CHAPTER 21: CHAPTER 21

The spar was over. Ethan had lost—not just in the contest of arms, but in everything that truly matters in battle.

Not just in strength—though he’d finally discovered that even pure, strength had hard limits when set against mastery and awareness—but in all the complex, silent currencies of combat: rhythm, footwork, anticipation, the control of distance, the subtle choices that separated a killer from a novice.

In all these subtle arenas, Kael had been his superior by worlds.

Even as Ethan stood, chest heaving, hands raw on the Moonflood Reaper’s haft, the sting of defeat throbbed inside him.

Power, he realized, was only a tool—yet no one told him what do with it after the first crushing swing.

All the strength he’d earned, all the dazzling leaps in physical prowess since gaining his system—none of it had prepared him for the reality of a true duel. The knowledge burned. Every lesson, every scrap of experience, it seemed, had come not from careful training or clever teaching, but by surviving as the weakest.

His predecessor—the lost soul whose memories and instincts still haunted this borrowed body—had been a physical cultivator, yes, but one with no true victories to his name: only meager hunts of weak demon beasts in the wild country near the sect, creatures so feeble by cultivation standards that calling them a "threat" seemed almost a kindness.

There, in the forests and rocky scrapes, Ethan’s only experience had been fighting demon beasts barely stronger than wild boars—at best, beasts at the second or third level of Qi Gathering.

Feral things, strong for mortals but no true match for practitioners. He remembered the fights, if they could be called that—quick flashes of muscle, tooth, and instinct, blood spraying as the body bucked and claws raked. It was a grim contest, but not one of true intelligence or mastery.

Demon beasts in this world were oddities, only rare exceptions managing to rise above pure instinct. Not until a beast reached core formation did it gain a true mind—awareness, learning, cunning, perhaps a path to transcendence. Until that unlikely transformation, every fight between such creatures was dictated purely by bodily might.

Birth itself was a battle: most demon beasts were born in litters, thrown instantly into struggle against their siblings, fighting for milk, warmth, and the right to survive. The cycle was savage—parents often did not interfere, and when they did, it was as likely to be to eat the weakest offspring as to save themselves from hunger. Some used their young as bait to lure even greater prey. Nothing was sacred; cruelty was routine.

In such a world, "fighting experience" meant only learning to be tougher than the next beast, to outlast and out-muscle before the jaws closed over your throat. No tactics, no thought, just raw existence. Comparing one’s might to a demon beast’s before Core Formation was a fool’s wager; they fought by instinct, not mind.

Thus, Ethan realized, standing here in the wake of defeat—none of that experience truly mattered. In the arena, against a foe like Kael, who possessed not only strength but discipline, cunning, and a mind sharpened by countless life-and-death battles, he had been exposed. Power alone meant nothing.

He replayed the fight in his mind, saw his own failures anew: how Kael’s footwork, timing, weapon control, and iron will far surpassed anything Ethan could yet muster. The difference was far wider than physical cultivation could bridge.

Kael’s mastery over both his body and his weapon, the precision of his judgment, and the indomitable focus of spirit—all these things had left Ethan fighting as if underwater, every advantage of physical might blunted by superior knowledge.

Then came the temptation—a faint whisper in Ethan’s mind. His Spirit Eye. If he’d used it, he could have examined Kael’s every movement, broken down the rhythm of his techniques, laid bare the patterns and weaknesses, the smallest tells. He could have adapted on the spot, copying, perfecting, turning the fight through pure analysis.

He was certain—absolutely certain—that the Spirit Eye would have given him everything needed to win. Kael’s stance, the subtle grip changes on the axe hilt, the breath control, the way his weight shifted before each strike; Ethan could have seen it, stolen it, used it. Relying on the Spirit-Eye, on these miraculous powers, victory was all but assured.

Yet he did not.

He refused.

Why?

If he used the Spirit Eye now, what would he do if he lost it? If resistance to its use developed? Or if he faced a foe it couldn’t decipher? He would fall, or worse—he would die.

And the system, for all its gifts, could not guarantee survival. Power might carry him far, but mastery, true mastery, must be his own. What would happen in a fight against a true monster—someone whose mind and body were both refined? If he leaned only on the unseen, on the system’s hidden hand, he would become a puppet, one tug from disaster.

That kind of reliance, Ethan realized, would drag him down in the end.

He would use the system, use every technique and advantage it provided, yes. The world of cultivation was not a kind or forgiving place. But even now, after barely scratching its power, he recognized what that meant: with only a handful of days, he was already past the limits most outer disciples could only imagine. In a few more months, he could reach heights undreamed by the exiles around him. And that tempted him. But it terrified him, too.

Ethan did not want to become just another cultivator. Not orthodox, not unorthodox, not a so-called "demon"—no, his path would be his own. He would become the kind of person who shaped the world, not the kind shaped by its rules.

Inspiration stoked a new ambition in him—to carve a destiny apart from sect arrogance, from the petty squabbles of spirit roots and bloodlines, from the madness of craving for every petty advantage and coin.

I want to be more than a vessel for other people’s desires, Ethan thought. More than the burning greedy spirits that infest this world, more than a slave to power or a tool of someone else’s wrath.

Bigger than pride, lust, envy, gluttony, sloth. Bigger than all the pettiness that possessed even immortals. Yet—even as he dreamed—Ethan knew this: to abandon all emotion, to erase his humanity entirely, would be to forsake everything.

The greatest immortals might seek to shed all bonds to longing and rage and hope, but Ethan could not. He had been born human, raised human. At the end of all striving, he intended to return to that root, no matter what heights or hells he crossed.

Still, for now, such philosophical grandstanding paled before the more immediate demand: survival. Revenge.

His body ached, bruised and battered, lungs stinging with every breath. He could feel where Kael’s axe-haft had caught him, where his own reckless momentum had been punished. He shouldered the pain, found a fierce pleasure in it.

Each ache was a lesson—one more debt Kael had forced him to pay. And every bruise whispered a reminder: in this place, in this world, mercy was rare and costly. Only progress would serve him.

He promised himself: the system would be a means, not an end. Every technique learned would be studied, refined, made into something truly his. Every sparring match, every mistake, every embarrassment—each would become mortar in the foundation of his future. He would allow no one to define him, no sect, no clan, not even the system itself.

He drew a deep breath and felt something crystallizing, coalescing inside him. A plan, a yearning, a steel-cored intent.

For now, he must focus.

He could not ignore the real, physical debts owed to him.

He would take revenge—against those who slandered him, those who cast him here to rot, those whose hands or words made him suffer.

For now his main objective would be taking revenge towards the people who had done him wrong and put him in this place.