "Yep. That is everything. Wait outside my office once you are finished, and do not wander off."
He pushed the stack across the desk, then added as though the thought had nearly escaped him:
"Oh, right. Sign it."
Lyn examined the blank signature line.
A knife?
Noticing his hesitation, Vilen gestured toward the paper. "Oh, yes. Cut your finger, just a little, then press a blood print onto the signature line."
These commoners...
Vilen sighed inwardly.
After a moment Lyn nicked the end of one finger and pressed the welling blood against the paper. The second his print touched the signature line, the entire contract dissolved into motes of light that spiralled upward and vanished into the air.
"That settles it," Vilen said, already looking past him. "Wait outside. A disciple will bring you a Shard with more information inside it."
Lyn nodded and left, the marble door whispering shut behind him. The hallway outside stood in stark contrast to the chaotic courtyard. It was a hushed, polished artery of authority, with several corridors branching toward offices marked by titles Lyn did not recognise. Scholars in elegant golden robes moved past with silent purpose, their attention fixed upon scrolls or distant thoughts.
Only the faint rustle of fabric disturbed the silence. Lyn found a marble bench near Defying Sun's door and sat down.
Who exactly is Vilen? Does this place belong to him, or to the sect? The soldiers called him General. He has an office inside the administration building and operates under sect policy, although he clearly holds it in contempt... He possesses a personal vendetta against a Rank Fifteen and enough authority to oversee a lethal training ground within sect territory.
Lyn did not yet possess the complete picture, but he had gathered pieces. Vilen's personality, habits, preferences, dislikes, and position could all be studied. That knowledge was a resource. In a world where power served as law, understanding the powerful was a currency no less valuable than tokens or Merit Points.
A commoner can rise into nobility simply by knowing the right people.
He settled into patient stillness. Approximately ten minutes later, a disciple approached with a weary expression, glancing between Lyn and a document held in one hand.
"Ryn?"
"Yes."
Without another word, the disciple opened his Shard Gate and released a small object. It struck the marble floor between them with a light clatter. The object resembled a miniature glass bag no larger than a coin. One didn't need to be particularly clever to infer from the shard's appearance that it was used for storage.
Just like that? This must be a Storage Shard. Rank One, perhaps?
He bent down, picked it up, and attempted to place it directly into his Vessel Realm. The moment the shard passed through his gate, foreign Essence collided with his Sea. Violent waves churned through the Vessel Realm as sharp pain lanced into him, forcing Lyn to tear the shard back out before the disturbance could worsen. He inhaled sharply, one hand trembling around the glass object.
He did not even retract his Essence. This has to be against the rules.
A colder understanding quickly replaced it.
No. This is an unspoken test. What Defying Sun wants to say is simple: If you cannot manage even this much, then you are worthless.
The contaminated shard presented an obstacle with only two obvious solutions. Lyn could possess enough skill to purge the foreign Essence himself, or he could spend Merit Points and pay someone else to do it. As a newcomer, he had no Merit Points to spare, and entering debt was not an option he would consider. In his mind debt in a place like Morninglight would not be measured only in points. Eventually, it would be measured in blood and servitude. His mother had often been critical of the sect's supposed virtue. In her eyes, the sect was not righteous at all; she would even go so far as to say it was only a step away from becoming a dark sect. Her views had influenced him, though he had never had any particular reason to hate the sect himself. He had remained largely neutral on the matter.
But now, he was unwilling to take any risks. He did not doubt his mother's judgment. Lyn looked more carefully at the disciple. Stained bandages wrapped the man's hands, while his once-white-and-gold uniform had become dirty and frayed from what appeared to be harsh training. He was another student carrying out a menial assignment, likely in exchange for Merit Points. Whether Lyn succeeded or failed meant nothing to him; he merely needed to deliver the package.
The disciple met Lyn's gaze without interest and waited silently, perhaps expecting him to ask for assistance. Lyn closed his fingers around the contaminated shard, feeling the cool glass press against his skin.
"I will refine it myself." he said calmly, revealing nothing through his voice. The disciple gave a single, slow nod before turning away, his duty complete. Lyn remained on the bench with the Storage Shard resting in his left hand. He focused on the sea within his Vessel Realm, directed his intent, and allowed his Essence to flow into his arm. Gathering it around the stubborn foreign residue, he began forcing the contamination out. Essence itself could also be used to protect and reinforce the body, but doing so was extremely costly. For that reason, most cultivators kept their Essence confined to their Vessel Realm. Two hours passed in silent, grinding effort.
Refinement. From what I remember, this is only one of the available methods. The slow one.
He rested the shard upon his knee and massaged his temples while recalling the information he had obtained from the Information Shard purchased in Hazelrun.
The first method applies to a naturally formed shard untouched by another will, containing neither foreign Essence nor foreign Truth Carvings. Place it inside the Vessel Realm, sacrifice a proportional number of your own Truth Carvings, and the bond forms immediately.
It was a clean transaction: a general weakening of one's cultivation in exchange for the shard's refinement and later activation. Technically, the Truth Carvings had not been lost; they resided within the shard. However, if the shard were ever destroyed, they would be lost with it.
The second method is to force your Essence into a contaminated shard while it remains in the physical world, then purge the foreign residue hour by hour, or even day by day.
Only after the contamination had been removed could the shard safely enter the Vessel Realm and receive the required sacrifice of Truth Carvings. It was a method suited to the poor and patient, but it was costly in Essence and could leave one severely drained. Anyone using the technique would be wise to ensure they were not ambushed before their Sea had time to recover.
The third method was reserved for the truly wealthy. By combining rare beast materials and crystals according to a precise formula, one could accelerate the purification process while sacrificing fewer Truth Carvings.
The method was fast, costly, and dangerous. A single miscalculation could destroy the shard or cause something worse. Most people, Lyn included, were restricted to the second method. With a Rank One shard, the work was merely tedious. A higher-ranked shard might require months or years.
A sudden thought passed coldly through his reasoning.
Wait.
Lyn turned his attention inward, away from the shard in his hand and toward his own past.
Back in Hazelrun, when I bought my first Light Information Shard from the market, it was Rank One. I placed it directly into my Vessel Sea and used it immediately. I never sacrificed a Truth Carving. Not even one.
His mind moved to the next example.
The Notion Shard. Defying Sun gave it to me, and I placed it inside my Vessel Realm the moment I received it. There was no resistance and no trace of his Essence. He must have purified it before giving it to me, but even a clean shard requires a sacrifice before it can be activated. I lost no Truth Carvings.
The two events formed a pattern he could no longer dismiss. That was not how refinement was supposed to function. Even a clean shard demanded a sacrifice. It was a universal law, a cost imposed by Heaven upon anyone seeking power.
His mental gaze drifted upward, passing the cluster of dwarf stars belonging to his Light Path until it reached the solitary golden star hanging within the vastness of his Vessel Sky. The closer his consciousness drew to it, the more intense the burning sensation became, as though his very mind were being scorched. He stopped before venturing too near. He withdrew his awareness, and the burning sensation immediately faded. He was not foolish enough to test what would happen if he ventured any closer.
Lyn sighed. He was almost certain the golden symbol was responsible. Some of the laws of the Dao did not seem to apply to him in the same way they did to others. He had known this for a long time, yet he had never seriously pursued the matter. In his mind, had the golden catastrophe never occurred, he probably would have remained in Hazelrun for the rest of his life.
But this was something else entirely. Eventually, he would have to uncover the truth about himself and his origins. The star gave no response, maintaining its perpetual and enigmatic silence. Yet the evidence remained. Its influence extends beyond concealing Lyn's Essence. Even if the Dao had somehow overlooked him, leaving him exempt from some of its laws, how could that golden star possess such power? That was what unsettled him most.
Lyn looked down at the half-purified Storage Shard. The hours already spent upon it suddenly seemed insignificant as a dangerous hope began taking root.
What if the golden symbol did not merely bypass the law of sacrificial refinement, but consumed the cost in my place?
His fingers tightened around the glass bag until his knuckles turned white. This was more than a simple advantage. It was a secret worth killing for, and a mystery capable of getting him killed. Another hour passed while Lyn became lost in theories surrounding the golden star.
The purification is at ninety-nine percent. Once I remove the final trace, I can place the shard inside my Vessel Realm and refine it instantly. I need to watch carefully.
He focused his Essence upon the last stubborn fragment of contamination. The residue resisted briefly before evaporating like mist beneath sunlight.
One hundred percent.
The foreign Essence had vanished. Lyn opened his Shard Gate and placed the Storage Shard inside his Vessel Realm. He put his intent into it, and the shard sank into the golden sea. He then filled it with his essence, refining it. The shard became an extension of his will, ready to activate.
Damn it. That tells me nothing.
He had expected the golden star to react, perhaps even reveal something about itself, yet it remained as silent and unreadable as ever.
Lyn turned his attention to the shard and activated it directly from within his Vessel Realm. Others were capable of doing the same without first summoning a shard into the physical world, but such control was usually limited to those nearing the peak of the mortal world or to exceptional prodigies. Lyn immediately dismissed the latter possibility. He knew himself too well to believe he was some hidden genius. Barely a month ago, he had been nothing more than a miner from an obscure village. At least a Rank Three Dao Chosen should not have been capable of it.
As he examined his Vessel Realm, Lyn noticed that the Light Information Shard had vanished from his golden Sea. His intuition suddenly drew his attention to the Storage Shard, and he immediately sensed the missing shard inside it, contained within a separate space rather than merged with it.
It seems to have added new information to my Light Information Shard. Interesting.
Information began flowing into Lyn's mind: a detailed map of the Morninglight fortress, a numerical key code for his assigned quarters, and several marked legends. One instruction carried greater priority than the rest.
Proceed to the Trial Area.
There, Lyn would be tested, assigned a class immediately, and issued a new uniform. He rose from the bench as the map settled behind his eyes. His period of grace had ended.
Lyn sighed and stepped outside.
The courtyard had transformed during the hours he spent refining the shard. Loud, overlapping voices crowded the air, while the reactivated defensive formations filled the walls with pulsing veins of silver light. Disciples moved in every direction, creating a river of purposeful disorder. Lyn ignored them and fixed the route from the map within his mind. The fortress served as Morninglight's administrative and defensive centre. The actual student quarters and training grounds had been carved into the mountainside almost ten kilometres below.
He passed through the enormous open gate. Two guards wearing masks of solidified light stood on either side, and although neither addressed him, their combined Rank Five auras pressed against Lyn with physical weight.
Beyond them, a broad path descended the colossal mountain through a series of long switchbacks. The surrounding environment had been unnaturally altered. Although the peak above remained covered in snow, everything within the formation's sphere stood free of ice. Hardy grass glowed faintly beneath Lyn's boots, mountain flowers scented the air, and the temperature remained fixed at a perfect spring-like balance.
A formation capable of taming the climate of an entire mountain. The amount of power being spent must be staggering.
Lyn began descending at a steady jog.
What kind of trial will they use? I am Rank Three, Stage One. What else is there to test?
Forty minutes later, he reached another checkpoint. A high wall of grey stone blocked the path, guarded by two more silent soldiers. After explaining his purpose, Lyn was permitted through a heavy side door. A faint deduction entered his mind through the ledger stone.
This must come from the new information added to the shard.
Merit Points: 98.
Lyn's annoyance sharpened.
So entering or leaving the fortress costs points. Nothing here is free, not even passage.
A second wall appeared before long, far larger than the first. Massive gates resembling those of a castle stood open, revealing a sprawling basin carved into the mountainside. This was the true heart of Morninglight.
Stone buildings, training rings, obstacle courses, and meditation pavilions spread across the basin. Hundreds of students, most close to Lyn's age, occupied the grounds. Some meditated with unnatural stillness, while others trained with enough intensity to crack the air with every blow. Many stood in groups, their conversations forming a constant murmur beneath the mountain wind.
Lyn returned his attention to the path and passed through the gates. The atmosphere here differed from the fortress above. It was less rigidly militaristic, but it carried a raw and competitive hunger.
He followed the map through the crowded lanes, passing sparring matches and quiet discussions until a long, low building of dark granite came into view. A short line of newcomers extended from its entrance, their faces marked by varying degrees of anxiety and arrogance.
Lyn took his place at the end and allowed his expression to settle into calm patience.
***
Vilen hurriedly opened his office door.
"Kid, my Pegasus Shard—"
He stopped when he found the hallway empty.
He refined it that quickly? Most people require six hours or more to purify that shard.
Vilen clicked his tongue.
He has already left? How long ago?
A passing elder glanced toward him.
"You must be searching for the new boy. I saw him around four hours ago. He refined the Storage Shard and left."
Without giving the matter further thought, the elder continued down the corridor with several documents tucked beneath one arm. Vilen remained at the doorway.
Four hours ago? Then the boy needed only two, perhaps three hours to refine it.
"...Damn."