"I do not know where your point of origin is, but I will eventually reach it."
The porch remained silent.
Yang Lujia stayed there for several more breaths before returning to the Trial Ground.
When he arrived, the Trial of Ink was still taking place.
The vellum platform had been restored.
The Junior and Senior Scribes remained in their seats, while the Chronicle Lord watched the participants from the throne above them.
The children continued approaching the testing papers one after another.
No blood covered the ground. No one screamed or searched for missing family members.
The people who had died during the attack were alive again, and none of them appeared to remember what happened.
"Faded Imprint. Copper Spoon. Failed."
The evaluator called the result.
The child lowered his head and followed one of the Sect assistants away.
"Thin Imprint. Three-Leaved Grass. Passed."
The next child smiled and joined the other participants who had passed.
Yang Lujia remained near the side of the platform.
Nothing had changed for them.
However, he remembered everything.
The Eternal Quill had also remained awake.
He looked toward the place where Lin Diyu had been sitting before the attack.
The boy was not there.
Yang Lujia searched the children waiting to be examined. He also checked the participants who had already passed and those who had failed.
He could not find Lin Diyu among them.
The translucent vellum appeared before him.
[The Eternal Quill stirs…]
[Reality has changed.]
[Existence permits the alterations made.]
[Order has been restored.]
Yang Lujia looked at the repeated notifications.
'Order.'
Zhuquan De had mentioned the same thing inside the letter.
Reality, Existence, and Order appeared to represent different things. The System had spoken about them as though each possessed a separate function.
Yang Lujia still did not understand whether any of them could actually think.
"System."
[The Host's inquiry has been recognized.]
"If this is the moment before the explosions occurred, why are you already awake?"
[The Host's confusion is valid.]
"That still does not answer my question."
The words changed.
[The Page of Time returned the Dragon Brush Sect to its condition before the attack.]
[However, the method could not remove foundational changes already permitted by Existence.]
Yang Lujia looked at the notification for several moments. "Explain that more simply."
[The attack was removed.]
[Foundational changes were retained.]
"Which changes?"
[The Disciple Acceptance Authority awakened.]
[The Host established willing acknowledgment as a condition of disciple acceptance.]
[Emergency Preservation was created.]
[Lin Diyu received Emergency Preservation.]
[One chain sealing the Host's Ink Manuscript cracked.]
[These changes had already been acknowledged by the Origin Manuscript.]
[Removing them would have created another contradiction.]
Yang Lujia understood part of the explanation.
The attack had been removed from the current sequence of events, but the changes caused by it continued to exist.
"Does anyone else remember?"
[Other than the Host, Zhuquan De, and Lin Diyu, no one remains aware of the discarded sequence.]
Yang Lujia looked at the children again.
"So Lin Diyu remembers."
[Confirmed.]
"Where is he?"
[The disciple candidate remains at his point of origin.]
"You continue refusing to tell me where that is."
[Information unavailable.]
Yang Lujia frowned.
"What happened to the people responsible for the attack?"
[They were eliminated through the Page of Time.]
"Eliminated?"
[Their existence was removed from the current Manuscript.]
"So they were erased."
[Confirmed.]
Yang Lujia did not know whether Zhuquan De erased only the people inside the Dragon Brush Sect or every person connected to the attack.
The screams he heard came from several different places. Some had also sounded far beyond the sect. He could ask Zhuquan De when they met again.
Another notification appeared.
[Warning.]
[The chains sealing the Host's Ink Manuscript have significantly weakened.]
[The Verdant Archive naturally permits cultivation only up to the Seventh Page.]
Yang Lujia looked at the words. "Does that mean I am already above the Seventh Page?"
[Confirmed.]
"How far above it?"
The vellum changed.
[Name: Yang Lujia]
[Current Page: Thirteenth Page]
[Current Verse: Ninth Verse]
[Designation: Void Passage]
Yang Lujia stared at the information.
'Thirteenth Page?'
He had not even consciously completed Flesh Inscription. He did not possess any practical experience using Ink, and he had never successfully cultivated a scripture.
Yet the System claimed that he had already reached the Ninth Verse of the Thirteenth Page.
"Impossible."
[Correction requested.]
"No cultivation path grants fifteen years of progress overnight."
[The Host did not obtain fifteen years of progress overnight.]
[The cultivation accumulated throughout the previous fifteen years.]
Yang Lujia's expression darkened.
"So this power was always inside me."
[Confirmed.]
"Then either my Ink Manuscript was cultivating without my knowledge, or something was writing upon it without my permission."
The System did not answer that statement.
Instead, another warning appeared.
[The Verdant Archive was not intended to contain an existence at the Thirteenth Page.]
[To prevent the Host from being expelled by Order, the Host's available strength will be limited to the peak of the Seventh Page, Ninth Verse.]
Yang Lujia read the restriction.
The Seventh Page was already the natural limit of the Verdant Archive.
Based on what Zhuquan De had taught him, most people inside this Archive would never reach it. Even the strongest forces rarely allowed Seventh-Page cultivators to appear publicly.
Before Yang Lujia could ask another question, the notification changed.
[Error.]
[Error.]
[Restriction unsuccessful.]
Yang Lujia raised an eyebrow.
"What happened?"
[Reality has granted the Host provisional permission to exercise authority beyond the natural limit of the Verdant Archive.]
[Conditions apply.]
Several new notifications appeared.
[Condition One: Narrative Debt]
[Reality maintains balance within every Archive.]
[Using strength beyond the limit of the Verdant Archive will create a debt proportional to the violation.]
[The greater the violation, the greater the debt.]
[The debt may appear as instability, delayed consequences, equivalent loss, or future correction.]
Yang Lujia continued reading.
[Condition Two: The Outer Gaze]
[Breaking the limits of an Archive creates disturbances that may be detected by higher Archives or entities beyond ordinary Reality.]
[Those entities may observe, intervene, approach, or become hostile.]
Another notification followed.
[Condition Three: The Right of Cause]
[An impossible action requires sufficient justification.]
[Actions lacking sufficient cause may be rejected or may create substantially greater Narrative Debt.]
[The greater the miracle, the greater the justification required.]
The notifications stopped.
A final statement appeared beneath them.
[Reality does not completely prohibit miracles.]
[It requires the impossible to possess a reason.]
Yang Lujia considered the conditions.
"So I am not actually prohibited from using strength beyond the Seventh Page."
[Confirmed.]
"But every time I use it, I will create consequences."
[Confirmed.]
"The greater the strength, the greater the consequences."
[Confirmed.]
"And using that strength will attract the attention of entities from higher Archives."
[Confirmed.]
Yang Lujia nodded slowly.
"There is no such thing as a free lunch."
The System did not respond.
"That principle also exists here."
It was a trade-off.
Yang Lujia could use the strength sealed inside his Ink Manuscript, but solving one problem might create another problem greater than the first.
The power itself was available.
The consequences were what made using it dangerous.
If he used strength beyond the Verdant Archive's limit without a sufficient reason, Reality might reject the action or increase the Narrative Debt attached to it.
If he used too much strength repeatedly, something in a higher Archive might notice him.
"Power is easy to use when someone else will pay the price," Yang Lujia said. "In this case, I will eventually be the one paying it."
[Confirmed.]
"At least that is understandable."
He shifted his attention toward the information regarding his cultivation. "Now explain my Ink Imprint."
[Clarification requested.]
"My Ink Imprint appeared completely blank during every examination. Why is something already written inside my Ink Manuscript?"
The vellum changed.
[Correction.]
[The Host's Ink Manuscript was never empty.]
[It remained unreadable beneath the previous restrictions.]
Yang Lujia waited for the rest.
[For fifteen years, the Host's Ink Imprint operated autonomously.]
[It inscribed texts, illustrations, concepts, and other material across the Host's Ink Manuscript.]
[The process occurred independently of the Host's conscious will.]
Yang Lujia's eyes narrowed.
"Where did it obtain those things?"
[From the Host.]
"That does not explain enough."
[The inscriptions originated from the Host's memories, knowledge, experiences, principles, imagination, and identity.]
Yang Lujia thought about his two previous lives.
The knowledge he gathered.
The subjects he taught.
The books he had read.
The things he created and the decisions he made.
Even the concepts that should not have existed anywhere within the Verdant Archive.
"All of those were written inside my Ink Manuscript?"
[Confirmed.]
[Every completed Verse increased the Host's baseline cultivation.]
[Every completed Page deepened the Host's existence.]
[The strength currently available to the Host is the accumulated result of fifteen years of autonomous inscription.]
"So the Ink I attempted to absorb did not disappear."
[Confirmed.]
"It was used by the Ink Imprint."
[Confirmed.]
"And I had no control over any of it."
[The autonomous inscriptions remained anchored to the Host's identity.]
"That does not mean I agreed to them."
[Concern recorded.]
Yang Lujia's expression became colder. "Do not merely record it."
The System remained silent for a moment.
[The autonomous inscription function has ended following the partial awakening of the Host's Ink Manuscript.]
[Future inscriptions will require the Host's conscious intent.]
[Exception: Emergency intervention.]
"What qualifies as emergency intervention?"
[Information unavailable at the Host's current Authority level.]
Yang Lujia sighed.
The System answered more questions than before, but it still withheld the most important parts whenever it wished.
Another notification appeared.
[Zhuquan De recognized that the Host's Ink Imprint was not truly blank.]
[He also recognized that awakening it prematurely would place the Host and the Verdant Archive in danger.]
[For that reason, he did not provide the Host with a cultivation scripture.]
[Instead, he provided knowledge that could remain useful regardless of the foundation eventually revealed.]
Yang Lujia looked toward the empty seat beside the Chronicle Lord.
Zhuquan De had known.
Perhaps the old man had not completely understood the Eternal Quill, but he knew enough to realize that teaching Yang Lujia an ordinary scripture might interfere with whatever existed inside him.
That was why Zhuquan De continued giving him manuscripts.
He could not teach Yang Lujia how to cultivate, so he taught him everything else he knew.
[The seal has weakened.]
[The Host may now observe the true form of his Ink Imprint.]
Yang Lujia closed his eyes.
His awareness entered the dark space inside his soul.
The Ink Manuscript remained at its center.
Several chains still wrapped around the cover and its sealed Pages. However, one chain had already cracked, creating a small opening near the front of the Manuscript.
Yang Lujia approached.
The remaining chains tightened slightly, but they no longer pushed him away.
He looked at the cover.
It was no longer completely blank.
A Quill rested diagonally across it.
Its feather was pitch-black, while several heavy loops of dark metal formed the grip beneath it. A large blue gemstone rested at the center, cut into a shape resembling a diamond.
The nib at the bottom was also black.
It pointed toward the edge of the Ink Manuscript as though it were waiting for someone to take hold of it.
A cold pressure surrounded the Quill.
Yang Lujia did not sense any hostility from it.
However, the Ink Imprint felt old.
Far older than the fifteen years it had spent inside his Ink Manuscript.
"Is this my Ink Imprint?"
The translucent vellum appeared inside his soul.
Dark characters slowly formed upon it.
[Yes, Host.]
Yang Lujia continued looking at the Quill.
"What is its name?"
The blue gemstone released a faint light.
More words appeared.
[I am the Eternal Quill.]
Yang Lujia became silent.
He looked at the Quill upon the cover.
Then he looked at the vellum floating before him.
"What?"