"Interesting," I murmured, watching the process. "Your marketplace can absorb death essence too?"

"I haven’t come across an essence that it hasn’t been able to absorb," Wei Lin replied, his brow furrowed in concentration as he carefully controlled the flow of energy. "While I don't have a death stall yet, if I can gather enough death essence, I might be able to establish one as my tenth stall. Once that's done, I should be able to sense the natural flow of death energy throughout the realm."

Lin Mei's eyes lit up with understanding. "And if there's an exit, it would create a disturbance in that flow, wouldn't it? Like a drain in a bathtub."

"Exactly," Wei Lin confirmed. "The exit has to be somehow connected to the outside world, which means it's the one place where death essence would be flowing outward rather than circulating within the realm."

I found myself impressed as I watched Wei Lin work. The Merchant's Path was proving to be remarkably adaptable. As powerful and otherworldly as the World Tree Sutra was, literally otherworldly, given its abilities, I couldn't help but wonder sometimes what it would be like to have a cultivation method that could absorb different essences so easily.

Don't get me wrong, I had access to different types of energies through my red and blue suns. But I didn't have the same flexibility that Wei Lin displayed. I couldn't just decide I wanted to manipulate fire qi one moment and death essence the next. My method was powerful but more specialized, while his was powerful and more versatile.

For Wei Lin, elemental affinity seemed almost irrelevant. His spiritual marketplace operated on principles of exchange and conversion rather than natural resonance. He could absorb whatever energy he wanted, process it through his various stalls, and convert it into something useful for his cultivation or combat needs. It was like watching a master trader who could turn anything into profit, regardless of what they started with.

"How much death essence do you need?" I asked, noting that the wisps of dark energy were flowing toward him in a steady stream now.

"Hard to say," Wei Lin admitted. "I've never tried to establish a stall for something this... exotic. Death essence is fundamentally different from the elemental energies I'm used to working with. Even void essence isn’t like it; this is going to require more careful handling."

Lin Mei nodded toward the bone-white trees visible in the distance. "If you need more death essence, wouldn't it be more efficient to hunt down some of the realm's inhabitants? The wraith Ke Yin fought probably contained more death essence than you could absorb from the ambient air in hours."

"Unfortunately, that particular opportunity has passed," I explained, gesturing to where the wraith had disappeared. "When it died, its essence was immediately reclaimed by the realm itself. This place doesn't waste its resources."

"That's why we need a living source," Wei Lin added. "Something we can drain properly before the realm reclaims what's rightfully its own."

"That's not a bad idea," I agreed. "We need to keep moving anyway, and if we encounter other teams..."

Before Wei Lin could respond, the number in the sky shifted again: 35.

Another team had found the exit.

"If we encounter any lone cultivators or weak teams," Wei Lin continued, his voice taking on the cold calculation I'd rarely heard, "we should eliminate them."

The words hung in the air between us for a moment. It was a practical assessment, but the casual way he'd said it seemed a little off, not like the Wei Lin I knew. Perhaps, he wanted access to the Elemental Chamber more than I realised.

"Agreed," I said after a moment's consideration. "Our team has the highest cultivation levels, but if our luck is bad enough, we could still be eliminated. Better to reduce the competition while we have the chance."

Lin Mei looked uncomfortable with the discussion, but she nodded as well. She'd already proven she could make the hard choices when necessary.

"Alright then," I said, orienting myself toward the forest of bone-white trees. "Let's move out. We'll hunt whatever inhabitants we can find to help Wei Lin establish his death stall, and eliminate any competitors we encounter along the way."

Before we could set off, Wei Lin's sharp eyes noticed the gray discoloration around the wounds on my chest. "That death essence is still spreading," he said with concern, stepping closer. "May I?"

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I nodded, and Wei Lin placed his palm directly over the worst of the gray-tinged flesh. Almost immediately, I felt the cold, creeping sensation begin to recede as he drew the foreign energy out of my system through his skin.

"Thank you," I said with genuine relief, watching the unhealthy gray color fade from around the wounds. "That was getting uncomfortable."

"This isn't healing," Wei Lin clarified as he pulled his hand away, wisps of dark energy still clinging to his fingers before being absorbed into his cultivation base. "I'm just removing the death qi so it doesn't continue corrupting your energy pathways."

He reached into his storage ring and produced a small jade bottle. "This should help with the actual injury," he said, offering me a pill that glowed with a soft golden light.

I accepted it gratefully and swallowed it without hesitation. A warm energy spread through my chest, and I watched as the claw marks began to close, new flesh knitting together at a visible rate. Within moments, only faint pink lines remained where the wraith had torn through my robes and skin.

"Thanks again," I said, rolling my shoulders to test the healed area. "Now I won't have to worry about reopening those wounds in our next fight."

As we began walking across the sand, I felt a strange sensation from deep within my inner world. The Genesis Seed was responding to something, its roots seeming to pulse with interest as they extended deeper into the soil of my spiritual realm. There was an almost predatory hunger in the way it was reacting, like a plant that had caught the scent of particularly rich fertilizer.

But it wasn't just hunger. Through my connection to the seed, I could feel something else forming: a link. The World Tree was tasting this realm, sampling its essence and establishing a connection that went beyond mere proximity.

I kept walking, not wanting to alarm my teammates, but inwardly I was fascinated by what I was sensing. The link was subtle but growing stronger with each step. It wasn't a physical connection, I wasn't actually bringing any part of the Fallen Realm into my inner world.

Instead, it was more like... coordinates being recorded, a spiritual map being drawn.

If I wanted to, I could world walk here. Not physically, but my soul could return to this realm whenever I chose, regardless of whether the sect maintained their portal or not. The Genesis Seed was essentially claiming this place as territory it could access.

The implications were staggering. This was a genuine Death Realm, created by a Civilization Realm cultivator who had mastered the Dao of Death itself. The resources here, the opportunities for understanding death essence, the sheer power that could be gained from annexing even a portion of such a realm...

But even as the possibilities raced through my mind, cooler logic prevailed.

This realm was under the sect's control and clearly monitored. Unlike the Starhaven Realm, which existed in some forgotten corner of dimensional space with no one to claim it, the Fallen Realm was practically the sect's backyard. Attempting to annex it would be like trying to steal the sect master's personal cultivation chamber.

Beyond the political complications and likelihood of being killed, there was the question of how a death realm would affect my inner world. The World Tree Sutra was fundamentally about growth and life. Introducing death essence on such a massive scale could potentially corrupt the entire foundation of my cultivation.

At best, it might create some kind of balance between life and death energies.

At worst, it could poison everything I'd built.

No, I decided. The connection was useful, having access to a death realm could prove valuable in the future, but I wouldn't attempt anything more ambitious than that. At least, not yet.

"The number's dropping fast," Lin Mei observed, drawing my attention back to our immediate situation. Indeed, while I'd been lost in thought about the Genesis Seed's connection to the realm, we'd covered perhaps half a mile of ground. The bone-white forest was much closer now, its twisted branches reaching toward the sickly sky like grasping fingers.

"Thirty-three slots left," Wei Lin sighed. "We need to find that exit soon."

I was about to respond when the sand beneath our feet exploded upward without warning.

One moment we were walking across stable ground, the next we were engulfed in a whirlwind of white particles that blinded and disoriented us. I barely had time to raise my arm to shield my eyes before walls of compacted sand had already shot up around us, solidifying with shocking speed.

"What—" Lin Mei's exclamation was cut short as she stumbled backward, the ground still trembling beneath our feet.

I extended my spiritual sense outward, but the technique had already completed its formation. "Not a formation," I said grimly, blinking sand from my eyes. "Someone's technique. And they're fast."

The prison had formed so quickly we hadn't even had a chance to attempt escape. Now we stood trapped within a perfect dome of densely packed sand, roughly ten feet in diameter with walls that curved overhead to seal us in completely. There was no way up, no way out, we were entombed.

And then the walls began to move inward with horrifying speed.

"It's shrinking!" Lin Mei gasped as the curved walls contracted rapidly around us. The space that had been ten feet across was now eight, then seven.

Through the sand dome, I could sense the distinctive aura of whatever had created this trap—heavy, oppressive death qi that made the air around us feel thick and cold. The presence lingered just outside our prison, savoring our predicament.

Peak Ninth stage Qi Condensation, but not a cultivator. Another inhabitant of the Fallen Realm.

Five feet across now. The walls were closing so fast I could feel the displaced air rushing past my face. Wei Lin's elbow pressed against my ribs. Lin Mei's breathing was sharp and panicked beside us.

Four and a half feet.

"Well," I murmured, frantically channeling qi into my palms as I prepared to break us out before we were crushed like insects, "looks like we didn't need to hunt for death essence after all. It found us."

Four feet.

The walls showed no signs of slowing.