Cultivation is Creation

The name hit Wu Kangming like a splash of cold water.

Ke Yin? Why would she want him to kill Ke Yin?

The outer disciple was talented, certainly, but hardly a threat to someone of Wu Lihua's cultivation level. And Wu Kangming had actually come to respect the younger cultivator during their time in the Fallen Realm.

"Why?" he asked, confusion breaking through the spell for a moment. "Why are you so fixated on a random outer disciple?"

"Don't question me!" Wu Lihua snapped, her beautiful features twisting with anger. "Don't argue with what I'm telling you to do! Just obey!"

The power of her cultivation method slammed into Wu Kangming's mind like a hammer, driving away his questions and doubts. The hypnotic compulsion wrapped around his consciousness even tighter, and he could feel his own will being slowly crushed under the weight of her desires.

He was just beginning to nod in acceptance when something unexpected happened.

A wave of pure, clean energy erupted from the ring on his finger, cutting through Wu Lihua's mental manipulation like a sword through silk. The hypnotic pressure that had been building in his skull shattered instantly, leaving him gasping and clear-headed for the first time in several minutes.

Wu Lihua's Elemental Realm aura collapsed completely, and suddenly she was stumbling backward, her perfect composure cracking to reveal something underneath that made Wu Kangming's heart skip a beat.

"Please," she whispered, and her voice was completely different now - younger, frightened, desperate. "Kangming, please help me. I'm trapped. This cultivation method, it's... it's not what I thought it was. It's changing me, making me do things I never wanted to do."

This was her, Wu Kangming realized with a shock. This terrified girl was the real Wu Lihua, somehow briefly freed from whatever influence had been controlling her. The golden eyes that had seemed so cold before now held only fear and pleading.

Wu Kangming stepped forward instinctively, hope blazing in his chest like a phoenix reborn from ashes. "Lihua," he breathed. "Lihua, it's really you."

"My master," she continued urgently, glancing around as if afraid of being overheard. "She gave me a technique. I can't control it anymore. It's taken over my thoughts, my actions. I need—"

Before she could finish, the malicious presence reasserted itself with violent fury as Wu Lihua expression shifted back to that cold, calculating mask. But now there was something else there too: fear.

She was staring at the ring on Wu Kangming's finger with naked terror, as if it were a weapon capable of destroying her utterly.

"What is that?" she whispered, taking another step backward. "How do you have something that can—"

She didn't finish the sentence. Instead, she turned and disappeared, moving so quickly that even he couldn't track her.

Wu Kangming was left standing alone in the corridor, his heart pounding and his mind reeling from what had just happened. The ring on his finger felt warm against his skin, pulsing gently like a sleeping heartbeat. He lifted his hand, staring at the plain band that had just saved him from a fate worse than death.

"Master," he whispered through their spiritual connection, pouring all his desperation and gratitude into the mental call. "Master, thank you. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't broken through her technique, but—"

Silence.

The ring remained warm, but there was no familiar sardonic voice responding to his gratitude, no ancient wisdom offering guidance about what had just transpired. Just the same empty quiet that had haunted him for weeks.

"Master?" Wu Kangming tried again, more urgently this time. "Please, if you're there, if you can hear me... I need to understand how to save her."

Still nothing.

Whatever energy the ring had released to shatter Wu Lihua's mental manipulation had been automatic, a protective measure that didn't require the sword spirit's conscious intervention. His master remained locked in that deep healing sleep, unreachable and silent.

Wu Kangming felt a familiar pang of loneliness at the continued silence, but this time it was tempered by something else entirely: hope. Because he now knew that the girl he loved, the real Wu Lihua, was still there.

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She was trapped, controlled by her own cultivation method or by whatever influence her mysterious master had placed on her, but she was still alive somewhere inside that beautiful, terrible shell.

"I'll save you," Wu Kangming whispered to the empty corridor. "I don't know how yet, but I'll find a way to break you free. I promise."

As he began walking back toward his quarters, his mind was already working through the implications of what he'd learned.

Wu Lihua had mentioned needing someone who truly loved her to kill for her advancement. Some cultivation methods did require emotional energy from others, particularly methods that fed on strong feelings like love, hate, or despair. But why kill Ke Yin specifically? What made him different from any other potential victim?

More importantly, who had taught her such a technique? Wu Kangming frowned as he considered this crucial question. When Wu Lihua had been selected as a Core Disciple, one of the reclusive Grand Elders, a Civilisation Realm expert, had taken her as a personal student. But which Grand Elder?

The sect's leadership structure was deliberately opaque when it came to their most powerful members. Grand Elders, all of them Civilization Realm experts, typically spent centuries or even millennia in seclusion, emerging only for the most critical sect matters. Most disciples never learned their names, and even many elders only knew a handful of them personally.

This wasn't mere tradition; it was strategic necessity. If rival sects knew exactly which Grand Elders were alive, which were in closed-door cultivation, and which had perished attempting breakthroughs, they could gauge the sect's true strength with dangerous accuracy.

By keeping their most powerful members shrouded in mystery, the Azure Peak Sect maintained an aura of unpredictable power that served as a deterrent to potential enemies.

But this same secrecy that protected the sect also made it nearly impossible for someone like Wu Kangming to identify which Grand Elder had corrupted Wu Lihua. There could be dozens of them, their names known only to the Sect Master and perhaps a few senior elders.

Any one of them could have taught her that soul-devouring technique, and Wu Kangming had no way to narrow down the possibilities, understand their motivations, or predict their next moves.

Was this some personal experiment? Part of a larger plot? Or simply the actions of an elder who had fallen to dark cultivation methods themselves?

But one thing was absolutely certain: no matter what the Grand Elder controlling Wu Lihua wanted, no matter what benefits her breakthrough to the Stellar Realm might bring, he would not kill Ke Yin. He wouldn't become a murderer for the sake of someone who wasn't even really Wu Lihua anymore.

Wu Kangming sighed, frustration building in his chest as he thought about the next steps. Without his master's guidance, he was operating blind, trying to piece together fragments of information without the deeper understanding necessary to see the full picture.

"Master would know what to do," he thought, rubbing the ring gently with his thumb. "He'd see through all the complications to the heart of the problem. He'd have a plan."

But his master was gone, locked in healing sleep that might last months or even years. Wu Kangming was on his own, facing challenges that required wisdom he didn't possess and knowledge he hadn't yet acquired.

"Though maybe," he thought as he reached the entrance to his quarters, "if I tell Ke Yin what's happening, he might be willing to help me save the real Wu Lihua. He seemed honorable enough during our time in the Fallen Realm, and he'd want to know if he was being targeted."

The idea of asking for help made Wu Kangming deeply uncomfortable. He'd always prided himself on being self-sufficient, on solving his own problems through personal strength and determination. But without his master's voice to guide him, he felt lost in ways he wasn't used to acknowledging.

Maybe it was time to swallow his pride and admit that he needed allies.

As Wu Kangming reached for the door to his quarters, the world around him suddenly began to waver and shift. The stone walls became translucent, then disappeared entirely, replaced by something that took his breath away.

He found himself standing in what could only be described as paradise.

Rolling green hills stretched to the horizon, crystal-clear streams wound between groves of trees that bore fruit in every color imaginable, and perfect beings moved through the land with grace and purpose.

Wu Kangming's eyes narrowed, instantly recognising this as a partial manifestation of a higher tier cultivator's inner world.

"For someone whose dao is in jeopardy," a voice said from behind him, "you certainly are making impressive cultivation progress."

Wu Kangming spun around, his hand moving instinctively to his sword hilt. Standing before him was a figure he recognized but had never expected to encounter personally: Sect Master Yuan.

The legendary Civilization Realm cultivator looked exactly as Wu Kangming had imagined: ageless features that could belong to someone thirty or thirty thousand years old, eyes that held depths of knowledge and power that mortal minds couldn't fully comprehend, and an aura of authority so absolute it seemed to bend reality around itself.

Wu Kangming's frown deepened, and his hand moved protectively to the ring on his finger. If the Sect Master had brought him here to demand answers about his master's identity, or to seize the ancient sword spirit for the sect's benefit...

"Do not be afraid," Sect Master Yuan said, his voice surprisingly gentle. "I am here to talk about the dao. Nothing more, nothing less."

Wu Kangming remained tense, but something in the Sect Master's tone made him hesitate before drawing his sword. This didn't feel like a confrontation or an interrogation. It felt like... something else entirely.

Something that might actually help him understand the path he was walking and the choices that lay ahead. And perhaps, something that might give him the answers he needed about Wu Lihua's situation.

"What about the dao?" Wu Kangming asked carefully, his voice steady despite the surreal circumstances.

Sect Master Yuan smiled, and for the first time since this encounter began, Wu Kangming felt some of his tension begin to ease.

"Everything," the Sect Master replied. "Let us begin with the most fundamental question of all: what is your dao, Wu Kangming?"