Chapter Two: The Fear Trial
"Fear? Ha! Why would I fear anything when I have no future and no aura?"— Shen Wei
I woke up in the same prison cell I always did, but something about my inner voice felt different. Ever since I discovered the hidden path, I'd started seeing each day not as a burden but as an opportunity—however small—to test my cultivation.
Still, it was hard to feel like a cultivator when the first sound you hear in the morning is a rat chewing on someone's sock.
Zhao Gu barged into the cell, panting like he'd just run a marathon. Which was odd, since the distance from the door to our bed was about five steps. His eyes sparkled like he'd uncovered some ancient divine artifact.
"Shen Wei! Big news!" he yelled.
"Did they burn another inmate?" I yawned. "Did the moss in the corner start singing?"
He waved a hand dramatically. "No, no. Word is, Cell Block 7 got a new guard. They call him 'Piercing Eye.' Rumor has it… he reads minds."
"In a prison where no one reads anything but hunger and regret?" I snorted.
"They say he tests everyone. If you're afraid, he punishes you. If you're not afraid… he really punishes you because you're hiding something!"
So basically, it's a lose-lose situation. Typical.
As absurd as it sounded, I saw it for what it really was: the perfect setup for my next test. Fear. My second internal weight. Could I face it the same way I faced ambition?
A few hours later, we were rounded up with a group of other inmates and marched into a wide chamber that echoed with distant chants. The guards eyed us like flies in a teacup. At the front stood a tall figure in a gray armored robe, one eye covered with a dark metal patch.
"Who wants to tell me why they're here?" he asked, his voice calm and razor-sharp.
Zhao Gu raised his hand like an overeager schoolboy. "Perhaps to test his heavenly luck! Shen Wei here wants to grow fear like a flower in the garden of his heart!"
I hissed, "Zhao, shut up before I plant you face-first in the wall."
The guard's lone eye flicked toward us. It was impossible to tell if he heard, but something about his silence made the room feel colder. Maybe he really could read minds.
"This trial is simple," he said. "Before you stands a gate of darkness. Beyond it, voices and shadows. Nothing real. Or maybe everything is. Walk one step in. If you back out, you're a coward and punished. If you walk through without hesitation… we assume you're hiding something."
Zhao Gu puffed out his chest. "I'll go first! Let it be known, the heir of the Heavenly Dragon fears no illusion!"
He strutted through the archway. Moments later, we heard shouting.
"What is that sound?! Something's crawling behind me!"
The gate trembled. Zhao Gu was spat out seconds later, eyes wide, body shaking.
"…nothing! I saw nothing! But it was there! Or not? I don't know! I admit it—I was scared!"
The guards chuckled. "Coward. Marked." One of them gave him a ceremonial thump with the flat of a baton.
My turn.
I stepped forward slowly. I thought about the hidden carving back in my cell. Let go of the weight. Fear is a weight. Just like ambition. And I'd let go of that already.
Inside the gate, everything was pitch black. There were no walls, no floor, no ceiling—just the echo of my breath and distant murmurs.
"Shen Wei… you pretend you have no aura?"
"You fear being nothing… don't you?"
"You will always be a faded afterthought."
The voices weren't monstrous. They were familiar. Too familiar. Because they were mine. Thoughts I'd had in moments of weakness, doubt, and late-night quiet. I realized then—this wasn't a test of fear from outside. It was all from within.
I whispered, "I'm not afraid of being nothing… because nothing isn't so bad. It's quieter than the noise everyone calls purpose."
A chill faded from the air.
Another voice hissed, "You think you're above fear."
I smiled in the dark. "Not above it. Just… walking alongside it now."
When I stepped out, the light of the chamber felt brighter. The guard watched me with that unreadable stare.
"What did you see?" he asked.
"I saw fear," I replied. "But I also saw that it's just a shadow cast by a mind that hasn't sat still in a while."
He gave me a slight nod. "You've started the second step. But it's not finished. Back to your cell."
The guards dragged Zhao Gu back beside me. He looked like he'd just wrestled with a ghost and lost.
"You admitted you were scared?" he asked, shocked.
"Partially," I said.
He looked betrayed. "I thought you were immune!"
"No one's immune. But I didn't run. You, on the other hand, screamed like a duck in a thunderstorm."
"I'll have you know," he huffed, "that was a controlled tactical withdrawal."
"Sure. Very tactical."
Back in the cell, other prisoners were already whispering about me.
"Shen Wei faced the gate and lived."
"If he has no aura, how did he pass?"
"He's probably a demon in disguise."
Zhao Gu turned to me. "Wei, if you keep this up, people will start thinking you're actually cultivating."
I smirked. "Imagine that."
He leaned closer. "Just don't forget who named you Shen the Shadowless."
"No one named me that."
"I know. But I'm workshopping it."
That night, lying on my stone bed with Zhao's snoring echoing off the walls, I thought:
The second weight has started to fall away. Fear is still there… but smaller.
The next will be harder. Memories.
But first… I'll enjoy the sweet sound of my reputation confusing absolutely everyone in this prison.
Let them talk.
Let them wonder.
I'm just cultivating nothing, after all.