The first sensation was not pain, but powerlessness. A profound, absolute negation of self that was more terrifying than any mere physical agony. It began as a deep, chilling numbness from the neck down — a silent tide of oblivion that had crept through my limbs while I slept, leaving them as unresponsive as carved stone. My mind, still sharp and clear, was a frantic, screaming prisoner trapped within a body that no longer listened.

I was a king on a throne of dead meat.

I tried to circulate my Qi, a command as instinctive now as breathing. I reached for the familiar, warm, and explosive sea of Xue Qi that slumbered in my blood and bones.

Nothing.

I sought the cool, flowing river of the Pure Frost Ling Qi in my meridians, and found not a dead end, but a maelstrom. The pathways were not sealed, but hijacked—a raging, chaotic torrent of my own power now rebelling against me. It was a river that had burst its banks, now carving a new, agonizing path through my inner landscape, its currents directed by an alien will. I could feel my own energy, my own essence, being forcibly circulated with a surgical precision that was both exquisite and, in its absolute violation of my control, utterly terrifying.

Then, I heard her voice, a sound as cool and analytical as the whisper of wind over a glacier.

"Remarkable. The resilience of your body even at the mere Early Foundation Establishment stage has surpassed all of my expectations. The sheer volume and density of Qi I've cycled through you should have turned a lesser cultivator to ash by now. It is almost a shame you will not survive to witness my ascension... An Earth-Grade Golden Core is now a certainty… perhaps… even the Heaven-Grade is now within my grasp."

My eyes snapped open.

The world that greeted me was a scene from a madman's dream, a ritual of such profound, blasphemous artistry that it stole the breath from my lungs. I was located outdoor, somewhere in the mountains — the nearby Whispering Peaks, perhaps, given their relative proximity to the Regional Capital, though I had no way of knowing that for certain. My body was floating about a circular stone platform so ancient its edges were worn smooth by the passage of forgotten centuries. The air was thin, cold, and crackled with a wild, untamed Qi — a raw, primordial energy that scraped against the senses.

As for the platform itself — it was a canvas of damnation, its surface etched with complex, glowing crimson runes that pulsed with a slow, malevolent, blood-like light. It was, I knew with a certainty that chilled me to the bone, a demonic formation of some kind.

And I was the sacrifice at its heart.

I was quite naked too -- my physical form a pale, vulnerable thing against the dark stone. It was not bound by ropes, but by something far more intimate — and far more violating. A series of star-metal rods, each one cool to the touch and humming with a contained, hungry power, pierced my body at key acupoints—my shoulders, my chest, the base of my spine, my limbs. And, connected to the other end of those rods, forming a horrific, symbiotic circuit, was her.

Elder Yue Qingxue.

She was nude as well, her disturbingly perfect skin like flawless, luminous white jade in the pale, pre-dawn light. She was pressed against me, her body a shocking, intimate heat against my own cold flesh. The same star-metal rods that pierced my body also pierced hers, linking us in a grotesque parody of an embrace. Crimson ribbons, inscribed with shimmering, flowing sealing scripts, floated in the air around our bound limbs, channeling a visible, pulsating flow of energy between us.

And what a flow it was! It was a river of pure, incandescent Frost Qi, a torrent of power so vast and potent it made my own Foundation Establishment reserves feel like a child's wading pool. And ever-increasing quantities of it were forcing themselves into me. I could feel her vast, Peak Foundation Establishment Qi being channeled through the rods, a liquid, nearly-crystallized blizzard screaming through my meridians, a pain so profound it transcended mere sensation, a fire of absolute cold that threatened to burn my very soul to ash.

And then, just as my body reached its breaking point, the flow reversed. The Qi — now subtly, but noticeably purer, flowed back out of me and into her through the most intimate of connections.

My penis, plugged into her… vessel.

The old Jiang Li has heard the horror stories about demonic practices such as these. I imagine that most everyone has.

I was a living cauldron.

A filter and catalyst of flesh and blood, being used to purify a Demonic Cultivator's Qi — in this case, undoubtedly for the final, critical leap to the Golden Core realm.

My status screen — a silent, clinical observer in the midst of this ongoing violation, scrolled with a constant, almost monotonous stream of updates.

My [Special Constitution (Unknown)] had rocketed to 91% manifestation.

My Belief Meter was also ticking upwards at a dizzying rate — thousands of points per second — fueled by my captor's intense, focused, almost worshipful belief in my body's miraculous filtering properties.

But it was the silent, ticking clock that truly held my attention.

The violent invading Qi was growing denser, hotter—or rather, colder—with each cycle. The breakthrough to the next stage felt imminent… and I was quite certain that I would not survive it. The moment the good Elder's Qi began to crystallize into a solid form, the sheer, unimaginable density of that energy would be catastrophic. My body — for all its resilience — would be scoured clean from the inside out, turned into a cold dust by a power it could not possibly contain.

It was then, in a brief, almost hallucinatory flicker of my senses, that I saw that the current dark ritual had an audience!

A few hundred feet away, chained to a jagged stone pillar at the edge of the ritual platform, was none other than Su Lian! She looked unconscious, her fine robes torn, her face pale, but she was — apparently — unharmed.

A wave of bewildered pity washed over me.

What is she even doing here?

But the question was a fleeting distraction, quickly consumed by the more pressing, existential reality of my own impending demise.

I needed to find a way to break this circuit. I needed to stop this madness. And there was only one weapon left to me. My most dangerous weapon, in fact.

My voice.

"You know," I began, the words a dry rasp in my throat, my tone a masterpiece of feigned, casual nonchalance, "I'm not one to complain about being chained naked to a beautiful woman, but this is… a bit much for a first date, don't you think? You could have at least bought me dinner first!"

A sound, like the chiming of frozen bells, echoed in the thin mountain air. She was laughing. A genuine, almost musical laugh of pure, unadulterated amusement.

"Oh, Jiang Li," she said, her voice a low, husky murmur close to my ear. "I knew there was a reason why I took a liking to you. Even now, in the face of certain death, you manage to amuse me. Very well. As a reward for your spirit, I shall grant you some face, and explain what's about to happen to you — and why."

Her voice took on a narrative, almost professorial quality, the voice of a scholar sharing a thrilling, forbidden discovery.

I realized that she must have been enjoying this.

"I found this place by chance, you know. It began with a whisper on the wind. A dissonance in the Qi of these mountains that has troubled me for years during my meditations. A cold spot in the heart of a sun-drenched peak. The local mortals spoke of it as a cursed place, a place where spirit beasts went mad and the very earth felt… wrong."

"…Most in my sect have dismissed such whispers as mortal superstition — but not I. No, I followed those whispers — and what I found was simply fascinating. The ruins left over from an ancient Demonic sect, destroyed long ago by one of the many previous dynasties. A place of profound evil… but also, of profound opportunity."

She paused almost wistfully, as if savoring the memory.

"These Demonic cultivators — we may resent their methods, but they certainly have a flair for the dramatic! As I recall, the texts were not even written on paper, but on the preserved skin of executed cultivators, their final agonies etched into the very ink. They spoke not of a single type of cauldron, but of a universal principle — the 'Five Elements Crucible.' A method to purify any elemental Qi, provided one could find a living vessel with a sufficiently pure, dominant affinity for the target element. A Fire Cauldron for Fire, a Wood Cauldron for Wood... and, of course, a Pure Yin Cauldron for Frost."

Her voice dropped, filled with a chilling, academic passion.

"Imagine: a vessel of flesh and blood, a perfect conduit, whose own constitution is so attuned to a specific element that it can act as a divine filter. To pour one's own, imperfect Qi—tainted by the dross of this world, by the impurities of common pills, by the very act of living in this provincial shithole—into such a cauldron, and to have it returned to you in a state of absolute, primordial purity… It is the dream of every cultivator who has ever stared at the insurmountable peak of the Golden Core and despaired. And so behold, Jiang Li, and rejoice in the fact that your constitution will be used for its intended purpose. Is my ascension not a thing of beauty? Is the ritual not sheer perfection made manifest? This is my work of art. The Magnum Opus of my life. A symphony of power and purification."

I listened to her, my mind a distant, silent storm of analysis even as my body screamed. To call her speech psychotic would be an understatement. To argue with an unhinged fanatic is to reason with a hurricane. She was so far gone, so utterly convinced of her own righteousness, that there was no room left for negotiation, for reason, for any appeal to a morality she had long since discarded. How many people — besides my friend Zhang Wei — has she murdered to get to this point? What crimes has she concealed to ensure her success?

There was likely no turning back for her now. Diplomacy would do me no favors here.

And yet…. I had to try.

My voice, though strained by the agony coursing through me, became a desperate merchant's plea, the actor playing his last, desperate role.

"Stop this, Elder Yue," I gasped. "You have surely heard the rumors by now, the whispers of the spirit cavern beneath Qingshan. But I assure you, no amount of exaggeration could do justice to the reality of it. The spirit stones there… they are a trifle. Pocket money. The true value lies in the secrets of the legacy that only I now possess. I have catalysts in my possession, Elder, that would make that pathetic Snow Lotus you coveted look like a common weed. Catalysts that can all but guarantee you a successful breakthrough. There is no need for this… Demonic barbarism! We can still be partners — all you have to do is stop this foolishness and let me go."

Her laugh was not harsh, but pitying, the sound of a goddess observing an ant offering it a single grain of sand.

"Wealth?" she scoffed, her voice a silken caress that was more terrifying than any shout. "You still think in such… quaint terms. My dear boy, haven't you realized it by now? You are the only treasure worth pursuing. No amount of wealth or rare catalysts can come close to achieving what you can provide."

She leaned closer, her breath a warm, intoxicating mist against my ear, her voice dropping into a lecture, a sermon delivered from a predator to its prey.

"Let me explain to you the nature of the Dao, you foolish child. You see the world in terms of transactions, of things that can be bought and sold. Spirit stones. Artifacts. Pills. This is the typical way of thinking for one raised in a mere merchant family."

She paused and looked deeply into my eyes with an intensity that sent a shiver down my spine.

"In truth these are the currencies of the weak, the tools of those who will never understand the true struggle of clawing their way up the mountain of cultivation one painful step at a time."

"I am feeling generous with my wisdom, so listen well, child, and I shall explain what it truly takes to advance to the higher stages of the cultivation ladder. The Golden Core stage," she continued, her voice now filled with a passionate, almost fanatical fervor, "is not just another step. It is an irreversible metamorphosis. A rebirth! The moment a cultivator ceases to be merely a powerful mortal and begins to touch upon the divine. But not all rebirths are created equal. Most who attempt that breakthrough, those who lack the resources, the talent, the sheer necessary luck… they fail. Usually catastrophically. Their Qi scatters, their meridians shatter. They are lucky if they die quickly. Some are left as spiritual cripples, their cores fractured and incomplete — some might still be a bit stronger than an average Foundation Establishment aspirant, but they shall be unable to ever progress further. Their path to the Dao is forever severed, and they are doomed to watch the remainder of their lifespan slowly wither over the agonizing remainder of their shortened lives."

I felt a cold dread seep into me, a fear that went beyond the physical pain.

"Even those who succeed, the vast majority of them," she continued, her tone dismissive, contemptuous, "form mere Low-Grade Cores. Such a core is akin to a flawed, cracked jewel that can never truly shine. The old fool who leads the Azure Cloud Sect has just such a useless core. Yes, such people gain the longevity, and the ostensible power of a Golden Core expert, but their potential is forever capped. The path to Nascent Soul is a locked gate to them, a distant, impossible dream they can never reach."

She smiled, apparently enjoying her instructive monologue.

"Then you have the Mid-Grade Cores. A respectable but ultimately unremarkable gemstone, destined to be outshone. His Excellency the Provincial Governor is one such individual. Powerful, yes — but the path forward towards Nascent Soul is a one-in-a-hundred gamble at best. The Mid-Grade talents are the workhorses of the cultivation world, their ambition forever checked by the sheer… mediocrity of their foundation."

Her face twisted in visible disgust, as if struggling to picture herself in such a "mediocre" fate — and then her voice softened, taking on a reverent, almost hungry quality.

"But then, my dear… then you have the true prizes. The High-Grade Core, a fine diamond, a path to true power for the determined and the fortunate. The Supreme-Grade Core, a veritable star captured in a pearl, a foundation for the true powerhouses, for those who might one day stand at the very pinnacle of this world. I would ordinarily be ecstatic with such an outcome…"

She paused, while gazing into my eyes once more.

"Except, beyond even that," her voice dropped to a near-whisper, a sound of pure, unadulterated desire, "there are the myths. The legends. The Earth and Heaven-Grade Golden Cores. Keys to immortality that come with unfathomable talent boosts and even legendary and unpredictable divine abilities. Virtual guarantees of a path that ends not at the mere Nascent Soul, but continues on to the realms far beyond, to a power that can ultimately leave the world itself behind! Those who can form an Earth or Heaven Grade Golden Core are said to have the potential to advance to the very heavens!"

Her voice grew distant, a shadow of bitterness creeping into her tone as she stared past me, at the indifferent, empty sky. "A Supreme-Grade Core… yes, with enough wealth, with a catalyst as potent as the one you so foolishly offered, that might have been achievable. But Earth-Grade? Heaven-Grade? Those are not forged from mere treasures, my dear boy. They are born from purity. They require a Foundation that is so utterly flawless, so free from the accumulated dross of this world, that it resonates perfectly with the Dao itself!"

Her gaze returned to me, sharp and piercing, a flicker of genuine, old pain in their icy depths.

"And for Frost cultivators like you and I, whose very essences are tied to the purity of the world's coldest, cleanest energies, that flawlessness is doubly paramount. But this… land…" her lips twisted in a sneer of pure, unadulterated disgust, "…this entire forsaken province is a spiritual sewer. The Qi here is contaminated by that chaotic, untamable 'Frontier's Breath.' Every breath I've taken here, every moment I have spent cultivating in this provincial backwater since I was assigned here, has introduced subtle — but permanent — impurities into my Foundation. These are the kinds of impurities that no elixir, no treasure, no catalyst — however rare or expensive — can ever fully erase."

She let out a sigh, a sound heavy with the weight of a dream long-since surrendered.

"I thought that I had made my peace with it. A Supreme-Grade Core, with a great deal of luck and immense resources, would have been my limit. A monumental achievement, yes — but still a pale shadow of what my talent deserved. A gilded cage at the peak of what's ultimately a very small mountain."

Her eyes softened then, a predatory, almost hungry light igniting within them as her gaze fixed on me.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"But then… there was you. What happened at that banquet was the most beautiful, wondrous thing I've ever seen! That Golden Core poison… an Earth-aspected toxin, our direct elemental opposite… it should have annihilated you utterly. Instead, you somehow devoured it. You converted its very essence into pure, flawless Frost Qi!"

She shook her head in incredulity.

"In that moment, I realized you were not just a boy who had stumbled upon a treasure. You were the treasure! You are the path to the kind of purity I thought was lost to me forever."

"With your body as my cauldron, Jiang Li," she murmured, her voice a silken promise of damnation, "a flawless foundation is no longer subject to geography, resources, and luck. It can be guaranteed. With my Qi as pure as it has become, an Earth-Grade Core is a virtual certainty now. In fact, even a Heaven-Grade Core…"

Her eyes briefly unfocused, seemingly lost in a day dream, before they refocused on my face once again.

"You understand, don't you? An opportunity like this… it is a gift from the universe. To refuse it would be a waste — no, a blasphemy against the very Heavens themselves!"

"...Oh, don't be like that," she said softly, while noting my — equal parts incredulous and disgusted — look. "I'm doing you a favor, you know! The moment your abilities were revealed at that banquet, your fate was sealed. Haven't you realized it yet? A physique like yours, one that can convert and purify even opposing elemental Qi, is the one thing in this world that can overcome the inherent flaw in the Imperial Family's own Frost-aspected bloodline! They would not have let you remain independent. You would have become a test subject. Perhaps, if you were lucky, you would be their breeding stallion — a slave locked away in the hopes of making and using more of those like you. Your children, and your children's children, would be doomed to share the same fate. Think of it: your whole bloodline reduced to being perpetual slaves, to be tortured and exploited for the rest of your very, very long cultivator lives. Is that not a fate far worse than a clean, meaningful death that serves a higher purpose? Am I not being merciful with you?"

"The Princess is not like that!" I objected with a quick, reflexive denial, the words sounding like a weak protest even to me. "And… and you will never get away with all of this! The murder of a City Lord alone…"

She scoffed, a sound of pure, arrogant dismissal.

"Your faith in royalty is touchingly naive, Jiang Li. Even if Long Xueyue disdains such methods, what about her uncles or siblings? The Crown Prince? The Emperor himself? Would you really have them disregard the heaven-defying treasure that fell into their laps out of some misguided sense of righteousness?"

"…And as for "getting away" with it? Well, I'd say that I already have! The latest, 'successful' assassination attempt targeting you will be conveniently blamed on the Princess's many rivals. And, as for Lord Zhang? His death creates a power vacuum in a town that — apparently — sits atop a mountain of strategic resources! His demise is no crime! It is an opportunity for me and my allies in the Imperial Capital — an opportunity to install a new City Lord that is more deserving of the important station Qingshan will soon represent. The outcome has already been determined, Young Master Jiang. You have simply failed to see it."

Her words, cold and sharp as shards of obsidian, cut through the last vestiges of my hope, my naive belief in a world governed by anything other than pure, predatory self-interest. I wanted to laugh at the sheer, monstrous absurdity of her logic, at the twisted justifications that allowed her to frame this… violation as an act of mercy. And yet, a chilling, unwelcome part of my mind — the cold, pragmatic core that was rapidly adapting to the brutal realities of this world — had to concede that the monster now before me… might not be entirely wrong.

My proximity to the Princess had not been a shield; it had been a magnet for danger, marking me as a target for her enemies — the brazen assassination attempt at the banquet was proof enough of that. Wei Long had saved her, but I had been left to my fate. An acceptable loss. A pawn sacrificed in the opening gambit of a much larger game.

The Imperial family was clearly no unified front. It was a viper's nest of competing ambitions, a place where a "priceless asset" like me would be fought over, coveted, and — inevitably — caged. My naive hope that an alliance with the Princess would provide a simple path to safety and power was just that — naive. In this dog-eat-dog world, there were no true safe harbors, only different kinds of predators.

The Qi flow intensified, a fresh wave of agony lancing through me. Her breakthrough was getting close.

I had to distract her. To keep her talking while I figured out how to get out of this.

"I understand why you captured me," I gasped, "but why her?" I nodded my head towards the distant, chained form of Su Lian. "A bit of an audience for your grand moment?"

She laughed again — with a sound that would be considered heavenly if one disregarded the source.

"Ah, the little Phoenix. An unexpected but very welcome complication. She is quite an enigma, you know — followed you to my office and witnessed everything. She even managed to kill my Foundation Establishment level attendant before I subdued her. Normally, I'd just kill her, of course — except, during that fight, she managed to manifest something quite interesting:"

— a flicker of genuine, academic interest lit her eyes, —

"The Grand Starfire Rebirth Supreme Phoenix Body."

I must have looked utterly clueless, because she sighed, a sound of a weary teacher explaining a fundamental concept to a particularly dense five-year-old. She repeated the name very slowly, her voice dripping with condescending impatience.

"The. Grand. Starfire. Rebirth. Supreme. Phoenix. Body?"

I forced a look of arrogant dismissal. "I have found it is best not to waste my precious time studying the lesser constitutions."

A flicker of genuine exasperation crossed her flawless features. A vein began to throb upon her forehead — a surprisingly human sight that was completely at odds with her ethereal beauty.

"Lesser?" she hissed, her voice cracking with disbelief. "You infuriating, ignorant child! That was the signature physique of the former Imperial family! The Heavenly Phoenix Dynasty! The one the Tianlong family supposedly exterminated three hundred years ago! It seems the Su family were more loyal to their old masters than anyone knew."

…

Oh.

My mind raced, the pieces clicking into place with a sudden clarity. The Su family's obsessive pride in their ancient lineage. Their fanatical loyalty to the previous dynasty during the Great War of Succession. Their near-total annihilation and relegation to this provincial backwater.

At some point, a member of their clan must have become kin with members of the old Dynasty — either by having a bastard child through an illegitimate affair or by adopting an Imperial child — likely saving them from the Tianlongs' purge — and treating them as their own offspring.

This meant that Su Lian wasn't merely the heir of a fallen noble house. She was, by blood, a descendant of a fallen Imperial line.

A true Phoenix princess in hiding.

And, now that her physique had manifested, she and her entire family would become targets — their very existence was a threat to the legitimacy of the ruling Tianlong Dynasty.

Elder Yue hadn't captured just anyone; she had captured a political bargaining chip immense value! Did she plan to trade my former fiancée away in exchange for political favors? Did she want to use her as a convenient scapegoat for some of her crimes? Did she plan to use Su Lian as a test subject? As a slave breeding stock to raise a loyal army of cultivators with the powerful Phoenix constitution?

I didn't know — and I wasn't sure I wanted to find out.

The pain in my meridians intensified again, a sharp, tearing sensation that told me I was nearly out of time. There was no escape. No negotiation. Only one path remained.

The ultimate performance.

I began to laugh. A wild, hysterical sound that echoed in the thin mountain air, a sound of a man who has stared into the abyss and found it hilarious.

"Have I said something amusing, Young Master Jiang?" the Elder asked, a flicker of annoyance in her icy eyes.

"I am laughing — you foolish, ignorant, provincial harlot," I gasped, my voice filled with a mad, theatrical glee, "— at the sheer, monumental stupidity of you and your so-called ambitions. You thought you could use me -- me -- as a cauldron? As a mere qi purification tool? You thought you could advance by running your pathetic qi through my body? I've honestly been struggling not to laugh at you while watching you do it. How many times have you forced your qi through my meridians by now? A dozen times? Two dozen? Even more, before I woke up? In your blind pursuit of easy power, you have willingly, even eagerly, chained yourself to your own damnation! Truly, you're like a moth flying headfirst into a flame — and it's the funniest thing in the world!"

Her earlier amusement… froze. The smile on her lips became a thin, hard line. The light in her icy aquamarine eyes, which had held the predatory glint of a cat playing with a mouse, was instantly extinguished, replaced by a profound, almost academic seriousness that I found far more terrifying.

After all, to her, this was no longer part of the script! My outburst was an unwritten scene, an improvisation she had not anticipated, and she was a master who did not appreciate surprises.

The torrent of Qi flowing into me did not stop, but its frantic, escalating pace slowed to a steady, controlled river. She was no longer pushing aggressively for her breakthrough; she was assessing a new, unexpected variable in an equation she had previously considered flawless.

Her head tilted, just a fraction, her gaze sweeping over my face, searching for a tell, for the flicker of a bluff in my eyes, for the scent of a lie in my words.

But she would find none. I knew — with an absolute certainty that could shatter mountains into dust — that my bout of method acting, born of absolute desperation, was perfect.

After a long, charged silence that seemed to stretch for an eternity, a silence broken only by the hum of the demonic formation and the distant moan of the wind, she finally spoke. Her voice was no longer mocking or seductive. It was the voice of a predator that has realized — in a sudden, unpleasant moment of enlightenment — that the animal it took into its jaws might have been a poisonous specimen best left alone.

"Explain yourself," she commanded, her voice cold and hard. "Now."

"My dear, foolish strumpet," I began, my tone a masterpiece of condescending pity, the voice of a god explaining the concept of mortality to an insect. "You speak of legacies, of ancient demonic sects, of your own pathetic, provincial ambitions. You are a child playing with pebbles on the shore of an infinite, cosmic ocean, and you mistake your little sandcastles for the universe itself."

I let out another ragged, breathless laugh, a sound that held no humor, only a vast, chilling amusement.

"Very well. I am feeling generous with my wisdom today. Before your rapidly approaching demise, as a reward for your spirit, I shall grant you some face, and explain what's about to happen to you — and why." I delighted in throwing her earlier words back into her face. "My constitution… is not some simple, run of the mill 'Frost' physique you can find just anywhere. Its true name is not something the likes of you would ordinarily be worthy to hear — but, in these… special final moments, I shall deign to share it with you. Now, pay attention, for I will only say this once. The true name of the Heaven-Defying physique I possess is… the Forbidden Extreme Yin, Eighty-Eight Sacred Voids, Supreme Cosmic Frost Body."

I let the grandiose name I've made up on the spot hang in the air in a way that — I hoped — was dramatic and mysterious.

"I have never heard of such an… eminent physique," the Elder stated, her voice flat, an undercurrent of deep, dangerous skepticism in her tone. "Neither in the Sect's archives, nor in the forbidden texts plundered from these demonic ruins. To be honest… it sounds ridiculous, like a child's fantasy."

"But of course you haven't," I chuckled, my voice filled with a vast, pitying amusement. "You speak of the archives of this world. You speak of knowledge gathered on this single, quaint little continent. You are a frog at the bottom of a well, Elder Yue, staring up at a tiny patch of sky, and you mistake it for the entire heavens."

I shook my head, a gesture of profound, weary disappointment.

"The name of my physique was never meant for the ears of this realm. It is the greatest secret of my Jiang Clan, a legacy from my true ancestor — an exiled, dying Immortal from a realm so far beyond our comprehension that this entire world, this entire Empire, would be but a single, insignificant mote of dust in the palm of his hand. At his prime, his mere breath was said to be able to extinguish the sun. His stray thoughts could unravel the very laws of cause and effect. And his legacy, the merest fragment of which resides within my blood…"

I paused dramatically.

"Well, it is not something a creature like you can ever hope to understand, let alone control."

I saw a merest flicker of doubt — of dawning, primal fear — begin to form in her eyes. For now, it was only a tiny crack in the flawless jade of her composure, but I pressed my advantage with a vicious, theatrical relish!

"Understand this, you foolish, ignorant whore: the primary ability of my physique has never been to filter Qi. That is a mere side effect. No, its true purpose — the aspect that terrified even the Immortal world itself — is the body's ability to claim foreign qi. To devour it and make it one's own. To rewrite its very essence. Any Qi that passes through my body becomes — fundamentally and irrevocably — a part of me."

This was it. The performance of a lifetime. More than a lifetime, even! Twenty years of thankless rehearsals in dusty black-box theaters, of soul-crushing rejections under the buzzing fluorescent lights of a hundred casting calls, of a diet consisting of little more than instant ramen and bitter, desperate hope. All of it… had been a crucible, forging the skills, the discipline, the sheer, unshakeable will to believe in a fiction so completely that it could become real. I was not just Jiang Li, the cultivator. I was also Leo Maxwell, the actor — and this was my final, greatest role.

I could feel it in my bones, in the marrow of my being, with a certainty that burned brighter than any sun. I will succeed.

"And so, the Qi that you thought was returned to you "purified" actually poisoned you; infected you with an alien Qi that you could never hope to control, let alone assimilate. And the best part of all of this is — you did it all to yourself!"

I was surprised to find myself laughing again, enjoying this moment of method acting. Believing in my own skills like never before.

A memory, unbidden, surfaced from Leo Maxwell's distant past, a detail from a psychology course he'd taken in college, a footnote in a textbook that now felt like a divine revelation. It was a study, one he'd found both fascinating and vaguely absurd at the time. A group of students, participating in what they were told was a study on the effects of alcohol on reaction times, were given what they believed to be strong cocktails. They were then put through a series of simple coordination tests. The results were dramatic. They stumbled. Their speech slurred. Their reactions slowed. When questioned, they all reported feeling the distinct, familiar effects of intoxication: the light-headedness, the loss of inhibition, the pleasant warmth spreading through their limbs. The trick, of course -- the beautiful, elegant core of the experiment -- was that there had been no alcohol involved. Not a single drop. The drinks the group was given were nothing more than cleverly disguised fruit juice. The participants had not been intoxicated by a chemical, but by a story — by a belief so powerful it had manifested tangible, physiological effects. Their bodies had simply… obeyed what their minds had accepted as truth.

I now saw a flicker of that new truth begin to take hold in the Elder's eyes, and pressed my advantage, my voice a hypnotic, compelling whisper.

"Search your feelings, young Qingxue. You know it to be true! Try focusing on that purified Qi now flowing within your own meridians. Haven't you noticed by now how much more sluggishly it responds to your will? How it is beginning to feel… strange? Unfamiliar? That is because that Qi is no longer yours! Soon enough, it will cease responding to you altogether. And soon after that, it will flow out of your body and rejoin its rightful master!"

The System responded instantly, a quiet chime in the back of my mind, a confirmation of the first, fragile seed of her belief taking root.

[+1 Belief Point]

She scoffed — a desperate, reflexive sound of denial, but her brow furrowed in concentration. She was indeed looking inward now, searching, her own mind becoming an unwilling conspirator in my performance.

"The Qi feels… normal," she insisted, though her voice lacked its earlier conviction.

[+1 Belief Point]

"Does it truly?" I pressed, my voice a silken thread of suggestion. "Or is that merely what you wish to feel? Look deeper. Feel the subtle hesitation as you try to will it to circulate. The faint, almost perceptible drag, like trying to swim through thickening honey…"

I watched her face, a canvas of warring emotions. Uncertainty. Doubt. Fear. A dawning, horrified suspicion.

[+2 Belief Points]

The numbers ticked up, slow and steady, a metronome counting down the seconds to her damnation.

[+3 Belief Points]

[+5 Belief Points]

Then, I felt it. A subtle, almost perceptible shift. A tiny, almost infinitesimal friction began to manifest within her meridians, a microscopic rebellion of her own Qi against her will. The subtle change was still just in her mind… but that didn't mean it wasn't real.

Her eyes widened.

Her terror, her dawning, horrified belief, ignited into a raging inferno. The trickle of belief points suddenly became a flood — a tidal wave crashing into my System like a life-giving rain after a drought.

[+5,000 Belief Points]

[+20,000 Belief Points]

[+100,000 Belief Points!]

…

The cascade of power was overwhelming. The System, now fueled by a tsunami of her high-quality, terrified conviction, made the fiction an absolute, undeniable reality. Then, the moment I had been hoping and praying for finally arrived.

Ding.

[Attribute Updated: Special Constitution (Unknown) (91%) ---> Special Constitution ('Forbidden Extreme Yin, 88 Sacred Voids, Supreme Cosmic Frost Body') (Manifestation: 1.0 x 10^-24 %)]

A partial manifestation of my new, impossible constitution flared to life, an infinitesimal percentage that was — somehow — still more than enough. Suddenly I felt it: a new, predatory hunger awakening within me, a fundamental alteration of my being.

Absently, I ordered her Qi into my own body -- and it obeyed immediately and effortlessly, the flow reversing completely. Yue Qingxue's eyes widened in a mask of pure, uncomprehending horror. She immediately placed her hands on my throat, her grip like iron.

"Release it!" she shrieked, her voice cracking with madness and despair. "Damn you to the Nine Hells! Give me back my Qi, or I will kill you right here!"

I simply smiled. The threat, which would have been quite credible only moments ago, was now as hollow as a wind-swept skull. Without the command of her Ling Qi, without the ability to summon the devastating Frost techniques that were the true source of her power, she was reduced to being a mere physical combatant.

And in a contest of pure, physical might?

My Diamond Body, the physical Xue Qi equivalent to a Foundation Establishment expert's power, was a veritable fortress of tempered flesh and bone. Her own body, however ethereal, however refined by years of Frost cultivation, was, at the end of the day, still only a scholar's frame — not a warrior's. Her hands were akin to a delicate porcelain vase against my neck's unyielding steel.

Without the benefit of her Qi reserves, she could no more break me than a songbird could shatter a mountain!

"It is too late for that, my dear. You can certainly try to kill this body… but, even if you somehow succeeded, your Qi would still never be yours again. It has already been fundamentally changed, and that process... cannot be reversed."

As her eyes widened in the final, absolute horror of her realization, the world itself seemed to respond. The air grew thick, heavy, charged with an oppressive, ancient power that made the hair on my arms stand on end.

[Qualified Belief Detected]

...

Huh?

...

Slowly, carefully, I looked upwards at the sky, which had been a pale, pre-dawn grey... and watched as it rapidly turned a terrifying, bruised black.

[Belief Source: Heaven's Will (v. 7.3.4 we0tq.6) BQT = ???]

[Warning: Presence Of Forbidden Constitution Was Detected By Local Heaven's Will (Ver. 7.3.4) (Azure Dragon Continent - Tianlong Empire - Southwestern Peripheral Province). Heavenly Tribulation Imminent!]

Heavenly Tribulations.

Jiang Li's knowledge of them flooded my mind. They were the ultimate test, the judgment of the world itself, reserved for those who dared to defy the established laws of the Dao. They were all but unheard of below the Golden Core realm, typically only appearing during the world-altering breakthroughs to Nascent Soul and beyond. To have one appear now, before I even formed a Golden Core… was an aberration.

A sign that the world itself really, really didn't like the Special Constitution my imagination and the System have conjured up.

Overhead, the storm clouds roiled, alight with terrifying, beautiful pink and purple lightning that seemed to crackle with a power so immense it made the very mountains tremble.

Elder Yue Qingxue, utterly broken now, stared up at the apocalyptic sky.

"Monster," she whispered, her voice a ghost of its former self. "Abomination. You have doomed us both."

And yet, I only smiled: a serene, almost beatific expression on my face, the actor delivering his final, show-stopping line. I corrected her gently.

"No, my dear. I have only doomed you."

I met her terrified, uncomprehending gaze.

"Haven't you been listening at all? My physique converts and claims all Qi that passes through my body. This pathetic little excuse for a Heavenly Tribulation… is certainly no exception."

I looked up at the sky — at the beautiful, terrible storm that my machinations had summoned into existence — and realized that I fully believed in my own performance. Perhaps for the first time since arriving in this world, I felt completely at peace.

I closed my eyes projecting a feeling of serene, absolute contentment.

A bolt of impossibly bright, pinkish-purple lightning struck down.

***

End of Book 1.

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