The night before the final trial descended like a whisper over the Celestial Pavilion. The stars blinked against a curtain of indigo clouds, veiled from the cultivators below, as if the heavens themselves were hesitant to bear witness to what was to come.
Tianming stood alone at the edge of the Windlight Terrace, his sabers resting against a weathered stone bench beside him. The silence was not oppressive—it was thoughtful, reverent. A stillness before chaos.
Behind him, the Pavilion's luminous walls glowed faintly, etched with the markings of the previous trials—embers of past victories and failures frozen in crystalline relief. Every cultivator who had reached this point had carved their essence into the history of the competition.
But the next trial would erase all past accomplishments.
The Trial of Ascension loomed.
The wind shifted. He didn't need to look to know who had arrived.
"You should be resting," Yuelan said, stepping beside him, her long robe trailing like mist across the polished jade.
"So should you," he replied, cracking a faint smile. "But I suppose sleep doesn't come easy before a trial that might rewrite destiny."
She studied his profile. The tension in his jaw. The weariness behind his eyes.
"You're thinking of Zhao Yueyin."
"I'm thinking of the system," he said after a pause. "It's been too quiet since the Trial of Fracture. No new features, no upgrades. It's holding back... waiting for something."
Yuelan nodded. "You think the final trial will trigger a system evolution?"
"I don't think," he said, turning to her. "I know."
Above them, the sky flashed.
> [System Alert: Pre-Trial Event Unlocked — "The Mantle of Shadows"]
> [Participants: Top Three Ranked Cultivators Only. Time Limit: 1 Hour. Objective: Claim the Mantle.]
> [Warning: Event Will Affect Final Trial Conditions. Proceed at Your Own Risk.]
Tianming felt a shiver in his bones. Yuelan's expression hardened.
"They're splitting us off," she said. "Again."
A pulse of darkness erupted from the Pavilion's central dais. The marble floor cracked, and a void rift spiraled upward, framed by jagged obsidian runes. Tianming didn't hesitate. He leapt into the dark.
On the other side, the world changed.
He found himself standing in the ruins of a sunken temple—pillars cracked and half-swallowed by earth, vines like serpents clinging to broken statues. A half-lit moon hung overhead, casting long shadows that twitched unnaturally.
And across the temple courtyard stood Zhao Yueyin.
Her gaze was unreadable, but power radiated from her like heat off burning stone. "So. The Mantle calls to you as well."
Before Tianming could respond, the sky above them screamed.
A bolt of voidfire crashed into the center of the courtyard. From the crater rose a figure wrapped in living shadow—no face, no features, only a robe of night and eyes that glowed with unholy intelligence.
> [System Alert: Shadowmantle Guardian — Level 9 Cultivation Entity — Trial Construct]
> [Reward: Mantle of Shadows — Ascension Trial Modifier]
Zhao Yueyin didn't wait. With a flare of her will, her spear of dusk formed in her hands, and she surged forward, trailing echoes of flame and starlight.
Tianming followed an instant later, sabers gleaming with mirrored light. The Guardian met them both with a clap of thunder, shadow tendrils lashing in every direction.
The battle was unlike any other. Each strike from the Guardian didn't just inflict damage—it pulled at the soul, threatening to erase identity, to blur memory. Tianming fought back with everything he had: Heavenpiercer dances, augmented reflexes from the system, even pulling from the deep well of qi techniques he had inherited from forgotten sects.
Zhao Yueyin fought like a storm given flesh—flashes of infernal wind, movements so precise they bordered on divine instinct.
And yet, the Guardian grew stronger.
With every blow it received, it evolved, adapting. It began to mimic them, countering Zhao Yueyin's strikes with her own forms, repelling Tianming's sabers with mirrored precision.
Tianming's system flared.
> [Emergency Protocol Triggered: Shadowcode Initiation — Do you accept?]
> [WARNING: Shadowcode is an experimental integration. Risk: High. Reward: Unknown.]
He hesitated.
Zhao Yueyin was faltering. Her left arm had gone limp, poisoned by a shadow strike. Her defenses were weakening.
Tianming accepted.
> [Shadowcode Initiated. Synchronizing... 30%... 60%... 100%.]
His body pulsed with unfamiliar energy. Shadow laced with light danced across his skin, like ink submerged in silver.
He stepped forward.
Everything slowed.
The Guardian struck with a world-ending slash—Tianming moved through it like mist, striking back with a new form: Void Dissection, a fusion of mirrored technique and shadow principle.
The Guardian screamed.
Zhao Yueyin, eyes wide with disbelief, watched as Tianming unleashed a barrage of attacks too fast for even her divine senses to follow.
And then, silence.
The Guardian collapsed. Its cloak of night peeled away. In its place floated the Mantle—woven from the essence of night, dripping with starlight and shadow.
> [You Have Claimed the Mantle of Shadows.]
> [Final Trial Modifier Activated — "Cloak of Betrayal": All illusions during the final trial will be inverted. Truth becomes lie. Ally becomes enemy. Only the bearer of the Mantle will see true.]
Tianming reached for the Mantle. It wrapped around his shoulders like it had always belonged there.
Zhao Yueyin staggered forward. "You... you merged with the code."
Tianming nodded. "It was the only way."
Her expression wavered. "Then maybe you are ready."
He helped her to her feet. She looked at him not with contempt—but with respect. Wariness. Curiosity.
"We'll face each other again," she said. "In the Trial of Ascension."
"I'll be waiting," he said.
The void rift reopened. As they stepped through, the Pavilion welcomed them back in a blaze of celestial fire.
> [System Update: Top Contender Tianming has claimed the Shadow Mantle. Ascension Trial Difficulty for all others increased.]
> [Time Remaining: 44 Celestial Hours.]
As Tianming walked toward the training chambers, he passed Yuelan in the corridor.
She stopped. "You look... different."
He nodded. "I'm ready."
She touched his arm. "Then so am I."
Behind them, the celestial walls pulsed with fate.
The Final Trial was coming.
And Tianming would not walk into it unprepared.
---
[End of Chapter 21: The Shadow Mantle]