The dust from Lin Xiao's collapse hadn't even settled before the Great South Arena began to feel like a pressure cooker. To the thousands of spectators in the upper tiers, it was a spectacular upset—the "trash" from the North had swatted away a branch-family prodigy like a bothersome gnat. But to Lin Wei, standing in the center of the white sand, the world had slowed down into a terrifying, high-definition clarity.
Every breath he took was flavored with that metallic, ozone tang. But now, thanks to the logic he'd pieced together in the library, he knew it wasn't just coming from a single person. It was coming from the very ground beneath his feet. The Spirit-Vein Siphon, the city's pride and joy, was exhaling the Shadow with every pulse of power it pumped into the arena's defensive runes.
"System," Lin Wei thought, his fingers twitching as he suppressed the urge to summon a violet storm right there in front of the Spirit Severing realm observers. "Calibrate the Siphon-Scan. If the Shadow is the air they breathe, I need to find the one who's hyperventilating."
[Eternal Odyssey System]
Host: Lin Wei
Realm: Qi Gathering - 5th Layer
Talent: 1st Grade (Fixed) / 25% Absorption (Dual-Core Synergy)
Cultivate Technique: Absolute Equilibrium (Level 2 Integration)
System Points: 300 (30 Points added from previous victory)
System Shop: [LOCKED] (Threshold: Foundation Establishment)
Active Quest: The Imperial Gambit
New Objective: Identify the 'Overdosed' Infiltrator.
Lin Wei looked toward the student tunnel. Han Ye was there, his silver hair shimmering, his face a mask of cold fury. He was powerful, a 7th Layer Qi Gathering genius, and certainly arrogant. But his Qi was clean, sharp, and frigid, but honest. He wasn't the rat.
Then, his gaze shifted toward the shadows behind the Academy's primary combat instructor, a man named Elder Jian. Jian was at the Late-Stage Core Formation realm, a man whose skin looked like tanned leather and whose aura was supposed to be as steady as an ancient oak. But as Lin Wei focused his violet-tinted vision, he saw the rot.
Elder Jian wasn't just standing there. He was feeding.
Every time the arena's runes pulsed to absorb the shockwaves of combat, Jian would take a deep, silent breath, and the green-tinted Imperial Qi would flow into his meridians. But it didn't stay green. Inside Jian's chest, it was turning into a stagnant, bruised purple—the exact shade of the "Void" Lin Wei carried, but without the balance. It was the Void as a cancer.
"Found you," Lin Wei whispered.
"Next match!" Elder Jian's voice boomed, echoing through the stadium. He didn't look at Lin Wei, but the sand near Wei's boots suddenly turned into a liquid slurry, trying to drag him down. "Han Ye of the Frost-Sect versus Lin Wei of the North!"
The crowd went into a frenzy. This was the match they had paid for. Han Ye stepped onto the sand, his every footstep leaving a jagged blossom of silver frost. He stopped ten paces away, his silver eyes locking onto Lin Wei's dual-colored gaze.
"I don't know what trick you used on Xiao," Han Ye said, his voice a low hiss. "But you won't touch me. I am the winter the Empire deserves."
"Han," Lin Wei said, and for the first time, there was a shred of genuine pity in his voice. "Look at your master. Look at the Elder calling the shots."
"Don't try to distract me!" Han Ye roared. He didn't wait for the signal. He thrust his palms forward, and the air between them shattered. A thousand shards of crystalline ice, each one sharp enough to pierce a Mid-Stage Qi Gathering defense, screamed toward Lin Wei.
Lin Wei didn't use his fire. Not yet. He reached into the 300 points he had stashed and made a snap decision.
"System, dump 50 points into 'Void-Shrouding Refinement.' If I'm going to kill a Core Formation rat in front of Spirit Severing observers, I need to be a ghost."
[Processing... 50 Points deducted. Remaining Balance: 250 Points.] [Void-Shrouding upgraded to 'Phantom Phase.']
The ice shards hit. Or rather, they should have. To the spectators, it looked like Lin Wei vanished in a puff of violet steam. In reality, he had simply stepped through the vibration of the ice. He reappeared three feet in front of Han Ye, the temperature around them dropping so low that Han's own silver frost began to turn black.
"Han, listen to me," Lin Wei said, his hand catching Han's throat before the youth could blink. "Your master is a puppet. The Siphon is the string."
Suddenly, a massive shockwave hit the arena floor. It didn't come from the students. Elder Jian had stepped off the podium, his Core Formation aura erupting in a cloud of sickly, metallic-green fog.
"Lin Wei!" Jian roared, his face contorting as black, thorny veins broke through his skin. "The jailer's blood is the final sacrifice!"
The Spirit Severing observers on the balcony stood up, but they were too slow. The arena's defensive runes—the ones supposed to protect the students—suddenly inverted. They began to pull the Qi out of every student in the stands, funneling it directly into Elder Jian.
Lin Wei let go of Han Ye. "Get the students out of here, Han. Now! If you're the winter the Empire deserves, then start protecting it."
Lin Wei turned to face the corrupted Elder. He could feel the 250 points in his pocket and the 5th Layer Qi in his heart. The Absolute Equilibrium was vibrating so hard his bones felt like tuning forks.
"You want the jailer's blood?" Lin Wei asked, his voice now a singular, terrifying roar.
He threw off the Void-Cloak. He let the high-realm observers see exactly what he was. He let the Phoenix Fire erupt from his right side in a pillar of orange flame, while the Absolute Ice turned his left side into a statue of frozen death. In the center, the violet Void swirled like a hungry hurricane.
"I'm not the key, Jian," Lin Wei snarled, stepping forward as the sand beneath him turned to glass. "I'm the one who buries the prisoners."
[Main Quest Updated: The Imperial Gambit.]
[Target: Elder Jian (Corrupted). Reward: 1,000 System Points & Instant Foundation Establishment.]
Lin Wei launched himself toward the monster, a violet streak of fire and ice that looked less like a student and more like the end of the world.