Inside his locked room, Jian Zhi sat motionless on his chair, his gaze fixed dead ahead on the floor. His mind was a turbulent storm of unanswerable questions. "How am I supposed to react? Should I embrace him? Am I meant to feel joy for having surviving family? How? What is the correct action to take?" He interrogated himself relentlessly, finding no solutions, only more confusion.

  Lian, worried for him, approached his door. [A soft knock echoed] "Your Majesty, I… I apologize for eavesdropping on your conversation, but I was deeply concerned for you. [A sigh] I will return later… please, take all the time you need. I believe in you." She left her few words of concern hanging in the hall.

  Inside, Jian Zhi whispered into the silence, "Ma… How am I supposed to react to them? How can I possibly face them… after I attacked them?" As his questions multiplied, his eyelids grew unbearably heavy and a profound dizziness overwhelmed his mind. He collapsed onto his bed and fell into a deep, troubled sleep.

  He found himself walking down a dark, endless tunnel. In the far distance, he saw the faintest pinprick of light. His ears seemed to hear, and his memory vividly recalled, his mother's gentle words: "Even the darkest night will inevitably fade, so long as the faintest light of hope continues to exist." He kept moving forward. Walking felt agonizingly slow, so he gradually picked up his pace until he was running. He sprinted as fast as his legs could carry him, yet the tunnel's end only seemed to stretch further away. He began to faint heavily from the exertion, yet he refused to stop, his eyes locked on the distant light as he forced himself onward.

  Suddenly, someone tripped him. He tumbled forward and landed hard on the ground. As he lay there, he heard the distinct sound of several people laughing.

  One hand extended towards him, offering help to get up.

  [????-1 - Earth / 土 (Tǔ)]: "Are you okay? Here, hold my hand."

  [????-2 - Fire / 火 (Huǒ)]: "Acting the goody-two-shoes again, huh, Earth?"

  [Earth / 土 (Tǔ)]: "I am not nearly as skilled at acting as you are, Fire."

  [Fire / 火 (Huǒ)]: "Stop running your mouth, you hypocrite!!!"

  [????-3 - Wood / 木 (Mù)]: "Guys, can you please stop fighting? We are not here to battle amongst ourselves."

  [Metal / 金 (Jīn)]: "Wood, thank you for your intervention. Fire, you will apologize to him for tripping him."

  [Fire / 火 (Huǒ)]: "Why should I? He deserved that for locking me away for so long! He used all of your help, but he completely ignored me!"

  [Wood / 木 (Mù)]: "I can understand your frustration, but he had his own reasons for it. And you are not exactly a normal one to handle, you lunatic!!!"

  Jian Zhi looked at the four figures, all wearing his face, and asked his Metal soul, "Why am I here? Why am I seeing four versions of myself?"

  [Metal / 金 (Jīn)]: "Before, you could only use Fire because you had him locked away until recently. And I was the one helping you until now. But the time has come for you to grow."

  Jian Zhi rapidly estimated the possibilities and replied, "Is it my time for The Celestial Path of Inner Conquest (天道内征 - Tiāndào Nèi Zhēng)?"

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  [Fire / 火 (Huǒ)]: "The Celestial what? What are you talking about, kid? You need to conquer our ordeals to truly gain us. You will most likely die in the process."

  [Earth / 土 (Tǔ)]: "You moron, he was referring to the ancient method written in the texts. But his path is not the same, as he is an anomaly. He will not necessarily die, but the possibilities of death are significantly higher, you bonehead!"

  Jian Zhi simply looked on, utterly confused by their bickering. Metal reached out to him. "I know you are wondering what we are talking about. It is simply the path for you to gain our traits and powers, the strength necessary to protect your people."

  Jian Zhi closed his eyes, looked upward, and took a single, deep, centering breath before standing up. As he slowly opened his eyes, they were filled with nothing but a sheer, blazing fire—the determination to master each of his elemental souls' traits.

  [Jian Zhi]: "Whose ordeal is first?"

  [Metal / 金 (Jīn)]: "Can't expect less from a general, huh? I will be your first ordeal. Face me. [A warm smile]"

  His Metal soul guided him into its domain.

  As Jian Zhi stepped into the domain of his Metal Soul, the air itself turned sharp. It was not merely cold; it was a dry, piercing cold that felt like inhaling powdered glass. There was no sky, only a dizzying, infinite expanse of polished, grey-white metal reflecting a sourceless, sterile light.

  Before him lay a chasm so deep its bottom was lost in swirling mists of metallic dust. Spanning this abyss were not bridges, but thousands upon thousands of glimmering edges—sword blades of every imaginable size and style, from elegant rapiers to brutal cleavers, all fused together at their hilts and points to form a precarious, razor-thin pathway.

  [Metal / 金 (Jīn)]: "This is the Razor-Veil Canyon."

  The path was not static. The blades shifted and settled with an unnerving, continuous chorus of ringing steel, a sound like a thousand whetstones at work. A single misstep would not just make him slip; it would cleanly sever whatever part of him touched it. To cross, he would need to balance on the literal cutting edge, his weight and poise needing to be perfect, a physical manifestation of the absolute discipline and precision the Metal element demands.

  Jagged shards of raw, un-forged metal floated in the air, drifting slowly and unpredictably. The walls of the chasm were not rock, but immense, interlocking gears and clockwork mechanisms, ticking with a slow, relentless finality. The entire landscape was a manifestation of structure pushed to its most extreme and lethal form: a world of perfect, unyielding, and deadly order.

  This environment was a direct reflection of his Metal nature: brilliantly structured, formidable, but inhumanly cold and capable of self-destruction if handled without perfect balance.

  [Metal / 金 (Jīn)]: "Your task is simple: walk this edge to cross the bridge of swords and find your sword, The Punisher, within this domain."

  The Metal soul faded as it finished its sentence. Jian Zhi began to observe his surroundings with intense focus. "Razor-Veil Canyon? [A confident smirk touched his lips]"

  He started to walk, placing his feet with extreme steadiness and caution. With each step, he watched his footing with absolute precision. Suddenly, he heard the faint, unmistakable twang of bowstrings being released. It was a distant sound, yet chillingly clear. Jian Zhi looked around, snatched up a lone spear, and then looked to the sky. His assumption was correct: hundreds of arrows were descending upon him like deadly rain. He had nothing to use for cover.

  In that critical do-or-die moment, Jian Zhi's mind raced. He wondered if he could use the spear's rotating motion at high speed to deflect the arrows. He was only halfway through simulating the action in his mind when the arrows closed the distance. He had no choice left but to execute the maneuver without testing it.

  Jian Zhi took a deep breath and declared to himself, "Fine. I am doing this, or I die trying…" His determination surged, reaching beyond normal human limits. He began to rotate the spear horizontally, gripping it with both hands. The arrows rained down, slamming into the whirling spear and shattering upon impact. The bridge itself began to collapse from the starting point under the barrage. Jian Zhi had to move forward, defending himself from the arrows while simultaneously advancing to escape the disintegrating path.

  He started to move as fast as he could, a breathtaking dance of balancing on the razor's edge, rotating the spear as a shield, and sprinting forward to evade a certain death. As he expected to meet his end at any second, his other elemental souls watched him suffer through the ordeal.

  Metal observed, wondering with a clinical curiosity how he would possibly reach the end and finish the ordeal, thereby proving he had honed the traits of discipline and precision necessary to fully integrate the Metal soul.