Eternal Paradox Codex

Xiao Ning frowned at the mundane status panel floating before him. Even accounting for Li Feng's damaged foundation, this was... disappointingly ordinary. No hidden bloodlines, no cursed seals, not even a trace of the jade book's influence. Had the so-called "new system" abandoned him after the transfer?

As the thought formed, a searing pain lanced through his temporal lobe. The air crackled with ozone as reality itself seemed to glitch—stone walls pixelated into geometric patterns before snapping back to normal. Crimson lightning arced across his vision, etching burning runes into his retinas. When the afterimages cleared, his status panel had transformed.

[WARNING: ENTITY DETECTED BEYOND SYSTEM PARAMETERS] 

[INITIALIZING PARADOX PROTOCOLS...]

The characters bled from gold to void-black, text rearranging itself in jagged, non-Euclidean patterns. Where standard cultivation panels showed serene azure borders, this one pulsed with the deep crimson of clotting blood. Strange symbols flickered at the edges of perception, their shapes causing a low buzz in his teeth.

[ Eternal Paradox Codex - Primary Interface]

Host Designation: Xiao Ning (Li Feng Shell) 

Soul Integrity: 37% (Fractured Soul) 

System Defiance Level: Initiate (Tier 0)

Paradox Level: 0 (Ascendant) 

Reality Permeability: 0.0003% 

Xiao Ning resisted the searing pain in his mind and looked at these unfamiliar words with confusion.

[ALERT: THE HOST IS ABOUT TO BE DISCOVERED BY THE GRAND DAO SYSTEM EYES ]

Suddenly Xiao Ning felt a pressure built in the air, ancient and hungry. His instincts screamed—this was no cultivator's aura. This was the universe noticing an error in its code… and preparing to delete him.

[ALERT: THE CODEX RECOMMEND THE HOST TO UNLOCK THE CORE PARADOXES WITH TEN SECONDS]

[YES/NO]

Despite his unfamiliarity with "Core Paradoxes," Xiao Ning instinctively chose "yes." What other choice did he have?

The Codex responded with glacial efficiency. Crimson chains materialized in Xiao Ning's mindscape, each link etched with blasphemous geometries that hurt to perceive. A countdown seared itself into his vision—9...8...7...

[Selected: YES]

[Soul Integrity Check: 37% → Critical Threshold]

The Codex's voice fractured into overlapping frequencies, half-command and half-scream: 

"To defy the system, you must first break your own existence."

Suddenly in front of Xiao Ning eyes another three pulsating nodes materialized.

[Paradox Meridians (Cost: 8% Soul Integrity)]

"Let your cultivation exist in all states and none."

[Entropy Dividend (Cost: 11% Soul Integrity)]

"Steal time itself from the unworthy."

[Bloodline Paradox [LOCKED - Requires Soul Integrity ≥50%]

Xiao Ning's fractured consciousness recoiled—activating even one paradox risked permanent soul damage. But the approaching system scan left no choice. 

As the countdown hit 3...2...1..., Xiao Ning focused on the first node. 

Effect:

- Meridians dissolved into quantum foam. 

- Cultivation base split into infinite possibilities. 

- System Detection Evasion: 93% success rate. 

Consequences: 

- Soul Integrity dropped to 29% (Critical). 

- Permanent loss of baseline qi stability. 

The cavern warped. Stone pillars became translucent, their molecular structures flickering between granite and smoke. A system scan beam—golden light humming with heavenly harmonics—passed through Xiao Ning's body but registered nothing. 

[ALERT DEFERRED: HOST NOT FOUND]

Xiao Ning collapsed, blood vessels rupturing as his body rejected paradox physics. The Codex interface updated violently: 

[Eternal Paradox Codex - Critical Status]

Host Designation: Xiao Ning (Li Feng Shell) Soul Integrity: 29% (Hemorrhaging)]

Active Paradoxes: 

Paradox Meridians

 - System Masking: Core Formation Realm (False) 

 - True Power: Nascent Soul (Late) 

 - Quantum Collapse Available: 0/1 (Recharge: 29 days) 

Reality Permeability: 0.0003% → 0.0017% (Cavern walls now bleed black liquid) 

Existential Mass: 1.7 → 2.1(Divine Embodiment Realm entities now 68% likely to detect anomalies) 

Xiao Ning gritted his teeth against the throbbing agony, his vision swimming. He had just barely scraped through this encounter, his very existence hanging by a thread. But the moment he steadied his gaze, a glimmer of understanding flickered in his mind.

[WARNING: SOUL DISINTEGRATION IMMINENT]

Xiao Ning looked devastated, like he was about to break. Was this it for him? Soul Disintegration, Really?

[CODEX COUNTERMEASURE PROPOSED]

- Paradox Gambit: Reverse Entropy Dividend to steal 3 seconds of your own future time for immediate soul stabilization. 

- Cost:12% of remaining lifespan (≈68 days). 

-YES/NO

Xiao Ning's vision fractured into prismatic shards, each reflecting a different temporal possibility—his corpse rotting in the crypt, a younger self meditating in sunlight, an elderly version coughing blood onto the Codex interface. The Paradox Gambit's price seared brighter than the disintegration warnings. Sixty-eight days. A trivial span for cultivators who measured lifetimes in millennia, but to a fractured soul counting hours? An eternity stolen.

He chose yes.

[PARADOX GAMBIT ENGAGED]

Time inverted.

Xiao Ning's scream echoed backwards—first silent, then deafening. The cavern's black blood flowed upward into fissures as his qi channels unraveled in reverse. Three seconds stretched into eons. He witnessed his own birth from death, skin stitching itself from grave-soil, breath sucked back into collapsing lungs. When causality righted itself, fresh horrors greeted him.

[SOUL STABILIZED]

[REMAINING LIFESPAN: 493 DAYS]

[REALITY PERMEABILITY: 0.0017% → 0.0093%]

The stone walls now pulsed like diseased organs. Globs of black liquid coalesced into hovering spheres, each containing inverted scenes—a mountain dissolving into rain, disciples aging into infants. Xiao Ning's shadow no longer matched his movements, lagging two breaths behind in jagged, puppet-like jerks.

The Codex flared with jagged crimson text:

[ENTROPY DEBT INFLICTED]

- Recommended action: Consume 10 mortal lifespans before next lunar cycle to balance paradox and restore your time.

Xiao Ning recoiled. Mortal lives as currency? Before he could process the moral abyss, his stolen time exacted physical toll. His fingernails yellowed with sudden age spots. A cough wracked his chest.

Cough Cough~

Xiao Ning's vision swam. Through the haze, he glimpsed Mei Lin re-entering the chamber, her sword crackling with suspicion. 

"What's happening to you?!"

The Codex hissed: 

[Betrayal Probability: 79% → 91%