CHAPTER 167 — Three Paths, One Shadow
---
1. Lin Learns What Gravity Really Obeys
The next morning, Lin returned to the Axis Chamber.
Though his body still felt heavy from yesterday's mental breakthrough, his steps were steadier. More confident. As if space itself acknowledged him differently now.
Sect Master Xuanyang waited, a pair of silver spheres floating around him like tamed stars.
"Today," he said calmly, "you will apply gravity, not just comprehend it."
He flicked his finger.
One sphere shot upward.
The other sank downward as if swallowed by invisible mud.
"Gravity pulls downward, yes," Xuanyang said. "But it also compresses, stretches, bends. If you understand weight as authority… you must learn to command that authority."
Lin breathed deeply.
He remembered Earth.
Objects fall because space curves.
Mass bends space.
Gravity is geometry, not a force.
He raised his palm.
A wisp of intent — nothing more.
One of the spheres trembled.
Not falling.
Not lifting.
Just… listening.
Xuanyang nodded.
"Good. Now force it to kneel."
Lin pushed harder.
Sweat beaded across his forehead.
The sphere vibrated violently before finally slamming into the ground with a sharp metallic ring.
Lin gasped. "That… took so much energy…"
"No," Xuanyang corrected gently. "It took control. You wasted nearly seventy percent of your spiritual force by brute-forcing the command instead of shaping your intent."
Lin winced.
So that was the problem.
"Try again," Xuanyang said. "But this time, use your understanding — not your strength."
Lin closed his eyes.
Visualized planets orbiting a star.
Visualized spacetime curving.
Visualized authority radiating out from him like a second gravitational field.
He whispered:
"Bend."
The sphere bent the air around it.
Space warped visibly.
The metal sank into the chamber floor as though gravity itself had deepened around it.
Xuanyang smiled—real approval, not polite acknowledgment.
"You're beginning to understand. Keep this up, and gravity will be your servant, not your burden."
Lin exhaled shakily.
He'd taken another step.
A small one.
But steps built worlds.
---
2. Tian's Thunderheart Breaks… and Mends
Up on the Thunder Plateau, Tian knelt shirtless on a bed of crackling arcs.
Lightning jumped between his bones.
His marrow glowed faintly blue.
Rowan paced beside him, hands behind his back.
"You're close," the old smith grumbled. "Your marrow is beginning to sing. I can hear it."
Tian clenched his jaw.
"Singing? It feels like it's trying to kill me."
"That means you're doing it right."
CRACK—BOOM.
Electricity burst from Tian's chest, splitting the sky dome.
He roared but kept his posture steady.
Rowan nodded approvingly.
"This is the thunderbody's second awakening. Endure, and your strength will double."
Lightning poured into Tian like molten metal into a mold.
His aura swelled.
His limbs thickened.
His bones hardened.
But with every surge, Tian's heart stuttered in his chest.
His face twisted.
Rowan's expression sharpened.
"Slow it down, boy. You're letting your excitement override your control. Do that, and your heart will cook itself."
Tian forced his breathing to steady.
Slow.
Deep.
Periodic.
He guided the lightning through his meridians like forging channels, distributing evenly instead of allowing it to pool.
Seconds passed.
Then minutes.
Finally—
BOOM.
A ring of azure lightning exploded outward.
Tian slumped forward, panting heavily.
Rowan grunted.
"…Acceptable."
Tian, drenched in sweat, faintly smirked.
He was getting closer.
He could feel it.
---
3. Yueyin's Awakening Begins
In her assigned cultivation courtyard, Yueyin sat beneath the crystalline Phoenix Torch Pillar.
Flames of pure spiritual essence licked upward, dancing with her heartbeat.
Elder Xuanran, the sect's fire-law instructor, observed her silently.
"When your phoenix bloodline stirs," Xuanran said, "it will feel like burning and drowning and suffocating all at once. Do not resist it. Guide it."
Yueyin nodded nervously.
She placed her hands on the glowing pillar.
Heat surged into her veins.
Her back arched involuntarily.
The phoenix essence clawed inside her chest—
Scraping, tearing—
Trying to ignite something dormant.
Xuanran's voice cut through the agony:
"Let it burn what must be burned. Let it purify what must be purged."
Images flashed behind Yueyin's eyes—
A burning world.
A collapsing sky.
Voices screaming.
A shadow whispering she must obey.
She gasped.
Flames erupted from her pores—brilliant red-gold fire laced with sorrow.
She trembled violently.
"Good," Xuanran murmured. "That is the phoenix mourning. It emerges when a phoenix feels grief so deep it becomes fuel."
Yueyin's tears evaporated before touching her cheeks.
Her flames rose higher.
Hotter.
Sharper.
But beneath the fire… lay a knotted darkness.
A cold chain wrapped around her soul.
Invisible.
Unspoken.
Undetected.
Yet it pulsed—
Find him. Find the worldforger.
Yueyin clutched her chest, breath ragged.
Xuanran stepped closer.
"Stay with it," she urged softly. "The phoenix rises from ashes. Let the ashes become wings."
Yueyin inhaled shakily.
"Yes… Elder."
And she continued burning.
---
4. Sect Master Xuanyang Tests Their Hearts
Three days later, Lin, Tian, and Yueyin stood side by side on the Sky Platform facing the Sect Master.
Xuanyang's expression remained unreadable.
"Each of you walks a different path. Gravity. Thunder. Phoenix. But there is a test all cultivators must face."
He raised his palm.
Three illusions blossomed in the air:
A collapsing star crushing Lin's inner world
Tian standing alone against a thousand lightning fiends
Yueyin surrounded by abyssal shadows whispering commands
The illusions moved as though alive.
Xuanyang spoke quietly:
"Your heart determines your Dao. Not talent. Not physique. Not even training."
Lin stared at the illusion of his collapsing world.
That is my fear, he thought.
Losing everything again. Being too weak to stop it.
Tian stared at the storm-born fiends.
My fear is being outmatched. Being useless. Being overshadowed.
Yueyin stared at the abyssal shadows.
Her lips trembled.
My fear… is them.
Xuanyang gestured.
"Step forward, each of you."
Tian stepped first.
His thunder flared, and the storm illusions shattered like brittle glass.
The Sect Master nodded approvingly.
"You understand defiance. Good."
Next, Yueyin stepped forward.
Her flames rose—
But when the abyssal silhouettes whispered, she froze.
Her fire flickered.
Her eyes widened with terror.
"Yueyin," Xuanyang said in a firm yet gentle tone, "breathe."
She did.
Flames reignited.
But she could not break the illusion.
Xuanyang waved his hand, dissolving it mercifully.
"You carry trauma deeper than you admit. That is not failure. We will guide you through it."
Yueyin bowed her head, trembling with gratitude and shame.
Then Lin stepped forward.
The collapsing star grew heavier.
Denser.
Its gravity tried to crush him.
Lin did not summon a technique.
He did not move.
Instead—
He whispered:
"I am the worldforger. My world does not collapse."
A gravitational pulse exploded outward.
The star dissolved into cosmic dust.
Xuanyang's eyes gleamed.
"…Excellent."
---
5. The Abyss Hears a Name
Deep in the abyss, far beyond mortal eyes, a scout knelt before a colossal silhouette.
"Master… we have sensed him."
A voice like a dying universe echoed:
"Lin…"
The Abyss stirred.
Planets trembled.
And very faintly—
Something laughed.
Not the Ancestor.
Something far worse.
---