The morning of the tournament arrived not with a sunrise, but with a low, oppressive fog that swallowed the jagged peaks of the Cloud-Mist Sect. The silence of the dawn was shattered by the Great Bronze Bell of Ascension, a massive relic that hung in the center of the sect. Its tolling didn't just vibrate the air; it vibrated the lungs and teeth of every servant and disciple, a physical reminder of the Sect's absolute authority.
Long Chen spent his final hours of "freedom" in the Hall of Records. It was a place usually reserved for the high-level scholars, but the guards were so distracted by the upcoming festivities that a "Dust" servant slipping through the shadows went unnoticed.
He sat in the deepest corner of the hall, where the air smelled of rotting vellum and ancient dust. Before him lay a forbidden, leather-bound tome titled The Chronicles of the Jade Limit.
As he flipped through the pages with his calloused, bronze-stained fingers, he found the detailed breakdown of the path he had been told was "Divine."
The Sect's Ten-Step Trap (The False Peak)
The text was meticulously illustrated with diagrams of the human body. It showed the Qi flowing like a tamed river, being forced into specific channels that Long Chen now recognized as "bottlenecks."
Stage 4: Dantian Foundation (Sub-Levels 1–10)
• The Accumulation: The text described this stage as building a "Lake of Life."
• The Smart Reality: To Long Chen's Origin Sight, the diagrams showed a terrifying truth. By Level 10 of the Foundation stage, the cultivator's energy was so tightly packed into a single point in the belly that it became a "Battery." It wasn't power for the cultivator; it was concentrated fuel for something larger.
Stage 5: Mortal Transcendence (Sub-Levels 1–10)
• The Ascension: The book spoke of this with religious awe. At Level 1, the body begins to glow. At Level 5, one can walk on water. At Level 10, the "Ascension" occurs—the body dissolves into pure light and joins the Heavens.
• The Horror: Long Chen looked at the last illustration—a man vanishing into a vortex. Beneath the ink, he saw the structural lines of a Harvest. The "Ten Levels" were nothing more than a ripening process. A Level 10 Transcendent was simply a fruit that had finally become sweet enough to pluck.
Chapter 8 Continued...
"Ten steps to heaven," Long Chen whispered, his voice echoing against the cold stone walls. "But the staircase ends at a butcher's block."
"You finally see the cage, little prince." The voice from the rusted key in his pocket was no longer a whisper; it was a resonant hum that made the iron in the room vibrate. "The Divine Kings who buried your kingdom did not want gods to challenge them. They wanted a garden. They created these 'Ten Levels' to ensure that no human would ever accidentally stumble upon the Origin Path. They want you to refine your soul into a pill so they can swallow it."
Long Chen closed the book with a heavy thud. The weight of the world felt different now. He wasn't just fighting for survival; he was fighting against a cosmic deception.
"Koda, we aren't following their steps," Long Chen said, his dark eyes flashing with a cold, metallic light.
The ferret poked his head out of Long Chen's collar, his nose twitching. He sensed the shift in his master. The boy who had been a servant was gone. In his place was a Structural Anomaly—a man who lived outside the levels.
Long Chen stood up. He felt the Dual-Polarity Marrow in his bones humming. Because he had bypassed the Dantian and stored his power in his very skeleton, he didn't have a "Level" that the Sect's sensors could read. To them, he was still "Level 0."
He walked out of the library and toward the Azure Arena, a massive bowl carved into the highest plateau.
Thousands of disciples were already there, dressed in their finest silks, their Qi flaring in a peacock-like display of arrogance. In the center of the arena stood the "Testing Pillars"—white marble columns that would measure their strength.
As Long Chen walked through the crowd, the disciples parted, not out of respect, but out of disgust. "The laundry boy actually showed up," one sneered. "I hope they let me fight him. I need a new rug for my room."
Long Chen didn't respond. He looked up at the high podium where Elder Gao and the Sect Master sat like gods on a cloud. He looked at the "Jade Ceiling" of the sky.
"You call this the Peak?" Long Chen muttered, gripping the handle of the Stone-Breaker's Gavel hidden beneath his tunic. "Then I'll start by breaking the mountain."
The Great Bell tolled for the third time. The tournament had begun.