Maryam's soul energy had already been at the peak of the Channel Creation stage. The only reason she had not broken through was that she had been actively supressing it.
Now, her blood energy had reached a similar state. Her blood and flesh contained as much energy as it could possibly hold, and the energy in her saturated heart was beginning to try to compress itself.
She was fine with breaking through in the alchemy department dormitories. Her focus wasn't so weak that it'd be broken if one of her dormmates tried to disturb her. She'd probably be able to maintain sufficient concentration on her breakthrough even while killing them.
Maryam waited for dawn, until the moment arrived when the yin and yang energy—one stronger in night and the other in day—were at perfect balance in the air.
Simultaneously, she released her hold on both her soul and blood energy, allowing it to rush to her heart and brain.
As if attracted by a strange sort of gravity, the energy began to thicken and spin in a somewhat circular motion, flowing in currents that followed the curvature of the two organs. After the initial rush, Maryam began to control the rate of energy being drawn by each core, keeping the strength of her soul and blood cores approximately even.
Her body rapidly drew energy from the air to replace that which was rapidly leaving her channels, drawing it into the flow that sped towards her forming cores.
Even as these huge amounts of yin and yang poured through her body, all remained in balance. The respective energy types protected their appropriate channels, and the traces that overflowed clashed violently.
Maryam's body was at the brink of destruction, but under her careful ministrations, the damage never became more than she could regenerate from. This was only possible due to her incredible ability to detect and control countless traces of energy.
Soon, under the force of compression, the shapes of the two spinning cores began to solidify. The energy did not become a solid in the sense that it was a hard object. It still existed in a form that could overlay and integrate with her organs.
Instead, at the center of her cores, the energy became sufficiently compressed that it retained its shape, no longer spinning. The energy that spun around it would slowly deposit ultra-concentrated layers of solidified energy around this stable seed, steadily increasing its size.
As the seeds were still extremely small, Maryam was at early Core Creation stage. By the time she reached the peak of the stage, the seeds would have grown into solid bodies of energy that entirely encompassed her heart and her brain.
Maryam drew energy from her cores and sent it down her channels. Due to the attraction from the cores, it circulated back at incredible speeds.
She cracked her knuckles and stood up.
The near destruction and subsequent regeneration of her body had left her covered in filth.
Fortunately, the dorms had showers. It wasn't polite to shower this early in the morning, but Maryam had little respect for her dormmates who were willing to watch innocent people die for their own benefit. Besides, she smelled rather terrible.
By the time she was finished cleaning herself up, her dormmates had already left for their shifts. Maryam sat on her bed, waiting.
Soon, the warden walked in.
"You know the rules. Why aren't you at your station?" The warden asked, then struck at Maryam with her whip. Indeed, the punishment for sleeping in was harsh.
Maryam caught it easily.
"I want to dispute my sentence. Bring me to the challenge grounds."
The warden nodded. The ease with which Maryam caught her whip indicated that the warden would not be able to subdue Maryam with force.
And what Maryam was asking for was within the sect rules.
A sentence dispute was not something for a disciple to undertake lightly.
The sect had created the construct to prevent corruption from hampering the growth of talented disciples. Elders had the authority to punish ordinary disciples without trial (direct disciples of elders, and elite-rank disciples were a different story).
However, any disciple at the Core Creation stage or above who felt that their sentence had not been within sect laws could challenge the elder who sentenced them.
The elder would then have the choice of having their case taken to court—an open process where the guilt of the disciple was decided in front of the entire sect—or they could fight the disciple.
Elders who had indeed abused their power would typically choose to duel. Corruption was generally accepted as normal within the sect, but to keep up appearances, if the disciple was found innocent publicly, the elder would face punishment.
The option of going to court protected elders who had been following the rules properly from being beaten by strong disciples with grudges, thereby maintaining the sect's authority structure.
The ability of the elder to force a physical duel meant that only very talented disciples would call for a sentence dispute, preventing the court from wasting time on constant trivialities.
If the challenging disciple was weaker then them, elders who had followed the rules properly would also typically opt for a physical duel, just to save time.
This was dangerous for disciples, as death was common in duels, and 'accidentally' killing one's opponent did not carry a heavy sentence.
Walking down the path away from the alchemy department, Maryam noticed some decorative arrangements of pebbles by the side of the road that were emitting a refreshing energy. They hadn't been there when she had walked along this path to enter the department, so they must be newly placed. There were many more around the entrance and otherwise surrounding the alchemy department's main building.
Marking it down as a point of mild curiosity, Maryam continued to the challenge grounds, accompanied by the warden. The target of her challenge would be the elder that had brought her to the punishment department, Nevus.
She stood in the middle of the arena and used her energy to amplify her voice.
"Nevus! Get up from your harem of donkeys, you coward, and bring your dog neck here for my taking!"
Maryam's shout was loud enough to echo across the entire sect. It quickly drew a crowd to gather around the challenge grounds.
Nevus stepped out onto the stage, red-faced with anger. He recognized Maryam as the untalented disciple with the yin-natured energy. True, she had impressive fighting ability for her level, and it was surprising that she had managed to form a core, but yin energy cultivators were only destined for the grave.
"Arrogant junior, you are courting death! I am feeling generous today, so cut off your disrespectful tongue and kneel in a pile of sh*t and we will consider this matter over with."
"What pile of sh*t? I didn't see any. Will you be providing it? Oh, I see. You've already brought it. A 6ft high pile of shit that stands and talks in front of me, how impressive."
"You insignificant trash! You will pay for your words! For the method of this challenge, I demand a duel!" cried Nevus, his eyes bulging.
The arbitrator of sentence disputes had already arrived.
"Granted," he said, "Take your positions."
As Maryam took her position on one side of the ring, she sensed a familiar presence in the crowd. It wasn't a cultivator, but Maryam's sensitivity was more than high enough to pick up the fluctuations of a mortal's life-energy.
She looked through the crowd to find the beautiful, pale woman with long black hair. Autumn's eyes were locked on Nevus, and they burned with an icy anger and hatred.
Then, her eyes shifted away from Nevus and met Maryam's.
"Don't kill him," Autumn mouthed subtly.
Maryam had been planning on doing so, but Autumn was not the sort to ask for anything without good reason.
It didn't make much sense for a mortal like Autumn to be there, but regardless, Maryam was inexplicably happy to see her. It wouldn't cost Maryam much to leave a pathetic worm with a breath of life.
Maryam nodded slightly towards Autumn in agreement.
"Dual… start!" declared the arbitrator.
Maryam began walking towards Nevus.
"Junior, did you forget? I have your life in my hands," declared Nevus with a sneer, "My soul brand is within you. Prepare to taste the price of your stupidity!"
Then Nevus had on a look of concentration and—just the same as the last time she defied Nevus—an unimaginable pain burst inside her soul. It was as if everything she was was being torn to pieces.
If she were not Maryam of the Destined Gods, she would be able to do nothing but collapse to the floor and scream.
Instead, she simply continued to walk forward, like a predator approaching its already-trapped prey.
"W-why isn't it working?"
Nevus concentrated even harder, and the pain intensified.
Maryam's eyes were filled with bloodlust and her smile was ferocious.
"You've got the wrong idea. It's very painful. You know what..."
Maryam appeared in front of him and shoved him into a kneeling position, with her hand on his head.
"I think I'll just show you."
She forced her energy into his core—it coursed through his brain and down his nerves.
He began to scream as agony shot through every fiber of his being. He couldn't do anything else. The pain was too overwhelming.
Maryam, however, made sure that it wasn't so intense that he lost consciousness.
She began to let the feeling weaken ever so slightly.
With great effort, Nevus regained control of his mouth and began to stammer the words that would save him.
"I-I surren—"
Maryam sent the pain crashing back, and the rest of his sentence was drowned in his screams.
"Sorry, I didn't catch that."
In this manner, Maryam continued to torture him with a twisted smile. The crowd was mostly silent, and she could sense that some of the watching elders were beginning to reach the limits of their tolerance.
Nevus didn't have a particularly high position, but it would be disgraceful for this sort of barbaric spectacle to continue in the heart of the sect.
It was time to finish this.
Using her energy, Maryam disabled Nevus' vocal cords, so that he could no longer even make a sound as she looked into his terrified eyes.
She leaned down to whisper in his ear.
"Now, this is what you did to me."
Maryam poured the full intensity of the pain of the soul brand into Nevus, making him feel what he had made her feel.
His muscles spasmed and he barely lasted a second before falling unconscious.
Maryam found Autumn's eyes in the silent crowd. Their coldness now held traces of gratification.