Night fell over the Inner Sect, and Kai Lin sat alone at the edge of the desolate peak given to new disciples — a windswept, crumbling cliff others avoided like plague.
He held the reward from the Trial Grounds in his hands: a black scroll wrapped in bone string.
"Tier 3 Earth Rank… Silent Saber Manual."
He untied the string.
A gust of wind blew through, but no one felt it but him.
The scroll unrolled itself — not onto the ground, but into the air.
Blood-red runes shimmered in silence. Words etched in qi floated like the whispers of forgotten gods.
[Silent Saber Manual – Page One]
"To walk the Path of the Silent Blade, the first severing is not of flesh… but of sound."
Suddenly, Kai Lin's ears rang. Then—nothing.
Not silence. True deafness. The world muted itself. The wind stopped. His breathing vanished.
Then came the pain.
Crack!
His dantian convulsed. Qi rushed backward, violently reversing its flow. No ordinary technique would do this — this was designed to cripple a lesser man.
But Kai Lin didn't scream.
He didn't move.
He embraced it.
"I sever the sense of hearing…"
"Let my silence be a blade."
Ding!
Silent Saber Manual – First Severing Complete
Cultivation Path Unlocked: Iron Blood Realm – Stage One
Attribute: Soundless Step +1 / Hidden Qi Veins Activated
His breath returned. But his ears… stayed silent.
A test?
He tapped the ground. No sound.
He bit his finger. No sound.
But then — something deeper clicked. His body moved… soundlessly.
His footsteps vanished. His heartbeat quieted. His very presence thinned, like fog.
"I don't need to hear them."
"They'll hear nothing from me."
In the distance, a watching elder behind a spirit mirror trembled.
"This technique… this level of silence… Is he truly a mere outer sect transfer?"
Another elder frowned. "That scroll… isn't from our library."
They didn't know it had come from the system.
Kai Lin stood up.
The moon cast a shadow — but even it looked afraid to follow him.
"The next stage of the Iron Blood Realm…"
"Requires a life taken in absolute silence."
His eyes opened.
And the silence deepened.