The Quantum Path to Immortality

The one-hour preparation period passed quickly. Students gathered near the final gate, forming teams, discussing strategies, and eyeing each other as both potential allies and competitors.

Aria sat with Mira and Torin, Lumie curled in her lap.

"So, team strategy," Mira said enthusiastically. "I'm thinking we stick together, hunt efficiently, avoid the really dangerous zones until we've built up some points—"

"Actually," Torin interrupted gently, "I don't think we should team up with Aria."

Both girls stared at him.

"What? Why not?" Mira demanded.

Torin gestured at the rankings display still showing Aria's double perfect scores. "Look at her. Then look at us. If we team up with Aria, we'll be completely overshadowed. Everyone will just say 'oh, they only did well because they had the genius carrying them.'"

"But—" Mira started.

"He's right," Aria said quietly. "I've been thinking the same thing."

Mira turned to her. "Aria, no! We're friends! Friends stick together!"

"We are friends," Aria agreed. "But Torin has a point. This is your chance to make names for yourselves. To catch the eye of instructors. If you're always in my shadow, nobody will see your individual talents."

"I don't care about that!" Mira protested.

"You should," Torin said firmly. "Mira, we want to be taken seriously as cultivators in our own right, not as 'Aria Vance's friends.' This trial is our opportunity to prove ourselves independently."

Mira looked torn, glancing between her cousin and Aria. "But what about you? You'll be alone out there."

Aria smiled. "I'll be fine. Trust me. And besides—" she looked at both of them seriously, "I want to see what you two can do without me. Show everyone that you earned your place here through your own skill."

Mira bit her lip, then nodded reluctantly. "Okay. But after this trial, we're still friends, right?"

"Of course," Aria assured her. "Nothing changes that."

"Good." Mira pulled Aria into a quick hug. "Then go out there and show them why you're amazing. And we'll show them that we're not just 'Aria's friends'—we're strong in our own right."

"Deal," Aria said.

They separated as Vice Dean Yara's voice echoed across the gathering area.

"Students, approach the gate!"

Everyone filed toward the massive dimensional portal. Vice Dean Yara stood before it, her expression serious.

"The Point Battle is the final trial," she announced. "Through this gate is a specialized dimension spanning thousands of miles. It is filled with cultivation beasts ranging from weak Initiate-level creatures to powerful Master-level monsters. You will have twelve internal hours to accumulate as many points as possible."

She gestured, and a holographic display appeared showing the point system:

BEAST CORES:

Initiate-level beasts: 1-10 points Adept-level beasts: 50-100 points Master-level beasts: 500-1000 points

"But beasts are not your only source of points," the Vice Dean continued. "Each of you will receive a point badge that displays your current total. You may challenge other students and take their points. You may form alliances or work alone. You may use any strategy you deem effective."

Her expression became stern. "However—there are rules. If you are about to die, the dimension will automatically teleport you out to safety. This counts as forfeiting the trial, and your ranking will be fixed at your current point total. You cannot re-enter."

"If you are fighting a student and realize you cannot win, you may voluntarily surrender your points to avoid injury and continue competing. Choose your battles wisely."

A murmur ran through the crowd at that. The smart move was sometimes knowing when to cut your losses.

"Additionally," Vice Dean Yara added with a slight smile, "there are senior academy students scattered throughout the dimension. They are significantly stronger than you—most are high-level Adepts or even Masters. Defeating them in direct combat is nearly impossible. However, if you can steal their point badges through cleverness or trickery, those badges are worth 5,000 points each."

Excited whispers erupted. 5,000 points for one badge? That could change everything.

"The dimension is dangerous," the Vice Dean warned. "Expect combat. Expect theft. Expect betrayal. This trial tests not just your power, but your judgment, adaptability, and survival instincts."

She stepped aside from the gate. "You may enter. Your twelve hours begin the moment you cross the threshold. Good luck."

Students surged forward. Some ran in alone. Others entered in pre-formed teams. Aria waited for the initial rush to pass, then walked calmly through the gate with Lumie on her shoulder.

The world shifted.

Aria materialized in a dense forest. Massive trees stretched hundreds of feet high, their branches blocking out much of the sky. The ambient energy was thick—perfect environment for powerful beasts to thrive.

A point badge materialized on her chest, displaying "0" in glowing numbers.

Around her, she could sense other students scattering in all directions. Some were already engaging beasts—she heard combat sounds in the distance.

Lumie chirped, her crystalline form glowing with excitement.

"Ready to hunt?" Aria asked.

The spirit beast chirped affirmatively.

Aria smiled and released her suppression slightly. Her 50% Infinity Law aura swept outward like a tidal wave, marking her territory.

Immediately, weaker beasts fled. But the stronger ones—the ones worth points—started moving toward her, drawn by the challenge.

Perfect.

The first beast appeared within minutes. An Adept-level Tiger of Eternal Flames, its body wreathed in fire that could burn through Master-level defenses. The creature was massive—easily fifty feet long, its flames hot enough to melt reality itself. The air around it warped and twisted, space-time bending under the intensity of its cultivation base.

Worth 75 points.

It roared, and the sound shattered the dimensional fabric in a hundred-mile radius. Mountains in the distance crumbled. The forest floor vaporized. The tiger's aura alone was creating localized reality collapses—this was a beast that had cultivated for millennias, approaching the peak of Adept level.

It lunged, moving faster than light, jaws wide enough to swallow planets, flames intensifying to temperatures that could ignite stars.

Aria raised one hand calmly.

"Infinite Recursion Strike."

The technique she'd created during her eighteen years of training with Father activated. A single palm strike that split into countably infinite strikes, each one feeding back into the others in a recursive cascade that grew exponentially stronger with each iteration.

The moment her hand moved, reality screamed.

Space shattered like glass in every direction. Time froze, then fractured into infinite branching possibilities. The strike existed in countably infinite states simultaneously—one attack that was infinite attacks, each iteration feeding energy back into the whole, creating a cascade of destruction that approached true infinity.

The tiger's flames—hot enough to burn through Master-level defenses—were snuffed out like candles in a hurricane. Its reality-bending aura was crushed flat. Its cultivated power, accumulated over millions of years, was simply negated.

The strike connected.

The tiger didn't explode. It didn't shatter. It didn't even die in any traditional sense.

It ceased to exist.

The infinite recursion erased it so completely that causality itself adjusted. The space where the tiger had been became blank—not empty, but blank. As if the tiger had never existed in this dimension at all. Not even quantum probability retained a trace of its presence.

The shockwave from the strike continued outward, carving a perfect sphere of annihilation through the dimension. Everything within a thousand miles was erased—trees, mountains, smaller beasts, the ground itself. All of it simply deleted from existence by the cascade of infinite strikes.

A glowing core materialized where the tiger had been, floating gently down—the only proof the beast had ever existed. Aria caught it, and her point badge updated: 75.

Behind her, a perfect spherical void remained where the forest used to be. The edges of the destruction zone sparkled with dimensional instability as reality struggled to repair itself.

"That was... efficient," she muttered, examining the core. "Maybe I should hold back a bit. Father always said overwhelming force is optimal, but this might be excessive."

Lumie chirped what sounded like disagreement. Use full power. Dominate.

"You're a bad influence," Aria told the spirit beast fondly.

She pocketed the core and moved deeper into the forest. More beasts came—Initiate-level creatures that gave 5-10 points each. She dispatched them with casual ease, barely needing to focus.

Within thirty minutes, she'd accumulated 500 points.

Then she sensed something more interesting.

A group of students were fighting a Master-level beast together—a Void Serpent, massive and deadly, worth 800 points. The creature was apocalyptic in scale—three hundred feet long, its body made of compressed void energy that devoured light itself. Every movement created spatial tears. Every breath collapsed nearby dimensions into singularities.

Six students worked in coordination, barely holding it off. Their attacks—each one powerful enough to destroy cities in the mortal realm—were being absorbed or deflected. Energy blasts that could vaporize mountains bounced off its scales. Spatial techniques that could fold dimensions were negated by its void aura.

Aria recognized them. Kieran's group. Him, Lyssa, Jin, and three others whose names she didn't know.

She could leave them to it. Find her own Master-level beast to fight.

Or....