### Chapter 2: Threads of Paradox
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#### **The Ghost in the Codex**
Ling stared at the spectral figure materializing above his dormitory bunk. The old man's robes shimmered with constellations that shouldn't exist in this timeline, his beard flowing like liquid mercury.
"You look younger than I expected," the apparition said, examining Ling's sixteen-year-old hands. "And weaker. Did they not feed you in this...pigsty you call an academy?"
"Who are you?" Ling's fingers twitched toward the Chronos Tome fragment beneath his pillow.
"Your executioner. Your savior. The echo of what you might become." The ghost flicked a sand grain that froze mid-air, expanding into a miniature galaxy. "Let's call me *Shi*—Time's first syllable and last laugh."
A sudden temporal distortion rippled through the room. Ling watched in horror as his inkstone disintegrated into dust, reformed, then aged through a century of corrosion—all within three heartbeats.
"Stop that!" Ling hissed.
"Can't." Shi grinned with too many teeth. "You triggered a paradox by altering Instructor Chen's lifespan. Now the timeline's bleeding."
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#### **Academy's Dark Heart**
The revelation came at dawn's first bell.
Ling stood among three hundred novices in the Courtyard of Whispering Stones, where Green Cloud Academy's true colors bled through its jade facades. The massive obsidian monolith at the center pulsed with familiar energy—a shard of the Heaven's Mirror, disguised as a cultivation aptitude stone.
"Place your hand upon the Testing Obelisk," Headmaster Wu intoned, his shadow stretching unnaturally long in the morning light. "Those below Qi Refinement Stage Five will be...reassigned."
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Ling's immortal senses screamed. This wasn't an aptitude test—it was a feeding ritual. The obelisk's roots delved deep into forbidden earth, connecting to something that hungered.
When his turn came, Ling pressed palm to cold stone. The Chronos Tome fragment in his dantian flared as the obelisk's probe struck—a familiar energy signature from his past life.
*Void Zenith Sect's Soul Extraction Array.*
"Fascinating," Shi murmured in his mind. "Your former disciples are farming mortal souls like spiritual crops."
Ling forced his cultivation level to display Qi Refinement Stage Three—pathetic by academy standards. The obelisk's tendril recoiled from his temporal aura, leaving his soul untainted.
"Failure!" Headmaster Wu's verdict echoed. "Reassignment team, take this one to—"
"Wait." A girl's voice cut through the murmurs.
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#### **The Phoenix Gambit**
She stood at the procession's edge, thirteen years old with hair like frozen starlight. Ling's breath caught—the child wore Su Li's exact eyes, down to the amber flecks in her left iris.
"I claim Trial Right." The girl's jade token bore the Vermilion Bird sigil. "By ancient pact, any noble scion may challenge an expulsion verdict."
Headmaster Wu's smile turned venomous. "Princess Yanling must understand—this gutter rat isn't worth your—"
"His eyes." The princess stepped closer, her gaze locking with Ling's. "They hold the same madness I saw in the Phoenix Crypt murals. I'll have him as my trial companion."
As guards led them away, Shi's laughter echoed in Ling's skull. *"Well played, little phoenix. She just bound her lifeline to your temporal threads."*
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#### **Paradox Price**
In the Vermilion Bird Pavilion's isolation, Princess Yanling's facade crumbled.
"You reek of temporal corruption," she hissed, backing against a wall painted with burning phoenixes. "What are you?"
Ling noted the exact moment her pupils dilated—the girl was reading his temporal aura through those murals. He let slip a wisp of Su Li's signature Phoenix Flame energy.
The princess gasped, blood trickling from her nose as ancient murals blazed to life. Figures of a phoenix warrior and time-wielding emperor began moving across the walls.
"Interesting." Ling caught her collapsing form. "You can perceive temporal echoes but lack the constitution to bear them."
*"Fix her,"* Shi commanded. *"Her bloodline is the key to repairing the Tome's Fire Chapter."*
As Ling channeled a sliver of Chronos energy into the princess, the first temporal toll manifested—his left pinky aged into a skeletal claw.