We sat on opposite sides, a few metres between us, and the spirits handed each of us our purified material spheres.
"Good. Follow the process. And remember, even a small mistake during the final compression will cause a harmful explosion. Not sure which part of your body you would lose."
A cold breath slipped from several disciples at once.
"Begin."
The word had barely dropped before everyone moved. Each of us picked up the five spheres of different materials and arranged them in a circle on the ground before us.
Chen Wu's group began attempting to generate the spiritual inscriptions first, practicing in the air before committing to the actual material. It was the right instinct.
The inscriptions were unlike anything in orthodox cultivation writing, the characters built on a structural logic that belonged entirely to the refinement discipline, and the essence that formed them had to move in precise continuous lines rather than the bursts and compressions that combat required.
"Ah... shit. This is harder than I thought."
Failed attempts scattered across their side. The characters broke apart mid-stroke, the lines collapsed, or the essence dispersed entirely when the writer lost the thread of the sequence.
Among them only Su Ling and Hou Zi were progressing better than the rest, their control steadier, their failures at least reaching further into the inscription before breaking down.
And Chen Wu. He was still behind both of them.
"Perhaps the real threat isn't him this time."
The spirits and the Bai group watched from the sides with absorbed attention. Some were excited. Some worried. Calculating quietly about who would come out ahead.
But this kind of attention can only create pressure for those who care about what others think. Those who worry about making an impression. Those who believe the opinions of these people will somehow affect their lives.
And that is how mistakes are born.
But I am free from notions of morality and immorality. I do not care what others perceive about me.
I took a slow breath and placed my spheres into position. The arrangement drew eyes immediately from both sides.
I extended my index finger and let the spiritual essence flow out in a dense continuous thread, and began writing the ancient inscriptions directly above the material spheres without a practice run.
"What the..."
"He went straight to the real thing."
Voices rose around me, but I kept my focus on the moving thread with the same concentration I had used in the Medical Hall when treating complex injuries.
The inscription was not simple, but a night of reading had given me a grasp of its structure, and that was enough to guide my hand.
When the final character connected, the inscription hung in the air above the spheres, its lines glowing faintly.
Suddenly, five lines extended downward from the characters and touched each of the spheres in sequence, causing them to glow.
The characters faded slowly. Meanwhile, the spheres had compressed into small, dense beads.
The blue spirit moved closer, its expression carrying clear approval. "Not bad. Your talent for refinement is quite good."
I did not respond to it.
A glow rose from Chen Wu's side at the same moment. Not Chen Wu... Hou Zi! who had completed his first inscription set, and while his companions gathered around him his eyes were actually fixed on me.
I shrugged and moved to the next set.
Chen Wu's group found their rhythm after that. Seeing a successful example, they moved through the inscription stage with greater confidence.
Hours passed in the low concentrated silence of people working at the edges of their ability.
By the time I had finished, I held six complete sets of prepared beads. In other words, six chances at the final compression.
I relaxed a bit and reviewed the process in my mind once more. Now the five beads had to be enclosed within a cocoon of spiritual essence, sealed completely and continuously.
Confirming this, I gathered the five different beads and began constructing the base layer of the cocoon from my own spiritual essence.
Then placing each bead onto the surface as the essence walls rose around them.
Before continuing, I bit down on my finger and let a drop of blood fall onto each bead in sequence.
This would bind the finished seal to me alone and make it unusable by any other hand.
"This is the finest thing about this refinement metho…"
BLAST!
The half-formed cocoon detonated and the force threw me backward across the ground.
Everything stopped.
The clearing held its breath. Every hand on Chen Wu's side had frozen mid-motion. Even the Bai group had gone rigid where they stood.
I lay on the ground for a moment, then sat up and pressed my hand against the side of my head where the impact of the blast had left a ringing that sat deep behind the ear.
Bai Xia was already moving toward me. "Are you hurt, are you—"
I stood and walked back to my position without answering her.
The blue spirit drifted to the center of the space where both groups could see it clearly, and the smirk it wore was directed at everyone equally.
"Be careful. What just happened was a small blast from an incomplete seal. If the mistake occurs when the cocoon is fully sealed..." It let the pause do its work. "Hoho."
The color left several faces on Chen Wu's side simultaneously.
I sat down and closed my eyes, running back through the process from the point where it had failed.
The blood had to be applied at a continuous pace, one bead to the next without pausing, not a drop and wait. I had paused after the first bead to confirm absorption and the interruption had broken the internal consistency of the forming seal.
"What a blunder."
I opened my eyes and reached for the second set.
The cocoon base rose again, the beads were placed, and I moved through the blood application in one continuous motion this time, finger to bead to bead to bead without stopping—
BLAST! BLAST!
Three simultaneous explosions from Chen Wu's side threw Su Ling, Hou Zi, and Chen Wu himself backward across the ground.
The force from their blasts rolled outward through the space, and I saw one of the beads at the edge of my cocoon get knocked free by the outer edge of the shockwave.
BLAST!
The ground met me again.
But I instantly pushed upright and the world tilted slightly. My head was turning, a slow heavy rotation behind the eyes that the two blasts had produced together.
My outer robe had caught the edge of both detonations, the fabric across the shoulder and chest had burned through in patches.
And the worst part, the scarf was gone.
The cloth that had covered the lower half of my face had taken the brunt of the second blast and burned away entirely.
Several sharp intakes of breath came from behind me. Then from the disciples' side.
A silence followed that was different from the previous one, with more in it.
But I paid no heed and pulled two spirit stones from my inner robe, pressing them into my palm, drawing their essence inward through my meridians.
The reserves had dropped a little, and the spinning behind my eyes needed time to settle regardless of how much I wanted to press forward.
While I waited, I looked across the field.
Mei and another disciple had exhausted their materials entirely during the inscription stage. They sat to the side with nothing left to work with, their expressions resigned.
Chen Wu was on his last set. He had only managed to complete two.
Hou Zi and Su Ling had begun their compression attempts again alongside him, the three of them working through what remained.
I knew with the spirits' involvement that the trial was already leaning in my direction but to be safe I still needed to complete the Binding Soul Seal and capture Chen Wu. With that, I could put an end to all of this by killing him.
Again, an urge rose from somewhere deep inside me.
KILL! KILL!
"NO."
The word had barely left my mouth when an explosion rang out. The source was none other than Chen Wu!
Mei and the others rushed to him immediately, gathering around the injuries, and with that he was out as well.
A smile appeared on my pale face. My focus sharpened, and I began the process again with the third set.
Failure was unacceptable now.