The Eastern Continent was a realm of aesthetic absolute. Unlike the rugged frontiers of the North or the shifting sands of the South, the East was a meticulously groomed paradise. As the Celestial Path Academy Flying Fortress approached the Imperial Jade City, the students lined the railings in hushed awe. Below them, the land was a tapestry of emerald rice paddies, weeping willows that glowed with spiritual light, and cities built entirely from white marble and green jade.
Lin Fan stood on the observation deck, his Level 6 Divine Library processing a staggering amount of data. With the addition of Lady Mei, the Librarian of the East, his internal archive had expanded into a multidimensional nexus of history and technique.
[Divine Library: Instant Scan—Imperial Jade City.]
[Detection: Rank-6 Territory. Population: 50 Million.]
[Warning: The city is protected by the 'Perfect Heavens' Array. Any entity with 'Flaws' above 20% is automatically suppressed by the city's gravity.]
"Teacher, I feel like I'm wearing lead boots," Mu Tie grunted, his Stage 9 Peak cultivation the only thing keeping him upright. "The air here... it feels judgmental."
"That is the 'Aura of Perfection'," Lin Fan explained, his Nine Divine Halos shimmering invisibly to offset the pressure. "The Eastern Empire believes that only the flawless have the right to rule. They use their arrays to crush the 'imperfect' before they can even speak. It is the ultimate form of scholarly arrogance."
Beside him, Lady Mei was busy scribbling in her notebook. "The Jade City's array has been running for three thousand years. It is based on the logic of the 'Static Sage'. It does not allow for growth, only for the maintenance of existing beauty. It is a golden cage, Master Lin."
The Arrival at the Imperial Docks
As the fortress docked at the Imperial Pier—a structure made of a single, massive piece of sea-jade—a welcoming committee awaited. These were not warriors in armor, but scholars in shimmering silk robes, each holding a fan inscribed with complex seals.
At the center was a young man with skin as pale as porcelain and eyes that held a terrifying coldness. This was Prince Jun, the leader of the Seven Prodigies of the East.
"So, this is the 'Sovereign' from the borderlands," Jun said, his voice like the snapping of a frozen twig. He didn't bow. He didn't even acknowledge the wives standing behind Lin Fan. "Your ship is... loud. It lacks the subtle harmony of our Eastern designs. And your students... I can smell their 'Flaws' from here."
Ling'er's eyes flared with Phoenix fire. "You smell like incense and old paper, Prince. Maybe you should spend less time grooming and more time training."
Jun's fan snapped shut. The gravity around Ling'er suddenly tripled. "In the Jade City, a 'Flawed' tongue is a liability. You would do well to remember your place, little bird."
Lin Fan stepped forward, his presence instantly neutralizing the gravity around his student. He looked at Jun's fan.
[Divine Library: Scanning Prince Jun...]
[Flaw: His 'Perfection' is artificial. He has used 'Jade-Core Pills' to prune his meridians, meaning he has no adaptability. He is a glass sword—beautiful, but brittle.]
"Prince Jun," Lin Fan said with a witty smile. "I see you've polished your soul to a mirror shine. It's a pity. Mirrors are great for looking at yourself, but they're terrible at seeing the world. We are here for the Competition of the Empires. I assume your 'Prodigies' are ready to lose in a perfectly aesthetic fashion?"
Jun's face didn't move, but the air around him grew cold. "The competition begins at dawn. We shall see if your 'unorthodox' rabble can survive the Trial of the Seven Refinements."
The Trial of the Seven Refinements
The competition took place in the Garden of Absolute Truth, a pocket dimension where the laws of nature were tuned to highlight every mistake a cultivator made. The "Seven Prodigies" were the masters of this domain.
"Trial One: The Refinement of the Blade," the Imperial Herald announced.
A massive block of 'Soul-Iron' was placed in the center of the arena. "The task is to carve a single character into this iron. The character must be 'Truth'. The one whose carving is the most 'Perfect' wins."
Prince Jun's first prodigy, a girl named Yue-In, stepped forward. She used a needle-thin sword, her movements a dance of absolute precision. She carved the character 'Truth' with such detail that it looked like it had been printed by a machine. Not a single spark flew; not a single grain of iron was out of place.
The Eastern scholars cheered. "99% Perfection!" the automated array announced.
Then, it was Mu Tie's turn.
"Mu Tie," Lin Fan whispered. "Truth is not a static shape. Truth is a journey. Don't carve the iron. Educate it."
Mu Tie stepped up. He didn't draw a sword. He simply placed his hand on the block of Soul-Iron.
[Divine Library: Synthesis—Frost-Dragon Bloodline + Sovereignty of Truth.]
Mu Tie didn't cut the iron. He used his frost to expand the 'Flaws' inside the iron's molecular structure. He 'convinced' the iron to rearrange itself.
Suddenly, the block of iron began to shift. It didn't just show the character 'Truth'; it transformed into a miniature statue of an old man reading a book—a statue that was constantly, slowly changing its expression.
The arena went silent. The automated array struggled to process the result.
[Result: 100% Resonance. Perfection: N/A. The Iron has achieved 'Sentience'.]
"He... he didn't carve it!" Prince Jun shouted, standing up. "He cheated! He used some strange alchemy!"
"No," Lin Fan said, his voice echoing. "He simply showed the iron its own potential. Your prodigy treated the iron like a slave. My student treated it like a student."
The Glutton's Refinement: The Tea Ceremony
The third trial was The Refinement of the Senses—a tea ceremony where the participant had to brew a tea that could "Purify the Soul."
Prince Jun's tea prodigy used water from the highest peak and leaves from a thousand-year-old bush. The tea was gold, clear, and smelled like heaven. The examiners wept as they drank it.
Then, Lu Bao waddled out. He was carrying a dented iron pot and a bag of... rocks?
"Lu Bao," Lin Fan sighed. "Please tell me you're not going to serve them stone-soup."
"Teacha, trust me!" Lu Bao said, his violet skin glowing. "These aren't just rocks. They're 'Memory-Pebbles' from the Sea we just crossed!"
Lu Bao threw the pebbles into boiling water. He didn't add tea leaves. He added a handful of 'Shadow-Salt' and a single 'Nirvana-Leaf' from Ling'er.
The steam rising from the pot wasn't gold; it was a swirling vortex of purple and orange. When he poured the tea, it looked like a liquid galaxy.
The lead examiner, an old man who prided himself on his 'Perfect Palate,' took a sip.
His eyes bulged. He didn't weep. He started to laugh. Then he started to cry. Then he started to punch the air.
"This... this isn't tea!" the examiner gasped. "It's a Life-Review! I can taste my first love, my first failure, and the roasted duck I stole when I was five! It's... it's horribly imperfect, and it's the best thing I've ever tasted!"
[Result: Absolute Soul-Awakening. Winner: Lu Bao.]
The Encounter with the Sixth Wife: The Jade Empress
As the 'Celestial Path Academy' continued to sweep the trials, the ground of the arena suddenly turned into liquid jade. A massive throne rose from the earth, and sitting upon it was a woman who made Queen Medusa look like a commoner.
She was draped in robes of living silk that changed patterns based on her mood. Her crown was a floating ring of green starlight. Her beauty was so 'Perfect' that it felt unnatural—like looking at a statue that had been polished for a billion years.
This was Empress Jia, the Sixth Wife and the ruler of the Eastern Empire.
[Divine Library: Scanning Target...]
[Name: Jia. Title: The Empress of the Perfect Heavens.]
[Status: The 'Perfect' Shell. She has removed every 'Flaw' from her soul using the city's array. Result: She is a living automaton, incapable of feeling surprise or love.]
"Master Lin Fan," Jia said, her voice a perfect, melodic monotone. "You are disrupting the harmony of my city. Your students are 'Unpredictable'. Unpredictability is the first sign of decay. I cannot allow you to proceed to the final trial."
Lin Fan floated into the air to meet her gaze. "Empress, your harmony is a graveyard. You've removed your flaws, but you've also removed your life. You're not a Queen; you're a very expensive piece of jewelry."
The thousands of scholars in the arena gasped. No one had ever spoken to the Jade Empress that way.
"Jewelry does not feel pain," Jia said, her eyes glowing with green starlight. "Jewelry does not fail. I am the culmination of Eastern Logic."
"Then let's test that logic," Lin Fan said, his Nine Divine Halos flaring to their full, blinding brilliance. "I challenge you to a Master Teacher's Duel. If I can make you feel a single 'Flaw'—a single doubt, a single spark of surprise—you will step down and open the Second System Fragment."
Jia tilted her head. "A logical impossibility. I accept. The stakes: If you fail, you and your students will be turned into jade statues to decorate my gardens forever."
The Duel of the Soul-Blueprint
Jia didn't use a weapon. She used the 'Perfect Heavens' Array. She projected her soul-blueprint into the sky—a terrifyingly complex grid of white light. It was a soul without a single dark spot, without a single erratic line.
"Behold," she said. "The end of growth. The state of Absolute Stillness."
Lin Fan looked at the grid.
[Divine Library: Eye of the Creator—Analyzing 'The Perfect Shell'...]
[Observation: The lack of flaws is the greatest flaw. The soul is 'Static'. It cannot process new information.]
"Empress," Lin Fan said, his voice echoing with the power of the Sovereign Archive. "You are a book with no more pages. I am a book that is being written every second."
Lin Fan didn't project a grid. He projected a Memory.
He used Empathy Synthesis to project the memory of Lu Bao eating a bun, the memory of Mu Tie's first frost-strike, the memory of Ling'er's scar being healed, and the memory of the four wives arguing over his schedule.
He combined these 'Imperfect' moments into a single, chaotic, vibrating ball of light and threw it at the Empress's perfect grid.
"Chaos has no power over the Perfect Heavens!" Jia declared.
But as the ball of light hit the grid, it didn't bounce off. It Infected it. The memories weren't attacks; they were 'Possibilities'.
The 'Perfect' white lines of Jia's soul began to wobble. They began to curve. They began to... grow.
Jia's perfect expression cracked. For the first time in three thousand years, her eyes widened. A single, erratic pulse beat in her neck.
"What... what is this sensation?" she whispered, clutching her chest. "It's... it's messy. It's loud. It's... terrifying."
"That," Lin Fan said, landing on her jade throne, "is called a Choice. And it's the most beautiful flaw in the universe."
[Ding! Target 'Jia' Perfection-Shell Shattered.]
[Status: Life-Flow Restored. Surprise Detected.]
The Second System Fragment: The Outer Realms
As Jia's 'Perfection' dissolved, the green starlight of her crown shattered, revealing a small, floating shard of obsidian. This was the Second System Fragment.
Lin Fan touched it, and his mind was instantly flooded with images of a world beyond the stars—a world of high-tech libraries, floating data-streams, and the 'Original Librarians' who had created the Divine Library.
[Divine Library: Level 7 Upgrade Initiated—The Outer Gate.]
[New Feature: 'Dimensional Travel' (Alpha)—Can now sense the boundaries of the world.]
[New Feature: 'Shadow-Sovereign Integration'—The Shadow Army can now utilize 'Digital Logic'.]
"The Outer Realms..." Lin Fan whispered. "They're not Gods. They're... us. From a future that haven't happened yet."
The Comedy of the Empress's 'Flaw'
Empress Jia stood up, her robes now a chaotic, beautiful mess of colors. She looked at Lin Fan, her porcelain face finally flushed with a human glow.
"Master Lin Fan," she said, her voice no longer a monotone. "I believe... I believe I have many questions. And many 'Flaws' that need addressing. I wish to enroll in the Celestial Path Academy."
"Of course, Empress," Lin Fan said.
"However," Jia added, a playful glint appearing in her eyes—a glint that looked suspiciously like Medusa's. "As the Empress, I cannot simply be a 'student'. I shall be the Dean of Perfection and Evolution. And since I have so much to catch up on, I believe I should have the first slot on your 'Traveling Chancellor' rotation."
Medusa, Qingya, Yue, Ananya, and Mei all stepped forward at once.
"Wait a minute!" Medusa shouted. "She just got here! She doesn't even know how to properly index a serpent-bloodline!"
"I can learn," Jia said, her green starlight now glowing with a defiant, human fire. "And I believe my 'Jade-Core' techniques are far more efficient than 'Memory-Dumplings'."
Lu Bao, who was currently trying to see if he could eat a jade pillar, paused. "Hey! Don't knock the dumplings until you've tried them, Boss Lady!"
Lin Fan looked at his six wives-to-be, all arguing in the middle of a 'Perfect' city that was now slowly turning 'Imperfectly' alive.
"Mu Tie, Ling'er," Lin Fan said, pulling his disciples aside. "Get the boat ready. We need to head to the Western Continent immediately. I think the Seventh Wife is a Warrior-Princess, and if she's half
as intense as these six, I'm going to need a much bigger library... and maybe a hidden bunker."