LUO FAN
When I regained consciousness, I found myself lying on a small, rickety bed inside a cold steel cell. The dim light from a single overhead lantern cast faint shadows on the walls, heightening the suffocating atmosphere.
Pain coursed through my body—not just from the wounds sustained during the fight but from a deeper, more insidious source. It was as though my qi had turned into a raging torrent, tearing through me uncontrollably. My chest tightened unbearably, making each breath a laborious task. I tried lying still, hoping to ease the pressure, but it only intensified.
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to sit up, and the crushing weight on my chest lessened slightly. I inhaled deeply, struggling to regain control over my fractured body.
Then it all came rushing back.
Jinjing.
Her tears. The coin purse. The betrayal.
The woman I had trusted above all else, the one I had envisioned spending the rest of my life with—how could she have done this to me?
I clutched my chest as the memory pierced through me like a dagger, the emotional anguish feeding the chaos within my qi. The pain became unbearable, and I could feel myself teetering on the brink of something far worse. My body trembled, and my breath came in short, pained gasps as I doubled over, trying in vain to suppress the storm inside.
Suddenly, my gaze fell on my hands.
My fingers tingled with an unfamiliar sensation, and as I raised them, I froze in shock. Rising from my fingertips was an inky black mist, dark energy twisting and writhing like a living thing.
My eyes widened in disbelief, my heart hammering in my chest.
"What... what is this?" I murmured, my voice trembling.
Dark energy. From my own body.
I stared at it, unable to comprehend what I was seeing. As a light core bearer, this should have been impossible.
"How could this happen?" I whispered. "Where did this come from?"
The realization struck me like a bolt of lightning. Dark energy didn't arise spontaneously—it had to be rooted in something. A core.
A dark core.
The thought sent a chill down my spine. A dark core inside me? But how?
My mind raced through the possibilities. My abductors? No, they were light core cultivators. They couldn't have done this.
And then I heard it.
Ruan Yanjun's laughter echoed in my mind, low and mocking, as clear as if he stood beside me.
Of course.
Who else could it have been but the notorious devil of Xianru?
The realization both angered and terrified me. If Ruan Yanjun had implanted a dark core within me, it wasn't out of kindness or a mistake. It was deliberate, calculated—yet another piece in his grand, unfathomable game.
I clenched my fists, my hands trembling as the dark energy continued to swirl. The betrayal of Jinjing was fresh and searing, but this revelation cut even deeper.
The devil hadn't just manipulated my fate.
He had claimed a piece of my very soul.
Certainly, Ruan Yanjun must have done this to me while I was unconscious. As I pieced together the fragments of memory, several instances came to mind where he might have had the opportunity to implant a dark core inside me.
But the most plausible moment was that night in the Silverblade's hideout.
I could still recall his fury, how it boiled over and drove him to take liberties no man should. At the time, I had thought it was just another manifestation of his twisted perversion, his insatiable hunger for control and humiliation.
But now, as I thought back more carefully, the memory became sharper.
The way he had grabbed me, his breath ragged with anger, his eyes blazing with malicious intent. I had felt a surge of dark energy—a searing, foreign force—channeled into me through my mouth just moments before I fell unconscious.
"Ruan Yanjun," I muttered through gritted teeth, his name burning on my tongue like poison. I cursed him inwardly, my heart heavy with rage.
But the surge of anger, hot and consuming, only worsened the storm inside me.
The pain was unbearable now, each breath like a blade slicing through my chest. My qi churned violently, like a river caught in a whirlpool. My hands trembled uncontrollably as the dark energy flared brighter, tendrils of black mist curling from my fingertips.
Fear gripped me as I realized what was happening. Two opposing cores were battling within me, their energies colliding in a catastrophic clash that threatened to tear me apart from the inside.
This was no time to let fear take hold. I had to act.
I clenched my fists, struggling to calm my mind. If I allowed my negative emotions to spiral further—if I gave in to the anger and despair—they would only strengthen the dark core, feeding it until it consumed my light core entirely.
If that happened, I knew there would be no return.
The light core, the essence of who I was and the path I had chosen, would be destroyed. I would be left with no choice but to embrace dark cultivation, a fate I utterly abhorred. I would rather lose my martial arts altogether, become a cripple, than walk the path of darkness.
Desperation coursed through me, but I forced myself to focus.
I sat down cross-legged on the cold, steel floor and closed my eyes. The lotus position, a posture of balance and meditation, had always been a source of grounding for me. I prayed it would still be.
Ignoring the searing pain in my chest and the chaos within my body, I willed my mind to detach from the world. I reached for the calm I had learned in countless hours of training, searching for that inner stillness I so desperately needed now.
I inhaled deeply, allowing the air to fill my lungs, and exhaled slowly, expelling not just breath but the storm of emotions that threatened to overwhelm me.
Focus.
I visualized the opposing energies inside me, a blinding white light struggling against the encroaching black mist. I pictured myself as a mediator, a silent observer standing between them.
The clash raged on, but I pushed aside the fear and anger that fed the darkness. I reminded myself of who I was—a cultivator of the light, bound by the principles of righteousness and self-control.
This was not the end.
No matter what Ruan Yanjun had done to me, I would not let it define me.
The world around me faded away as I immersed myself deeper into meditation, battling not with brute strength but with sheer willpower. For the sake of my light core, for the sake of my very soul, I had to prevail.
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