---
The courtyard was silent, save for the wind brushing the leaves.
Tianzun sat on cold stone, bare-chested, his eyes closed. His body trembled slightly. Beneath his skin, his meridians glowed faintly red—like smoldering wires forged from flame itself.
Inside his dantian, a spiral of golden-orange energy whirled slowly: a droplet of Emperor Flame Essence, condensed to a micro-scale so he could absorb it without dying.
> "Control. Breathe. Pressure. Expand. Compress."
> "Again."
A shadow loomed behind him in the mental plane. Ling Yuan.
> 「You call that flame cycling? I've seen blind soul slimes condense better fire meridians. Again! Stretch the second pulse through the left shoulder. Hold. Now redirect the pulse down the spine—slower! Idiot! You'll rupture your Lingtai node if you—STOP!」
Tianzun spat blood. His breath came ragged.
He didn't stop.
---
Training Phase: Initiated
> 💢 Pain Index: 89%
🌀 Cycle Frequency: 13 Pulses/min
🔥 Emperor Flame Fragment Absorption: +0.002%
💀 Warning: Spiritual Exhaustion Risk at 71%
He clenched his jaw and continued.
---
Hours passed. Then, finally, Ling Yuan said something unexpected:
> 「Stop. You're stable. Barely. Good enough for today's flame cycle."
Tianzun remained silent.
> 「You're not using a cultivation technique. Yet your Qi path is already forming into something rare."
> "I noticed," Tianzun said quietly, wiping the blood from his mouth. "The cycles are aligning unnaturally. Not like basic techniques. Almost like it's molding me."
> 「That's because it is. You've already been chosen."
Tianzun's eyes narrowed.
> "...One of the sealed items in the Legendary Pack?"
> 「Correct. Item 11: [???] Supreme-Grade Cultivation Scripture — Type: Bound Soul Inheritance」
> 「It's not something you can 'practice'. It awakens when you reach Dou Shi: 1 Star. It doesn't just guide you—it rewrites your core. That's why I didn't give you any standard technique. You don't need one."
Tianzun stood up slowly, his Qi slightly chaotic from internal heat.
> "Then I just need to reach Dou Shi: 1 Star... and survive long enough for it to awaken."
> 「Exactly. And at your current pace, it'll take years."
Tianzun's eyes sharpened.
> "Unless…"
> 「Yes. Unless you use Celestial Shards to force the foundation to congeal. But it will be expensive. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Millions… if you want to maintain perfect stability during advancement."
Tianzun exhaled. Turned toward the system panel.
> "Then I need more shards. A lot more."
---
System Store – Live Market: Active
📊 Shard Balance:
🔹 Liquid Shards: 9,420
🔒 Locked Reserve (1 Trillion): Unavailable
💱 Daily Earnings Estimate: 800–1,300 Shards
He scanned the panels:
Spirit Pill bundles rising 4%
Rank 1 Core Technique drops hitting 15%
Tier 2 Beast Ores under-demanded but about to spike due to an upcoming refining event
> "Sell Pill Bundles. Buy Ores. Flip in 2 hours."
> "Buy Tier 1 Armor Crates – set auto-sell at 9% profit range."
> "Accumulate compound potions – false demand push using minor auctions."
He issued twenty-two commands in under a minute.
The market responded instantly.
> +12 shards
+31 shards
+90 shards
Tianzun grinned faintly.
> "This system... it's a battlefield just like any other. And I've already won wars with worse tools."
---
Crafting Space – Later That Night
Inside his soul forge, Tianzun stood before an incomplete flame resonance technique.
> "Too unstable. The third spiral is off-axis. Needs balance against wrist ligaments. Introduce dual-flow?"
Yoru—Chitoge—watched him from across the floating platform, arms crossed.
> "You don't sleep, do you?"
> "Sleep is a debt to the weak."
She walked forward, sword glinting behind her shoulder. "You haven't ordered me to train yet."
> "Not yet. You're not ready."
> "You're the one who's not ready."
She stepped close. "You feel it, don't you? That I could kill you now."
He didn't flinch.
> "Yes."
> "So why aren't you scared?"
> "Because I won't let myself stay weak."
A beat passed. She studied him.
> "You're crazy. But I like it."
He turned back to his forge.
> "Yoru."
> "Yeah?"
> "When I reach Dou Shi: 1 Star... everything changes."
> "You say that like you're warning the world."
> "I'm warning you."
---
Closing Moment
Tianzun opened his system panel once more. His body shook slightly from today's flame absorption.
> "Weakness is a condition. Not an identity."
He stared at the countdown tracker ticking toward his next milestone.
> Celestial Shards Needed to Reach Dou Shi: 1 Star (Safely): 93,000
> Balance: 9,420
> Projected Completion Time: 3.6 months
> Projected Early Completion with Aggressive Risk Trading: 1.2 months
> Acceptable.
Begin Phase Two.
---