Chapter 204: False Gold

Lian stood at the base of the dais and kept his eyes on the dark ring.

The longer he looked at it, the more the rest of the hall felt wrong. The carefully arranged weapons, the jade boxes, the armor stands — all of it was too perfect. Too generous. Outside, the mountains of coins and spirit stones had been the same. Endless. Unprotected. Arranged only to overwhelm.

A real treasury did not work like this.

He closed his hand slowly, feeling the flow of his own energy. The black substance inside him remained quiet, but his Qi moved more clearly now that he stopped reacting to the golden light and the pressure of so much visible wealth. He drew his energy inward, tightening it the way Ryzek had forced them to practice under the planet’s pressure. Compress. Shorten the cycle. Waste nothing.

Elara watched him without speaking. Ryzek did the same.

Lian took a slow breath and pushed his controlled energy outward in a thin, even wave. Not an attack. A probe. He let it pass through the nearest platforms, through the air, through the black stone floor under his boots.

The response came quickly.

The treasures closest to him flickered.

For a fraction of a second the blade on the nearest platform lost its weight and density. The jade box beside it turned translucent. The formation light on a set of armor further down the row stuttered like a failing projection. Then the effect spread. The golden haze that still leaked in from the outer space wavered. Coins that had looked solid a moment before became thin and hollow in his perception.

Illusion.

Layered, detailed, and strong enough to fool the senses, but still an illusion.

Lian did not stop.

He compressed his energy further and forced another pulse outward, stronger this time, using the same tight control he had learned while fighting under Veythara’s Grave’s crushing atmosphere. The wave rolled through the hall. Platforms shuddered. Weapons lost their edges. Mountains of gold in the distance collapsed into nothing but fading light.

The entire constructed treasury broke at once.

Golden light tore apart like wet paper. The sound of shifting coins vanished. The weight of endless wealth disappeared from the air. In its place came a vast, open stillness.

Lian’s boots no longer stood on black stone.

They stood on water.

Calm, dark water stretched in every direction without a single wave. The surface held their weight as if it were solid ground. There was no sun, no sky, only a soft, even light that seemed to come from the water itself. The horizon was empty. No islands. No walls. No end.

The hall was gone. The treasures were gone. The ring on the dais was gone.

Only the three of them remained, standing on the endless ocean.

Elara turned in a slow circle, blade still in hand. Ryzek’s four amber eyes narrowed as he scanned the empty distance.

“How did you know?” Elara asked.

Lian looked across the still water for a moment before answering.

“I just felt like it.”

The words were simple, but they were the truth. The wrongness had sat under every glittering surface until he stopped looking at the gold and started looking at the structure of the space itself.

A soft laugh rolled across the ocean.

It was quiet at first, almost carried on the air, then clearer. Male. Calm. Amused.

Lian turned toward the sound.

A short distance away, the surface of the water shifted. Light gathered, thin at first, then denser, forming the outline of a man. The figure solidified slowly — tall, pale, long white hair falling loose around his shoulders. The same face they had seen on the preserved body in the tomb chamber. The same simple clothing. The same quiet presence.

The dead man stood on the water as if he had always been there, watching them.

His eyes opened.

And he smiled.

Power Scale / Cultivation Realms (Quick Reminder)

Foundation Realm (Layers 1–9): Body forging, no external Qi.

Circuit Awakening Realm (Early–Peak): First Qi loop, internal bursts.

Core Condensation Realm (Early–Peak): External Qi release, short flight.

Stellar Circuit Realm (1–9 Stars): True flight, Qi armor, energy projection.

Nebula Dominion Realm and higher: Domain control, galaxy-level power, etc

Power Scale Reminder

Lian Yu: Stellar Circuit Star 1.

Elara Voss: Core Condensation Peak

Keep it as reminders