Cold sweat clung to Lyn's skin when his eyes opened.
For several breaths, he remained motionless on the bed. His gaze moved across the room, measuring the angle of the light, the position of the shadows, and every object he remembered seeing before entering the Fractured World.
Almost no time had passed.
Lyn closed his eyes and turned his awareness inward.
His Vessel Realm opened before his mind. The golden Sea, with countless galaxies reflected across its surface, stretched beneath the endless Sky, and his Heavenly Shards rested within the Sea as they had before. The Fractured World had vanished completely. No remnant floated in the Sea, and no foreign structure remained in the Sky. The golden star hung above everything in its usual silence.
Lyn examined his Truth Carvings and directed a single thought toward them. The dwarf stars scattered across his inner Sky began to move, abandoning their former arrangement as they gathered into a vast circular constellation. Their radiance darkened at the same time, shifting from the pale brilliance of Light Path to a deep purplish hue that seemed to drink in the surrounding glow.
The transformation passed through every Truth Carving without resistance, pain, or damage. When Lyn reversed the change, the dwarf stars returned to their previous color and slowly resumed their former constellation with equal ease.
Such changes were known to occur whenever a cultivator altered the Path of their Truth Carvings. The dwarf stars would rearrange themselves into a new constellation, usually taking the form of circles, triangles, spirals, or other geometric patterns, while their color changed according to the Path they represented. The shapes themselves appeared to follow no consistent law.
Throughout the entire recorded history of the world, countless scholars had studied the phenomenon, yet none had discovered why the dwarf stars changed color or why each Path forced them into a particular constellation.
His theory had been correct.
I can change all my Truth Carvings to Event Horizon and restore them afterward.
He should have been pleased. Confirmation of the golden star's ability carried immense value. A cultivator normally paid a severe price to abandon one Path and enter another, yet Lyn could cross that boundary through thought alone.
His satisfaction lasted only a moment before desire reached for something more.
Why should it have been otherwise?
Human greed possessed no natural limit. Give a man bread, and he would desire meat. Give him wealth, and he would hunger for authority. Place the heavens within his reach, and he would attempt to swallow them whole. For strength, brothers murdered sisters, parents abandoned children, and disciples betrayed the masters who had raised them.
People condemned greed only when it belonged to others.
Lyn was no different. In a world where weakness invited exploitation and trust often became a blade placed against one's own throat, contentment was merely another name for surrender. A man could rely upon allies, clans, promises, or affection, but all of them existed beyond his control.
Only strength truly belonged to oneself.
The depth of his Sea remained the same. No new Heavenly Shards waited within it. No inherited cultivation filled his body, and no vast reserve of Essence had appeared. He still possessed the power of a Rank Three Stage One Dao Chosen.
Lyn opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling.
He had experienced the life of a Rank Nine champion. He had fought through two battles from the past, died repeatedly, and endured memories that still felt sharp enough to belong to him. He had expected the Fractured World to leave something substantial behind.
His knowledge of Fractured Worlds came almost entirely from what Khor and Mago had told him when he was young. They had described them as the remains of another cultivator's life, an inheritance shaped from cultivation, experience, memories, techniques, and everything a person had accumulated before death.
According to those stories, absorbing one could grant the previous owner's techniques, the depth of their Vessel Sea, and even the Heavenly Shards they had carried.
Lyn gritted his teeth, anger and disappointment twisting across his face.
The only clear gains were the memories he had witnessed and his new compatibility with the Event Horizon Path. Even the technique he had created inside the Fractured World offered little immediate value.
Reproducing it required Heavenly Shards he did not possess and a level of control far beyond his current cultivation. For all the suffering he had endured, he had returned with knowledge he could scarcely use.
Did the golden star interfere with the inheritance?
If the golden star could devour a Rank Nine cultivator's inheritance without displaying any visible change, then its capacity exceeded anything Lyn understood. He had no method to control it, no knowledge of its origin, and no guarantee that its interests aligned with his survival.
Another thought soon followed.
Fractured Worlds were valuable enough to drive an entire market into madness. Cultivators had shouted threats, prepared to duel, and nearly killed one another for the chance to possess one. If word spread that Lyn had purchased the inheritance of the Second Champion, many would assume that the Fractured World was still inside his Vessel Realm.
The truth would place him in even greater danger.
If they discovered that the Fractured World had already disappeared, they would assume he had successfully inherited everything it contained. They would expect Rank Nine techniques, rare Heavenly Shards, the depth of the champion's Vessel Sea, and secrets belonging to the Veil clan.
Whether the inheritance remained intact or had already been absorbed would make little difference to them. Greed rarely waited for certainty, especially when killing the weakest person involved was the easiest way to obtain an answer.
They might cut me open searching for treasures that no longer exist...
A faint pressure gathered behind his ribs. Every sound outside the room suddenly seemed too distinct. Footsteps passed somewhere beyond the wall. A door closed in the corridor. Voices rose briefly before fading into the distance.
Lyn listened until silence returned.
Worrying would not restore what he had lost, and fear would not prevent anyone from coming. He stored the danger in his mind alongside every other unresolved threat.
Then he remembered the Pegasus Shard.
I have to go to Defying Sun's office!
He rose from the bed immediately.
The Pegasus Shard did not belong to him. Keeping it any longer would provide Defying Sun with a legitimate reason to pursue him, and Lyn had no desire to test the patience of a Heavenly Expression.
He washed the cold sweat from his face, adjusted his clothing, and left for Morninglight Fortress.
The fortress stood approximately ten kilometers away. The distance itself meant little. The cost of entering and leaving concerned him more.
He would have to spend two Merit Points to enter and another two to return. After purchasing the Fractured World, he had almost nothing left. The journey would push his balance below zero.
Lyn sighed as he walked.
Four Merit Points were a painful price for returning another man's property.
After reaching the checkpoint, Lyn paid the entry fee and passed into Morninglight Fortress.
The familiar oppression of the place settled around him almost immediately. Soldiers crossed the roads in disciplined groups. Nobles moved between buildings with attendants trailing behind them. Students hurried toward lessons, workshops, and training grounds. Every person appeared to have somewhere important to be, and every path carried the pressure of countless intentions colliding within too little space.
Lyn moved through the crowd without drawing attention. He soon reached the marble building where Defying Sun kept his office and entered the corridors he remembered from his previous visit.
The layout returned to him quickly. He passed several closed doors, turned twice, and stopped before the correct room.
Lyn paused briefly before knocking on the door.
"Come in, come in."
Lyn opened the door and stepped inside. Defying Sun sat behind his desk amid the same disorderly collection of papers and objects. His relaxed posture made the room feel strangely ordinary for the office of a Heavenly Expression.
Lyn closed the door behind him.
"I came to return the Pegasus Shard."
Defying Sun looked up. A broad smile spread across his face.
"Ah, yes. I was beginning to wonder whether you had decided to steal it."
Lyn remained silent, unsure what to say or how to react.
The man laughed at his own remark for several moments before noticing that Lyn had given him no response.
He coughed into his hand, then fixed Lyn with a stern gaze. "Enough with the needless words. Give me my Shard."
Lyn tossed the Pegasus Shard across the room. Defying Sun caught it easily and turned it between his fingers, examining its surface with casual familiarity.
Lyn turned toward the door.
"Wait."
His hand stopped before reaching it.
A thin tension moved through Lyn's shoulders, though his expression remained unchanged.
I did nothing to the shard. I would not know how to tamper with it even if I wanted to. What does he want?
Behind him, the faint amusement disappeared from Defying Sun's voice.
"You purchased Seraph's Fractured World from the descendant of the Veil clan."
Lyn's heart struck hard against his ribs. The room seemed to contract around him. The air entered his lungs with unexpected difficulty, and the half-open door suddenly felt much farther away than the few steps separating him from it.
Lyn kept his back turned and forced his breathing to remain even.
"Yes."
A long sigh came from behind the desk.
"And here I thought my eyes had deceived me."
Defying Sun possessed enough strength to kill him before he could even form a complete thought. Running would accomplish nothing, and denial would only insult someone who had already confirmed the truth.
The silence lengthened. Lyn became aware of every small sound in the office. A piece of paper shifted beneath Defying Sun's hand.
"Good luck, kid," Defying Sun finally said. "I will say no more. You may leave."
Lyn waited for a hidden condition or a final question, though neither followed. He opened the door and stepped into the corridor without looking back.
Defying Sun watched the door close, rubbing his temples in disbelief.
I hope you sell it, he thought. The longer a Fractured World remains inside your Vessel Realm, the harsher its side effects become.
He left the fortress, paid the return fee, and made his way back toward the student quarters with a negative Merit Point balance hanging over him.
The debt irritated him, though Defying Sun's words occupied more of his attention.
The man had identified the Fractured World from a distance.
That meant others might have done the same.
Lyn did not know what signs had exposed it, whether the item had carried a recognizable presence or whether Defying Sun had simply observed the market from afar.
Either possibility was dangerous.
He needed Merit Points, Heavenly Shards, and a better understanding of the place where he now lived. More than anything, he needed enough strength to survive the consequences of opportunities he barely understood.
After returning to his quarters, Lyn opened the map stored within his Information Shard and searched through its functions.
A section labeled "Duties" drew his attention.
The marked location stood near the residential area.
This must be where students earn Merit Points.
He changed direction and followed the map.
The building appeared after a short walk. Marble covered its outer walls, matching much of Morninglight's architecture. Students entered and exited constantly, most of them moving with the hurried focus of workers who had already calculated the value of every passing minute.
From a distance, they resembled busy bees swarming around a hive.
Lyn joined the flow and entered.
Several corridors branched away from the main hall, while doors lined the walls in both directions. At the center of the open space floated a vast cube of condensed light. Its surface remained perfectly smooth despite the many hands pressing against it.
Students approached, touched the cube, and departed almost immediately.
Lyn watched several of them before stepping forward.
He placed his right hand against the light.
A list unfolded across his vision.
Hundreds of duties appeared, each accompanied by a description and a reward. Some offered twelve Merit Points, others twenty, while the simplest paid only one or two. Students could choose whether to receive Merit Points or Contribution Tokens.
Lyn studied the exchange values.
One duty caught his attention.
"Go to the library and organize the newly delivered books according to their assigned sections," he read quietly. "The reward is ten Merit Points or one hundred Contribution Tokens."
Lyn's gaze froze on the reward. The same duty paid ten Merit Points or one hundred Contribution Tokens.
For a moment, he thought he had read it wrong.
He looked again.
A strange silence formed inside him, colder than anger and heavier than disbelief. The number refused to settle in his mind: one hundred Contribution Tokens.
Back in Hazelrun, miners broke their backs for two or three Contribution Tokens a day. After food, deductions, damaged tools, late penalties, and the thousand small ways the sect drained the poor, that amount was close to three months of his normal wages.
And here, inside Morninglight Fortress, students earned it by organizing books.
His fingers remained pressed against the cube.
So that was it.
Merit Points belonged to a different world entirely. The sect's poverty had never determined the miners' wages. Their lives had simply been valued that cheaply.
Lyn's expression remained unchanged as something inside him grew colder.
No wonder miners die nameless.
The sect reserved its more useful currency for those already inside its system. Outer workers could labor for weeks and receive less value than a student earned from a single ordinary duty.
Lyn continued examining the available duties.
Lyn selected several manageable duties with a combined reward of thirty Merit Points. He spent the remaining daylight completing them, moving between the assigned buildings while quietly memorizing Morninglight's layout.
He took note of side entrances, narrow corridors, guard posts, crowded routes, and the places where a person could disappear from sight for a few breaths.
He told himself it was simple caution.
A Fractured World belonging to a Rank Nine champion was not the kind of purchase people forgot. Every unfamiliar glance seemed to linger, and every set of footsteps behind him drew part of his attention away from the duty at hand. He never turned around too quickly. Fear announced itself through haste, and Lyn had no intention of appearing afraid.
By the time evening settled over the student grounds, he had completed his final duty, discovered several routes back to his quarters that were absent from the map, and avoided taking the same path twice.
He calculated while walking back toward his quarters.
Thirty Merit Points should cover food for a week, at one Merit Point per meal, seven days would cost seven points. That would leave twenty-three. I should also receive whatever payment is due from today's class.
He entered his room, closed the door, and washed.
After changing out of his uniform, he sat on the edge of the bed. The room was quiet, yet his mind refused to follow it.
Only two days had passed since his arrival.
During that brief period, Defying Sun had given him a Notion Shard. Lyn had acquired the Storage/Information Shard, entered Morninglight, attended Beyond Morning's class, fought Scar, purchased a champion's Fractured World, experienced another man's battles, confirmed the golden star's ability. The sequence felt too dense to belong to two days.
He would not need to face another Heavenly Blockade anytime soon, which gave him time to prepare. The thought offered little comfort. Preparation required resources, and his list of needs grew faster than his means.
He needed an offensive shard. A second defensive shard would reduce his dependence on Light Reflect. A travel shard had already proven more than essential.
Every one of them would cost more than he currently possessed. He had visited a market, though the Fractured World had consumed his attention before he could inspect anything else.
The room gradually darkened around him. A soft mental pulse interrupted his thoughts.
Lyn checked his balance. His balance now read sixty Merit Points.
The delayed payments had arrived.
A faint sense of relief moved through him.
This is enough to stabilize my immediate situation.
He looked down and realized that he had been pacing between the bed and the wall. He could not remember standing.
Lyn returned to the bed and lay down. Sleep came quickly.
When he opened his eyes again, birds were calling beyond the window.
Morning light stretched across the room. He prepared for class, left the student quarters, and purchased a simple meal along the way. He ate while walking, unwilling to waste time sitting among strangers.
The training grounds were already filling when he arrived. Students gathered in familiar clusters. Some spoke about yesterday's lessons, while others compared shards and discussed possible pairings for the next practical exercise.
A voice rose above the surrounding chatter.
"Ryn! Come over here!"
Lyn turned.
Scar sat beside several empty seats and waved with the same easy enthusiasm he had shown when they first met.
The cheerfulness looked convincing from a distance. Up close, Lyn noticed the slight stiffness beneath it. Scar's smile appeared too quickly, and his fingers tapped against his knee with a rhythm that never settled.
The previous fight had clearly remained with him.
"You called?" Lyn asked.
"Of course I did. Come and sit beside me."
Lyn took the offered seat.
Scar leaned closer almost immediately.
"We need to have a rematch."
Lyn met his gaze without enthusiasm. "I have no intention of fighting you again."
Scar's eyebrows rose. "Why would you refuse? Come on. We already know it would be interesting."
"Our previous fight ended in a draw because I was fortunate."
Scar's tapping fingers stopped.
His expression changed for a moment. The playful insistence faded, revealing something more serious underneath.
"That was no draw," he said. "You won. I exhausted my Sea, lost control of the fight, and asked for a draw because I did not want to admit what had happened."
Scar's honesty was inconvenient.
A proud Dao Chosen could be guided through flattery. A dishonest one could be trapped through his own lies. Scar had enough pride to be troubled by defeat and enough integrity to name it openly. The combination made him harder to dismiss.
"Brother Scar, I cannot defeat you under normal circumstances," Lyn replied. "You are Rank Three Stage Three, while I am only Stage One. Your mistake gave me a single opportunity, and the fight ended before you could recover. Repeating it would prove nothing."
Scar stared at him. The words soothed part of his wounded pride, though they failed to erase the frustration behind his eyes.
He had reached Rank Three Stage Three and accumulated approximately seventeen hundred Truth Carvings. He possessed enough foundation to attempt advancement to Rank Four Stage One, yet he had anchored his own cultivation and refused to move forward.
Scar feared the harsher Heavenly Blockades that came with Rank Four. He also understood what advancement would do to his place among the students.
At Rank Three, he stood near the top of his peers. At Rank Four, he would enter a group where nearly everyone possessed greater experience, stronger techniques, and better shards.
He would lose the right to challenge Rank Three Dao Chosen without damaging his reputation, while becoming one of the weakest among Rank Four.
His cultivation had reached a threshold that demanded courage from him, and Scar continued searching for reasons to remain where he was.
Scar exhaled through his nose.
"Fine," he said. "I will leave it alone for now. You are still wrong about the outcome."
Lyn gave him a mild smile and allowed the matter to end.
Scar's usual energy soon returned, though some of the strain remained around his eyes.
"Anyway, did you hear what happened in the market yesterday?" he asked. "Someone bought an entire Fractured World for one hundred and one Merit Points. Can you imagine that? One hundred and one points for the inheritance of a champion!"
Lyn kept his face relaxed.
"I had no idea."
Scar stared at him in disbelief.
"How can you live here and know so little about what happens around you? The entire student district is talking about it."
Lyn gave a quiet laugh.
Scar shook his head, then lowered his voice despite the excitement shining in his eyes.
"It belonged to Seraph of the Veil clan, the Second Champion. Man if I had the chance, I would change Paths immediately." His words came with more hunger than humor.
Lyn recognized the source of it.
Event Horizon represented overwhelming power in Scar's imagination. It offered an escape from the limits he had already discovered within himself. If he possessed a champion's inheritance, he could imagine advancing without the fear that held him back now.
He wanted the Fractured World for the same reason many people wanted rare treasures. It allowed them to imagine that their lives would change before they themselves had to change.
"I heard the buyer vanished before anyone discovered who he was," Scar continued. "He must either be incredibly brave or completely insane."
"Perhaps he was both," Lyn said.
Scar laughed, and Lyn joined him with the appropriate expression.
Around them, the room continued filling.
Their conversation drifted toward less important matters until the air suddenly changed.
Beyond Morning clapped her hands.
Immense winds tore through the classroom. Clothing snapped against bodies, loose papers flew from desks, and several students nearly fell from their seats. The pressure erased every conversation at once.
Silence descended.
Beyond Morning stood at the front of the class, her long white hair settling behind her as the wind disappeared.
"Good morning," she said. "Today, you will learn about the creation of Heavenly Shards."
Lyn's attention sharpened immediately.
He had been waiting for this.
"Creating a shard is an expensive and unforgiving process," Beyond Morning continued. "It requires the sacrifice of a substantial number of Truth Carvings. Human Truth Carvings alone are insufficient. You also require tissue taken from a beast aligned with the Path of the shard you intend to create."
She looked across the room.
"You may think of the process as cooking. Thousands of recipes exist, and each one demands specific ingredients. Obtaining those recipes costs money. Obtaining the ingredients usually costs far more."
Several newer students shifted in their seats.
Beyond Morning observed their reactions before continuing.
"Naturally, Truth Carvings, beast tissue, plants, herbs, fruits, and other materials may all be required. Every ingredient must belong to the correct Path and possess the required quality. A single impurity can destroy the entire process. Damaged tissue, incompatible materials, and incorrect proportions will also cause failure."
Her gaze passed slowly over the students.
"When that happens, you lose the ingredients, your money, your time, and every Truth Carving you sacrificed."
The room grew quieter.
For many students, Truth Carvings represented months or years of effort. Money could be earned again, and rare materials could eventually be replaced. Lost understanding could leave permanent damage in a Dao Chosen's foundation.
Lyn raised his hand. Beyond Morning looked toward him.
"You may ask."
"How are beasts categorized, and can their Shards be harvested?"
Heads turned throughout the room. Even commoners usually learned the answer during childhood. Several students looked openly puzzled, while others lowered their eyes as if Lyn's ignorance embarrassed them personally.
Lyn ignored their reactions. Khor and Mago had taught him how to work, calculate expenses, and survive beneath stronger people. Their knowledge of cultivation had been limited, and neither had possessed the resources to provide him with a complete education.
Beyond Morning's pale gaze rested on him for a moment.
"Beasts are divided into fifteen ranks," she said. "Human cultivation may reach Rank Twenty. Beasts stop at Rank Fifteen."
She moved one hand, and lines of light appeared in the air beside her.
"A beast can be born with a Heavenly Shard, it carries that shard permanently fused into its body. The shard cannot be recovered after the creature's death. Its effects may still influence the beast while it lives, which often makes such creatures considerably more dangerous than their rank suggests."
The glowing lines rearranged themselves into four divisions.
"The widely accepted classifications are as follows. Beasts from Rank One through Rank Five belong to the Minor class. Ranks Six through Nine belong to the Ancient class. Ranks Ten through Twelve belong to the Primal class. Ranks Thirteen through Fifteen belong to the Mythical class."
Lyn immediately thought back to the wolves that had attacked the caravan.
The realization made the memory more unsettling. Creatures belonging to the lowest class had killed several people and nearly destroyed the caravan. If those wolves were considered minor, Lyn could scarcely imagine what an Ancient beast was capable of.
Many Dao Chosen regarded Minor-class beasts as resources waiting to be harvested. Their bodies could be sold, refined, and used in shard creation. That commercial view concealed the danger involved.
Even a Rank Two beast could threaten the life of a Rank Three Stage Two cultivator. Beasts possessed powerful bodies, violent instincts, and physical abilities that humans often needed shards to imitate. A hunter who misjudged one could lose an arm before realizing the creature had moved.
That danger kept most cultivators away from beast hunting.
Certain clans and specialized groups still built their lives around it. They accepted the risk because the materials brought wealth, status, and access to shard recipes that ordinary Dao Chosen could never afford.
Beyond Morning resumed her explanation.
She spoke about material quality, the relationship between beast tissue and human Truth Carvings, and the importance of preserving every ingredient before refinement. Lyn listened long enough to secure the principles he considered useful. As the lecture moved into details requiring recipes and materials he did not possess, his attention shifted inward.
He needed an offensive shard.
Creating one would require Truth Carvings, compatible beast tissue, additional Path materials, and an expensive recipe. A single mistake could destroy all of them, cripple his foundation, or kill him during the refinement. Attempting it with his current wealth and experience would be stupidity.
Buying a finished shard was far safer, and no wonder they are so expensive.
Eventually, Beyond Morning ended the lecture and led the students toward the training grounds. As before, the class separated into pairs.
Scar approached Lyn before anyone else could.
His expression carried less playfulness now. The desire for a rematch remained, though it had hardened into something he could no longer disguise as friendly enthusiasm.
"Fight me again," he said. "I will control my Essence properly this time."
Scar's persistence was becoming troublesome.
Lyn shook his head.
"I already gave you my answer."
Scar's jaw tightened.
For a moment, Lyn expected him to insist. Scar glanced toward the surrounding students, then toward Beyond Morning. His shoulders gradually loosened.
He forced a smile.
"Then choose someone else. I will get my rematch eventually."
Lyn turned toward another unpaired student.
As he walked away, he could feel Scar watching him.
The attention contained no hatred. Scar wanted an answer that their first fight had denied him. He wanted proof that he remained stronger.
Lyn stopped before his new opponent and prepared for the next duel.