?The manual described The Starless Breath as "peaceful."

  ?The manual was a lie.

  ?Day 2: The Suffocation

  ?Jiang Chen sat in the center of his hut. He hadn't moved for twelve hours.

  ?Sweat didn't drip from his forehead; it evaporated instantly because his body temperature was fluctuating wildly.

  ?"You are leaking," Apeiron criticized. "Your left kidney is emitting a pulse of Void Qi every 4 seconds. If an Elder looks at you, they will see a flickering light. You need to be a black hole."

  ?"It... feels... heavy," Jiang Chen gritted out.

  ?Creating a vacuum in his Dantian was physically agonizing. It was like holding his breath, but with his soul. The [Void Foundation] wanted to spin, to eat, to scream. Forcing it into stillness required every ounce of his willpower.

  ?"Again," Jiang Chen gasped, resetting his breath.

  ?He visualized the event horizon. He pulled the energy inward, compressing it until the "noise" of his power vanished.

  ?For an hour, he was a statue.

  ?Then, a fly buzzed into the room. It landed on his nose.

  ?Jiang Chen didn't twitch. He didn't swat it. He didn't emit a killing intent.

  ?The fly cleaned its wings, utterly unaware it was sitting on a predator. It stayed for ten minutes before flying away.

  ?"Better," Apeiron noted. "You have achieved the stealth of a rock. Now, try moving."

  ?Day 4: The Shadow Walk

  ?Stealth while sitting was easy. Stealth while moving was torture.

  ?Jiang Chen was in the woods bordering the Inner Sect. This was a restricted zone, patrolled by Spirit Hawks—birds with eyesight that could spot a mouse from a mile up and spiritual sense that detected any Qi fluctuation.

  ?Jiang Chen moved through the underbrush.

  ?Every step had to be calculated. If he used Qi to boost his speed, he would light up on the birds' radar. He had to use pure muscle, moving with the rolling gait of a predator, absorbing the sound of his own footsteps.

  ?Screee!

  ?A Spirit Hawk circled overhead, its golden eyes scanning the forest floor.

  ?Jiang Chen froze mid-step, one foot hovering over a dry twig.

  ?He didn't just stop moving; he stopped existing. He engaged [The Starless Breath]. He dropped his heart rate to 10 beats per minute. He pulled his body heat inward.

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  ?The Hawk circled twice. It looked directly at the bush Jiang Chen was crouching behind.

  ?It saw leaves. It saw dirt. It saw no heat, no life.

  ?The Hawk flew on.

  ?Jiang Chen exhaled, placing his foot down silently.

  ?"I can walk past them," Jiang Chen whispered.

  ?"Walking is not fighting," Apeiron reminded him. "In the tournament, you must hit people without revealing your true weight. If you punch a Qi Condensation disciple with 100% of your Foundation strength, they will explode. That is a disqualification."

  ?"So I need to pull my punches."

  ?"No. You need to fake a style. The humans respect 'Body Cultivation'. Brute force. Thick skin. It explains your speed and durability without revealing the Void."

  ?"Body Cultivation," Jiang Chen mused. "I can do that."

  ?Day 6: The Spy

  ?The sun was setting on the final day of training. Jiang Chen had one last objective.

  ?Know the enemy.

  ?He wore his black servant hood, masking his face, and climbed the ridge overlooking the Inner Sect Training Grounds.

  ?Using The Starless Breath, he blended into the gray stone of the cliff face. Even the patrol wards didn't trigger.

  ?Below, in the main courtyard, a crowd had gathered. They were watching a single young man practice.

  ?Liu Feng. The "Little Sun."

  ?He was handsome in an annoying, perfect way. Golden robes, flowing hair, and a sword that glowed with genuine sunlight.

  ?"Hah!" Liu Feng shouted.

  ?He slashed his sword at a row of ten granite training dummies.

  ?He didn't touch them. A wave of golden Qi, hot and sharp, erupted from the blade.

  ?BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.

  ?The ten dummies didn't break. They melted. The stone turned to slag under the heat of his technique.

  ?The crowd cheered.

  ?"Amazing! Brother Liu has mastered the Solar Flare Sword!"

  "He's definitely winning the tournament!"

  ?Jiang Chen watched from the cliff, his violet eyes narrowing.

  ?[Target Analysis: Liu Feng]

  ?Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early - Unstable). ?Technique: Solar Flare (Fire/Light Element). ?Weakness: He telegraphs his strikes. He poses for the crowd before every attack.

  ?"Arrogant," Apeiron sneered. "He wastes 30% of his energy on the visual effect. He wants to look cool more than he wants to kill."

  ?"He's strong, though," Jiang Chen noted. "That heat... if I take a direct hit, my skin will hold, but the impact will hurt."

  ?"Then don't get hit. He is fighting a duel. You are hunting."

  ?Jiang Chen watched Liu Feng bask in the adoration of the other disciples. The "Golden Child" vs. the "Corpse Rat."

  ?Jiang Chen slipped away from the cliff edge, fading back into the darkness.

  ?"He thinks this is a sport," Jiang Chen said. "I'm going to show him it's a food chain."

  ?Day 7: The Calm

  ?The night before the tournament.

  ?Jiang Chen sat in his hut. He wasn't cultivating. He was eating.

  ?Lu Pao had brought him a "last supper"—roasted boar, heavily seasoned. Not a spirit beast, just regular meat, but it filled the stomach.

  ?"I put the bet in," Lu Pao said, his leg bouncing nervously. "500 Spirit Stones on you to make the Top 10. The bookie laughed at me. He gave me 50-to-1 odds."

  ?"Should have bet on me to win," Jiang Chen said, tearing a strip of meat off the bone.

  ?"Let's not get greedy, Boss. Top 10 gets us into the Inner Sect. That's the goal, right?"

  ?Jiang Chen wiped his mouth.

  ?He looked at his hand. He clenched his fist.

  ?For the first time in weeks, his hand didn't tremble. The [Void Foundation] was silent, locked behind the vacuum seal of The Starless Breath. The [Venom Core] was dormant.

  ?He felt... normal.

  ?But beneath the surface, the pressure was building. Like a dam holding back a flood.

  ?"Lu," Jiang Chen said.

  ?"Yeah?"

  ?"Tomorrow, when the fighting starts... don't look away."

  ?Jiang Chen blew out the candle.

  ?"You're going to see what I bought with those Spirit Stones."

  ?The darkness in the room felt heavy.

  ?The preparation was over. The predator was starving.

  ?And tomorrow, the buffet would open.