The Jade and the Thorn
Three days after his breakthrough, Wú Jié secured a menial chore: transporting medicinal manifest scrolls from the Outer Sect archives to the Inner Sect's Storage Pavilion. The task was usually reserved for slow, dependable workers, making it perfect for Wú Jié, who valued anonymity.
The Inner Sect was a world away from the wastelands. Here, spiritual energy flowed like a gentle river, pooling into crystalline lakes and nourishing vibrant, towering Spirit-Trees. Golden-robed disciples moved with effortless grace, radiating the confidence of those deemed worthy by Fate and The Heavenly Dao.
Wú Jié kept his head low, his eyes however were subtly devouring the surroundings. His true goal was not the Storage Pavilion, but the Heart-Cleansing Jade Essence.
His rapid breakthrough using the polluted Qi had given him immense power, but at a cost: his newly formed foundation was tainted by trace impurities. In his past life, he had spent a decade slowly purifying this base. This time, he would solve it in a week. The Jade Essence, a rare, high-grade mineral, was the perfect counter-catalyst. It was housed deep within the Inner Sect's B-tier resource vaults impossible for an Outer Disciple to access directly.
If you cannot open the lock, find the man with the key, Wú Jié mused, his mind already spinning scenarios.
He stopped near the central plaza, watching the flow of disciples. He needed a pawn who was powerful enough to access the vault, yet weak enough to be manipulated by greed and arrogance.
He found his target near the Formation Hall: Luo Xing, an Inner Disciple stuck at the peak of the Mortal Realm's Eighth Layer. Luo Xing was known for his flashy robes, his volatile temper, and his deep-seated frustration over failing the key Ascension Assessment multiple times.
Luo Xing was sitting alone, his brow furrowed over a dense, esoteric formation scroll, clearly nearing the point of desperate action.
Wú Jié approached, adjusting the scrolls in his arms until he accidentally brushed Luo Xing's table, causing a slight wobble.
"Watch yourself, lowlife!" Luo Xing snarled, his spiritual pressure erupting, meant to crush the offender into the dust.
Wú Jié merely straightened, meeting the surge with the unflappable calm of a Grandmaster. "My deepest apologies, Inner Brother. My hands are full of these useless documents. I should have known better than to interrupt a genius at work."
The insult hidden beneath the praise mollified Luo Xing immediately. He sneered. "Know your place. You're delivering garbage, I'm solving the Nine Stars Flowing River Array a key component of the Ascension Assessment."
"Ah, the Nine Stars Array," Wú Jié said softly, tilting his head. "The primary flaw, of course, is the dependence on the Yin-Yang Polarity Anchor at the third node. Everyone knows the public manuals have that calculation wrong."
Luo Xing froze, his eyes widening from anger to shock. He had spent months stuck on the third node. "What did you say? What do you know about the anchor?"
Wú Jié gave a small, knowing smile the kind that promises enlightenment but delivers ruin. "Nothing, Inner Brother. I merely overheard some rumors in the archives. I truly must go. But if you are indeed struggling with the third node, perhaps you should look up the forgotten Lian Clan Scroll? It details a substitute activation method for the anchor."
Wú Jié bowed deeply, turned swiftly, and left before Luo Xing could demand more information. The hook was set.
Temptation of the Secret
Wú Jié did not wait long. That evening, back in the miserable Outer Sect barracks, the door was slammed open by an agitated Luo Xing.
"The Lian Clan Scroll! It's gone! Burned in the Great Fire five hundred years ago!" Luo Xing hissed, grabbing Wú Jié's collar. "You mock me, outcast?"
Wú Jié remained perfectly still, his patience absolute. "Release me, Inner Brother, or you will regret disturbing my cultivation. And no, the Lian Clan Scroll was not fully burned. A single, cryptic fragment remains, hidden deep within the Outer Sect's abandoned library. I found it during my menial cleaning duties."
Luo Xing's greed immediately overshadowed his rage. "Show me! Now!"
Wú Jié pointed to a discarded, brittle piece of parchment on his small wooden table. It was filled with swirling, archaic script and a hastily drawn diagram.
"I cannot understand most of it, but the key to the substitute formation is clearly marked," Wú Jié explained, gesturing to the diagram. "It requires a catalyst to safely bypass the polarity flaw in the anchor."
Luo Xing snatched the fragment. He scanned the script, his eyes blazing with desperate hope. "The catalyst… the Heart-Cleansing Jade Essence," he read aloud, his voice dropping. "It requires a significant amount. A full block."
He looked up, suspicion returning. "Why are you showing this to me? Why give up such a chance?"
Wú Jié sighed, manufacturing a look of wistful humility. "I am a disgraced Outer Disciple, Inner Brother. Even with this information, I could never access the B-tier vaults to acquire the Jade Essence. You, however, are a valued member of the Inner Sect. I only ask for a small portion of the essence enough to mix into a calming paste for my restless spirit. If you succeed in the Ascension Assessment, you might remember the kindness of a low ranking disciple."
Luo Xing laughed a short, cruel sound. Wú Jié was beneath him, easily swayed by the promise of scraps. He saw the fragment as his ticket to glory and Wú Jié as a useful fool.
"A calming paste? Fine. Get me the essence, and I'll give you a finger-sized piece. Wait here, scum." Luo Xing was already rushing toward the door, consumed by the vision of his own success.
The Unraveling Thread
The rendezvous was set for a remote grove near the Outer Sect training grounds. Luo Xing arrived an hour later, triumphant and reckless. He held a large, faintly glowing block of the Heart-Cleansing Jade Essence easily worth half a year of his Inner Sect stipend.
"Here!" Luo Xing thrust a tiny, jagged splinter of the jade at Wú Jié. "That's your calming paste. Now, is the fragment genuine? Does it work?"
Wú Jié did not take the splinter. He gestured toward the full block of essence.
"Inner Brother Luo, I require the entire block," Wú Jié stated, his voice flat.
Luo Xing recoiled. "Are you mad? This is the Heart-Cleansing Jade Essence! It cost me most of my resources and required a signature from Elder Wu! That tiny piece is all you get!"
"No," Wú Jié replied, stepping closer, his obsidian eyes now gleaming with the cold clarity of a predator. "The fragment is genuine. However, my 'translation' for you was incomplete. The substitute formation requires the entire spiritual field of a high-grade catalyst to stabilize the flaw not just a portion. Using a splinter will not only fail the assessment but cause the array to violently recoil, shattering your meridians."
Luo Xing's arrogance evaporated, replaced by sudden, paralyzing fear. He stared at the Jade Essence, then back at Wú Jié. Could this disgraced whelp truly be lying? But what if he wasn't? The risk of meridian damage was too great.
"You… you set me up!" Luo Xing stammered.
"I offered you salvation, Brother Luo. You chose to be greedy," Wú Jié corrected, gently taking the full block of Jade Essence from the disciple's nerveless grasp. The cold, dense mineral was a promise of purity in his hands. "Now, take the fragment. It is indeed the key to the Ascension Assessment."
Wú Jié tossed the parchment back to the terrified disciple.
"Go. Pass the assessment. And remember: silence is the best virtue. Say nothing of this jade, or I will reveal that you illegally extracted the Heart-Cleansing Jade Essence under false pretenses for a private, secret ritual that ultimately failed. You will be stripped of your robes and sent to the mines."
Luo Xing stumbled backward, clutching the false solution. He was cornered by his own greed and pride.
Wú Jié watched the panicked disciple flee. He had just secured a vital resource, eliminated a future threat (the fragment would guarantee Luo Xing's failure and punishment), and remained utterly untainted by the action itself. The price of entrance into the Inner Sect was simply Luo Xing's fate.
Wú Jié turned and walked deeper into the night, the Heart-Cleansing Jade Essence held tight against his chest. The Boundless Calamity was no longer just an idea; it was a method.