SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 633: A Debt Beneath the Moon

The Supreme Elder knelt beside Wei and placed two fingers against his throat.

Leon lowered Wei onto the stone and stepped back. The arena remained silent while the old man examined his descendant’s channels and foundation.

After nearly a minute, he rose.

”The lunar energy has been removed from his channels,” he announced. His voice crossed both barriers without effort. ”His meridians are damaged, but they will heal. His foundation is intact, and he will keep his cultivation.”

Relief passed through several disciples on the terrace.

The Supreme Elder turned toward them rather than Leon.

”This duel was agreed at Peak Golden Core. Wei Zhaoran exceeded that restriction. I do not believe he broke it intentionally, but intention does not change the result. He invoked a technique he could not control, and the breach was his.”

His gaze moved across the gathering.

”Leon won the duel they agreed to. When the restriction failed, he survived Wei’s full cultivation, destroyed the forbidden art, and saved Wei’s foundation afterward. There will be no dispute over the result.”

No one challenged him.

Only then did he face Leon.

”You could have stepped aside after the moon art collapsed,” the elder said. ”No one would have blamed you for allowing the backlash to take its course.”

”He wasn’t in control by then.”

”No, he was not.” The Supreme Elder glanced down at Wei. ”I allowed a descendant to inherit a technique he had the talent to invoke but not the discipline to hold. His punishment will be handled within my line, but the greater failure began with me.”

He bowed.

It was a restrained gesture, yet a bow from a Supreme Elder to a new personal disciple carried more weight than any public speech.

”My line owes you Wei’s life and foundation,” he said. ”That debt will not be ignored. We will speak again after he wakes and I have finished being angry with him.”

He lifted Wei and left the arena.

The gathering did not dissolve into admiration. Leon preferred that. Some disciples watched him with open respect, others with envy or disbelief. Several were clearly reconsidering every rumor they had heard about Ji Liansu’s new disciple.

Fresh rumors began before the terrace emptied. Some credited an ancient constitution. Others assumed Ji Liansu had given Leon a lost inheritance during his month of seclusion. A formation disciple argued that the five-affinity circulation had not resembled anything stored in the Palace library and might have been created by Leon himself.

That explanation received the least support despite being closest to the truth.

Ji Liansu entered the arena after the last disciples had withdrawn. She did not congratulate Leon. She placed two fingers over the mana route near his sternum and followed the residue left by the damaged circulation. Leon kept both Hearts dormant while she examined only the pathways used by the Formless Myriad Scripture.

”Four damaged junctions,” she said.

”Three.”

”You have not found the fourth yet. You will tomorrow.” She withdrew her hand. ”The first stage maintained five affinities under the pressure of a Mid Void Immortal’s forbidden art. The central principle is viable.”

”That sounds almost approving.”

”Then listen carefully to the rest.” Ji Liansu’s voice remained calm. ”You forced power through channels that have not finished adapting to one affinity, much less five. Another few exchanges would have caused permanent damage. You proved that the Scripture can work. You did not prove that this version is safe.”

Leon could not dispute that.

”No experiments until the tearing closes,” she continued. ”No multi-affinity circulation, and no ordinary circulation until tomorrow at the earliest. If you attempt to bargain, I will make the restriction a month.”

”I wasn’t going to bargain.”

”Good. Perhaps the duel taught you two useful things.”

Recovery required five days.

The fourth damaged junction announced itself the next morning exactly as Ji Liansu predicted. Leon allowed no mana into the Scripture for two full days. At night, after confirming that the mana cycle was completely closed and every formation around his residence was sealed, he used a small amount of holy energy from the Divinordial Heart to support his body’s recovery. The two energies never entered the same channels at the same time.

On the third day, he tested a single thread of neutral mana. On the fourth, he completed one slow circulation without pain.

Most of his time went into reviewing the duel. The Lightning-to-Ice collision could be corrected by giving the neutral center another fraction of time to settle. The deeper damage had come from forcing five affinities through pathways designed to carry one current at a time.

The Primordial Void Heart had also carried too much of the burden. It had processed hostile lunar mana that the Scripture failed to isolate. Leon did not expect the Scripture to imitate the Heart’s unique assimilation ability, but its next stage needed to protect its circulation from foreign energy and coordinate multiple affinities without relying on the Heart as a constant safety net.

He recorded both requirements and set them aside until Ji Liansu’s restriction ended.

Wei visited on the fifth day with another elder waiting outside the courtyard.

He was pale and moved carefully, but he remained on his feet. He stopped before Leon and bowed lower than their difference in status required.

”I broke the restriction,” Wei said. ”The moon art overwhelmed the seal, but that does not excuse invoking it. I brought a technique I could not control into an agreed duel. The fault is mine.”

”All right.”

Wei’s jaw tightened, perhaps because Leon had made accepting the apology harder by refusing to argue.

”You also saved my life and foundation,” he continued. ”You had already forced me back before the seal failed. No one from my line will claim the outcome was unclear.”

Leon studied him for a moment.

”Your swordsmanship was a genuine problem,” he said. ”The delayed crescents nearly ended the duel twice. I took that wound because you forced me into a transition the Scripture wasn’t ready to make.”

Wei raised his head. Some of the strain left his face.

”That is kinder than I deserve.”

”It is accurate. Being dangerous and losing are not mutually exclusive.”

Wei accepted that with a small nod. ”I will challenge you again, but not soon. The next time, it will be with power I can control and skill I have earned since this defeat.”

”Then I will look forward to it.” Leon paused. ”Try to arrange matters so I don’t have to save you afterward. It is an inconvenient way to end a duel.”

Wei almost smiled. He bowed once more and left.

That evening, Leon sat beneath the plum tree in his courtyard and considered the time that had passed. He had originally promised the four women nearly three outside months to adapt to the local cultivation system. Barely more than one month had passed for him, but it had become more than ten months inside the dimensional world.

They were not supposed to be ready yet.

After what he had learned about cultivation methods refusing to follow expectations, Leon no longer trusted the schedule more than the result.

He checked the residence formations, entered the sealed hall, and opened the path home.