Jin’s face contorted into a nasty frown.

  His heartbeat climbed.

  His pupils dilated.

  There was that fear again.

  No matter how bleak or strange the situation kept turning, Jin kept finding ways to steel his resolve.

  But he was still young at the end of the day.

  And what had just happened shattered every sense of reality he had ever known.

  Jin, who had thrived on control his whole life, could admit it now through his chattering teeth.

  He was scared.

  He had no clue what was going on.

  His breathing turned quicker and more sporadic.

  Panic rose.

  His mind told him to give up.

  Part of him wanted all of it to just be over.

  Test your resolve.

  Ruk’s words rang through his head again and again.

  What did that even mean in this situation?

  Resolve to do what?

  He had asked Ruk why he was here, but before any answers came, Ruk turned to smoke and disappeared.

  Now only that last statement remained, while every other thought crashed into him at once.

  Fear.

  The unknown.

  His mind wouldn’t stop.

  It obsessed.

  The memory of the purple smoke replayed so vividly it started to feel real again.

  Like it was in the room with him.

  Around him.

  Inside him.

  The shape shifted into something he recognized.

  A flame.

  The purple flame struck his mind first and settled there, then spread its smoke through his entire body.

  When it reached his lungs, it started to compress them.

  His breath tightened even further.

  Veins bulged in his neck.

  His hands clawed at his throat, squeezing, tearing, desperate for air.

  He couldn’t breathe.

  He wouldn’t even be able to get his last words out.

  Jin’s vision blurred.

  The room darkened until it felt like a black hole swallowing everything.

  Entering the formation wasn’t even an option now.

  If nothing changed, Jin was going to die.

  At the brink of death, once again more powerless and lost than he had ever been, he waited for the anger to kick in again.

  For his mind to calm.

  For something in him to adapt so he could start making plans.

  He was already afraid.

  He should have at least been angry.

  Angry, because if there was one thing you could say about what life had done to him, it was that none of it had ever been fair.

  Everywhere he went, he ended up a victim of circumstance, like the universe itself was trying to suppress him with every bad experience it could think of.

  That was probably where the obsession with control came from.

  But all of those emotions slowly faded.

  His mind got stuck on one thing.

  Resolve to do what?

  The question came again.

  And again.

  Like hunger.

  Insatiable.

  He had to solve it.

  Instinct, soul, sense of self—whatever it was—screamed at him that the answer to that question was the key to surviving this.

  All while he clawed at his throat, unable to breathe, muscles spasming uncontrollably, body begging for air, begging just to move, begging to get out of this damn formation.

  Jin ignored the pain.

  Ignored the terror.

  It was still there.

  It still hurt.

  He was still scared.

  But he accepted all of it.

  He threw his whole being into the question.

  Resolve to do what?

  He had asked Ruk why he was here.

  But he had never answered that question for himself since waking up.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Why was he here?

  What was the point of all this?

  What was the basis of his resolve?

  No one had to tell him the truth.

  Deep in his soul, he already knew it.

  His old life on Earth—whatever he had built before he entered that warehouse, which already felt like ages ago—was gone.

  He would probably never see his empire fully expand.

  He would probably never even taste the power he wanted so badly.

  So what was the point?

  If he couldn’t answer that, then maybe it really would be better to let the purple smoke take him.

  The tips of his legs started to deteriorate the same way Ruk’s had.

  His consciousness faded faster as the purple flame settled deeper into his mind.

  How pathetic, Jin thought.

  This was all his life would amount to.

  The smoke crept higher.

  Nearly his entire lower half was gone.

  His face still carried that same pained expression, brows furrowed deep, but his pupils were no longer blown wide.

  The sharpness returned.

  And deep within him, those instincts he never fully understood burned in his eyes like the same fire raging in his mind.

  A powerful urge rose in him.

  Fight.

  He wanted the pain to end.

  He craved it so badly he couldn’t remember ever wanting anything more in his life.

  But more than he wanted to give up, he needed to keep going.

  He needed to fight this.

  But why?

  What was the point of fighting, just for more suffering and pain?

  His mind rejected it.

  Fighting just to be tortured more by Ruk made no sense.

  He started to sink deeper into despair, his instincts slowly dulling, his soul getting weaker.

  His body started to go limp.

  The smoke climbed higher, reaching his torso.

  Why.

  The only word his soul could communicate to his mind.

  Focus on the why.

  Why should I fight?

  And through all the pain clogging his mind, a thought came through clear as day.

  Like a lifeboat thrown to him while he drowned.

  His adoptive mom’s voice rang in his head.

  Clear.

  Steady.

  “Wherever you go, there you are.”

  At that thought, even through the pain, his face started to relax.

  The lines in his forehead softened.

  His brows unfurrowed.

  A slight smile touched his lips.

  He took a deep breath.

  The smoke stopped advancing.

  What is my resolve?

  The answer came easy now.

  Jin had always known it.

  It had never changed since the day he first set out on his path.

  He hadn’t achieved his goals yet.

  So even if nothing around him made sense—

  Even if he had nothing left in this world to fight for—

  He would continue to fight.

  It didn’t matter where he was.

  As long as Jin was still himself, he would fight.

  Because that was who he was.

  The pain stopped.

  The fire in his mind flared, then swallowed the smoke around him.

  The disintegration stopped.

  Flesh returned.

  The shape of his body quickly reappeared piece by piece.

  Jin wiggled his toes.

  He had never been so happy to do something so small.

  The fire didn’t leave.

  It stayed in his mind, condensing tighter and tighter until it took the shape of a star.

  When it finally finished condensing, his eyes widened.

  His head spun.

  Information flooded his consciousness all at once.

  A mystical feeling washed over him, strange and heavy and impossible to describe.

  When the dizziness passed and his eyes settled, something inside him had changed.

  Perseverance.

  He understood that word in a way he never had before.

  “The level two pure concept of burning perseverance… To think you would actually pass the first part of the test and completely refine it on your own. It seems like you weren’t all bullshit earlier.”

  Ruk’s voice boomed through his mind, angry as always, cutting through Jin’s thoughts.

  Ruk, in truth, had never been more excited in his entire life.

  This damn demon might actually be able to fully pass the test and form a three-star rank one ether core.

  Ruk had never expected Jin to get this far.

  Jin was an otherworldly demon, so in theory he should have supreme talent when it came to refining concepts, partly because of his otherworldly perspective.

  But theory and reality were different things, and Ruk had never interacted with an otherworldly demon before.

  To think Jin could actually be born into this world with a pre-existing concept, and not just any concept, but one of the strongest level two pure concepts, the concept of self.

  That was unheard of!

  Even in all of Ruk’s centuries of memory in the cultivation world, he couldn’t recall an individual ever being born or summoned with a concept.

  But the test wasn’t over.

  Ruk’s original plan had been simple:

  Force Jin to refine two level two pure concepts, overload the ether vein in his mind, and force the creation of one of the strongest and rarest two-star ether cores as the base for his cultivation.

  That would have been enough to make Jin an extremely strong sunborn orc.

  Strong enough to lead Ruk’s family and race back into prominence among the other orcs.

  And if Jin failed?

  Then Jin’s soul would be destroyed.

  Either they would both die, or Jin would remain conscious just long enough during the refining process to fall into the formation, which would destroy Jin’s soul but replenish Ruk and grant him rebirth, with drawbacks, of course.

  The biggest drawback being a lower foundation.

  This was not ideal for Ruk. Without high enough cultivation power, even Ruk couldn’t guarantee the resurgence of his family.

  But what had actually happened surpassed even his wildest expectations.

  Jin had not only refined the rank two pure concept of burning perseverance, he had also already refined the rank two pure concept of self, likely before Ruk had ever summoned him.

  At this very moment, Jin already had enough to form a two-star rank one ether core.

  And he was only halfway through the test!

  The sheer potential for power Jin had made Ruk salivate with greed.

  A figure like Jin could change everything for his family.

  “What the fuck did you do to me?”

  Jin’s voice, full of hostile intent, cut straight through Ruk’s scheming.

  “Watch your tone, demon. If I still had a body, I would strike you where you stand for speaking to me in such a disrespectful manner. Do not forget your place, or how weak you truly are,” Ruk said.

  While simultaneously thinking, Of course I picked the strongest, most outstanding otherworldly demon. I should’ve never doubted myself. I am the great me, after all.

  Jin wasn’t scared of Ruk’s threats anymore.

  “Answer me, you dumb f—”

  “All your queries will be answered in due time. You still haven’t fully passed the test,” Ruk cut in, stopping Jin’s tirade before it started.

  “Although I am not the kindest person, I would never lie to you. Only weaklings lie. And I swear upon my family’s name that the experience I just gave you was a gift so precious creatures of every race would make rivers run red with blood just to get it.”

  Ruk waited for Jin to interrupt.

  To scoff. To curse at him. To doubt him.

  Nothing.

  So he continued.

  “The test is nearly over, and I promise that if you manage to pass, not only will I tell you everything I know and answer all your questions—I will make you the strongest orc Celestria has ever seen.”

  Jin’s first thought was immediate.

  What the hell is Celestria?

  His second thought hit even harder.

  I’m an orc?!

  His third thought surprised even him.

  It was naive, maybe even stupid, but his instincts told him Ruk wasn’t lying about making Jin “the strongest”.

  And Jin trusted his sense of self to an unfailingly absurd degree.

  So he said the only thing that mattered.

  “What do I need to do to become the strongest?”

  Ruk’s soul grinned ear to ear.

  When he answered, his tone was still the same irritated anger as always.

  “You have to burn alive, of course.”