Chapter 5: The Dao Source Revelation
The Death Peak's alarm shrieked through the night like a tortured spirit, banishing sleep from every corner of the Seraphic Blade Sect. Alex lay in his narrow cot, eyes closed, breathing the measured rhythm of false slumber while his senses mapped the chaos overhead. Inner disciples flew past on swords. Elders' spiritual pressures swept the outer courtyard like searchlights. And through it all, Feng Du's enraged roar echoed from the peak's summit.
Let him rage. Let them all rage. Alex's lips threatened to curl into a smile. He suppressed it, maintaining the perfect mask of a terrified outer disciple.
Nebula stirred in his inventory space, the Void Wyrmling's consciousness pressing against his with predatory excitement. Hunt? The mental whisper was all teeth and starlight.
Not yet. Patience.
Yarrow's voice came from the soul lantern on his desk, barely audible. "The fool senses the loss but not the thief. He's searching for a beast, not a paradox."
The alarm faded to a low-grade patrol pattern by dawn. Disciples stumbled from their bunks, bleary-eyed and gossiping. The official announcement came at morning assembly: A void beast of unprecedented cunning had breached the Death Peak's inner defenses. All disciples were required to participate in the Great Hunt. Rewards would be profound. Failure to participate would be punished as treason.
Alex stood in the back row, shoulders hunched, exactly where a cowardly outer disciple would position himself. The Shadow Garden's members were scattered through the crowd—Mei Ling near the front, showing proper zeal; Lin the herb-sense boy chewing his lip with manufactured worry; Zhen the poison expert smiling that too-wide smile. All of them avoided looking at him. Perfect operational security.
Elder Tian oversaw the assembly, his scarred face grim. "The beast was last seen near the Bone-White Cliffs. All disciples will form search parties. Inner disciples will lead. Outer disciples will support. The Peak Lord himself will join the hunt at dusk."
Dusk. Alex calculated. That gave him eight hours.
The disciples dispersed to prepare. Alex returned to his quarters, locked the door, and dropped all pretense. His aura swelled from Foundation Establishing to Golden Core Perfection in a heartbeat, the pressure contained within his room by the system's concealment protocols. Nebula materialized on his shoulder, no longer kitten-sized but still small enough to pass for a mundane spirit beast.
"Yarrow," Alex said, "the Failure Vault. You said the founder hid things there he couldn't destroy."
The lantern's glow pulsed. "Beneath the Death Peak's foundation, accessible only through the Carrion Pits. The entrance requires three keys: bloodline karma, killing intent, and a soul imprint at Soul Formation level. You have the first. The second is this sect's lifeblood. The third..." A pause. "I can provide, but it will weaken me for days."
"Acceptable." Alex checked his resources. Destiny Points: 342. Enough for contingencies. "Guide me."
The Carrion Pits were exactly what the name suggested: a canyon where the sect dumped the corpses of failed disciples, ruined experiments, and the occasional political inconvenience. The stench of decay was spiritual as much as physical—a miasma of unresolved qi and broken dreams. Outer disciples were sent here for punishment. Inner disciples came here to test their resolve.
Alex came here to rob the sect blind.
Using the Death Peak karma fragment, he walked through the outer perimeter formations as if they welcomed him. The guards—two bored Foundation Building disciples—saw only a flicker of shadow that their minds dismissed as corpse gas.
[Void Step: 2 uses remaining today.]
The pit itself was a mile-wide sinkhole, its sides lined with dissolving bodies in various states of decomposition. At the bottom, Alex knew, was a lake of spiritual acid that could dissolve even Golden Core cultivators given enough time. But Yarrow's directions didn't go down. They went through.
"Third spine from the left," Yarrow whispered. "The skeleton wearing the red silk sash. Press the third rib."
Alex found it—a corpse that had been dead for decades, its sash somehow pristine. The third rib clicked. Reality shivered, and a doorway opened in the air, invisible to anyone not touching the rib. He stepped through, phasing into a tunnel of absolute darkness.
The Failure Vault was not a room. It was a cyst in reality, a space that shouldn't exist. The sect's founder had been a Nascent Soul Formation cultivator who'd stumbled upon a Dao Source relic and, unable to comprehend it, had locked it away with everything else that broke his understanding of cultivation.
The vault was filled with scrolls that dissolved when touched, pills that screamed, swords that wept blood. And in the center, on a pedestal of frozen starlight, sat a book.
It was unremarkable. Black cover, no title, pages that looked like compressed shadow. But Alex's Sovereign memories screamed when he saw it. He'd seen this script before. On the walls of the Tribulation Spire, in the final moments before his death as Xaelinth.
[Legendary Item Detected: Dao Source Codex (Complete)]
[Language: Pre-Celestial Script (Host's memories: 99.8% comprehension)]
[Content: Direct pathway from Soul Formation to Dao Source Realm]
[Warning: Reading without sufficient cultivation will cause soul dissolution]
[System Recommendation: Encrypt and store for later use. Current mental capacity: SUFFICIENT]
Alex didn't touch the book. He absorbed it directly into his spatial ring, letting the system scan and encrypt its contents. The process took seventeen seconds. In those seventeen seconds, he saw glimpses of truths that made his three souls tremble.
The Dao Source Realm wasn't a destination. It was a choice. The Tribulation hadn't been trying to kill him—it had been trying to make him choose between infinity and mortality. He'd refused both, and the universe had broken trying to process the paradox.
No wonder I was reborn. The thought was cold clarity. I'm a system error in the Heavenly Dao's code.
The vault had other treasures—techniques that could manipulate time, pills that rewrote spirit roots, a compass that pointed to reincarnators like himself. Alex took them all. Destiny Points flooded in as the system processed each item: +50, +75, +100... By the time he Void Stepped out of the vault, his total stood at 567.
One hour until dusk. One hour until the hunt.
Alex returned to his quarters, the Dao Source Codex burning a hole in his metaphorical pocket. He accessed the first chapter—safe for Golden Core cultivation. It described the nature of the Soul Formation Realm not as a accumulation of power, but as a rejection of it. To form a soul outside the wheel of reincarnation, one had to first understand why the wheel turned.
I already know why. Alex's first life's memories flickered—his mother's face, his sister's laughter. We turn because we fear letting go.
Confidence swelled in his chest, colder and more certain than any mere power breakthrough. He had the map. He had the system. He had allies and enemies and a wyrmling that trusted him. For the first time in three lives, he could see the entire board.
The hunt would begin soon. But Alex had already decided: He wouldn't hide in the shadows anymore.
He stood, straightened his plain robes, and walked to Elder Tian's command pavilion.
The elder was alone, studying a tactical map of the Bone-White Cliffs. He didn't look up as Alex entered. "Outer disciple. This area is restricted. Return to your—"
"Elder Tian." Alex dropped his concealment. Not all of it—he still looked like a boy, still moved like one. But his cultivation pressure filled the pavilion with the weight of Golden Core Perfection, the air thickening until even breathing became deliberate.
Elder Tian's hand went to his sword. His eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"
"Alex. The same Alex you dismissed as worthless three weeks ago." Alex didn't bow. Didn't smile. "I'm the void beast you're hunting. I'm the thief who robbed the treasury. I'm the anomaly your sect's founder feared."
He let that sink in. Elder Tian was calculating, assessing. Golden Core Perfection was serious power. A hidden Golden Core Perfection outer disciple was either a spy, a monster, or something the sect desperately needed.
"You're either insane," Elder Tian said slowly, "or you're about to make me an offer I can't refuse."
"Both." Alex finally smiled, and it was the Void Emperor's smile—amused, predatory, utterly certain. "This sect is rotting from within. You know it. The peak lords grow fat and paranoid. The inner disciples kill each other for scraps. The outer disciples pray for survival."
"And you offer?"
"A scalpel." Alex's aura settled into something less threatening, more useful. "Let me remain as I appear—a weak outer disciple. In exchange, I'll be your hidden blade. I'll kill your enemies, steal your secrets, and solve your problems. Officially, I don't exist. Unofficially, I report only to you."
"Resources?"
"Spirit stones, access to restricted areas, and immunity from casual punishment. In return, I guarantee the Death Peak's loyalty within six months, and the elimination of the sect's two most corrupt elders within three."
Elder Tian studied him. "Why? Why reveal yourself now?"
Alex thought of the Dao Source Codex, of Earth, of a sister who might still be alive. "Because I'm tired of waiting. And because when I leave this backwater, I want to leave it better than I found it. Call it sentiment."
"Sentimentality is expensive."
"So is power." Alex held out his hand. "Do we have a deal?"
The elder didn't shake it. Instead, he tossed Alex a medallion of black iron, inscribed with a single character: Shadow.
"Report to me weekly. Fail me once, and I'll erase you myself. Succeed, and..." A rare smile. "We'll talk about making you a legend."
Alex caught the medallion. It fit perfectly into his system's interface, merging with his status.
[New Status Unlocked: Shadow Disciple (Seraphic Blade Sect)]
**[Authority: Access to restricted areas, immunity from rank-and-file punishment, weekly stipend of 500 spirit stones]}
[Obligation: Complete missions for Elder Tian. Failure penalty: EXECUTION]
[Benefit: Can now act openly as Golden Core within sect territory without triggering manhunt protocols]
Perfect.
Alex bowed—finally—and left the pavilion. The sun was setting. The hunt was beginning. Disciples gathered at the gates, armed and eager.
Alex joined them, his aura once again that of a frightened Foundation Establishing boy. But in his eyes, in the way he moved, there was something new.
Confidence. Certainty. The absolute knowledge that he could burn this entire world down and build it anew if he chose.
He chose to wait.
For now.
[Chapter 5 Complete]
[System Evolution Progress: 8/10]
[Destiny Points: 567]
[Golden Core: Perfection (Stability: 100%)]
[Dao Source Codex: 1% Decrypted]
[Soul Formation Realm: Available in 9 days]
[Current Missions: The Starfall Empress (82 days), Shadow Disciple (Active), Soul Prisoner's Bargain (Complete)]
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[END OF CHAPTER 5]
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