Birds chirped beneath the clear sky while a warm wind stirred Lyn's hair. Several people waiting in line whispered among themselves, their eyes briefly settling on his worn village clothes before darting away. Lyn didn't give them any attention. His thoughts were on the following assessment.
He looked over as a person exited the building. He had long, messy dark-red hair and wore bandages everywhere around his body except his face. His eyes were dark brown, unfitting with his hair.
"Stupid test! I'm telling you, my Purity is A rank at worst! I was the best from my clan!"
The elder simply laughed behind him as he exited the building as well. He had long white hair and orange eyes, accompanied by dark-blue robes almost bleeding into purple.
"Boy, the tests you had in your clan were clearly inaccurate! You don't even have D-rank Purity! Get lost! Lord Defying Sun Great Heavenly Expression might have seen something in you, but so what? Sooner or later you'll wither and fall away. In the entire history of Morninglight, no one with E-rank Purity has ever achieved anything!"
The disciple stopped a few meters away from the door and glanced at the elder behind him. He focused his intent and saw that the elder leaked Rank Four Stage Five Light Path Essence.
"Hmph! Speak now and cry later! Old man, fight me once I reach your rank. I wonder if you'll dare fight me for five hundred days and nights! My Depth is Myth ranked!"
The elder burst into laughter, with those in line joining him.
Lyn simply observed quietly.
Only one in a billion might possess Myth-ranked Depth, but Lyn didn't even know what this ranking was. The words Purity and Depth were not foreign to him, but the ranks regarding them were.
The elder gestured and everyone quieted.
"Luo Jin! You dare lie to save face? You have some nerve! The test indicated SS depth. Although it's impressive, I admit, but even so! with that reserve you won't be able to fight me for even a few weeks! Myth rank? You? HAH!"
Luo Jin? Luo... Luo... that clan is near Tortileburn...
Before Lyn could think further, the elder's laughter abruptly stopped.
Without another word, The Elder opened his Shard Gate and withdrew a Light Information Heavenly Shard. He activated it in his hand and fell completely silent, his eyes fixed on whatever he was reading. He frowned as his pupils contracted sharply.
His Light Information Heavenly Shard had updated on its own.
Luo Jin smirked and said nothing as he glanced at the elder's face behind him. Then he walked off.
Lyn observed all of this. It was easy to conclude that this was precisely why Luo Jin had been chosen by Defying Sun. The elder must have realised Luo Jin wasn't bluffing. And now the elder had earned himself an enemy in a few years. Lyn laughed inwardly. This is why one shouldn't be so sure of themselves.
Not long after, the elder simply went back inside as if nothing had happened. The line continued moving, filled with sighs and disappointment. After some twenty minutes, it was Lyn's turn.
"Ryn?"
Lyn's attention snapped toward the elder.
The elder opened the heavy dark granite door and gestured for him to enter with a brief movement of his hand. He had remained unusually quiet for the entire twenty minutes since Lyn had seen him mock Luo Jin. Lyn loved seeing this. Nonetheless, he obeyed without speaking. The inside of the building resembled a labyrinth constructed for a precise purpose. They followed plain stone corridors, turned sharply at several intersections, and passed closed doors marked with symbols Lyn did not recognise.
Their footsteps were the only sound. The air remained cool and still, carrying the scent of damp rock and something faintly metallic, like charged ozone. After several minutes, the elder stopped before a blank wall and extended his left hand. A Shard Gate shimmered open above his palm, allowing him to withdraw an unremarkable fragment of glass that couldn't be identified by sight alone.
He channelled a thin thread of Essence into it and the wall dissolved. The blank wall itself became like mist, swirling away and revealing a steep, brightly lit staircase leading deep underground. The elder gestured again, and Lyn followed him down.
They descended for nearly five minutes before reaching another door. The elder removed a key from his robes, unlocked it, and led Lyn into a large chamber engraved with more than ten formations. Faint lights of various colours flowed through the granite walls and ceiling before gathering around three square, altar-like structures in the centre of the room.
The sight was mesmerizing. The room looked like it was covered in rainbow-like veins. Most buildings contained formations that supplied ordinary utilities, but depending on their design, they could also provide defence, concealment, and countless other functions. This one... contained at least ten, based on the colours Lyn saw.
The elder saw Lyn's confused and mesmerised expression and spoke in a dry voice.
"It's too expensive to hide the formations. But officially..."
He chuckled.
"...it's to show the importance of this place and the immense amount of Essence circulating through the room. It's supposed to make disciples mesmerised so they feel grateful."
The elder didn't know why he had told him the real purpose. Lyn was surprised that the elder was being rather honest with him, but either way, he had already deduced that much on his own. So, in response, he simply nodded before adding in a plain voice, "I see. That's kinda smart, Sir....?"
"It's Elder... and it's Elder Rudran. But yes, it is smart. It makes people more immersed in the fortress. Motivates them, so to speak."
Lyn laughed. "I have to say, it's working."
Rudran sighed and stroked his beard, his thoughts somewhere else.
"Child, approach the altar on the left and place your hand on it. Wait until the formations reach your hand. Once all ten colours appear on your skin and you hear a bell, remove your hand."
He gestured toward the remaining altars.
"Then repeat the process with the central altar and, finally, the one on the right."
Lyn nodded.
Three altars?
Elder Rudran remained behind him with his hands clasped behind his back. A Shard Gate shimmered open next to him, producing another featureless fragment of glass. His face remained impassive, but his eyes gained a distant focus, as though he were recording his observations.
Lyn placed his hand on the left altar. Thin threads of coloured light emerged from the formations engraved into the floor. They crawled up the stone and spread across his skin, carrying a deep vibration that travelled through his bones.
RING!
Lyn removed his hand.
Elder Rudran gave a slight nod of approval. Lyn moved to the central altar and repeated the process. This time, the colours flowed more quickly while the vibration became sharper and more intrusive.
RIING!
As Lyn withdrew his hand, he noticed the elder's eyebrows lifting by the smallest amount. The momentary shock broke through his professional expression before being suppressed.
Lyn approached the final altar and placed his hand on it.
The process occurred quickly, with all ten colours flashing across his skin in an almost impatient sequence.
RING!
He stepped back and waited.
"Remain here for a few minutes," the elder instructed.
He opened another Shard Gate and summoned a different Shard into his palm. After he activated it, a simple wooden door appeared within the smooth granite wall behind him. The elder stepped through, and a moment later both the door and the opening disappeared, leaving Lyn alone inside the humming chamber.
Judging from his expression, one of those altars must have examined my Truth Carvings. Did it detect the golden symbol?
A cold spike of anxiety pierced through Lyn's calm. Lyn glanced at the formations surrounding him. He was deep underground, sealed inside a chamber designed specifically to analyse Dao Chosen. Escape was impossible. An acceptance gradually settled over him.
Sometimes there is no choice. Sometimes the only move left is to stand still. I should become accustomed to this.
He drew a slow breath and allowed the panic to recede, leaving only sharp and watchful readiness. Several uncomfortable minutes passed beneath the constant hum before a door appeared again. The elder stepped through and gestured for Lyn to follow him back upstairs. They had already begun climbing the long staircase when the elder finally spoke. His voice now carried considerably more respect, along with a trace of disbelief he had failed to conceal.
"Sea Depth: B. Truth Carvings: six hundred and forty. And somehow... your Purity is ranked SS."
He shook his head.
"This is simply ridiculous."
"How so?" Lyn asked, carefully keeping his voice neutral.
Rudran glanced back at him.
"Kid, do you even understand what I just said?"
"I'll be honest, Elder. I'm a commoner. I don't know much."
Rudran sighed, the sound echoing through the stone stairwell as he continued climbing. "Sea Depth represents your spiritual fuel reserve and is determined at birth. It is graded from F to SS. You were born with B-rank Depth, which gives you a fairly large reserve and a meaningful advantage during battle."
He raised one finger as he explained. "When you advance, your Sea grows according to a percentage of that original foundation. Because your innate base is larger than average, your future capacity will remain larger than that of most people."
The elder lowered his hand. "Sea Purity measures the quality of your Sea and the quality of your Truth Carvings. It is graded from F, where the Sea is turbulent and wasteful, to SS, where it becomes crystalline and perfectly controlled."
He glanced at Lyn. "You possess SS Purity. The highest possible grade. Every drop of Essence you use is flawless, with no waste."
Lyn listened without interrupting as they continued up the stairs.
"Truth Carvings represent your understanding of your Path. You currently possess six hundred and forty, and the strength of those Carvings is restricted by Purity. Do you get it now?"
"I think I do."
The elder's expression tightened with bewilderment. He simply refused to believe this. Before, Luo Jin had gotten Myth-ranked Depth, but the altars couldn't detect it, so they simply showed SS. And now Lyn comes along with SS Purity!
What a joke.
What a joke!
What's next? Is this also going to be changed to Myth rank by one of the Administrators?
Rudran opened his Shard Gate and used another unknown Shard. A door appeared at the end of the stairs, leading them into a long corridor.
He continued speaking as they walked. "With SS Purity, your six hundred and forty Carvings would perform with the effectiveness of ten times that number. Six hundred and forty Carvings combined with SS Purity provides a sixty-four-times multiplier to any of your mortal fragments."
Lyn was surprised.
"Sounds too good to be true."
Rudran ignored the remark and continued.
"Most disciples I tested today possessed C and D Purity at best. If they held the same six hundred and forty Carvings, they would only produce a fraction of your strength, perhaps a twenty-times or forty-times increase."
This time Lyn didn't reply. He simply absorbed the information. This was valuable, around ten people had been in line before him, excluding Luo Jin and others who might have come before him. Most of them had C or D Purity. The information made him more cautious.
The elder's footsteps continued echoing ahead of Lyn as they walked through the corridor.
"You are not far from your first major blockade. With a foundation like yours, you will face it from a position of obscene stability."
This was good, Lyn thought, but he didn't care much about the upcoming blockade. The star was still his main concern. All this time he had been wondering whether the elder had sensed something or not, but now Lyn concluded he hadn't. After all, the assessment was practically finished. He just needed a key, robes, and that was that for today. Then he could finally go and rest from all the traveling with Defying Sun.
Neither spoke for the remainder of the corridor, although the elder occasionally sighed, still thinking about the ridiculous workday he had experienced. Once they reached another plain granite door, the elder stepped through with Lyn close behind him. The corridors eventually brought them back into the registration area, where they stopped at one of many identical desks. The elder opened a drawer and handed Lyn a key together with a neatly folded uniform. The robe was light blue, with a single narrow stripe of golden thread sewn around its collar.
"Your assigned class is Lightflame," Rudran said.
"I will update the Storage Shard you received with directions to the appropriate building. That is all. Move along."
Lyn accepted the objects, his fingers brushing against the cool fabric as he opened his Shard Gate and stored the robe away. The uniform appeared high in the sky of his Vessel Realm. He tossed the key inside as well. Lyn offered a shallow bow of acknowledgment before leaving.
As soon as he stepped outside, the noise of the training grounds returned. Before entering the testing chamber, Lyn had been an anonymous figure among hundreds. Now he possessed a classification. He sighed as he found a quieter corner beside a wall warmed by sunlight and activated the Storage Shard he had refined earlier. A map unfolded within his mind, highlighting a route toward a building positioned along the western edge of the training grounds. At the same time, his Information Shard changed size slightly as glowing black characters appeared across its golden surface.
RYN | CLASS: LIGHTFLAME
MERIT POINTS: 98
DAO: B DEPTH | SS PURITY
TRUTH: 640 (LIGHT PATH)
NEXT MANDATORY TRIAL: 29 DAYS
FIRST LECTURE: DAWN, HALL 7
Lyn examined the information for a moment. Then he directed his intent toward the map, changing it to display the route to his assigned quarters. Lyn scratched his head and continued through the training grounds, following the route. Around thirty minutes passed like this.
Soon, the crowded central district gave way to rows of buildings made from dark wood. The area was quiet, a complete contrast to the restless heart of Morninglight. After several more minutes, Lyn reached the location marked on the map. He opened his Shard Gate, took out the key Elder Rudran had given him, and inserted it into the door.
The lock clicked and he stepped inside.
The quarters were plain, containing two main rooms in addition to the spaces used for bathing and other utilities. Dust lingered in the air, suggesting the rooms had remained empty for some time. The first room served as a living area. A single table stood in the centre beside one chair, and another uniform had been placed on its seat. Lyn ignored it for the moment.
What else do I really need?
The second room contained a simple bed, while the remaining spaces provided a toilet and shower. Classes were not mandatory, and the day had already grown late. Lyn obviously decided to rest. Within a single day, he had purified and refined a Storage Shard then went for assessment, received his uniform, a key and a class.
That was more than enough for one day.
He put his pouch on the chair and was just about to go to sleep, completely ignoring the shower, when the Storage Shard suddenly took essence on its own.
Lyn stopped in his tracks.
He then poured Essence into it and saw a message within the Information Path Shard.
"Pegasus Shard"
Right...
Lyn looked at the pouch he had left on the chair.
Tomorrow. It can wait.
Besides, Defying Sun had stopped supplying it with Essence after they reached the walls of Morninglight, he wasn't losing anything from getting his Shard back a day later. Lyn lay down with these thoughts. His eyes soon closed.