She sat alone, cold pressing in from all sides like a quiet punishment. The cuffs around her wrists buzzed faintly—constant reminders of her helpless state. Each breath came shallow. The mana suppressors didn't just dampen her power—they suffocated her.
No food. No soft bed. Just steel walls and silence.
Then, a voice echoed in her mind.
"Well, well. Thought you were doing fine. But looks like you love trouble."
Light, mischievous. A mocking tone only one person ever dared to use with her.
Knight 33.
She didn't even flinch.
After completing the first trial of the Tower of Eternal Doomsday and Sacrifice—a name as dramatic as the pain it delivered—Yun Ting had gained more than just scars. She'd inherited a presence even she did not know
Knight 33.
It wasn't a name, but a title. His actual identity remained a mystery, and she still didn't know how many trials the tower held. But if Knight 33 was the weakest guardian, as she suspected, then his strength barely scraped the peak of Affinity Level. Yet his presence in her mind was unshakable. Before falling dormant, he gave her two gifts—a bizarre technique called Devil's Palm, and a spirit flame she nicknamed Scarlet Flame. Whether that was its true name didn't matter. It obeyed her.
That was enough.
In Taixu, he'd gone silent. Sleeping, mostly. Until now.
She glanced around the dim interrogation room. "If only I knew how life without power or money works," she muttered, swinging her legs onto the steel table and leaning back.
Knight 33 snorted in her mind.
"Stop being dramatic. This isn't a dungeon. It's a suppression chamber. Fourth-rank energy crystals, dense with containment energy. Lucky you—if you stop sulking, you can actually turn this into an opportunity."
She narrowed her eyes, studying the faint pulsing glow in the walls. So that's where the suppressors were hidden. The energy was real—massive, in fact—but way too dense. Hard to gather, hard to convert.
With a flick of her wrist, the cuffs snapped and clattered to the floor.
She stood on the table and sat cross-legged. Her breathing steadied.
Inside this room, energy didn't flow like water. It was thick, like syrup. Energy crystals were known to be poor sources for cultivation. She'd learned that the hard way. Even with her talent, she only managed one level-up after six full months of meditation using high-grade crystals.
Still, it brought her to the edge—290,000 units of spiritual energy. That was the peak of Affinity Level. Just a little more… and she could evolve.
The cultivation system in this world was divided as follows:
Affinity Levels: F, E, D, C, B, A
Elite Tiers: S, SS, SSS
Black Ranked Levels:
Primordial Adept
Heaven Adept (Tian Shi)
Heavenly Lord (Tian Zun)
Saint Lord (Sheng Zun)
Sovereign Lord .
Basically affinity level wasn't even supposed to be a level, people at this level were just strong men whose wounds healed faster and could demolish a building with one punch,at this stage their spiritual cavities are just developing to apprehend the true spiritual strength at it was at least up to 300,000 spiritual energy units before becoming a S -rank and finally starting to evolve and undergo spiritual refinement,for every spiritual refinement,one could gain a domain and the number of domains was the number of skills one human could use with in a battle,so this meant that those ranking from F to A possessed no spiritual skills at all ,the only power was martial arts and all other techniques
Her teeth clenched. She remembered the Widow Spider Hornet, it could've helped her evolve instantly—if only she'd eaten it instead of dragging it into this cursed city to sell but once again she needed money
She laughed bitterly.
"bright moon. The city of bad luck. Coming back was a mistake just like last time."
Everything had gone wrong once again.
This wasn't just frustration. It was regret. Regret deep enough to poison her bones.
"Damn it " she muttered, mocking herself.
Her gaze fell on the flickering Scarlet Flame hovering near her palm. It wasn't ordinary fire. It looked like liquid light, glowing with life. This was spirit flame—a mythical treasure so rare most cultivators had only heard of them in stories. A flame that could devour other energy sources, speed up cultivation, even develop a will of its own.
But here's the catch—only those above SS Rank could control them.
For anyone else? It'd burn you alive. Or worse, rupture your spiritual cavities from the inside.
So why could she hold it?
Maybe because it chose her. Or maybe… it was in her blood.
Her mother had reached Black Rank, far above the common cultivator. Perhaps Yun Ting had inherited more than just her eyes.
With a thought, she released the flame. It glided through the air like a ribbon of fire, circling the room. The suppressor energy that clung to the walls began to shimmer… then burn.
The pressure vanished as if it had never been there.
She breathed deeply then got to work.
The Scarlet Flame burned the suppressors' energy into a usable form, and Yun Ting began absorbing it slowly. Very slowly—around 625 units per hour. Not much, but considering how resistant this energy was, it was a miracle. A normal human, even after hours of intense training, might gather 20 units in one hour. This was already far beyond what most would dream of.
But the heat…
Sweat poured down her back. Her clothes clung to her skin. There wasn't even a fan in here. Whoever designed this room was a monster. Or just lazy.
Hours passed.
Her breathing grew heavier. Her body trembled. But the energy flowed in, drop by drop. 3,000 units gathered. Then 4,000.
She clenched her fists.
She could feel her strength rise.
Even if it wasn't enough to push her past the peak of Affinity Level, this energy would allow her to have a soul skill. Affinity cultivators didn't normally have them. Their spiritual cavities were still too immature. But she was different.
Then—
Outside the chamber, a man snored loudly, his legs propped up on the desk. A bored security officer with a coffee stain on his uniform.
He stirred.
The monitor beeped softly. A red triangle blinking on the screen. He rubbed his eyes and squinted.
"What the hell...?"
The status bars below the blinking symbol didn't lie.
Suppressor Status
Quality: 89%
Strength: 34.56%
He jolted upright, his chair scraping back and clattering over. Panic lit up his sleepy face.
"Hey! Wake up!"
The second officer groaned, still half-asleep.
"What is it, man…"
"The suppressors are failing!"
That did the trick.
The second guy blinked at the monitor, then at the red flashing alarm. "what the heck—"
He sprinted to the chamber door and peeked through the reinforced glass.
And flew backward like a ragdoll in a storm.
The spiritual energy had surged so violently it blasted him away, his body slamming into the hallway wall with a thud.
Inside, Yun Ting rose to her feet.
Her aura pulsed like a storm barely contained. 4,000+ units gathered. A massive feat for anyone at her level.
She stretched and walked slowly toward the door, heat rolling off her skin like mist.
"Is this the best security Taixu can offer?" she said, snorting. "Rank C officers guarding a prison cell?"
Pathetic.
Heavy boots pounded in the distance. Alarms blared. Reinforcements were coming.
--