Mo Qingchuan touched the cracked lantern pendant at his chest. "When you read a jade slip, the method enters your mind for a time, but that does not mean it has become yours. To keep it after giving away the jade slip, you must imprint the formulas, circulation paths, intent, movement changes, and warnings into your consciousness clearly enough that you can return to them later."
Ye Qinglan added, "That still does not mean you can use it well. It only means you have retained the method."
Feng Jiu'er continued, "To copy it onto another jade slip, you would need to reach Perfection in that technique first. Otherwise, what you imprint will be flawed."
Gu Man raised a finger. "Basic Application means you can use it without embarrassing your ancestors too badly. Small Mastery means you can use it in a real fight. Greater Mastery means the enemy starts regretting meeting you. Perfection means elders stop correcting you in public."
Mo Qingchuan smiled. "And beyond Perfection?"
Gu Man waved his hand. "That is where old monsters improve the technique and refuse to teach anyone except the disciple they like most. Everyone else can kneel until their knees grow moss."
Ye Qinglan laughed softly. "Crude, but not wrong."
"Ancient Beast Hall values accuracy."
Fang Lin lowered his eyes.
Moonless Shadow Step was still in his storage treasure. He had not cultivated it, but his soul was far stronger than ordinary Spirit Foundation cultivators. Fully ingraining the method would require focus and care, but it was not impossible. The danger lay in doing it here, where too many people watched.
He glanced around.
Ye Qinglan understood first. She moved slightly, not enough to look deliberate, but enough to block one angle of sight. Feng Jiu'er adjusted her seated posture and let a faint layer of crimson fire Qi drift around her injured sleeve, giving outsiders a reason not to stare too closely. Su Wanqing took out a pill bottle and began speaking quietly with a nearby Green Bamboo disciple, creating ordinary movement around them.
Gu Man saw everyone shift and blinked. "Oh. We are being subtle."
Mo Qingchuan gave him a pained smile. "Brother Gu, if you announce subtlety, it suffers."
Gu Man lowered his voice to what he apparently believed was a whisper. "I am now subtle."
Fang Lin finally smiled.
He took out the Moonless Shadow Step jade slip under the cover of his sleeve and pressed it lightly against his palm. His eyes closed halfway. His breathing slowed, and his soul strength moved inward like a blade entering water without a ripple.
The method unfolded.
Moonless Shadow Step was not a grand movement technique that shook heaven and earth.
It was quiet. It cared about angles, blind spots, breath timing, shadow placement, foot pressure, and the instant before an enemy's attention fixed. It did not make a cultivator vanish. It made the enemy look one heartbeat too late.
Fang Lin did not cultivate it.
He memorized.
The formulas settled one by one. The movement diagrams entered his mind and arranged themselves beside his existing footwork experience. Some portions overlapped faintly with his understanding of Flowing Wind Steps, but Moonless Shadow Step was darker, narrower, and more suited to killing paths and sudden repositioning. It would not replace his movement foundation. It would sharpen a certain part of it.
His soul strength made the process smoother than it should have been, but Fang Lin did not let even a trace of that strength leak outward. To those watching from afar, he only looked like a wounded rogue cultivator quietly studying a jade slip before a trade.
That was enough.
Time passed quietly.
No full day passed inside Myriad Halls Plaza, but the ancient light above the doors seemed to deepen. More cultivators finished trades. A few more dared to approach Level 6, and most retreated after standing before the doors for several breaths. The ones who did enter did not return quickly.
Fang Lin opened his eyes.
The jade slip in his palm had not changed, but the method inside it had already been engraved into his consciousness.
He looked at Mo Qingchuan. "Done."
Mo Qingchuan studied him for a moment, and a trace of surprise flashed through his tired eyes. He did not ask how Fang Lin had ingrained it so quickly. A polite man knew when curiosity became danger.
Instead, he took out a black jade slip.
It was thin, almost like a shard of night. No strong aura leaked from it, but when Fang Lin looked at it, he felt the darkness within the jade slip gather into something narrow and sharp, like a crescent hidden behind clouds.
Mo Qingchuan held it between two fingers. "Moon-Eating Shadow Blade. It is a Darkness attack technique, compatible with sword and blade. I cannot use it. If I force it with my path, I will be asking my own lantern to swallow the moon, and my lantern is already cracked enough."
Gu Man leaned closer. "That name sounds like it bites."
"It likely does," Mo Qingchuan said. "Which is why I prefer not to be the one bitten."
Fang Lin passed over the Moonless Shadow Step jade slip.
Mo Qingchuan passed over Moon-Eating Shadow Blade.
The exchange took only a breath.
A few people across the plaza saw two jade slips change hands. Xu Hanjiang noticed from beneath Heavenly Sword Lake's shadow. One Demon Suppression Temple disciple also looked over before lowering his gaze. Neither could hear the details. Neither knew what had been traded.
That made their expressions worse.
Fang Lin did not examine Moon-Eating Shadow Blade immediately. He placed it into his storage treasure with the same calm manner one might use for an ordinary item. Inside, however, his interest sharpened.
A Darkness attack technique suited to sword methods had arrived at the right time.
Mo Qingchuan stored Moonless Shadow Step and cupped his hands. "A fair trade."
Fang Lin returned the gesture. "A useful one."
Gu Man looked between them. "No oath, no shouting, no blood. Are all scholar trades this quiet?"
Mo Qingchuan smiled. "Only the successful ones."
"The unsuccessful ones?"
"Those usually end with someone explaining to their master why their storage pouch is gone."
Gu Man nodded solemnly. "Then today was civilized."
Feng Jiu'er looked at Fang Lin, then at the storage treasure where Moon-Eating Shadow Blade had disappeared. "Do not rush to cultivate it here."
"I know."
"Knowing and doing are not always close relatives."
"They are on speaking terms."
Her gaze lingered on him for half a breath longer, then she looked away. "Good."
Ye Qinglan watched the exchange with a thoughtful expression, but she did not ask for details. Instead, she said, "This is why the main trial rewards are dangerous. They have no sect oath, no elder registry, no authority chain. Whoever obtains them can trade them, hide them, or lose them. Outside this place, news of that alone would make many elders restless."
Fang Lin looked toward the countless doors.
The sixth level still waited. Beyond it were higher levels, greater rewards, and dangers that had already begun separating the living from the foolish. But for the moment, Fang Lin did not move.
He had gained more than a technique.
He had gained a clearer view of how the Demon Immortal Continent guarded power.
Points opened doors. Authority decided which doors were real. Oaths chained secrets. Mastery decided whether a method was borrowed, owned, or reborn. And in places like Myriad Halls Plaza, where ancient rewards fell without sect restrictions, every jade slip could become a blade before it was ever cultivated.
Gu Man stretched his shoulders and looked toward the trial doors. "So, Silent Mountain Sword, when you enter Level 6, do you plan to walk out looking calm, or do you plan to make the rest of us feel useless?"
Fang Lin glanced at him. "Those are the only two choices?"
"For ordinary people, there is also dying."
"Then I will avoid that one."
"Good. I dislike interesting people dying before I know whether I want to fight them."
Mo Qingchuan rubbed the crack on his lantern pendant and sighed. "Brother Gu, when you say such things, it sounds less like friendship and more like a weather warning."
Gu Man grinned. "In Ancient Beast Hall, that is sometimes the same thing."
Fang Lin did not reject the words.
Gu Man was not a friend. Not yet. But he was no longer only a major sect disciple standing somewhere in the plaza. He was a person Fang Lin had measured, and for now, the result was not unpleasant.
Ye Qinglan's voice lowered slightly. "Fellow Daoist Shen, there is one more thing you should remember. When the people outside eventually learn that these trial rewards carry no sect restriction, the value of everyone here will change."
Su Wanqing's expression grew serious. "You mean recruitment?"
"Recruitment, pressure, interrogation, trade offers, marriage proposals, forced protection, assassination, memory search if someone becomes desperate enough." Ye Qinglan's tone remained calm, but her words made the air around them colder. "Major sects prefer rules in public. That does not mean every person inside them is clean."
Feng Jiu'er looked at Fang Lin. "Especially someone publicly known as a rogue cultivator."
Fang Lin understood.
Shen Mo had no sect behind him. That made him free, but it also made him tempting. A rogue cultivator with the strength to pass Level 5, the nerve to speak against Demon Suppression Temple, and an unknown reward from Myriad Halls Plaza was a walking question. Some would want to recruit him. Some would want to use him. Some would want to strip him clean before anyone else did.
He smiled faintly. "Then I should appear poorer."
Gu Man gave Night Burial Sword a look. "You carry that sword and say this?"
Fang Lin looked down at the black blade. "It is shy."
Mo Qingchuan stared at him. "That sword looks like it has never been shy in its life."
Feng Jiu'er's lips curved despite herself. "It suits him."
Fang Lin turned to her. "The sword?"
"The shameless answer."
Su Wanqing lowered her gaze, but her shoulders moved once.
For a brief moment, the pressure of Myriad Halls Plaza loosened around them. Not vanished. Never vanished. The doors were still there. The plaques still waited to write Pass, Fail, or Death. Enemies still watched from beneath major sect banners and righteous robes. But within that small circle, among injuries, hidden rewards, and half-spoken dangers, there was warmth.
Fang Lin did not trust easily.
He would not start now.
But he understood something Uncle Wei had once taught him without saying it directly. A lone blade could cut deep, but a blade that knew when another hand guarded its back could cut further.
His gaze moved across Feng Jiu'er, Su Wanqing, Ye Qinglan, Gu Man, and Mo Qingchuan.
Then it returned to the doors.
On the other side of the door, the Level 6 trial waited.
On the other side of the trial, perhaps something far greater waited.
Fang Lin's fingers rested lightly near Night Burial Sword.
Sooner or later, he would enter Level 6.
But not yet. He still had only revealed around 40% of his power. If he passes level 6, others would definitely take notice.
He was waiting, waiting for a variation that can be induced in the trials so that he can play safe.
And during this time, he sharpened the knife before stepping into the throat of the storm.
-