The courtyard was still smoking.
I stood alone, surrounded by ash and ruin, my pulse echoing like war drums in my ears. The Administrator was gone—for now—but its code lingered. It left fingerprints on my soul. Residue of something bigger than Qi, older than cultivation. A system that thought in math and murder.
My status flickered across my vision:
[Corruption: 25%]
[Title: Rogue Administrator Candidate]
[New Objective: Recruit 400 Rogue Variables]
[First Recruit: ???]
[Challenge Pending: Enforcer Lin Tong, Rank #6,999,998]
Four hundred. Not soldiers. Variables. The unwanted. The unranked. The glitched. The forgotten.
The broken ones—like me.
Hour 1 — Ashes and Shadows
I moved before dawn.
The herb garden was a graveyard now, its flowers trampled by the system's wrath. I returned to the archive ruins, searching under the shattered shelves until I found what I needed: a root twisted in black Qi. The "Night-Thorn Lotus," a failed experiment buried long ago.
I crushed it into paste, smeared it across the inside of my robes.
The sect's surveillance wouldn't find me now. The lotus bloomed in void-Qi. And void-Qi was something the System couldn't trace.
Then I slipped into the dark, away from the sect's center, into the Fractured Quarters—the place where useless disciples vanished.
Where trash went to rot.
Where I would find my first recruit.
Hour 2 — The Beast in Chains
He lived in a stone kennel.
They called him Dog Brother, once ranked 9,000,000 exactly. His Qi had gone berserk years ago, a failed refinement that left him too dangerous to kill, too unstable to train.
He was chained at the edge of the sect walls. Forgotten.
But I saw the code written in his name.
[Status: "Suppressed Beast Protocol Active"]
[Unique Trait: Immortal Spine (Locked)]
[Rank: Unranked / Sealed]
[Mental Integrity: 32%]
He snarled when I stepped in.
Most saw a wild animal.
I saw opportunity.
"Lu Tian," I said. "Rogue Candidate. I came to offer you freedom."
He barked a laugh. "Freedom? I ate my sect brother's liver on the day of my suppression. You think I'm free now?"
"No," I replied, raising my palm. "But you will be."
I let my Qi surge. Not just power—but code. The Administrator had left a trace. I rewrote the seal binding him. Pain exploded from the chains as they cracked.
[Suppression Protocol: Disabled]
[Recruitment Attempt: Initiated]
[Warning: Host Entity May Become Unstable]
He screamed.
His bones snapped.
Qi tore from his pores—savage, unfiltered, red like molten iron.
Then he knelt.
Not in defeat.
In loyalty.
"I'll eat anyone who touches you," he whispered, voice shaking. "Call me Fang. Just Fang. You free me—I'll kill for you."
[Recruit #1: FANG]
[Passive Unlocked: Bone Devourer Aura]
[Loyalty: 68%]
Hour 3 — Lin Tong Descends
The System never waited long.
We reached the ruins of the south courtyard when the air shattered like glass.
A figure descended—tall, skin etched with burn scars and golden tattoos. His eyes were void sockets. His arms bled lightning.
Lin Tong. Enforcer-Class. Rank #6,999,998.
[Warning: Incoming Challenge Accepted Automatically]
Victory Reward: Target's Rank + Technique "Void Split Pulse"
Defeat Penalty: Omnicide Level Qi Implosion]
He didn't speak.
Just snapped his fingers.
And the world collapsed.
Hour 4 — Warzone
Lightning razed half the ruins. Statues exploded. The ground cracked into red-hot fault lines. Fang took the first strike—his arm turned to bone dust.
He howled, then charged.
I let him.
Let him soak the madness.
While I gathered something darker.
Corruption surged through me. 25%. Then 26%. Then 27%. Voices again—Teng, Wuyin, that archivist girl—
But I focused. Channeled Breath of the Drowning Star. A forbidden current filled my lungs.
When Fang fell, screaming, arm gone—
I struck.
Qi burst from my palm. A spear of black lightning. I'd twisted Lin Tong's own whip into reverse code. A mirror.
It struck him in the chest.
He staggered.
He bled void.
Hour 5 — Administrator Glitch
Lin Tong didn't die.
He reset.
His body pixelated, then solidified again. Not teleportation—recalibration. The Administrator was still watching.
[ADMINISTRATOR LOG: ERROR]
Target Lu Tian using corrupted signature
[System Patch 0.11.7 Deferred]
Retarget Lin Tong for full rewrite? Y/N
My eyes widened.
They weren't trying to kill me anymore.
They were trying to overwrite their own soldier—to erase his failure.
I made a decision.
I didn't fight Lin Tong.
I fought the system inside him.
I stepped forward and whispered the line from the tablet in the grave:
"Steal Heaven's Mandate."
And struck his heart with my bare hand.
Hour 6 — Rank Reclaimed
He screamed as the void peeled from his chest.
Qi swirled—lightless, endless—and poured into me. His tattoos branded my skin. His lightning burned through my nerves.
[Victory: Rank Increased — New Rank: #6,999,998]
[New Trait: Void Pulse Clone (Locked)]
[Title Unlocked: "He Who Breaks Chains"]
[Corruption: 30%]
I collapsed.
The world buzzed.
Fang dragged me away. The south courtyard was no more—just cratered stone and scorched trees.
I had won.
But I wasn't done.
Hour 7 — The Shadow Throne
We returned to the Fractured Quarters.
In the center of the ruined kennel, I carved a symbol in the dirt. The mark that had appeared behind the Administrator:
(The Eye of the Forbidden Node)
Fang watched in awe.
"What is it?" he whispered.
"A seed," I said. "A throne. A temple. A signal."
I smeared my blood across it.
The dirt glowed.
Then pulsed.
[Shadow Sect Protocol: Initialized]
[Current Members: 2 / 400]
[Power Level: Threat: Unclassified]
[Hidden Bonus: ???]
Fang knelt beside me.
And far above, beyond the sky, something stirred.