The green jade tablet settled between Ares's palms, its faint glow flowing over his skin like a light that had long known its path.
The tablet was not cold…
nor warm.
It was disturbingly neutral, as if it were waiting.
Ares took a slow breath, then closed his eyes.
He sent his awareness into it.
In the next moment—
the world trembled.
Not the room… but perception itself.
The tablet shook violently, and a low hum rose, quickly turning into a sharp energetic screech, as if the technique were resisting something strange trying to invade it.
Then the voice came.
Ancient.
Cracked.
Neither human in tone… nor machine in its coldness.
But something between the two.
"Unqualified…"
Silence lasted for a heartbeat.
Then it repeated.
"Unqualified…"
Harsher.
"Unqualified."
Ares's awareness froze.
The rejection was not just a word…
but a force pushing him outward, as if the technique refused to acknowledge his existence at all.
The energy inside the tablet grew unstable and turned into raging chaos.
For a moment—
collision seemed inevitable.
But before his awareness could be thrown out—
something moved deep within him.
The Black Hole dantian.
It did not wait for a command.
It did not ask permission.
It simply… awakened.
It pulsed once.
The void inside it contracted.
And in the depths, the system ignited.
It made no sound…
but its presence spread like a conscious shadow.
Then—
the black hole opened.
No light.
No explosion.
But a sudden absence of everything.
It absorbed the shock the way an abyss swallows a small stone.
The disturbance vanished.
The chaos died out.
The voice fell silent.
A sudden, heavy stillness…
as if the technique had reconsidered.
In the next moment—
Ares's awareness exploded.
Not pain.
But a flood of knowledge surged through him without mercy, like a galaxy whose gates had collapsed all at once.
Endless symbols.
Intertwined energy pathways.
Principles of transformation… devouring… and rebirth.
He felt his mind expanding against his will.
As if something inside him were being reshaped.
The system intervened immediately, absorbing the information with cold speed, preventing it from tearing apart his perception.
But…
something else happened.
Without realizing it—
Ares opened himself to energy.
Suddenly, spiritual energy rushed toward him from his surroundings, as if it had found a gap that could not be resisted.
A current… then a flood.
His breathing quickened.
Sweat burst from his forehead.
In a place far away…
or near in a way distance could not measure…
Elder Farin stood.
He was not in the room, yet it seemed as if he could see every particle moving around the boy.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"So it has begun…"
His gaze returned to Ares.
Then he felt it.
That aura.
Above the boy's head—
an illusion formed.
At first, it was only a distortion in the air… a faint ripple, like heat rising from scorched ground.
Then—
space bent.
Slowly.
With terrifying calm.
A circle of incomplete darkness formed, a darkness that did not reflect light… but erased it.
A black hole.
Not real.
But not an illusion either.
An invisible weight descended upon the place, until even the air seemed slower… heavier.
The smallest things on the ground trembled.
Then moved.
Then slid toward him.
As if the center of the universe had suddenly been born above a child's head.
The elder murmured, his voice this time not free of astonishment:
"The black hole… again."
He fell silent for a moment and sank into a distant memory.
"There is no doubt that the phenomenon that appeared in the clan's sky on the day of your birth… was because of you."
His eyes gleamed.
"Even during the anomaly ritual… you showed an anomaly never seen before."
He looked at him for a long time.
Then whispered, as if asking the universe rather than the boy:
"What does the black hole mean to you… Ares?"
As for Ares—
he heard nothing.
All he felt…
was hunger.
Not the hunger of the body.
But a deeper, older hunger, without a name.
The illusion above him rotated slowly and devoured energy like a beast that had been imprisoned for a long time and finally had its door opened.
Energy flowed into his dantian…
and vanished.
Without a trace.
Without fullness.
As if the inside… had no bottom.
His body trembled.
For a moment, he thought that if it did not stop—
he would swallow the place itself.
And suddenly—
everything stopped.
The illusion closed as it had appeared.
Space straightened again.
The world breathed once more.
Ares staggered slightly, his breathing heavy, but his eyes…
They were deeper.
As if a small darkness had settled within them.
In the distance, Elder Farin smiled a smile that barely existed.
"Interesting…"
Then he added in a low voice:
"So, Ares, now that you have begun training… will you truly show why you are an anomaly?"
He paused.
And looked into the void.
"Because compared to the other anomalies… you are incomplete."
Ares lowered his gaze toward the jade tablet.
It was no longer just a technique.
But a key.
And he felt a cold realization forming inside him:
The technique did not reject him because he was weak…
but because it did not understand him.
He slowly raised his eyes.
And deep within—
the black hole moved again…
As if smiling in the darkness.