"W-what do you mean?"

"Think about it," Azure continued. "You've experienced multiple deaths: your original death that brought you to this cultivation world, and all those deaths in the Two Suns realm. It would only make sense that beings created from death qi would feel attracted to you. Your soul has developed a comprehension of the Death Dao that these entities crave."

"But I don't understand anything about the Death Dao," I protested.

"Consciously, no," Azure agreed. "But at a subconscious level, you're beginning to comprehend it. Death isn't just an ending, Master, it's a transformation, a passage from one state to another. You've experienced that transformation repeatedly. Your soul carries the imprint of those experiences."

I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the perpetual twilight of the Fallen Realm.

The logic was undeniable.

In cultivation, repeatedly experiencing something, whether through practice, meditation, or direct exposure, gradually increased one's comprehension of the associated Dao.

Combat cultivators understood the Dao of Battle through endless fights.

Formation masters grasped the Dao of Order through creating countless arrays.

And I was beginning to understand the Dao of Death through... dying. Repeatedly.

"The beings here can probably sense that comprehension like a scent," Azure continued. "To them, you're not just another cultivator, you're someone who has touched the fundamental nature of their existence. They're drawn to you because you represent something they instinctively recognize and desire."

I looked at Lin Mei, who was completely focused on watching for threats.

All this time, I'd been wondering why we were so unlucky, why we kept facing impossible odds while other teams advanced smoothly toward the exit. But it wasn't bad luck at all. It was me. My presence was actively drawing these creatures to us, putting my friends in constant danger.

***

An hour passed in tense silence as Wei Lin worked through his breakthrough. Lin Mei and I maintained our vigil at the cave entrance, watching the desolate landscape for any signs of movement. The rocky terrain around us remained eerily quiet, as if even the ambient death essence was holding its breath.

During that time, my mind kept circling back to Azure's theory about my unconscious death dao comprehension. The more I thought about it, the more the pieces seemed to fit together. Every major encounter we'd faced had involved ninth-stage death-aligned creatures specifically targeting our team. The wraith in the desert, the sand elemental, the bone serpent, the pseudo-dragon, and who knew how many others that were probably still hunting us.

"Master, don't blame yourself," Azure said firmly. "You didn't choose to die repeatedly, and you certainly didn't choose to develop Death Dao comprehension.”

I wanted to argue with him, but deep down I knew he was right. The deaths in the Two Suns realm had been traumatic and something I tried my best to avoid, dying was never a fun experience. As for the original death that brought me to this world... well, that hadn't exactly been my choice either.

Still, knowing that intellectually didn't make the situation any easier. We were still being hunted down... no, I was still being hunted down. My teammates were just caught in the crossfire of whatever these creatures sensed in my soul.

I looked up at the crimson number hanging in the sky: 13. Only thirteen slots remaining for teams to advance to the individual rounds. If we hadn't been constantly fighting, if we'd been able to focus on searching like the other teams, we might have found an exit by now.

A bone-chilling screech echoed across the landscape. My head snapped up, spiritual sense extending automatically as I searched for the source. There, in the distance, a shadow moved against the sickly green sky.

It was a bird, no, calling it a bird was like calling a hurricane a breeze.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The creature soaring toward us was massive, easily the size of a house, with wings that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. Its feathers were black, and each beat of its wings sent ripples of dark energy cascading through the air.

A phoenix. Or rather, something that had once been a phoenix before death essence had transformed it into this nightmare of shadow and hunger.

"Lin Mei," I called sharply, never taking my eyes off the approaching creature. "Get inside the cave. Now."

She didn't argue, recognizing the tone that meant immediate danger. I heard her footsteps retreating deeper into the cave, positioning herself where she could still observe but was protected by stone walls.

I extended my spiritual sense toward the shadow phoenix, trying to gauge its strength. What I felt made my blood run cold, this wasn't just another ninth-stage creature. The spiritual pressure rolling off it was qualitatively different, denser, more refined.

Pseudo-Elemental Realm.

Against a pseudo-Elemental Realm opponent in a straight fight, I might stand a chance. My techniques were powerful, my foundation solid, and I had advantages that most cultivators lacked.

But defending my friends while fighting such a creature would be exponentially more difficult. I'd have to divide my attention between offense and protection, limiting my options and creating openings for the enemy to exploit.

Then a thought occurred to me. If Azure's theory was correct, if these creatures were truly being drawn to the death essence on my soul, then this could be an opportunity to test that hypothesis.

I reached into my storage ring and scattered a handful of spirit grass seeds in a wide arc around the cave mouth, infusing each with my qi as they landed. One seed I placed particularly close to the cave entrance, near where Lin Mei and Wei Lin were positioned. If I was wrong about the phoenix's target, if it ignored me and went for my more vulnerable friends, I wanted to be able to teleport back to them instantly.

The shadow phoenix was close now, perhaps a hundred yards away and descending fast. Its eyes, if those burning pits of darkness could be called eyes, were fixed directly on me.

I activated Verduring Step, my body dissolving into particles of green light that flowed to the seed I'd placed furthest from the cave. The teleportation was smooth and instant, carrying me nearly a hundred yards away from my friends.

The shadow phoenix, which had been arrowing straight toward the cave where my defenseless teammates waited, suddenly pulled up short. Its massive head swiveled toward my new position, those dark eyes locking onto me with unmistakable hunger.

It changed course without hesitation, abandoning its approach to the cave and diving toward me instead.

"So much for hoping I was wrong," I muttered, watching several tons of shadow-wreathed death spiral down toward me.

I waited until the last possible second, watching those wicked talons extend toward me, before activating Verduring Step again. Green light carried me to another seed just as the phoenix's claws raked through the space I'd occupied.

The creature's momentum carried it into the ground with tremendous force. The impact was devastating, dirt and rock exploded outward in a crater twenty feet across, and the shockwave knocked me backward even from my safe distance. The shadow phoenix itself disappeared momentarily in a cloud of debris and dark energy.

When the dust settled, I could see the creature extracting itself from the crater it had created. Its shadow-feathers were ruffled and some had been torn away, but it showed no signs of serious injury. If anything, it looked annoyed rather than hurt.

I didn't waste time admiring my handiwork. While the phoenix was still off-balance, I activated the vines I'd discreetly planted around the impact site when I had teleported there. Thick green tendrils erupted from the earth, wrapping around the phoenix's legs, wings, and neck with python-like strength.

For a moment, it looked like the tactic might work. The vines constricted, their spiritual energy reinforcing their physical strength as they sought to strangle or immobilize the massive creature.

Then the shadow phoenix opened its beak and released a stream of black fire.

The flames that poured from its throat weren't the warm orange of normal fire, or even the blue-white of intense heat. These were flames that seemed to devour light itself, consuming not just the physical matter they touched but the very concept of existence.

Where the black fire touched my vines, they didn't just burn, they simply ceased to be, as if they had never existed at all.

Within seconds, the phoenix was free, my carefully prepared restraints reduced to less than memory.

I grimaced, already reaching for more seeds as the creature turned its baleful attention back to me. This wasn't going to be an easy battle. Fighting a pseudo-Elemental Realm opponent that could erase my techniques with those nightmare flames would require—

A sudden burst of spiritual pressure from behind me made both the phoenix and me turn our heads toward the cave. The aura that rolled out from the stone chamber was unlike anything I'd felt from Wei Lin before. It wasn't the clean, disciplined energy of peak Qi Condensation, but it also wasn't the refined power of the Elemental Realm.

It was something between, denser than ninth stage, more complex than peak mortal cultivation, but still fundamentally rooted in the condensation of qi rather than its elemental transformation.

Wei Lin emerged from the cave mouth, and I could immediately see the changes in him. His spiritual pressure had gained a weight and depth that hadn't been there before, and his eyes held a new confidence. The tenth stall in his spiritual marketplace was complete and consolidated.

He had successfully broken through to the tenth stage of Qi Condensation, a realm that most cultivators never even attempted to reach, and some didn't believe was possible.

The shadow phoenix's burning gaze flicked between us, as if calculating the new odds. Its prey had just gained a powerful ally.

This was about to become a very different kind of fight.