Chapter 14: The Hunger and the Vow
The duality was becoming a tangible weight. Ayush moved through his days at Shrek Academy with the precision of a shadow puppeteer, each smile at Wang Dong, each correct answer in class, each respectful nod to a teacher—a carefully placed string. But beneath the performance, two fires burned: the steady, expanding glacier of his Spirit Power, and the volatile, swirling vortex of Dou Qi in his dantian. The Black Book hungered between them like a third, silent heart.
Its prompts were becoming less like system notifications and more like… suggestions. Urgent ones.
ASSIMILATION PROGRESS: 4.8%.
ENERGY SIGNATURE ANALYSIS: LOCAL 'STELLAR' AND 'GRAVITATIONAL' CONCEPTS DETECTED AT LOW RESONANCE.
SUGGESTED ACTION: SEEK 'Shattered Earth' / 'Fallen Star' ARTIFACTS. COMPATIBILITY WITH [MARTIAL UNIVERSE] PROBABLE.
HUNGER LEVEL: LOW. SATISFACTION WILL ACCELERATE UNLOCK.
The Book wasn't just asking; it was directing his research. Ayush spent his limited free hours not in the common libraries, but in the restricted archives of Shrek's History and Arcana Department. Access required special permission, which he obtained through a combination of his status as a Freshman Champion and a fabricated scholarly interest in "pre-Spirit Douluo geological upheavals" for a theoretical cultivation paper. Teacher Zhou Yi, impressed by his "academic diligence," stamped the form without a second glance.
The archives were a tomb of dust and forgotten lore. Here, Ayush found fragmented records not of spirit beasts and martial souls, but of the continent's violent infancy. He read about the Cataclysm of Falling Stars, an epoch where celestial fragments rained down, birthing the extreme environments that would later become spirit beast paradises like the Sunset Forest and the core of Star Dou.
In a crumbling scroll sealed by a now-defunct royal lineage, he found a passing mention: "…and in the fissure born of the Sky-Tear, where the earth's bones are laid bare and the weight of the fallen heavens still lies, the Yuanling of the world congeals into forms most strange. Men of old called it the 'Vault of Shattered Earth,' but none who sought its depths for treasure returned unchanged. Some spoke of bodies hardening to stone, then to jade, then to something… lighter than air."
Bodies hardening… weight of the fallen heavens… The terminology screamed of body tempering. Of Martial Universe principles.
The Black Book thrummed in his spiritual sea, the vibration one of intense recognition.
TARGET IDENTIFIED: 'Vault of Shattered Earth.'
ENERGY SIGNATURE MATCH: HIGH FOR 'GRAVITY FORGING' AND 'STELLAR RESIDUE.'
ESTIMATED ASSIMILATION BOOST: 8-12%.
WARNING: LOCATION MARKED AS 'FORBIDDEN / LETHAL' IN LOCAL RECORDS. SURVIVAL PROBABILITY AT CURRENT POWER: 31%.
A one-in-three chance. Those were not odds a cautious strategist would take. But the hunger of the Book was a slow pressure against his will, and his own need for an edge was growing sharper. Dai Huabin's glares in the corridors had turned into muttered threats. The system of nobility was closing ranks against the common-born upstart. A public, sanctioned duel was inevitable.
He needed to be ready. Not just to win, but to win in a way that didn't reveal his heresy of power.
His thoughts were interrupted by a presence. He didn't need to look up; his Spirit Eyes, subtly enhanced by Dou Qi perception, painted Wang Dong's brilliant, worried aura leaning against the archive doorway.
"You've been in here for five hours," Wang Dong said, his voice cutting through the dusty silence. "You'll turn into a bookworm. And not the cute kind."
Ayush carefully rolled the scroll, his mind compartmentalizing. The Vault of Shattered Earth was locked away. Wang Dong was here, now. "Just following a hunch," he said, turning with a practiced, tired smile. "Trying to understand why some places in the world seem to… reject spirit beasts, but gather strange energy."
Wang Dong stepped closer, his sharp eyes missing nothing. "You're pushing yourself. I can feel it. Your spiritual sea… it's calm on the surface, but it feels like there's a riptide underneath lately." He reached out, poking Ayush's forehead. "What's really going on in there? Is it Brother Tianmeng? Is the fusion causing instability?"
The lie came smoothly, woven from truth. "The fusion is stable. It's… it's like he's giving me access to memories of places. Ancient places. Places that hurt to think about. He calls them 'wounds in the world.'" Ayush let his shoulders slump, a show of vulnerability. "I think I need to see one. To understand it. To help him understand it."
Wang Dong's expression softened into protective concern. "Where? If it's dangerous, you're not going alone."
Perfect. "It's called the Vault of Shattered Earth. The records say it's a death trap."
"Then we'll get stronger first," Wang Dong declared, as if it were that simple. "We're a team. Your hunches are my hunches. Your stupid, dangerous research trips are my stupid, dangerous research trips."
The warmth of the statement was a physical ache in Ayush's chest. He was manipulating this loyalty, steering it toward a lethal forge the Book desired. The guilt was a cold stone beside the fiery hunger of the Dou Qi.
"Okay," Ayush said quietly. "Together."
That night, the confrontation he anticipated arrived. A formal challenge, delivered not by Dai Huabin himself, but by a lackey, slipped under their dorm room door. A duel in the Spirit Battle Arena in three days' time. No holds barred, first to yield or be unable to continue loses. The stakes: 500 academy contribution points, and public acknowledgment of superiority.
It was a trap designed to break him publicly and financially.
Ancient_One_Theorist's message flickered in his mind's eye: "Nexus_Prime, a forced conflict is a test of narrative. The script expects a heroic struggle and a victory through 'righteous teamwork' or a last-minute breakthrough. You must subvert the expectation while fulfilling the form."
He understood. He couldn't just win. He had to win in a way that advanced his own goals.
He accessed the Black Book, not for a mission log, but for a simulation. He fed it the parameters: Dai Huabin's known abilities (White Tiger Spirit, fierce direct assault, likely Spirit Grandmaster level), the public arena, the watchful eyes of teachers and, potentially, the divine.
SIMULATION INITIATED…
VICTORY USING PUBLIC SPIRIT POWER ONLY: PROBABILITY 42%. REQUIRES EXCEPTIONAL TACTICAL GENIUS AND FATIGUING PROLONGED BATTLE. HIGH RISK OF SEVERE INJURY.
VICTORY USING HYBRID (SPIRIT/DOU QI) POWER: PROBABILITY 89%. RISK OF ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTION: 67%.
RECOMMENDED SOLUTION: 'CONTROLLED CATALYST.'
PROPOSAL: USE DUEL PRESSURE TO FORCE A 'BREAKTHROUGH' IN PUBLIC SPIRIT POWER. USE MOMENT OF PERCEIVED CRISIS TO MASK CONTROLLED RELEASE OF DOU QI AS A 'BURST OF SPIRITUAL ORIGIN POWER' FROM HEAVENLY DREAM ICEWORM FUSION. POST-DUAL, ATTRIBUTE ANY BODY-ENHANCING SIDE EFFECTS (INCREASED STRENGTH/TOUGHNESS) TO THIS 'BREAKTHROUGH,' LAYING GROUNDWORK FOR FUTURE 'BODY TEMPERING' FROM VAULT OF SHATTERED EARTH.
ASSIMILATION PROGRESS MAY INCREASE FROM COMBAT STRESS. HUNGER MAY BE TEMPORARILY SATED.
It was a razor's edge plan. It meant walking into Dai Huabin' fury, taking a beating, and at the critical moment, unleashing a disguised flash of another world's power to secure victory and plant a seed for the next.
He looked over at Wang Dong, who was angrily crumpling the challenge letter. "I'll be your second," Wang Dong stated, his eyes glowing with indignant fire. "We'll train. We'll break his every move down. He won't lay a finger on you."
Ayush nodded, the cold strategist and the grateful friend warring within. "Thank you."
As Wang Dong launched into a fervent strategy session, Ayush's mind was already in the Vault of Shattered Earth, feeling the crushing weight of fallen stars, feeding it to the Black Book's hunger. He would use this duel. He would use Dai Huabin's hatred. He would use Wang Dong's loyalty.
He would turn every chain, every threat, every piece of the script into a hammer to forge his own path.
The Black Book pulsed warmly in agreement. The hunger, for now, was quiet. It was waiting to be fed.
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The duel with Dai Huabin begins. Ayush endures a brutal assault, playing the overwhelmed underdog, while secretly using Dou Qi to reinforce his body and analyze his opponent's weaknesses. At the moment of crisis, he stages his "breakthrough," a dazzling display of icy-spiritual power that masks a explosive Dou Qi-assisted strike. His victory is shocking, but the aftermath is more curious: his physical recovery is alarmingly fast. Teacher Zhou Yi takes note, and the Black Book's assimilation progress jumps. The path to the Vault of Shattered Earth is now a whispered priority.