When Lu Tian and Yan Xue emerged from the final gate, the light hit them like judgment.
The arena was quiet.
The Elders waited above, seated like vultures dressed in silk. Their gazes were still, unreadable, but the pressure they gave off was enough to flatten anyone weaker than a core disciple. The rest of the Sect filled the stands. Inner disciples, outer disciples, servants. All gathered to see who had survived the Ninefold Offering.
Two walked out.
The Sect had only prepared for one.
That was the problem.
Lu Tian felt it immediately. The stillness wasn't silence, it was disappointment. There were no cheers. No respect. No recognition.
Only cold calculation.
Elder Shanxue stood slowly.
Behind him, four other Sect Elders rose. Five total. The Five Pillars of Crimson Soul.
Their eyes locked on the survivors, and their intent was obvious.
No one was meant to return.
No one was supposed to remember what was locked behind Door 99.
Shanxue's voice rang out like a blade against wet stone.
"Lu Tian. Yan Xue. You have completed the Ninefold Offering. Against all odds. Against all expectation."
His lips twisted into a cruel smile.
"And for that, your sentence is death."
No pretense.
No false reward.
Just the truth.
Gasps filled the stands.
Yan Xue's eyes narrowed. Her hand moved toward her dagger.
Lu Tian didn't move.
He had seen this coming.
He had read it in the novel, a lost chapter, never published, never resolved. The sect didn't reward monsters. It harvested them. No Abyss cultivator was ever meant to walk out intact. Especially not one who carried a living scar-weapon and a forbidden ring.
The five Elders moved as one.
Without signal. Without hesitation.
They raised their hands. Spiritual light ignited in five colors, forming a circle in the sky above them, five-pointed, burning with the Sect's execution array.
Five Path Annihilation Formation.
Each Elder poured in their power. Not even full strength, just enough to erase two pests.
The formation descended.
Lu Tian reached for Shidu.
Yan Xue stepped forward first.
And then it happened.
She inhaled.
And her body lit up, not with black smoke or scar resonance, but golden Qi.
It poured from her dantian in controlled currents, refined and clean. Her spiral was a fake. Her pain, cultivated and twisted into illusion. She was no Abyss Root. She had never been one.
She raised her hand.
And Qi Armor formed around her in the shape of a dragon's spine.
The crowd lost its breath.
Even the Elders blinked.
She smiled, wide and sharp.
"You thought I was one of them?" she said. "No. I only needed to go where they never look."
She turned to Lu Tian.
"I needed the Rootless Gate. The offering. The map of the Spiral. But you, you're real. You're what they fear."
Lu Tian's breath slowed.
A thousand thoughts pressed in.
And yet, he wasn't angry.
He wasn't even surprised.
He was reminded, again, that this world rewarded masks more than truth.
The formation cracked.
Yan Xue leapt upward, Qi bursting behind her like wings of pressure.
And Lu Tian stood still.
The Ring of Silent Remnant burned cold on his finger.
Shidu whispered in his mind.
One of the Elders sneered.
"A fake demon and a crippled abyssal. Wipe them out."
The formation surged one last time.
And then, it shattered.
Not from attack.
But from the pressure of a new presence descending from above.
A single figure appeared on the edge of the arena.
Clothed in gray.
Eyes closed.
Back straight.
His presence cut the sky.
The Elders froze.
Yan Xue stopped mid-air, stunned.
Lu Tian recognized him immediately.
The original master of the Abyss Root Method.
The Drowned Saint's last disciple.
A man erased from the Sect's records long ago.
And now, he spoke, voice like water sliding over bone.
"Five elders. One formation. To kill a pair of juniors."
His eyes opened.
They were black. Empty.
But alive.
"You've strayed far from balance."
And just like that, the ground split beneath the Elders' feet.
As the sky cracked from the spiritual clash, Lu Tian's Spiral flared.
Yan Xue touched down beside him, breathing hard. The Qi around her pulsed like a heartbeat, pure, aggressive, refined.
"You want to live?" she said.
"Tell me the levels."
Lu Tian nodded.
She whispered, quickly, sharply, as the Drowned Saint's disciple stepped forward.
"The cultivation system starts with Qi Condensation. That's the foundation, gather, refine, store."
"Then comes Foundation Establishment. That's when Qi becomes stable. You build your Core, purify your blood, strengthen your meridians."
"Core Formation comes next. You compress your spirit into a golden core. It becomes your second heart."
"Above that is a Nascent Soul. Your spirit detaches. You leave your body behind. Most don't survive that step."
She paused.
"But then... there are the ones like you."
Lu Tian turned to her.
She pointed at his Spiral, still spinning in his chest.
"Spiral Cultivators don't follow that path. Your Root becomes your anchor. Your scars become your techniques. Your Spiral replaces your Core."
She smiled again.
"Yours is already close to Tier Two. And you're still alive."
Lu Tian looked down at his hand.
The Ring of Silent Remnant pulsed.
Shidu itched to be drawn.
Above, the Elders were already recovering.
But now they were cautious.
Terrified.
The Abyss was no longer a secret.
And Lu Tian had stopped being a shadow.
He had become a name.
The ground still trembled from the aftershock of the Drowned Saint's disciple.
Cracks snaked through the arena. Elders stood scattered, expressions twisted with restrained fury. Disciples whispered from the stands, half in awe, half in fear. Somewhere behind it all, the Sect's formation pillars hummed low, preparing to seal off everything.
Lu Tian didn't look at any of it.
He stared at the space where the old master had stood.
Gone.
No trace. No ripple of spiritual Qi. Not even an echo.
He had appeared like smoke, and vanished just as cleanly.
No one knew what side he had come for. But Lu Tian knew what the appearance meant.
A warning. Not protection.
Yan Xue touched down beside him, still cloaked in Qi, panting. Her hands trembled. Her core pulsed erratically.
And above them, the five Elders stood again, silent, but no longer measured. The show was over. Now came the execution.
Then it happened.
The third Elder, cold-eyed and bird-boned, raised a hand, and flicked it outward in a casual, dismissive motion.
A burst of violet Qi exploded across the platform.
Yan Xue spun, reacting on instinct, her barrier flaring to life.
But the blow landed.
She staggered back five steps, coughing blood. Her Qi shattered around her like cracked glass.
Gasps rippled across the arena.
A sharp voice rang out from the crowd. "She's- she's not Core!"
The truth unraveled in an instant.
Her Qi had been masked. Amplified with suppression talismans. Cloaked by formation resonance. But it had all been a lie.
She wasn't a full Core cultivator.
She wasn't even Foundation Complete.
She had faked her way up.
And now the mask was broken.
The Elders saw it too.
"She bluffed her realm!" Elder Shanxue hissed.
"Execute them both!" the fourth Elder roared. "No more games!"
Lu Tian moved before the order was finished.
He grabbed Yan Xue's arm and whispered, voice steady, low, and absolute.
"We're leaving."
"There's no way out," she said through clenched teeth, blood on her lips.
"There is," he replied. "I know it."
"Great."
"We're not them."
He pulled her toward the western edge of the arena, past the cracked barrier wall, toward a half-buried tunnel hidden behind the bones of a collapsed statue. He didn't need to see it. He remembered it. The Hidden Servant Route, a forgotten maintenance tunnel used to dispose of failed experiments from the Rootless Ward.
It had never been mentioned again after that chapter.
Because everyone who went in was assumed dead.
But Lu Tian remembered the detail that mattered.
The route didn't just lead out of the arena.
It led beneath the Sect.
Through the Rot Maw.
The place where discarded formations, corrupted spirit beasts, and failed treasures were dumped to rot in the dark.
No one guarded it.
Because no one wanted to touch what lived there.
And that was why it was perfect.
He kicked aside the broken statue fragment, dragging Yan Xue into the crack. She was bleeding badly now, but she still held on. The tunnel closed behind them in shadows and dust.
Above them, the Elders unleashed a rain of attacks.
Too late.
They were already gone.
The tunnel swallowed them in damp silence.
For a long time, there were no words. Just footsteps. Breaths. Blood.
Then Yan Xue laughed, short and dry.
"You really are the quiet one."
Lu Tian didn't answer.
He could feel the Spiral spinning faster.
Not from pressure.
From decision.
This was it. The moment everything broke.
He wasn't a tool anymore. Not a survivor. Not even just an Abyss cultivator.
He was something else now.
A flag.
One the Sect would chase.
One the hidden ones might follow.
And one that might burn everything if it flew long enough.
As they ran deeper into the dark, Lu Tian whispered to the Abyss inside him.
"I won't be your puppet."
But the Abyss didn't answer.
It only listened.
Waiting.