The mountain didn't wait for anyone to wake up.
Before dawn, the gong tore through the fog like a blade, and Rat's ribs answered it with a groan. He rolled off the straw bunk and hit the floor face-first, which, honestly, felt on-brand.
"Up!" a steward barked from the door. "Body refinement begins at first light. Those who vomit will clean their own mess!"
Rat rubbed his face and muttered, "Good. Saves time."
Wei Yun stirred beside him, pale but awake. "You joke too easily."
"I panic quietly," Rat said, tying his sash. "It's called multitasking."
They stepped out into the gray courtyard with forty other recruits. The air cut sharper than knives, and the light had that thin, cruel edge that made everything look too real.
Instructor Zhen was already there. Her robes hung still despite the wind. A wooden staff rested across her shoulders, and she regarded them with the serene patience of someone imagining their graves.
"Body refinement," she said, "is not about strength. It is about obedience. Your blood must learn to obey your will, or it will betray you when you reach for power."
Rat's stomach rumbled. "My blood already doesn't listen. Can I trade for a better batch?"
Her gaze flicked toward him without amusement. "You will learn, Rat. Even stone can be taught."
Then she pointed uphill.
The slope loomed like the back of a sleeping god, slick from mist, carved with crude steps that looked older than history.
"You will run," she said. "Until your body remembers it has purpose."
They ran.
The first hundred steps were easy enough. Then the mountain started laughing. Air thinned, muscles burned, and the stone felt like it was grinding marrow out of bone. A boy ahead of Rat stumbled, gasped, and vomited halfway up the slope.
Rat didn't stop. Stopping felt like begging. He found rhythm in pain and sarcasm.
"Horizon in," he muttered, breathing steady. "Horizon out. If the sky wants me dead, it can fill out a form."
The Codex stirred faintly behind his ribs, its woven light pulsing in rhythm with his breath.
[Condition: Fatigue escalating. Circulation unstable.]
[Recommendation: Initiate adaptive technique.]
"Adaptive what?" Rat panted.
[New Pattern Unlocked: Iron Breath Recovery.]
[Effect: Converts pain signals into minor stamina restoration when breath remains steady.]
He snorted between breaths. "You're telling me sarcasm counts as healing? About time."
The world sharpened. Pain dulled just enough to move. The trick wasn't ignoring agony, it was mocking it into obedience.
He climbed until the wind tried to blow his soul out through his teeth.
Halfway up, Wei Yun faltered. His knees shook, face white as the mist. Rat grabbed him by the arm and hissed, "Don't you dare die before breakfast. I'm not dragging a corpse uphill."
Wei Yun coughed blood into his sleeve. "You… really… motivate people terribly."
"Good," Rat said. "Means it's working."
They pushed on.
By the time they reached the plateau, dawn had burned away the mist. The view was almost cruel in its beauty, clouds sprawled below like an ocean, mountains stabbing through like the bones of giants.
Zhen waited at the top, arms folded. "Half of you look alive. Acceptable."
Someone groaned.
"Sit," she commanded. "Breathe. The mountain refines, but breath tempers the edge."
Rat collapsed cross-legged, chest heaving. His blood still rang with that electric hum from the Codex. The pain didn't vanish, it just stopped mattering.
He exhaled slow. The air carried the taste of metal and stone dust.
Zhen paced before them. "This mountain once belonged to immortals who thought endurance could buy eternity. They failed because they mistook suffering for growth. Pain is not cultivation. Pain is a teacher. You listen, or you break."
Rat raised a shaky hand. "What if you've already broken?"
She stopped. For a heartbeat, the cold wind was the only answer.
"Then," she said quietly, "you learn what shape the pieces make."
He met her gaze and didn't look away. The Basin had taught him worse lessons.
When the sun rose fully, she motioned toward the ledge. "Your reward for surviving the first climb."
They looked. There was no food, no shelter—just a frozen stream trickling from the cliff, its water clear as glass.
Rat stared. "You call that a reward?"
Zhen smiled faintly. "Drink, Rat. If you can taste it without choking, you've earned your first breath as a cultivator."
He crouched, scooped a handful, and swallowed. The cold hit like lightning. It tore through his throat and spine, and the Codex flared so hard it blinded his thoughts.
[Substance Detected: Refined Qi water.]
[Effect: Vitality channels awakening.]
[Warning: Unprepared vessels may rupture.]
"Oh good," Rat gasped. "Death by hydration."
Pain burned down his arms, into bone, into blood. But the more it hurt, the clearer the rhythm became. Breath in. Breath out. The horizon inside his body widened.
His pulse steadied. The pain folded into warmth. His skin prickled with heat, and his vision sharpened, every stone, every drop of water outlined in faint silver.
He didn't need to check the Codex to know something had shifted. The air didn't just fill him now. It answered him.
Instructor Zhen's voice carried across the ledge. "Those who survived have earned the mountain's first mercy. Those who failed will return to dust before noon."
Below, the ones who hadn't reached the top were being carried back, silent, limp. Rat watched them with an empty sort of understanding.
Survival wasn't victory. It was permission.
The Codex flickered again.
[Codex of Strands of Fate - Status Update]
Vitality: 5
Qi Sense: 4
Comprehension: 3
Fate Entanglement: 12
Realm: Foundation Establishment
New Passive Skill: Iron Breath Recovery
Effect: Converts endurance pain into stamina restoration when rhythm is maintained. Efficiency rises with mockery and defiance.
Rat looked at his trembling hands and smirked. "So sarcasm really is a cultivation path. I knew it."
Wei Yun wheezed a laugh beside him. "Maybe they'll name it after you."
"Yeah," Rat said, staring at the horizon where the clouds ended and the world began. "They'll call it the Dao of Not Dying."
A shadow passed overhead– too large for a bird. Rat squinted up. The wind shifted, carrying a low growl from the upper peaks.
Wei Yun frowned. "What was that?"
Rat's smile faded. "Probably the mountain checking its tax."
The growl came again, closer this time.
And the Codex whispered, cold and clear:
[Proximity Alert: Beast Qi detected.]
[Classification: Gale-Fanged Predator. Status: Hunting.]
Rat stood. "Looks like class isn't over yet."
The clouds below rippled. Something vast moved inside them.
The mountain, it seemed, had more lessons to give.