Focusing on my injuries, I began to reflect on what I'd just witnessed.
The multicolored light that had suddenly appeared in the sky, and that eventually settled on gray, before descending into the metal region.
Then came the impact, and with that, the large metallic shard.
It looked similar to the ones I'd harvested from the metallic wolf, only much larger and much denser in its energy.
Zhao Wuying had called mine Minor Metal Shards.
So, by comparison, that larger shard must be a Major Metal Shard...
It made logical sense. If I assumed a structure where 50 Minor Shards equaled one Major Shard, it fit perfectly with what I'd felt earlier, when my intuition told me that I needed fifty to unlock something.
Still... there was a chance that what I saw wasn't even just a Major Shard.
Perhaps it was something even greater.
Regardless, it was important. Very important.
Important enough for someone like Zhao Wuying to drop everything, forget about his show, and rush toward it without hesitation.
That alone told me much.
And more importantly...
It seemed that he knew in advance.
He seems to know the true value and use case of those shards, and I don't think he was the one who granted them their name, especially with the naturalness with which he called them.
It seemed that someone had told him. His master, most likely, an elder.
That raised another question.
Did the other disciples also receive similar information before entering the Sanctum?
This so-called "trial" was never equal, not in cultivation and not in knowledge.
I had come in blind.
But brooding on this "injustice" wouldn't help me.
I shook the thoughts from my head.
Just as I was about to refocus on recovery—
RUMBLE.
Without warning, the ground beneath me rippled.
And then, it suddenly collapsed.
The ground beneath my feet vanished, the stone walls of the cave dissolved, and the silvery forest disappeared in the blink of an eye.
In their place, an infinite body of water.
Everywhere. A boundless, gleaming body of water.
I saw no shoreline. In my horizon, I saw only water.
"What the...?"
I was now wet, my body floating in the water.
I dipped a finger into the water, then brought it to my lips.
It wasn't salty.
So not ocean water, but freshwater.
The Qi around me had shifted completely, dense with Water Element, cold and fluid, brushing gently against my skin.
It was clear I was no longer in the metal domain.
I took a deep breath and dipped beneath the surface.
Something huge greeted me.
A massive shark, its body sleek and jet black, with streaks of glowing blue patterns running along its sides. It was swimming through the water about a few hundred meters away. Its eyes were eerily human-like, and its mouth stretched into something that looked far too much like a grin.
It was feasting on smaller spirit fish when it suddenly paused.
Its head turned, and with that, our eyes met.
And then, without hesitation, it went for me.
Its speed was terrifying, like a bullet slicing through the sea, but without the water's resistance.
"...You've got to be kidding me..."
Can't I even heal in peace around here?
Without a moment's hesitation, I again snapped my left arm.
It hadn't even fully healed from before, but there was no time to worry about that.
Crimson Surge.
The blood in my body ignited, and a deep crimson aura erupted from me, flooding the water with violent red light. My eyes burned red, and my presence shifted from prey to predator in an instant.
The massive shark halted.
It let out a distorted cry, a primal sound that sent ripples through the water. For a brief moment, hesitation flickered in its beady eyes.
But then it surged forward again.
Too late.
I was already gone.
The water, which had moments ago felt like chains binding my limbs, no longer restricted me. The surge of Qi burning in my blood made every movement fluid and sharp, slicing through resistance like a blade.
I appeared above the beast.
And then I stomped down.
My foot collided with its skull, and a spray of blood and brain matter burst upward.
Still, it moved.
Rolling mid-water, I wrapped my fist in Blood Qi and slammed it down on the same spot, shattering bone and scale.
The shark howled, the sound vibrating through the sea, and then it suddenly stopped.
Its body went limp, and as with the metallic wolf before it, the flesh dissolved into flickering motes of Qi, dispersing into the surroundings.
In the shark's place were two glowing shards, shaped like the Minor Metal Shards I once had, but these ones pulsed deep blue.
I claimed them and burst back to the surface, regaining my breath.
"...What a start," I muttered, wiping blood from my right hand.
This wasn't a static realm.
Earlier, just before the shift, a full thirty-hour cycle had passed.
Now the world had changed from metal to water.
This couldn't be a coincidence.
Could it be that the elemental region shifts every cycle?
If the rotation mirrored the Wuxing cycle, then the pattern would be:
Water -> Wood -> Fire -> Earth -> Metal -> Water
If I was right, then next would be Wood.
And if so... I had roughly thirty hours to make the most of this water-aligned region before the next transition.
Could I travel between these elemental domains manually?
Ever since I entered this place, I had been piecing together clues on the fly, chasing half-truths and theories.
Still, there was one constant. The mountain.
Since I first saw it, I had kept mental track of its direction, even during my escape from Zhao Wuying. I hadn't lost my bearings, even during meditation.
Something about that mountain called to me.
Its appearance felt central to the very structure of the Sanctum.
I began swimming in that direction.
Hours passed.
Nothing appeared on the horizon.
Beneath the surface, the water was eerily calm. Every few kilometers, I dived to check but found nothing at first.
Eventually, I encountered another shark.
It met the same fate as the first, and its death yielded two more shards, bringing my total to four.
And then, finally, something new.
As I dived once more, the still darkness of the depths was broken by light, not from the surface, but from beneath.
There were glowing structures below.
Temples of stone and coral nestled among sprawling kelp forests.
Ancient buildings, half-swallowed by the sea.
I surfaced briefly to regain my breath, then dove again and made my way toward them.
The moment I reached the outer edge, I could feel that the Water Qi here was suffocatingly dense.
One temple stood larger than the rest.
As I neared, I noticed a pocket of air within.
I extended a hand first, testing it.
Then I entered fully.
Air filled my lungs again.
I moved deeper into the temple. Carvings lined the walls, ancient runes in a language I couldn't decipher. Everything about this place screamed old, older than the sect, older than anything I had seen before.
At the far end, I found a mural.
Etched in deep, flowing strokes, it depicted the Black Tortoise, guardian of the north, sovereign of water.
I stared at it, half expecting the same surge of power and vision I'd experienced before the White Tiger.
But... nothing.
So... either I have no affinity for water, or this mural is incomplete... or different.
But its presence confirmed what I needed. It proved that the Four Symbols were central to this realm. And by extension, the fifth, the Yellow Dragon or Qilin, would eventually also probably play a role.
With everything explored, I turned to leave.
Only to be blocked by three massive serpents.
Not small ones either. They were the same size as the shark, their scales glimmering.
I didn't hesitate.
With a sharp motion, I broke each finger on my already-damaged left hand and struck my ribs for good measure.
Pain erupted.
Crimson Surge.
Almost Bloodfire Ascension.
Red energy exploded from me.
As the serpents flinched, I took the initiative.
Before one could react, I slammed my fist into its midsection, sending it flying into the coral-stone wall. Blood erupted from its mouth as it let out a screeching cry.
The others awakened fully, roaring in fury.
Ten minutes later.
Breathing rough, blood staining the waters behind me, I looked down at my hand.
Thirteen Minor Water Shards.
The serpents had yielded three each, unlike the sharks, which gave two.
My crimson aura started to fade.
I scoured the rest of the temple complex, moving from one structure to another, but nothing stood out.
But one thing did catch my attention.
There were other murals of the Black Tortoise.
Each one was slightly different in design or position, but all unmistakably bore the Black Tortoise. And if this mirrored the Metal region, then somewhere in this vast water domain... there had to be a true mural. One like the White Tiger's. One that would resonate with someone who shared an affinity with Water.
Unfortunately, it wasn't here.
And so, I resurfaced and resumed my journey.
I continued swimming, one arm moving through the water while the other remained close to my chest, healing slowly with the help of circulating Qi and the effects of the medicine pills I had started consuming like some people consumed candies.
Time slipped by.
Hours passed.
Occasionally, another beast would cross my path: a shark, a serpent, once even a strange crustacean creature with rotating blade-like claws. I slew them all, and my shard count slowly increased.
Progress wasn't fast, but it was progress nonetheless.
Eventually, the sky above shimmered, and that same familiar multicolored light appeared again.
The mountain revealed itself once more.
And this time, I could see more of it.
I was certain it wasn't just because I'd been swimming toward it. It was more visible. As though the barriers concealing it were weakening little by little with each cycle.
Then the light shifted until it finally settled on red.
Fire.
The light streaked across the sky like a comet, moving away from me in the opposite direction.
Gray... metal... red... fire... could it be?
If my hypothesis is correct... then the next time the light appears, it should be blue.
I continued to swim when, not long after, the world changed again.
In the blink of an eye, the endless water was gone.
I felt the ground beneath my feet.
The air changed too, becoming damp, rich, and heavy with the scent of leaves, soil, and vitality. The humidity clung to my skin, and a faint green mist curled around the edges of my vision.
I stood amidst a towering forest, the trees rising hundreds of meters into the sky. Their canopies stretched wide, blotting out any glimpse of the heavens. The trunks were massive and etched with glowing veins of green Qi.
Wood Qi.
The scale of the forest was staggering. I felt like an insect walking through the domain of giants. Every leaf was the size of my torso, every root coiled like a great serpent beneath the moss-covered ground.
The Qi was thick here. Not oppressive like Metal or Water had initially been to me, but undeniably dominant. And, although this region didn't suppress me nearly as much as the previous ones had, I still felt distinctly unwelcome here.
And that made perfect sense.
Wood was naturally restrained by metal.
Even without the empowering resonance I experienced in the metal region, my metal affinity gave me an edge here. The beasts of this forest weren't strengthened against me like those initially in the metal region or later in the water region. They were, in fact, innately vulnerable to my element.
In other words, even in a place where I held no environmental advantage by wielding the region's natural element... I could still fight them on equal footing, if not even dominate.
It was also a welcome change to feel solid ground beneath my feet again.
After spending so much time in water, I found the ground oddly comforting.
I resumed walking, keeping the direction of the great mountain etched clearly in my mind.
▬▬ι═══════ﺤ
Five days passed.
With that, a full elemental cycle had come and gone.
I had now experienced each of the five elemental domains at least once and had returned for the second time to the wood region.
Five days ago, during my first passage through here, I found little of note aside from scattered murals of the Azure Dragon and a handful of Minor Wood Shards. It was the same with the water and earth regions.
But the fire region had been the worst by far.
Not only did it suppress my Qi due to my lack of fire affinity, but metal was innately weak to fire. The result was a double-layered suppression that drained me with every breath. Every fight left me on the brink of collapse.
Unsurprisingly, I only managed to collect six Minor Fire Shards during that cycle before the world shifted again.
The earth region, though, was intriguing.
I didn't find a primary mural like the one of the White Tiger, but I did discover several depictions of the Yellow Dragon carved into ancient stone walls, an implicit confirmation of its role as the guardian of the Earth domain.
Aside from that, I gained a lot of Minor Metal Shards during my second stay in that region. At present, I held onto 42 Minor Metal Shards. This meant that on my next return to the metal region, I'd finally reach the threshold of 50 and uncover their secret behind their true purpose.
Then, I hadn't encountered a single other disciple over the course of this entire week. It wasn't that surprising.
I was increasingly certain that the others entered this Sanctum with far more information than I had. Likely, they had been briefed in advance, given objectives... perhaps even maps or instructions.
And they likely understood the importance and use of the Major Shards from the very beginning.
Unlike me, they weren't wasting time hunting Minor Shards. They would be targeting the Major Shards that appeared once per cycle. That would also explain why I hadn't run into them, as they were probably moving in sync with the light.
The only other time I saw a Major Shard appear since my clash with Zhao Wuying, it landed once more in the Metal region.
But I didn't go after it.
I had no intention of repeating that encounter. Not yet.
By now, I was also certain about how the sanctum operated.
As the sect leader had mentioned, a Sanctum "day" was thirty hours long.
One hour and forty-five minutes before each shift, the multicolored light would appear, dancing across the skies. When the thirty-hour mark passed, the entire realm would transition to the next element.
But what fascinated me most was the underlying law that governed these changes.
The elemental region cycle followed the generative cycle of Wuxing:
Metal -> Water -> Wood -> Fire -> Earth -> Metal once more.
But the path of the multicolored light, the one that held the Major Shard each day, followed the destructive cycle, albeit in reverse:
Metal -> Fire -> Water -> Earth -> Wood -> Metal again.
Why the reverse destructive cycle? Why did the sequence begin with Metal?
I still didn't have answers.
But what I did know was this: with this pattern understood, I could now predict with absolute certainty where the next Major Shard would land.
And the others most certainly already knew this.
Lastly, I had also confirmed that travel between regions wasn't limited to waiting for the elemental shifts.
It was possible to traverse them manually.
Which meant... sooner or later, I would meet another disciple face-to-face.
I continued doing what I'd done since the moment I entered this sanctum.
Moving forward.
The forest was dense, beasts emerged, and I cut them down one after another.
By now, I had nearly gathered fifty Minor Wood Shards.
The elemental advantage I held here was tangible. My Metal Qi cut through wood like a scythe.
Eventually, something in the landscape changed.
Ahead of me stood a tree—no, that thing couldn't be called a tree.
It towered over the rest of the forest, nearly three times taller than the already massive trees surrounding it. If I had to guess, it stretched to nearly six hundred meters high. The trunk alone was wider than entire houses. It was the first time I'd seen anything of this scale in the wood region.
I moved closer.
Before I could take ten steps, two treants erupted from the undergrowth. They leapt in front of the massive trunk, shielding it with their bodies.
"WAAAAAH!"
Their voices were almost childlike in tone but full of warning.
They weren't attacking immediately.
Instead, they were guarding the tree.
How unusual.
The other beasts I'd encountered here never hesitated to fight, but these two were focused entirely on defense, more intent on protecting something than killing me.
That alone made the tree even more worth investigating.
I didn't activate Crimson Surge.
Instead, I summoned Metal Qi into my fingertips, shaping my hand into a claw.
Then I lunged toward one of the two treants. My fingers pierced the bark of the treant with a sickening crunch. It roared, shaking the leaves around us, but I had already withdrawn before retaliation followed.
The second treant didn't hesitate. It swung one of its gnarled limbs at my head in a wide arc.
I dropped low, letting the branch whistle overhead, narrowly missing me.
The first treant was wounded but still standing.
They regrouped, both prepared to charge.
I took a slow breath, focusing Metal Qi into my lungs.
Then I exhaled.
A thin stream of silvery threads drifted from my mouth. The threads shimmered in the air, weaving into a hexagonal formation in front of me.
The moment the treants entered the formation's radius, they froze.
Unnatural stillness overtook them. Their movements locked mid-step, as if some invisible law had bound their limbs in place.
Good.
Drawing Metal Qi into my fist, I began compressing it.
Layer by layer.
Accumulate and then compress the Qi.
I repeated this step nine times.
The air around my hand pulsed with power. A thick, visible, steel-gray aura enveloped my fist. The pressure distorted the air, forming visible waves.
The hexagonal seal shattered just then, but I had stalled them long enough.
The two treants stood perfectly aligned, one directly behind the other.
I shot forward like an arrow.
I reared back my fist and struck.
The first treant exploded at the waist. Wood flew in all directions as its torso was cleaved from its base.
But the strike didn't stop.
My fist kept going, driving into the second treant's chest. A loud crunch followed, and a gaping hole burst open in its center, as if it had been drilled through by a cannonball.
Both treants collapsed and hit the floor. They didn't even let out a sound as they started to disintegrate. In their place, a total of four Minor Wood Shards appeared.
Those two techniques I'd just used were the results of a full elemental cycle spent contemplating my enlightenment into the Dao of Metal.
I stepped forward and gathered the shards, then turned my attention toward the towering tree once more.
At its massive base, partially hidden behind thick roots and moss, was an entrance. It was no more than a meter by a meter tall. A narrow, squared tunnel carved cleanly into the wood.
I approached slowly, the air around it humming with faint Wood Qi.
It had been five months since I arrived in this world. Though my body still carried the label of a thirteen-year-old, it no longer reflected the fragile youth I'd once been. The rate of physical development here far exceeded anything possible in my old world.
That one month of seclusion, spent silently cultivating and stabilizing my foundation after my cultivation abruptly rose, had accelerated everything.
Now, I looked just like I had the day I first stepped off the bus and stepped onto the grounds of ANHS. My height had caught up to what it once was during my first year: 176 centimeters (5'9").
I had to crouch to squeeze into the opening.
With one last glance behind me, I ducked and entered the tunnel beneath the great tree.