The "Obstacle Course of Ten Deaths" was not a physical place so much as it was a localized distortion of reality. Situated in the valley between the Outer Peak and the Inner Sect's forbidden grounds, the course was governed by an ancient, repurposed defense array. To the disciples standing at the mouth of the valley, it looked like a shimmering curtain of distorted air, punctuated by the sounds of grinding stone and whistling wind.

  Commander Vulcan stood at the entrance, but today he was accompanied by a man who looked like he had been forged from jagged flint. This was Drill Instructor Gane, a Foundation Establishment specialist known for "breaking" disciples to see if their foundations were truly solid or just a lucky fluke of birth.

  Gane’s eyes, sharp and predatory, settled on Group 7. Specifically, they settled on the youth in the middle of the pack who looked like he was trying very hard to be part of the scenery.

  "Listen up, trash!" Gane’s voice was a rasping blade. "The Ten Deaths are simple. If you hesitate, you die. If you overthink, you die. If you hide your strength, the array will sense the dissonance and crush you twice as hard. Enter!"

  Lin Qingyu adjusted his belt. He could feel Gane’s gaze—it was heavy, focused, and suspicious. He’s looking for the 'rhythm' of my Qi, Lin thought. If I move too perfectly, he’ll know. If I move too poorly, the array will actually kill me.

  He stepped through the shimmering curtain.

  Obstacle 1: The Gale Bridge

  The first trial was a narrow stone span over a bottomless pit. From the sides, pressurized blasts of wind—infused with spirit-shredding sand—shot out at irregular intervals. It wasn't just a test of balance; it was a test of timing.

  The disciples ahead of him were being tossed around like autumn leaves. One boy tried to sprint through, only to be caught mid-air by a gust that stripped the skin from his shoulder.

  Lin Qingyu approached the bridge. His eyes analyzed the oscillation of the wind-vents. He could see the pattern—a 3-2-5 sequence. To his mind, it was a simple path. But he couldn't walk it smoothly.

  He waited for a blast, then "panicked" and lunged forward. He allowed the wind to buffet him, his body swaying dangerously. He scrambled on all fours across the stone, looking like a man clinging to his life by a thread. In reality, every muscle was locked in a perfect counter-tension. He crossed the bridge in the middle of the pack, "gasping" for air as he reached the other side.

  Obstacle 2: The Searing Mire

  The ground ahead turned into a bubbling expanse of volcanic mud. Heat-talismans buried in the earth turned the air into an oven. To cross, one had to jump between shifting basalt pillars.

  The "Mire" was designed to drain the water-elemental Qi out of a cultivator. Lin, an all-rounder, had a perfectly balanced elemental affinity. He could have neutralized the heat entirely. Instead, he allowed his face to turn a bright, alarming red. He mistimed a jump—on purpose—landing on a pillar just as it began to sink.

  He let out a loud "Yelp!" and scrambled to the next one, his boots smoking. From the observation deck, Gane’s eyes narrowed. "He’s clumsy, but he’s always just an inch away from the heat. Lucky?"

  Obstacle 3: The Phantom Needle Forest

  This was a field of crystalline pillars that shot microscopic needles of Qi at anyone who moved faster than a certain threshold. It was a test of "Slowness and Control."

  Geniuses like Shen Yuanxing struggled here because their Qi was too aggressive. Lin, however, loved this. He moved with a sluggish, weary pace that looked like genuine exhaustion. The needles hissed past his ears, missing him by a hair’s breadth. He looked like a man too tired to even be targeted properly.

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  "Look at him," one of the instructors muttered. "He’s so slow the array barely registers him as a living target."

  Obstacle 4: The Gravity Well

  A fifty-meter stretch where the gravity increased tenfold every ten steps. By the final ten meters, the pressure was enough to crack ribs.

  Lin felt the weight. It was the same as the lead ingots from the previous day, but concentrated. He allowed his knees to shake. He let his breath become a series of wet, ragged groans. He watched the disciple next to him collapse, the boy’s Qi failing under the pressure.

  Lin reached out and "accidentally" bumped into the boy, the contact allowing Lin to subtly pulse a bit of his own stable Qi into the other’s meridians, just enough to keep the boy from fainting. To the observers, it just looked like two exhausted failures leaning on each other. They crossed the line together, collapsing into the dirt.

  Obstacle 5: The Echoing Chasm

  The final trial of the first half. A wide gap that could only be crossed by using a burst of Qi to "glide" through the air. The catch: the chasm was filled with "Echo Spirits" that mimicked your own Qi and tried to pull you down.

  Lin watched a Level 5 disciple get pulled into the depths because his Qi was too "loud."

  Lin took a deep breath. He needed to glide, but he needed to glide badly. He leaped, his Qi flickering inconsistently. The Echo Spirits rose, but they found nothing to grab onto. Lin’s Qi was so balanced—so "neutral"—that the spirits couldn't find a resonance. He landed on the other side with a heavy thud, rolling several times before coming to a stop near Gane’s boots.

  Gane looked down at the soot-stained, sweating youth. Lin was panting, his robes torn, looking every bit the "Average" cultivator who was barely surviving by the grace of the heavens.

  "You’re still alive, Lin Qingyu," Gane said, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous growl.

  "Barely... sir," Lin wheezed, wiping mud from his eye. "The wind... it was very... rude."

  "Rude?" Gane leaned down, his face inches from Lin’s. "You have no 'Intent.' You have no 'Drive.' You are a piece of driftwood floating in a storm. And yet, you’ve completed five deaths without a single major injury. Your foundation is either made of iron, or you’re the luckiest rat in the Azure Cloud."

  "I pray to my ancestors... every morning... sir," Lin replied, his eyes wide and innocent.

  Gane stood up, his hand resting on the hilt of his heavy broadsword. "The second half of the course—the final five deaths—are not about physical traps. They are about the soul. The array will stop looking at your body and start looking at what you’re hiding in your heart."

  He turned to the rest of the survivors, his voice booming. "Thirty percent of you failed the first half! The rest of you have one hour to rest. The sixth death—the Mirror of Shattered Will—awaits. If you have secrets, the array will eat them."

  Lin Qingyu moved to a corner of the resting area. He found Mu Ruxin waiting there with a flask of water and a small container of energy-restoring paste. She looked terrified.

  "You're bleeding," she whispered, reaching out to touch a small cut on his cheek.

  "It's just for show, Ruxin," Lin murmured, his voice losing its "exhausted" tremor. "The array is aggressive, but predictable. Gane is the real problem. He’s looking for a reason to report me to Vulcan."

  "The next five obstacles... they say they're psychological," Mu Ruxin said, her voice trembling. "They say you see your worst fears. What will you see, Qingyu?"

  Lin looked toward the distorted curtain of the valley. My worst fear? he thought. Probably a Chapter 500 ending where I'm the Sect Leader and have to do paperwork for eternity.

  "I'll probably just see a very long line at the cafeteria," Lin joked, taking a sip of the water.

  But internally, he was calculating. The "Soul" trials were dangerous. To pass them "averagely," he had to project a soul that was mediocre—not one that had lived through the death of a world or understood the secrets of Spirit Severing.

  He saw Xue Lianhua standing with the other Personal Disciples. She was looking at him with a gaze that was no longer suspicious, but protective. She knew he was hiding something, and she was already positioning herself to block Gane’s line of sight if things went wrong.

  [Emotional Stability System]

  Trial Progress: 5/10 Deaths Completed.

  Rank: 85th (Stable).

  Gane's Suspicion: 72% (Rising).

  System Note: The next five trials will attempt to probe your 'Divine Sense.' Since your soul has been expanded by the system, you must 'Dumb Down' your mental resonance.

  Warning: If you project a soul that is too stable, the array will identify you as a 'Hidden Threat' and alert the Sect Master.

  Lin Qingyu closed his eyes, leaning his head against a stone. He began to manually suppress his Divine Sense, pulling his consciousness into a tight, small ball in the center of his mind. He made himself think of "average" things—the taste of a plain bun, the sound of rain on a tin roof, the color of a common sparrow.

  He had to become the "Snail" again.

  The bell for the second half of the trials rang. It was a cold, lonely sound.

  "Time's up!" Gane roared. "Into the Mirror!"

  Lin Qingyu stood up, his legs "shaking" perfectly. He walked toward the shimmering curtain, a man of Level 4 Qi Condensation who looked like he was walking to his execution.

  The real test was about to begin.