The arena was silent.
Not the silence of peace, but the kind that follows slaughter.
Crimson light pooled on the black stones, glinting beneath the midday sun.
Polyfalls Yen stood at the center, his breathing steady yet shallow. The boy who was once branded trash now looked like something dragged from the abyss—demonic qi still leaking from his pores in faint ripples of darkness.
The challenger's screams had long since faded. His body lay twisted, bones shattered, flesh mottled with purple bruises. The senior overseeing the match had to rip through the barrier to stop Polyfalls's final strike, intercepting his fist just as it came down again.
"Enough!" the senior had shouted, his arm trembling from the impact. "The duel is over!"
Only then had Polyfalls stopped. He blinked once, as if waking from a trance, and lowered his blood-soaked hand.
Now, minutes later, the crowd still hadn't recovered.
Whispers surged like wind through dry grass.
"He's a monster…"
"How could someone with a fifth-grade root hit like that?"
"Was that demonic possession?"
Polyfalls ignored them all. He turned his gaze upward, expression calm. His face—handsome but cold as forged steel—betrayed no pride, no regret. Only his eyes gleamed with something unreadable: a hunger that frightened even his own shadow.
From the side of the stands, Meilin Xue pressed a hand over her lips. Her pale fingers trembled slightly. She had seen cultivators kill before, but never with that calm, methodical precision.
When the medics dragged the broken challenger away, Polyfalls stepped down from the stage. The black qi that had surrounded him slowly dissipated, fading like mist in sunlight.
Then the voice came.
A low, resonant murmur, echoing directly in his mind:
"You lose yourself too easily, child. Passion is power, but left unchecked, it devours its master."
The Demon Whale's tone was neither scolding nor kind—simply vast, like the ocean itself.
Polyfalls's steps faltered for a heartbeat. I didn't lose control, he answered inwardly. He just wouldn't stop struggling.
"Even the sea can drown itself when stirred by storm," the Whale replied. "Restraint is what separates gods from beasts."
Polyfalls didn't answer. He knew the spirit was right, but the warmth of victory—of vengeance—still burned behind his ribs.
In the upper pavilion, several instructors and elders murmured among themselves.
Elder Jiang's face twisted into a sneer. "A disgrace. I smelled forbidden qi when the boy struck. That was no ordinary strength."
Beside him, Master Qian sipped his dark tea, unbothered. "Forbidden or not, strength is strength. The arena recognizes victory, not excuses."
Elder Jiang slammed his fist against the railing. "You defend him too quickly, Alchemist. Perhaps you enjoy watching students lose themselves to madness."
Master Qian's eyes glimmered. "Madness is often the mother of genius, is it not? Perhaps we've finally found a child who understands the true heart of demonic cultivation—unflinching pursuit."
Their words carried into the air like faint thunder, unseen but heavy.
By the time Polyfalls reached the edge of the grounds, a crowd had already gathered near the exit path. Faces blurred together—mockery, awe, hatred, fear.
He didn't slow down.
Meilin Xue stepped forward to intercept him.
"Polyfalls," she said quietly.
He stopped, expression unreadable.
"You could've killed him," she whispered. "You nearly did."
"He challenged me," Polyfalls said. "He wanted a lesson. I gave him one."
"That's not what I meant," she said, eyes shining with something softer—worry, maybe. "You don't have to prove anything to them."
For a brief moment, her voice reached the place inside him that still remembered kindness. Then the image of his past family flashed across his mind—faces twisted in disgust, the sting of betrayal, the pain of a blade through his heart.
He turned away. "You wouldn't understand."
Meilin Xue's lips parted, but she didn't answer. The boy's back seemed larger than it should have been, his shadow stretching unnaturally long beneath the crimson sun.
That night, the summons came.
Polyfalls stood before the dark-walled hall of the elders. Candles burned with purple flame, throwing wavering shadows on the faces above him. Elder Jiang sat at the center, eyes cold as a snake's.
"You broke half the bones in your opponent's body," the elder began. "Explain yourself."
Polyfalls bowed slightly. "I defended myself and accepted a challenge. The arena permits decisive victory."
"You call that decisive?!" Elder Jiang snapped. "You unleashed killing intent fit for a Nascent cultivator!"
Master Qian's voice drifted lazily from the side. "Perhaps we should be pleased. Our academy hasn't seen that level of ferocity in years."
Murmurs rippled among the others.
Elder Jiang's jaw tightened. "You will receive no punishment this time, but you will be watched. One misstep, boy, and you'll find the academy's mercy ends quickly."
Polyfalls inclined his head. "Understood."
He turned to leave. As he passed Master Qian's seat, the alchemist's voice brushed his ear like smoke.
"Power tests the vessel that contains it," Qian murmured. "Don't let yours crack too soon."
Outside, night had fallen over Dao Xuanzhen Academy. The towers loomed like fangs biting into the sky. Polyfalls walked the empty paths alone, his breath steady but his chest aching from hidden injuries. Each step echoed against the stones.
In the distance, faint laughter from drunken disciples carried through the wind, quickly swallowed by the darkness.
When he reached the edge of the courtyard pond, he sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes.
Black qi pulsed from his dantian, spiraling upward like smoke. The voice of the Demon Whale returned—deep, resonant, yet oddly gentle this time.
"You've tasted victory. Now taste silence."
Polyfalls inhaled slowly. The surface of the pond shimmered, reflecting both his face and the blood that still stained his knuckles.
He began to chant softly, words half-remembered from an ancient verse that had come to him in dreams:
"Blood to stone, stone to sea,
Sea to sky, and sky to me.
Let my heart be still as night,
Till gods bow low to mortal might."
The air trembled faintly. His qi gathered, sharper, denser. Inside his mind's eye, the Demon Whale's form loomed enormous, eyes like twin abysses.
"You walk farther from men each day," it said. "Soon, only shadows will call your name."
Polyfalls opened his eyes. Moonlight glimmered on the water, silver against black. "Then I'll learn to speak their language," he whispered.
And in that quiet, beneath the cold breath of night, the demonic path deepened another step.