The silence in the plaza was thick enough to choke on. The obsidian monolith, a relic that had measured the potential of the Empire's greatest scions for centuries, now bore a jagged, spiderweb fracture where Lin Wei's hand had rested. The violet light had vanished, leaving only a lingering pressure in the air that made the students' own Qi feel brittle and thin.
Han Ye stood frozen, his breath hitching in the very air he claimed to master. The silver frost he had summoned was gone, replaced by a scorched patch of stone that still hummed with an unstable, alien frequency. He looked at the monolith, then at Lin Wei's retreating, his hands trembling with a surge of ego-driven rage.
Lin Wei ducked into a quiet corridor, the weight of the Headmaster's gaze still prickling the back of his neck. He needed to know exactly where he stood.
"System," he whispered. "Show me the board."
The blue interface flickered to life, its violet-tinted borders pulsing with a new, sharper clarity.
System Status & Quest Log
Host: Lin Wei Current
System Points: 370
Breakdown: 100 (Post-Banquet Reward) + 20 (White Graveyard Ambush) + 200 (Void-Shrouding Mastery) + 50 (Academy Infiltrator Neutralized).
Active Main Quest: The Imperial Gambit
Objective: Infiltrate the Imperial Academy and identify the Shadow Cultist hidden among the students.
Current Progress: Placement Exam survived; Infiltrator detected.
Active Sub-Quest: The Library's Secret
Objective: Reach the Restricted Wing of the Imperial Library before the "Shadow Infiltrator" counts are reset.
Pending Rewards:
Foundation Establishment: Unlocks the path to the next cultivation realm.
Lore Revelation: The truth behind the Lin Clan's origins.
Dual-Core Mastery: Level 2 Integration for the Phoenix and Ice cores.
Library Access: (Unlocked) Access to the Restricted Wing.
Lin Wei stared at the total. 370 points weren't enough to buy a shortcut out of the Capital, but it was enough to survive the next hour. The "Unquantifiable" rank had officially moved him to the Top 1 of the Placement List, granting him the very access he needed to the Restricted Wing.
He felt the presence before he heard it. It wasn't the heavy, mountain-like pressure of the Headmaster, but something colder, sharper—a needle of killing intent aimed directly at his spine.
Lin Wei stopped in the shadow of a massive stone archway. "You're getting sloppy," he said, his voice flat. "The metallic smell is hard to hide when the wind blows south."
A figure detached itself from the shadows above. It was a student in sapphire robes, but his eyes were a dull, pulsing red.
"The monolith didn't lie," the student wheezed. "The Void inside you... It belongs to the Master."
"The Master can come get it himself," Lin Wei replied.
He flexed his left hand, and the air in the archway plummeted to absolute zero, using his Void-Burn to freeze the very intent of the attacker. The youth remained upright, a statue of sapphire-tinted ice.
Lin Wei didn't look back. He pushed through the heavy iron doors of the library, his points tallied and his path clear. He was no longer just a student; he was a hunter in a city that thought it was the apex predator.