The second round of the selection was known as The Massacre Field.
Officially, it was titled Unified Combat Assessment – Group Performance Stage.
Unofficially?
One ring. Fifty contenders. No rules. Last fifteen standing survive.
Everything else was permitted.
Poison.
Talisman use.
Gang-up tactics.
Murder.
The sect wanted ruthlessness, not courtesy. Cleverness, not honor.
---
The arena was an ancient crater—collapsed ages ago from a spiritual explosion, now repurposed for blood trials. Half-formed talisman remnants still drifted through the air, crackling with residual power. The terrain was rough: broken stone spires, jagged ridges, and a shallow chasm that split the battlefield in two.
At the center stood a monolithic shard of obsidian.
Whoever controlled the center… had vision, elevation, and symbolic dominance.
So, of course, everyone rushed for it.
---
Yun Mu didn't.
He slipped to the side.
Black cloth wrapped around his arms, Bone Sigils stitched into his sleeves. The Dual Flame shard around his wrist shimmered faintly, hungry for use.
He activated nothing.
Just moved.
Quiet. Measured.
He was a shadow with purpose.
---
All around him, chaos bloomed.
A talisman exploded—three people went down, screaming as fire ate their lungs.
Two girls from the Eastern camp used linked wind steps to execute a double kill on a bulky sword cultivator.
A beast tamer released a spirit weasel into the crowd—it vanished into the melee, fangs dripping with sedatives.
Brilliant techniques.
Cultivated styles.
All aimed to impress the watching elders.
Yun Mu observed.
He saw openings.
But didn't take them.
Not yet.
---
Then it happened.
The real enemy arrived.
A girl in white robes, barefoot, with chains wrapped around her arms.
She walked through the smoke without blinking.
Her name was Lian Xue.
An assassin raised in the Inner Orphan Vaults. Gifted with a parasitic vine spirit. Fast. Precise.
And the blade she drew was meant for him.
---
She struck without warning.
One moment, Yun Mu was behind a pillar.
The next—steel kissed his ribs.
Only the Hollow Seed saved him—triggering the Aggression Pulse instinct he'd absorbed from Feng Kai.
His body twisted before thought.
The blade scraped along his ribs instead of piercing his lung.
He rolled, gritting his teeth, drawing black qi around his fingers.
She followed.
No sound. No breath.
Like a ghost.
Her second strike came upward—aimed to sever his neck tendon.
He dropped.
She missed—but only barely.
Yun Mu activated a Sigil.
Dual Flame: Flicker Step.
He vanished for half a heartbeat—appeared three feet behind her.
But she was faster.
As if she knew.
She spun mid-air, stabbing backward—
The blade caught his shoulder.
Blood sprayed.
Yun Mu coughed—but grabbed her wrist.
And smiled.
"You missed."
His other hand struck her gut with Hollow Qi.
Not to kill.
To taint.
The moment his qi entered her meridians, she screamed—dropping her blade, convulsing.
Her vine spirit recoiled violently inside her.
Yun Mu whispered to it:
> "Come out. Or I burn her."
The spirit hesitated—then surged out of her skin in panic. A green parasitic tendril with black eyes.
Yun Mu's Hollow Seed opened.
And swallowed it whole.
> [Spirit Devour Complete.]
Rank: Parasitic Vine Spirit - Lower Grade
Traits: Binding Root, Spiritual Drain
Mutation Triggered. Bone Sigil Generated.
[New Bone Sigil: Hollow Vine Lash]
Effect: Summons an energy-based vine weapon. Whip attacks bind, pierce spirit channels, and steal qi for regeneration.
Yun Mu let Lian Xue fall unconscious.
Not mercifully.
Just… efficiently.
He would need her spirit residue later.
---
At the arena's peak, only twenty contenders remained.
Yun Mu was covered in dust, blood, and burn marks. But he stood.
Five others were already avoiding him.
Two had fled the arena entirely.
The center shard was now empty—no one dared claim it.
So Yun Mu walked toward it, step by silent step.
Climbed it.
Sat at its peak.
Closed his eyes.
And waited.
---
Above, in the elder pavilions, Sect Master Lin stood with arms folded.
He spoke softly to the elder beside him.
"That boy. The quiet one. You see him?"
"Yes, Sect Master."
"He's either a genius… or a curse. Watch him closely."
---
When the last blow fell, and the horns sounded the end of combat, Yun Mu was still seated.
Not a scratch fresh on him.
Fifteen remained.
He was the only servant-born.
---
That night, they were all given outer disciple robes.
Silk-lined. Silver-threaded.
Yun Mu didn't wear his.
He returned to the Soul Annex.
Meditated before the jade slab.
The third blade of the Hollow Seed began to sharpen into a curve.
A hook.
A fang meant to rip.
---
The slab pulsed.
And whispered:
> The Hollow walks the edge of silence.
And when it speaks—
The world must bleed.