The ascent scalded Lin Hao's lungs with pine resin and ozone. Stone steps vibrated beneath his boots, each carved with frost patterns that wept morning dew. Four Treasures' talons tightened on his shoulder, cataloguing the metallic tang of altitude sickness creeping into his bloodstream. Ahead, Instructor Wu's silhouette blurred behind heat distortions rising from the sacred path—a smudge of charcoal against sun-bleached granite.

  "Keep pace, fledgling."

  Wu's challenge carried the crispness of high-altitude winds. Lin Hao's Dragonwake Steps ignited in response, flames licking at gravity harness restraints. Nine smoldering footprints scarred the stone behind him—each impact releasing steam that smelled of scorched quartz.

  The summit unveiled its secret with cruel majesty. A crystalline barrier shimmered with captured sunlight, humming at frequencies that made Lin Hao's molars ache. Four Treabytes' spectroanalysis overloaded momentarily—99.7% lightwave refraction. Molecular lattice exceeds diamond hardness.

  Wu produced the cipher token with ritual slowness. The platinum disc drank sunlight greedily, its etched runes pulsing like the throat sac of some bioluminescent deep-sea creature. Contact with the barrier birthed fractures—a geometric bloom of cracks spreading faster than mortal eyes could track. The resulting aperture exhaled air colder than tomb breath, redolent of lightning-struck copper.

  "After you."

  Lin Hao stepped through the prismatic tear. His boots sank into soil that crackled with static—each blade of grass standing rigid as acupuncture needles. The inner sanctum unfolded in layers: jade pagodas piercing low clouds, their eaves hung with wind chimes forged from crystallized thunderclaps. Four Treabytes' enhanced vision parsed distant courtyards where sparring energies dyed the mist—crimson fire qi clashing against cobalt ice techniques.

  The intercept came swift as predator birds. Thirteen enforcers materialized from light distortions, their armor plates clattering like locust wings. Lin Hao's enhanced hearing dissected their threat signatures—eight Level 8 warriors exhaling frost-edged breath, their captain's aura boiling with barely contained stellar plasma.

  "State purpose."

  The captain's voice carried the weight of glacial calving. His halberd's blade shimmered with event-horizon blackness—a sliver of dead star metal humming hungrily. Four Treabytes' threat assessment flared crimson: Weaponized neutronium detected. Evasion impossible.

  Wu presented the token anew. "By the First Founder's command."

  The enforcers parted like reeds before scythes. Lin Hao counted his heartbeats—twenty-three pulses between each guard's position, their formation echoing sacred geometries. Somewhere beyond the pearlescent fog, a presence watched. Old. Hungry.

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  The palace doors opened with a sound like mountains yawning. Inside, sunlight fell in prismatic shafts through stained crystal ceilings. Lin Hao's boots sank into moss that released spores glowing like drowned stars—each breath filling his lungs with the musk of petrified ambition.

  Four Treabytes' sensors screamed.

  The throne sat empty.

  Reincarnate of the New Era

  The throne hall's air carried the musk of aged incense and ozone. Lin Hao's boots sank into carpets woven from extinct snow leopard pelts—each step releasing trapped cold that numbed his ankles. Four Treasures' feathers flared at the scent of petrified amber burning in braziers shaped like screaming dragons.

  "Your mentor's name?"

  Elder Ying Yuanzi's question carried the weight of tectonic plates shifting. The blind custodian beside him remained motionless, his milky eyes reflecting candleflames that burned without heat. Lin Hao tasted copper—the metallic tang of lie detection arrays humming beneath marble tiles.

  "Master prefers anonymity." Lin Hao's smile felt carved from glacier ice. "He warned against sharing details."

  The lie triggered subtle vibrations in the hall's enchanted pillars. Obsidian veins within marble columns pulsed like dormant serpents awakening. Four Treabytes' threat analysis flashed: Truth verification matrix active. Neural patterns under surveillance.

  Elder Ying's fingers stroked a jade paperweight shaped like a fetal dragon. "Let us examine your eyes, then."

  The blind custodian moved—a blur of ash-gray robes smelling of lightning-struck cedar. His palm pressed against Lin Hao's forehead before Four Treasures could shriek warning. Ancient power flooded neural pathways—the sensation of molten gold coursing through capillaries.

  "Reincarnate..."

  The custodian's whisper carried the weight of collapsing stars. His breath reeked of volcanic ash and forgotten crypts. Lin Hao's vision fractured—

  —memories not his own erupted. A battlefield where warriors rode comet tails. A library whose shelves stretched into event horizons. A throne carved from a dying sun's core.

  The vision shattered with the custodian's recoil. His staff cracked against marble, releasing shockwaves that extinguished every brazier simultaneously. Darkness swallowed the hall, broken only by the custodian's eyes—twin supernovas blazing in the void.

  "Cycle's child walks among us."

  Elder Ying's ceremonial sword clattered to the floor. "The Prophecy..."

  Lin Hao staggered back, his retinas seared with afterimages of cosmic annihilation. The taste of star metal flooded his mouth—Four Treabytes' emergency coolant neutralizing neural overload.

  "What...did you see?"

  The question escaped before Lin Hao could leash it. The custodian's laughter shook dust from ceiling murals depicting primordial wars.

  "Your predecessor's failures." His staff reignited braziers with a gesture, flames burning cobalt-blue. "And your potential to surpass them."

  Cold certainty crystallized in Lin Hao's gut. These fanatics sought not to harm, but to weaponize him. Four Treabytes' reconstructed the custodian's probe—a partial data extraction confirming Lin Hao's extra-dimensional origin.

  Elder Ying recovered composure with statesman's grace. "The Reincarnate's eyes evolve through trial. Allow us to—"

  Alarm bells shattered the moment. Distant shouts carried through crystal windows—"Assassin in the eastern pavilion!"

  The custodians staff froze mid-gesture. "Yang Chengji's quarters."

  Lin Hao's blood turned to liquid nitrogen. Wolf Spider's venom still cooled in hidden glands—his alibi airtight. Yet the timing...

  Elder Ying's gaze pierced flesh. "Come. Let us witness history unfolding."