Ascension Log

Morning mist blanketed the outer sect. Dew clung to the stone paths like silent tears.

At the Withered Pine Pavilion, Kai Lin stood alone. He hadn't moved all night. The cracked seal within his soul still pulsed faintly, as though something ancient was watching from within.

Ding—

Location: Withered Pine Pavilion (14 hours total sign-in)

Reward: [Spirit-Concealing Cloak]

Effect: Allows user to suppress all presence below Core Formation for 30 minutes once per day.

He silently draped the cloak over his robes. Thin, gray, and dull to the eye — a perfect match.

Then came the footsteps.

Dozens of them.

Disciples turned as a pair of black-robed enforcers marched through the outer sect, holding an unfurled crimson scroll between them.

They stopped at Kai Lin's gate and slammed a soulsteel spear into the ground.

A voice rang out, cold and official.

"By order of the Inner Sect Council, disciple Kai Lin is summoned to participate in the Heaven's Ladder Inner Sect Trials, ten days from now. Trial Arena: Celestial Steps Platform."

A wave of gasps followed.

Outer sect disciples peeked from behind walls and training posts, whispering nervously.

"Already…? Isn't he too new?"

"He just killed Jian Yuze! Now this?"

The enforcers didn't wait for a response. The scroll ignited into black flame and vanished, and they turned and left just as silently.

Kai Lin remained still, unreadable.

"Ten days. Good."

He needed that time.

To sign in. To prepare. And to remember the faces of those who once watched him die.

That night, the full moon hung like a pale eye in the sky.

Kai Lin sat in meditation beneath the dying pine, the rusted saber resting across his knees.

The wind changed.

Ding—

Warning: High-tier spiritual pressure detected.

A faint footstep sounded behind him.

He didn't move.

A man stepped into the clearing. His face was lined with age, his long white beard tied neatly. His robes bore the mark of the Inner Sect Council, a silver cloud wreathed in flames.

"Interesting," the elder said. "You didn't flinch."

Kai Lin slowly opened his eyes.

The elder studied him with a detached curiosity.

"I am Elder Wei, a watcher of seeds. Talents who bloom early… often burn out quickly."

Kai Lin didn't speak.

Elder Wei's eyes narrowed. "You killed Jian Yuze with one strike. Your file says you're at the 1st Layer of Qi Formation."

A lie.

They both knew it.

Wei stepped forward. "I've seen monsters rise and fall, boy. What makes you think you'll last longer than the rest?"

Kai Lin raised his gaze, voice flat. "Because I've already died once."

Elder Wei's eyes flashed briefly. Then he laughed.

"Good answer."

He tossed a sealed jade slip toward him.

"Bring that to the trial. It's your entry mark."

Then his tone shifted — sharp and low.

"But know this. The Inner Sect is not like this place. They will not tolerate shadows rising too quickly. Step too far, too fast… and you may vanish before you reach the second seal."

Kai Lin caught the slip and nodded once.

The elder vanished like a breeze.

That same night, miles away in the mountain forests, a girl in white robes stood beside a cliff waterfall.

Lan Xue watched the stars, her expression unreadable.

A voice echoed behind her.

"So he's the one?"

She nodded once.

A man stepped from the trees. Young, tall, robed in black with red trims. His left eye was covered by a cloth band — and beneath it, a scar shaped like a spider's web.

His name was Li Shen.

Kai Lin knew him in his past life.

Because Li Shen was the one who delivered the killing blow before his death.

And he was coming to the Inner Sect Trials too.