Lin Yu sits in meditation, still as stone, his breathing deep and measured.

Within him, the transformation begins.

Inside his cells, countless bacteria and microorganisms shift, their forms twisting, adapting, evolving under the pulse of life energy.

His hair loosens and falls silently to the floor. His nails detach, his teeth crumble to dust, and fine cracks spread across his skin.

Then, like a serpent shedding its old shell, his outer layer tears apart—thin flakes of dead flesh peel away, revealing a faintly luminous skin beneath.

The Tier Six Life Energy extraordinary heart emerges from his chest, spinning gently in the air before him.

It pulses once, then again, and each beat draws in waves of extraordinary particles from every direction.

The heart begins to throb with power, expanding and contracting like a living organ.

Veins of energy form around it, followed by bones, flesh, and the faint outline of a body made purely of life essence.

The heart continues to beat faster, radiating vitality so intense that even the air hums with it.

Moments later, the energy stabilises—the new life form takes shape, and the heart settles within it, completing the process. Lin Yu has advanced.

Tier Seven.

The newly formed extraordinary heart rolls back, merging seamlessly into his chest.

A pulse spreads through his body, and from that beat, renewal begins.

Strands of hair sprout once more from his scalp, smooth and dark, gleaming faintly in the quiet light.

New teeth emerge within his mouth, perfect and strong. His nails grow in clean and sharp, replacing the remnants of what had fallen away.

Then, his old skin begins to crumble to dust.

The thin, brittle layer flakes off and scatters, dissolving into the air like ash, revealing beneath it a smooth, fresh surface that glows faintly with life energy.

His skin heals, his features renew, and he exhales slowly as his eyes open—bright, steady, alive.

A full month has passed since he began this step.

Now that his breakthrough is complete, he can depart for the Blue Whale Kingdom.

His Life Energy, extraordinary heart will remain here in Shadow City, maintaining his presence and authority.

Lin Yu opens his eyes, and the wide shimmer of the ocean greets him.

Waves rise and fall against the hull of the steamship, the deep hum of its engine echoing beneath his feet.

White mist drifts over the deck, and the faint scent of salt clings to the wind.

He stands as Dr Yu Ling now—the healer whose hands bear the pulse of life itself.

The vessel beneath him cuts through the endless sea, bound for the Blue Whale Kingdom.

The reports were clear. Isolde was last seen there, attending a ball hosted by the Francis family.

After that night, she vanished.

The investigation had led his shadow guards to the family, but before they could dig deeper, the Francis estate was destroyed—burned, erased.

Only two survived.

One, a singer under heavy protection, who had not attended the ball.

The other, a youth who had entered the Mirage Sea two months before the massacre and had not returned since.

The Mirage Sea was an isolated realm—disconnected, shifting, a place where even sound and time seemed to blur.

None of his guards below Tier Seven could reach into it. Only he could.

That was why he had to go himself.

He leans on the ship’s railing, eyes narrowing toward the blue horizon.

He carries another name because he feels this chain of events ties back to him, as if Isolde’s disappearance were the shadow of his own making.

Somewhere beyond those waters, a trap waits for him, patient and unseen.

A faint tremor passes through his chest.

From the depths of his being, he begins to receive memories—visions, sensations—from his shadow heart left behind in the dukedom.

Every heartbeat of that distant self flows into him now, linking the two across worlds of light and shadow.

Through that link, Lin Yu witnesses the boy’s path unfold—the one thrown out of the extraordinary testing office, the one with light and dark warring within his soul.

Levi Walter.

He had left his shadow heart to observe the boy, curious about how a mortal body could bear the two most conflicting elemental affinities.

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No cultivation path in this world allowed light and darkness to coexist.

Yet now, the truth comes to him through the shared memory.

Two days ago, Levi’s sister was taken—kidnapped by a gang and offered to an ageing noble. Levi tried to rescue her but failed.

When he went to the city guards for help, they turned him away.

There was no proof, and according to the laws of the Shadow Dukedom, no one could search a noble’s estate without the Duke’s order.

That night, Levi broke in on himself.

He found his sister in the noble’s bedchamber and killed the man who had defiled her.

But before they could escape, the guards surrounded them.

His sister sacrificed herself to hold them back, buying him a moment to flee.

Now, he is branded a murderer—a commoner who dared to kill a noble. The decree for his arrest came not from Lin Yu himself, but from his father, the Head of the Noble Council, who governs the dukedom on his behalf.

Lin Yu sits on the deck of the steamship, the sea wind brushing against his hair, and his eyes narrow faintly.

In this world, strength writes law. Nobles stand above judgment, and the weak live beneath their shadow.

He is not moved by outrage. He has seen too many worlds built on the same foundation.

This realm is only a place for his recovery, not his crusade.

But still, the boy intrigues him. Levi Walter—whose tragedy awakens the world’s will.

After fleeing the city, Levi ran beyond the Shadow Gorge, wounded and alone.

The guards caught his trail easily.

Yet Lin Yu, watching through his heart’s distant link, willed it so that only Tier-Zero soldiers pursued him.

The chase ended at the edge of a cliff. The boy slipped and fell, swallowed by darkness.

There, deep below the surface, he discovered a skeleton seated in silent meditation, its bones faintly aglow.

A scroll lay beside it—etched with a cultivation method unlike any in this world, a system that reached only to Tier Six.

The method did not begin with energy, so the body’s elemental affinity was meaningless.

It began with the refinement of spirit itself—birthing a light within consciousness, a tiny radiance called the Spirit Light. That was Tier Zero—the Spirit Light Realm.

From there, the cultivator continued refining the spirit using the extraordinary energy of the world, rising through each stage: Tier One, the Illusionist Realm; Tier Two, the Controlling Realm; Tier Three, the Mage Realm; Tier Four, the High Mage; Tier Five, the Master Mage; and Tier Six, the Great Mage.

As Lin Yu studied the structure of the method through his shadow link, he understood immediately.

This cultivation was not just suitable for Levi Walter—it was tailor-made for him.

The very contradiction that doomed him—his equal affinity for both light and dark—was the key that unlocked this new path.

The refinement of spirit through two opposing extraordinary energies would progress faster than any single-element path.

The world’s hand had played a careful move.

A method designed to outlast its own extinction.

Even if the extraordinary energy of this realm vanished, the path would remain viable—because spirit could still be refined through the body’s vitality.

As long as life existed, the path would not die.

Lin Yu leaned back on his bed, his eyes half-closed, thoughts sinking deeper.

He could see the intention behind it clearly.

The world wanted to replace its decaying cultivation system with this new one, through Levi.

When Levi rose in strength, his hatred for nobles would drive him to tear down the system of blood and privilege, shattering the world’s old order.

A perfect hero for a decaying age.

Lin Yu smiled faintly, though there was no warmth in it. “The world will truly learns from its failures.”

But what the world had not foreseen was him.

He had already intervened.

Levi’s sister still lived, hidden by his own hand, plucked from the flow of destiny before her death could anchor the boy’s rage.

Without that loss, Levi’s hatred would waver, and the world’s grand design would fracture.

And Lin Yu would see to it that it did.

He lay down again, folding one arm beneath his head, and closed his eyes. His body stilled. His mind sank inward.

The stillness deepened until even the rhythm of breath vanished, replaced by the faint hum of his extraordinary hearts resonating in unison.

Now, it was time to begin the third path—the Way of Death.

He created an extraordinary path never seen before in this world.

Unlike his Life path, which nurtured vitality within, this one could not yet enter his body—his Life energy had only reached Tier Seven, and the two would annihilate each other if forced together too soon.

So, he began outside himself.

For ordinary cultivators, the first step of the Way of Death was to awaken the spirit through deep meditation—to perceive the stillness between life and decay.

Lin Yu, whose spirit had long since transcended such boundaries, skipped this step entirely.

Tier Zero—*Inscription Realm.* The cultivator learns to feel and control the extraordinary particles of death, shaping them into runes carved upon physical objects. Each rune stores the essence of decay, rot, or stillness—turning lifeless material into vessels of the dead.

Tier One—*Psychic Realm.* The practitioner gains command over the souls of the newly dead, guiding or bending them to will before they fade into the void.

Tier Two—*Corporeal Conversion Realm.* At this stage, the cultivator learns to condense Death energy into tangible matter—ashes, bones, or essence stones. Through it, death takes physical form, a material echo of mortality.

Tier Three—*Spectral Manifestation Realm.* Here, death energy becomes intangible once more—but now shaped by intent. The cultivator can manifest phantoms, ghosts, or fragments of consciousness, giving them limited awareness and purpose.

Tier Four—*Elemental Transmutation Realm.* The practitioner refines Death energy into the four classical elements—Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth—twisting creation from dissolution. This marks the stage where decay itself learns to imitate life.

Tier Five—*Corpse Controlling Realm.* The cultivator gains dominion over the physical remains of the dead, infusing them with structured Death energy to create obedient vessels. At its peak, entire armies of corpses can rise and fight under a single command.

Tier Six—*Corpse Fusion Realm.* At this stage, mastery over Death energy deepens. The cultivator can merge multiple corpses into a single, powerful Undead, fusing their strengths, memories, and energies into one being. When an Undead forged through this process reaches the might of Tier Seven, the cultivator can ascend to the next tier.

Tier Seven—*Necromancer Realm.* One gains complete dominion over death energy, able to command vast legions, control lingering souls, and refine corpse essence into death cores.

Tier Eight—*High Necromancer Realm.* Death itself becomes an extension of will. The cultivator can create autonomous Undead Lords, capable of leading their own armies.

Tier Nine—*Great Necromancer Realm.* At this peak, the boundary between life and death vanishes. The cultivator can summon death storms, raise continents of corpses, and weave death energy into living beings—granting or taking life at will.

This extraordinary path was unmatched in power, capable of crossing realms and defying the natural order. Yet it carried a fatal flaw—lifespan remained unchanged. The dead do not live longer.

The only way to surpass this limit was to train one’s body into an Undead vessel, a transformation possible beginning from Tier Five.

For others, it would be a curse. For Lin Yu, it was nothing. His Shadow Lord path already extended his lifespan to a thousand years.

He continued cultivating calmly. The Way of Death resisted him, unlike the Life Evolution path, which had responded naturally to his will. His understanding of the Law of Death was nonexistent, and without it, progress was glacial.

A week passed.

He remained in Tier Zero, still carving the first death rune to attune his spirit.

He stood at the threshold of the Blue Whale Kingdom’s Extraordinary Guard Division, now not as a doctor but as a *coroner*, a role that kept him close to the dead.

Among corpses and cold silence, Lin Yu would study the truth of death—one soul, one body, one secret at a time.