The door to my chambers closed without a sound.
Stone, wood, paper, and silence pressed in from every side as the outside world faded behind the barrier array etched along the frame. The air inside was still, heavy with old incense and the faint metallic trace of blood that had never quite left these walls.
Three days.
That was the time Tan Wei believed he had.
I removed the mask and placed it on the low table beside the bed, its empty eyes now staring at nothing. For the first time since stepping into the sect's inner halls, I allowed my shoulders to lower by a fraction.
"Let's see the results of my acting."
'Status.'
.
[STATUS]
[Name: Han Ye]
[Age: 18]
[Cultivation: Terror Manifestation Realm - Late Stage ▸ Qi Condensation - Early Stage]
[Fear Points: 7 695]
[Trauma: +795/day]
[Infamy: +24/day]
[Fear Points needed for the next stage: 6 000]
[Techniques: Shadowless Step, Thousand Faces Arts (incomplete), Silent Pulse Breathing, Crow Shroud Technique]
.
"More than enough..."
I sat on the edge of the bed and exhaled slowly, letting Silent Pulse Breathing take over as the outside world dulled into distant irrelevance. My heartbeat fell into the familiar cold rhythm, every beat drawing the darkness inward rather than pushing it out.
"A duel with a Golden Core cultivator in three days…"
I muttered softly.
"You picked a fine time to stall."
But Fear never stalled for me.
It only accumulated.
'Consume.'
[You have consumed 6 000 Fear Points.]
[Advancing…]
The temperature in the room dropped as if winter had been dragged inside by invisible claws. The candle flames bent sharply sideways, their light stretching long across the walls before shrinking into trembling points of pale gold.
Deep within my dantian, the familiar black marble began to rotate.
It was no longer smooth.
Fine fractures spread across its surface, glowing faintly with a dull, abyssal light.
The first crack echoed through my body like distant thunder.
My meridians flared as something thicker than mist but lighter than liquid surged outward, ripping through channels that had already been reforged too many times to count. This time, the process was not merely painful.
It was invasive.
My bones groaned beneath the pressure, every joint screaming as the Fear Qi rewrote the structure that housed it. My muscles seized violently, forcing my body flat against the bedding as black mist poured from beneath my skin like smoke escaping shattered glass.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
The fractures in the marble widened, fragments breaking free and dissolving into pure darkness that flooded my core. The pressure did not stabilize.
It multiplied.
For a heartbeat that stretched into eternity, I felt as though something unseen had reached into my chest and squeezed.
Then the marble collapsed.
Not into dust.
Into a star.
A perfectly condensed sphere of Fear Qi, no longer leaking, no longer coiling blindly around my body, but contained. Obedient. Waiting.
The mist outside my body thickened, then sharply reversed, rushing back into my pores as if called home by a sovereign it could no longer ignore.
[You have entered the Dread Core Realm – Early Stage.]
My eyes flew open.
The world sharpened so suddenly that even the dust between the floor tiles became visible to me. I could feel the sect beneath my feet, not as a structure, but as a living cluster of heartbeats, anxieties, hidden resentments, and quiet reverence.
More than that…
I could feel paths.
Thin, invisible threads stretching outward from my core, reaching instinctively toward those that fear me.
"…So that's it."
A realization slithered through my mind.
This was no longer just cultivation.
This was dominion.
Another layer unfolded within the system.
[New Authority Unlocked: Fear Infusion]
[You may invest Fear Points into willing targets.]
[Infused targets will permanently carry Fear-aspected Qi.]
[Infusion may be forced only on targets suffering extreme Trauma.]
[Infused targets will radiate a Fear-aligned aura proportional to invested Fear.]
[Negative intent toward the source will trigger autonomous mental suppression.]
[Infusion efficiency scales with invested Fear.]
My lips curved faintly.
"So it's consent-based… unless the mind is already broken."
Much better.
No crude puppeteering.
No need for chains or compulsions at the start.
Those who accept it will do so because they want what I offer.
Those who cannot accept will only receive it when they no longer matter.
I extended my perception outward.
Wu Chi.
Even through layers of stone and distance, I could sense him clearly now, a bright, tenacious ember among dozens of duller flames. His presence stood out not because it was powerful, but because it was aligned with me long before any Qi ever could be.
Perfect candidate.
With a single thought, a thread of pure Fear condensed at my fingertips, blacker than anything the room's shadows could hold. It did not move like mist.
It moved like intent.
I did not send it.
Not yet.
"After I win the duel... When I do..."
it will not feel like a chain.
It will feel like ascension.
I exhaled slowly and stood, the bed's wooden frame creaking softly beneath the shift in pressure around me. My body felt lighter, stronger, and unnaturally quiet, as if even my own pulse hesitated to exist without permission.
Three days...
.
.
.
[STATUS]
[Name: Han Ye]
[Age: 18]
[Cultivation: Dread Core Realm – Early Stage ▸ Qi Condensation - Late Stage]
[Fear Points: 1 695]
[Trauma: +795/day]
[Infamy: +24/day]
[Fear Points needed for the next stage: 12 000]
[Techniques: Shadowless Step, Thousand Faces Arts (incomplete), Silent Pulse Breathing, Crow Shroud Technique]