Re-birth: The Beginning after the End-Chapter 144: REFINING TECHNIQUES PART 1

The Sixth Realm’s mist seemed thicker today, as if the very air recognized the intensity of what was to come. Ancient pillars loomed like watching spirits while arches encircled the vast training field—a arena where the siblings would push their abilities to their absolute limits. Every shadow, every whisper of wind carried the weight of expectation.

Li Wei, Li Hao, and Li Hua took their positions with the practiced grace of those who understood time’s pressure. Their spirit beasts claimed their own stations: Bai Ying’s frost-touched presence a steady anchor, Lei Lei and Dian Dian’s electrical dance creating a protective boundary, and Feng Yi’s watchful circuits overhead completing their defense. Each creature seemed to sense the gravity of their masters’ approaching trial.

The keepers would test them today as never before. Though the siblings had mastered techniques that would impress even veteran cultivators, the Silhouette Labyrinth demanded more. It wasn’t enough to execute the techniques perfectly—they needed to transcend them, to make each skill as natural as breathing. Every movement, every pulse of essence, every flicker of thought had to be refined until no weakness remained for the labyrinth to exploit.

Clad in her pale, regal robes, Lady He stood at the courtyard’s center, exuding the quiet authority of someone who decided who could and could not enter the Sixth Realm. She gestured for Li Hua to step forward.

"Even the faintest pulse of your core can betray you," Lady He intoned, her gaze cutting to Li Wei and Li Hao as well. "Show me you’ve perfected your barriers. Let no one perceive you unless you permit it."

They nodded. Their training had begun weeks ago, but now they sought to push it further.

Li Hua let her breath shallow until it felt as though her very heartbeat faded. The air around her shimmered—then stilled. Even Li Hao, with his keen senses, struggled to feel her presence.

Li Wei and Li Hao activated their own barriers simultaneously, weaving the concept of Allow Only With My Will into the fabric of their cores. Any cultivator trying to sense them would find a silent lock, requiring the correct spiritual "key" to gain entrance.

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Lady He walked in a slow circle, probing with needle-like spiritual threads. She found… nothing. No ripple, no ring of alarm. Her expression flickered with approval. "Well done. Maintain this state under duress." She flared her own essence, sending a pulse of pressurized energy. Even so, the siblings’ concealment didn’t falter.

"You’ve achieved near-absolute silence," she said quietly, eyes reflecting pride. "But remember, the labyrinth will test your resolve. One slip, one flicker of core, and your enemies will know you."

Stepping to the far side of the courtyard, the siblings encountered Lady Xu, whose domain was the realm’s unpredictable geometries. Long ribbons of shimmering air twisted around her, suggesting the distortions she commanded.

"You know how to step between folds of space," Lady Xu remarked. "Now, refine it until you can exist in two places at once—or nowhere at all."

Li Wei closed his eyes, visualizing a layer between solid reality and intangible void. He positioned his core there, making himself a half-glimpse to the naked eye. A watery distortion signaled his partial presence in another dimension.

Li Hao advanced this further by shifting his core just a hair’s breadth out of sync, leaving behind flickers of afterimages—like shadows that existed between heartbeats.

At Lady Xu’s command, the siblings danced across the courtyard. One moment, Li Wei vanished into a swirling pillar, emerging from a seam in the air behind it. The next, Li Hua flickered from one side to the other as though passing through an invisible doorway.

Even Bai Ying and Feng Yi joined in, following half-steps into Li Wei’s and Li Hao’s ephemeral footprints. Lady Xu’s eyes gleamed, impressed by their near-seamless transitions. "Hold these forms longer," she urged, creating a vortex of twisted space that threatened to slam them back into normal reality. Their mastery, however, allowed them to remain intangible just long enough to slip free of her trap.

As the spatial distortions settled, Lady Xu nodded with satisfaction. "You’ve learned to bend space," she said, her robes rippling with lingering power. "But remember—in the labyrinth, space itself is alive with essence. Your movements must flow with its currents, not against them."

The siblings felt the truth of her words as they moved deeper into the realm’s heart, where reality grew thinner and essence thicker. Here, in a circular grove surrounded by softly rustling trees, Lady Wei awaited them. The hush in the air suggested a deep reservoir of power, and indeed, faint motes of spiritual essence drifted around like dust in a sunbeam. Even the space-bending techniques they’d just practiced seemed to respond differently here, where pure essence ruled supreme.

"Your energies must blend with nature until they are indistinguishable," Lady Wei said, voice as serene as the mild breeze. "Show me."

Li Hua and her brothers inhaled in unison, letting their essence synchronize with the faint rhythm of the realm. In that moment, the swirl of essence around them felt like an extension of their own blood and breath. A random passerby would sense only the ambient essence—unable to separate the siblings from the environment.

One by one, they stilled their power, each core becoming a mirror-smooth surface free of ripples. Even if someone attempted to detect them, they’d sense merely a calm emptiness.

Lady Wei’s eyes shone with approval as she unleashed a wave of spiritual pressure designed to scatter or provoke their essence. Nothing broke their tranquility. "Your flows are silent and seamless," she whispered. "Carry this grace when the labyrinth shifts illusions around you. Let no sudden wave startle your lake."

Further along, the siblings approached a stout figure in dark, battle-worn robes: Old Guo, guardian of the Sixth Realm’s borders. He nodded in greeting, his expression as firm as an iron wall.

"In the labyrinth, illusions and hostile probes may strike at your souls directly," Old Guo said, voice resonant. "You’ve learned to block them—now prove you can do it instantly under pressure."