Immortal Paladin

[POV: Da Wei]

"What was that?" I asked through gritted teeth, my patience wearing dangerously thin.

"What are you talking about?" Supreme Heart replied, feigning complete innocence.

He truly had a gift for making himself insufferable.

I narrowed my eyes at the battlefield below before turning back toward him.

"Loki's performance made no sense," I said. "He fought as though the world itself bent around his actions. He concealed techniques that should have been impossible to conceal, manipulated a grand formation without exposing his intentions, and even the illusion he employed at the end deceived my perception. None of it followed a logical sequence."

Heart threw his head back and laughed.

"Exactly. That is what it looks like when someone reaches true mastery over the Laws. Even while regressed, they can still grasp the fabric of this special universe and tug upon it ever so slightly. They aren't simply casting techniques anymore. They are persuading reality itself to cooperate, allowing every ability they possess to perform at its absolute potential. Amazing, isn't it?"

His explanation only deepened my thoughts.

I already understood the principle.

After becoming a Ruler of Laws, my perception of existence had fundamentally changed. The Laws were not abstract concepts governing the universe from afar. They were the universe. They formed the invisible fabric supporting every mountain, every river, every living soul, and every passing thought.

Everyone interacted with the Laws.

A farmer cultivated crops through countless seasons until farming itself became instinct. A soldier sharpened his martial spirit through endless battle. A king ruled a nation until leadership became second nature.

None of them realized they were brushing against the Laws, yet each repeated action slowly refined a fragment of reality.

Mastery meant carrying that refinement to its absolute extreme.

Martial artists who devoted themselves entirely to combat often advanced in cultivation without understanding why. Their mastery over battle naturally resonated with the Law governing it.

Loki, however, stood in an entirely different category.

His mastery no longer resembled extraordinary skill. It resembled cheating.

He manipulated the Laws with such precision that every action appeared effortless, almost as though he had created a contained Dao Domain around himself without ever manifesting one. Even the illusion that deceived Fan Shi had managed to deceive me for a brief instant.

That realization lodged itself firmly within my mind. Mastery over the Laws had just climbed to the top of my list of priorities.

Athena's voice echoed across the void, interrupting my thoughts.

"The first match has concluded. I hereby declare Supreme Heart the victor of the first bout. Supreme Bearer, please summon your next champion."

The battlefield below dissolved.

The ruined forest vanished as though it had never existed. In its place emerged a vast coliseum of polished stone, its circular arena stretching for miles beneath an open sky. Endless rows of spectators surrounded the stage, their cheers crashing together into a deafening roar that shook the heavens.

I silently considered my remaining pieces. Only two choices remained. One consisted of a lone champion. The other required committing three champions at once.

"I summon my disciple."

My voice rolled across the arena like distant thunder.

"Ding Cai."

...

..

.

[POV: Ding Cai]

Ding Cai had spent every available moment preparing herself, though whether those preparations would prove enough remained an entirely different question. Her master had entrusted her with his heart.

Even now, the memory of that moment made her stomach churn. What kind of master would rip out his own heart, calmly place it into his disciple’s hands, and tell her to decide what should become of it?

The recollection remained every bit as horrifying as the day it had happened.

The other champions had received clear instructions. Fan Shi had been assigned a teacher. Zhu Shin had followed his own path. Tian Mei and the rest had all been guided toward specific goals. Only Ding Cai had been left alone. Her master had offered no explanation, no training regimen, and no special mentor. He had simply entrusted her with his heart and then disappeared. In the end, she stopped trying to understand him. She decided she would simply do her best.

Now two hearts beat within her chest. One belonged to her; the other belonged to the man she admired most. The two pulses had long since synchronized until distinguishing one from the other had become nearly impossible. She sat cross-legged inside her private cultivation chamber, quietly circulating her qi between both hearts while maintaining perfect concentration.

Then she heard his voice.

“Ding Cai.”

Her eyes opened at once.

“It is your turn.”

Without the slightest hesitation, she rose to answer her master’s call.

Four hundred years earlier, shortly after the Holy Emperor had divided portions of his own flesh among his chosen champions, Ding Cai found herself with nowhere in particular to go.

Her master had dismissed her after handing over his still-beating heart.

Unlike the others, she had received neither a mentor nor detailed instructions. The assignment entrusted to her consisted of a single impossible question whose answer even she had yet to discover.

Naturally, she sought out the one person she trusted most.

Peng Ru.

To Ding Cai, Peng Ru had always been many things at once. She was her aunt by virtue, the older sister she looked up to, and in many ways, the mother who had raised her into the woman she had become.

She arrived at one of Empire's largest research facilities, a sprawling complex dedicated to studying the Tower itself. Endless researchers hurried between halls overflowing with ancient relics, incomplete formation diagrams, and floating projections copied from countless Tower expeditions.

At its center stood Peng Ru.

"Cai'er?"

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Peng Ru blinked in disbelief before hurrying toward her.

"What are you doing here? I thought His Holy Majesty summoned all of you for special training."

Ding Cai smiled, unable to restrain herself as she embraced Peng Ru.

The reunion lasted only a brief moment.

For several minutes, the two women exchanged stories, laughed over familiar memories, and spoke with a warmth rarely afforded in their increasingly busy lives. It felt as though nothing had changed despite the centuries separating their earliest memories.

"You came back," Peng Ru said with a relieved smile.

Ding Cai nodded. "My master assigned me a task."

She extended both hands. Resting upon her palms was a crimson heart. It continued to beat. Thump. Thump. Thump. Every pulse released overwhelming vitality that flooded the laboratory with divine pressure.

Researchers throughout the chamber slowly turned toward the source. One scholar dropped the scroll in his hands. Another forgot to breathe. Someone else rubbed their eyes, convinced exhaustion had produced an illusion.

Peng Ru stared blankly at the heart before raising trembling eyes toward Ding Cai.

"...What is that?"

Ding Cai answered honestly.

"My master's heart."

The laboratory exploded into chaos.

"The Holy Emperor's heart?!"

"Impossible!"

"His Holy Majesty ripped out his own heart?!"

"Is this some kind of divine artifact?"

"How is he still alive?!"

Researchers rushed toward them before security formations immediately sprang into existence, separating the stunned scholars from Ding Cai. Even Peng Ru struggled to process what she was seeing. No one could comprehend why the ruler of the Hollowed World would casually entrust one of his vital organs to his own disciple.

From that day onward, Ding Cai spent most of the next four hundred years alongside Peng Ru and the research department.

Together they studied the mysteries surrounding the heart.

She fulfilled her master's assignment to the best of her abilities while continuing her own cultivation without interruption. Every day followed the same routine. She trained. She researched. She contemplated the meaning behind the gift resting inside her chest.

Her strength steadily increased.

So did her understanding.

...

..

.

Back in the present, Ding Cai stood quietly in the center of the enormous arena. The deafening cheers of countless spectators rolled across the coliseum.

Inside her soul, another voice spoke.

"I can't feel Da Wei anymore."

The Human Soul residing within her sounded genuinely intrigued.

"We've been cut off from his presence. Hm... fascinating. This place is real, yet not real at the same time."

Ding Cai slowly surveyed the arena. Every shout from the audience reverberated unnaturally through her ears. It was not ordinary sound. The cheers themselves had become part of the world's Laws.

She had only reached the first layer of immortality as an Ascended Soul, yet even she could perceive faint traces of those Laws. The manifested arena possessed an unusual structure unlike anything she had previously encountered.

Someone stood opposite her. He have dark raven hair, relaxed posture, and an amused smile.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Ding Cai asked.

"Just your average fellow," said the mysterious man.

"Become my sword," whispered Ding Cai to her soul.

The Human Soul immediately obeyed. Its translucent figure dissolved into brilliant light before condensing into a flawless divine sword resting within Ding Cai's grasp.

Ding Cai vanished.

A silver arc flashed across the arena.

The blade sliced through the mysterious man's position before anyone realized she had moved.

"Tsk."

Ding Cai frowned.

"I missed."

Several paces away, the man casually dusted off his shoulder as though nothing had happened.

"Impressive speed," he said with a grin. "But don't you think it's rude not to introduce yourself first? We are warriors, are we not? Hm... I suppose I can forgive your impatience. Since you asked, I'll answer anyway."

He gave an exaggerated bow.

"The name's Loki. God of Mischief, hailing from the Greater Asura Realm."

Ding Cai quietly inhaled.

"He's trouble, isn't he?"

She directed the question toward the Human Soul.

"Very much so," he answered. "Introduce yourself. It'll buy you time."

Her Enlightened Human trait had already begun analyzing Loki.

Normally, her monstrous perception could unravel an opponent after only a brief observation. Not this time. Every conclusion generated two new contradictions. Every deduction demanded another layer of verification.

It felt as though Loki himself refused to settle into a single answer.

Ding Cai lowered her sword before planting its tip against the arena floor. She straightened her posture with quiet dignity.

"I am Ding Cai., the fifth personal disciple of the Holy Emperor."

She raised the blade toward Loki.

"My master's reputation precedes me. So allow me the honor of defeating you in his name."

Suddenly, blood spilled from Ding Cai's lips.

She lowered her gaze and saw a sword protruding through her abdomen.

For a brief instant, her Enlightened Human trait failed to comprehend what had happened. One moment Loki had been standing several paces away. The next, his blade had already pierced her body.

Warm breath brushed against her ear.

"Nice to meet you," Loki whispered. "And goodbye."

He pulled the sword free. Blood gushed from the wound. Before the pain could fully register, Loki vanished without leaving behind the slightest ripple in space.

Ding Cai's instincts screamed. She raised the Human Soul in time to intercept a blade descending toward her throat.

Clang!

Sparks erupted. The invisible strike glanced away.

Loki had disappeared completely.

Ding Cai expanded her perception across the arena, examining every grain of dust, every fluctuation of qi, every distortion in space. However, he got nothing. There was no displaced air. No shifting shadows. No murderous intent. No danger.

Nothing existed except the relentless barrage of invisible attacks raining toward her from impossible angles.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

She retreated while deflecting every strike she could perceive, yet the cuts across her body steadily multiplied.

"This doesn't make sense..."

Ding Cai focused a little harder, putting herself on Loki's shoes as she tried to analyze him.

The trickster called himself the God of Mischief.

Everything about him revolved around deception, psychological pressure, and forcing his opponents to doubt their own senses. He enjoyed manipulating expectations more than wielding overwhelming strength.

If she thought like Loki, where would she attack next?

Her sword immediately swept toward empty air.

Clang!

Another invisible strike bounced away. A second followed, and then a third. Her deductions gradually replaced instinct. Each successful prediction allowed her to understand another fragment of the man standing before her.

Inside the blade, the Human Soul grew increasingly uneasy.

"This is bad. You aren't healing. His weapon isn't ordinary."

Ding Cai continued parrying, sparing a glance toward the wound in her abdomen. The flesh remained split open, with not even the slightest trace of regeneration beginning. Whatever weapon Loki wielded carried Laws that interfered with restoration itself.

She merely smiled.

“I can see you now.”

Golden light exploded beneath her feet.

“Zealot’s Stride.”

She vanished from where she stood. Loki’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly as Ding Cai reappeared beside him. The Human Soul immediately transformed, the sword lengthening into a flexible divine whip that lashed toward Loki like a celestial serpent.

“I got him!” the Human Soul shouted as part of his body wrapped tightly around Loki’s ankle.

“Not so fast.”

Loki’s weapon transformed in an instant. The straight sword elongated before splitting into a gleaming bident, its twin prongs pinning the whip against the arena floor before it could tighten. Rather than counterattacking, Loki simply observed the living weapon with obvious curiosity.

“Is that an Ego Weapon?” he wondered aloud, tilting his head. “Hm… doesn’t seem like it.” His eyes gleamed. “It’s almost the opposite. An Ego Weapon is born when a weapon develops an ego of its own. Yours appears to be the reverse—a living existence willingly becoming a weapon.” He tapped the Human Soul with the shaft of his bident. “Interesting.” A thoughtful smile crossed his face. “I’d say it’s closer to a Holy Spirit than anything else. Perhaps… a Guardian Spirit devoted entirely to one person.” He chuckled. “Now that’s rather fancy, isn’t it?”

“You are quite knowledgeable,” Ding Cai admitted.

Loki merely smiled.

A colossal war hammer suddenly crashed toward the side of his head. He leaned backward, the hammer barely missing. The Ding Cai standing before him dissolved into drifting clouds as the real one emerged behind him to strike him down.

However, Ding Cai missed as the Loki before her dexterously weaved out of her sword's path.

“Tsk.”

She clicked her tongue. She had attempted to imitate her master’s Divine Phantasm of Dreams. It had almost succeeded. Almost.

“Impressive illusion,” Loki remarked without turning around. “For an amateur.”

The Human Soul shifted again, the whip contracting into a spear. Ding Cai thrust. Loki’s bident shrank into twin daggers. Steel rang across the arena. The daggers became a sword. The spear became a halberd. The halberd became twin sabers. Every exchange transformed into another. Weapon met weapon in an endless rhythm of adaptation, each combatant altering their armaments between techniques without losing momentum.

Ding Cai unleashed one holy smite after another. Radiant pillars descended from the heavens. Sacred flames erupted beneath Loki’s feet. Judgment itself sought to crush him. None of it landed. Each divine punishment dissolved before reaching him, slipping harmlessly past as though reality itself refused to acknowledge their existence.

The exchange finally ended. Both combatants retreated several paces. Silence settled over the arena.

“It seems,” Ding Cai said while resting her weapon upon her shoulder, “that we both possess shapeshifting weapons.”

Loki smiled.

“That much is true.”

Neither moved. They simply stared at one another, each searching for the slightest flaw hidden within the other’s posture.

Ding Cai felt her heartbeat quicken as excitement welled inside her chest.

For centuries she had hidden herself within the Greater Human Realm, suppressing her abilities while searching for a path back to the Hollowed World. Now, she finally understood why warriors sought powerful opponents. The thrill was intoxicating.

The Human Soul transformed once more, becoming a sword. Inside her mind, he sighed. “Don’t get carried away. Stay calm. He’s dragging you into his rhythm.”

“Oh, hush,” spat Ding Cai. “I’ve got this handled.”