Inside the overlapping domains, Adrian's perception spread outward in all directions at once. He felt the authority distribution almost immediately: Thirty-five percent each, with thirty percent remaining under reality's passive governance.
He registered Nightshade's innate properties the moment they activated. Layered shadow rules within this divine concept suppressed light across the domain's interior. Displacement rules bent spatial orientation, subtly warping an opponent's internal sense of where their own body sat in relation to the space around them. The combined effect was disorientation and blindness working in tandem.
But Adrian had comprehended Shadow to Advanced Galactic level. Displacement derived from Space, which he knew intimately. The darkness that would have stripped another cultivator of their senses did nothing to him. He perceived the chamber as clearly as if lit from above.
He saw Nightshade's fingers already cutting toward him.
Just as Nightshade's hand moved toward him, Adrian calmly sidestepped. Nightshade's hand passed through empty air.
Nightshade immediately withdrew his hand and retreated a few steps. From this single exchange, Nightshade realized his opponent possessed comprehension of Shadow and Displacement sufficient to see through the innate properties of his domain. However, Nightshade did not concern himself with it. The innate darkness was never his primary weapon.
He activated an authority technique designed specifically for concealment. The moment it was activated, Adrian felt the change. Nightshade vanished completely from his perception. It was as though Adrian stood alone within the chamber, yet the Obsidian Veil domain still existed around him, confirming Nightshade remained present.
Adrian issued a direct command. "Reveal Nightshade."
His thirty-five percent authority surged outward and slammed into the modification, contesting it, stripping the concealment apart until Nightshade reappeared.
And Adrian's stomach dropped.
Nightshade was already near him! Their faces were separated by less than a hand's width, Nightshade's palm already rising toward his shoulder.
Adrian blinked. The spatial fold yanked him backward across the chamber in an instant.
What the hell.
His expression stayed flat, but his mind was already tearing through what had just happened. His shock was not because of Nightshade's proximity, but due to the cost of negation genuinely shook him. That single negation consumed around twenty thousand mana units from him! One technique had consumed nearly a quarter of his total reserves.
Adrian could not understand why reality demanded such a heavy price! It was a direct command, yes, but what kind of authority technique required that magnitude of resources to negate it?
He didn't even have time to analyze things. Only two seconds had passed in the entire exchange, and Nightshade was just beginning. If he escalated further, used more stronger authority techniques, evading the remaining eight seconds would become nearly impossible with Adrian's current reserves.
Nightshade stood across the chamber and studied him. He expected negation but did not expect spatial teleportation. Space comprehension on top of Shadow and Displacement. He adjusted his read of Adrian upward, then upward again.
It's time to step up his game.
Nightshade stepped forward again. The concealment authority technique was activated, and he vanished completely from Adrian's perception again. What followed was not a single movement but a series of them, rapid repositioning around the chamber's perimeter, creating three afterimages which were all concealed.
As the four figures converged toward Adrian from multiple angles, Nightshade layered a second authority technique on top of the first. He devoted twenty-five percent of his authority to concealment and ten percent to the new technique, which made all afterimages real for a split second.
Adrian had no knowledge of the layered execution that was happening. He simply issued the same command again, "Reveal Nightshade."
The concealment collapsed like last time, but now there were four Nightshades around him, and Adrian sensed that all four were genuine.
He had not expected simultaneous dual authority techniques, much less such seamless layering. Normally, even a single authority technique requires deep concentration and immense resources. But Nightshade executed multiple techniques fluidly.
Adrian attempted to blink away again, gathering spatial essence around his body. The fold began to form—
It failed.
His arcane Space concept could not do anything, no matter how he tried. The spatial rules around him had been locked and suppressed.
A third technique.
Only then did Adrian understand what was happening. The moment he negated concealment, Nightshade had activated a third authority technique that suppressed spatial abilities within the local zone. Adrian had been so focused on the afterimages that he hadn't registered the subtle shift in reality's fabric.
The four figures were now dangerously close to him, closing from all angles with perfect coordination. The only option was manual evasion.
Adrian considered using the movement authority technique Hestia had provided. However, Nightshade was already modifying space rules to suppress teleportation. Competing for control of space rules would require authority expenditure and reaction time he did not possess.
In less than a second, Nightshade could touch him.
Without hesitation, Adrian activated his Temporal Veil spell. His perception accelerated more than twentyfold, and the world around him slowed to a crawl. The four converging figures became sluggish, their movements stretched across dilated time.
Within that stretched moment, he identified microscopic gaps between the encircling figures. The afterimages moved with near-perfect coordination, but near-perfect left openings. Adrian saw them clearly now, fractional differences in timing, minute variations in angle.
Using the advantage of accelerated perception, Adrian activated his movement authority technique. He modified the rules governing momentum and friction, allowing his body to slip through the narrowest opening before Nightshade could adjust.
He reappeared several meters away.
From the sidelines, Kaevryn's eyes widened fractionally. He glanced at the projection, then at Hestia, who remained impassive.
"Time," he murmured.
It was among the most dangerous arcane concepts, not because it was incomprehensible, but because the will of Time itself resisted most who attempted to grasp it. Many cultivators perished trying to comprehend its truths, their minds shattered by temporal paradoxes or their bodies aged to dust in instants.
Hestia glanced at the timer. Four seconds had passed.
...
Within the domain, Adrian felt his mana drain like water through a broken dam. He had spent another twenty thousand for the second negation and then one thousand for movement. Temporal Veil's cost was negligible in comparison to these, a mere hundred units to maintain.
He now only had approximately forty thousand mana remaining.
If this continues, I'll lose by depletion.
Nightshade now knew he wielded Time, and that would trigger escalation. The Sect Leader would push harder, layer more techniques, force Adrian into increasingly costly negations. And Adrian doubted if he would even have enough mana to overcome it.
His jaw tightened. He had entered this trial to prove that he was strong. Instead, he was being systematically dismantled by someone with superior mana reserves and flawless technique execution.
I'm too weak.
The thought cut through him. Not weak in absolute terms, he could unleash his source domain, use 100% authority, and overwhelm his enemy with his surplus authority. But weak here, weak in this context, constrained by the limitations he had imposed on himself.
With no remaining options, he activated his Source Eyes.
It was less risky than deploying the Source domain, but still, there remained some danger of exposing that he wielded an Ultimate-tier divine concept. The white-grey essence would be visible at close range, unmistakable to anyone who knew what to look for.
But Adrian had no other way forward. This trial was to prove his strength, and Adrian had just seen how weak he truly was with only Crimson Vital Dominion. He was pushed into this state, forced to reveal his powers, because he was weak. That was the truth Adrian had to accept.
Nightshade murmured faintly from across the chamber, "Interesting..."
Time concept was extremely rare, and he had not expected that. This opponent exceeded his expectations with each passing second. He still did not notice the faint white-grey essence gathering around Adrian's eyes, subtle as morning mist.
He moved again.
With Temporal Veil still active and Source Eyes engaged, Adrian now perceived everything. He saw the rule modifications that Nightshade was making to conceal himself again.
Then Nightshade moved extremely fast, using a movement authority technique to match Adrian's accelerated perception. His speed increased twentyfold, blurring even within the slowed timeframe.
Previously, this would have rendered Nightshade invisible, forcing Adrian to burn another twenty thousand mana units on negation. But now Adrian saw him clearly. The white-grey perception of the Source revealed every modification in real time, tracking each rule symbol as it shifted and reformed.
Adrian also saw Nightshade was moving directly toward him at extreme velocity, abandoning afterimages entirely. The Sect Leader had recognized that complexity wasn't working and had switched to raw speed and power.
If Adrian had relied solely on Temporal Veil and negation like before, there would have been a delay in the process of negation, the fraction of a second needed to issue the command and for reality to respond. And that delay would have been enough for Nightshade to touch him now.
But now things were different. Adrian didn't waste mana on negation. He simply sidestepped.
Nightshade passed through the space Adrian had occupied only an instant before, overshooting due to his speed. He halted abruptly and turned sharply, his divine essence flaring.
How?
Confusion flickered across his expression. Adrian had not negated his authority technique, and yet he moved precisely at the perfect moment, as though he could see through the invisibility.
Was it a coincidence?
Six seconds had passed.
Nightshade intensified his output, pouring more mana into his techniques. He layered movement and concealment again, attempting rapid multi-angle engagement. He circled Adrian at blinding speed, striking from different vectors, testing for openings.
Adrian evaded fluidly, pivoting, stepping, adjusting. Each movement was precisely aligned with Nightshade's trajectory, his body flowing like water around stone. It appeared as though he knew exactly where Nightshade was at every instant.
Impossible!
Nightshade's frustration mounted. Without negation, how is he doing this? How is he detecting me?
Eight seconds passed.
Nightshade pushed further, abandoning restraint entirely. He poured massive amounts of mana into the movement authority technique, his form becoming a blur even within the compressed timeframe. His frustration was rising now, bleeding into his technique execution.
Adrian continued evading without visible effort. His movements were minimal, each shift of weight perfectly timed. From the sidelines, the observers saw only Adrian moving within the darkness, his crimson robes shifting as he pivoted and stepped. There was no visible trace of Nightshade, yet Adrian dodged as if reacting to a clearly visible opponent.
Kaevryn narrowed his eyes, his pupils contracting simultaneously. He knew very well what was happening, and this defied logic.
Soon, ten seconds elapsed, and the timer ended with a soft chime.
Yet Nightshade did not immediately withdraw. His pride had been wounded, his flawless technique rendered useless. He surged forward once more, amplifying his movement authority technique with heavy mana expenditure, pouring into one final strike.
This time, Adrian did not dodge.
He stood firm and intercepted Nightshade's wrist mid-motion, his fingers closing around it with surprising strength. The advance halted cleanly, Nightshade's momentum arrested as though he'd struck a wall.
"What is the meaning of this?" Adrian's voice was calm, measured. "The trial has already ended."
His eyes still glowed faintly white-grey, luminous in the darkness.
At such close proximity, Nightshade finally saw those eyes clearly. Their gazes met, and the moment their eyes locked, a tremor ran through him.
His concentration fractured like glass. His concealment technique collapsed, the rule modifications unraveling. His movement authority technique dissipated, the speed bleeding away. His divine domain wavered, then unraveled under fractured concentration, the darkness retreating until the chamber's normal lighting returned.
Within those white-grey depths, he glimpsed something incomprehensibly profound.
It was vast and endless… as though he had glimpsed the structure of existence itself.
Nightshade stumbled backward, his breathing ragged. His hand trembled where Adrian had gripped it. He looked at the young man before him and saw not a cultivator, but something wearing a cultivator's shape.
"What..." His voice came out hoarse and extremely low. "What are you?"
Adrian released his wrist and dismissed his Source Eyes, the white-grey glow fading.