The hallway reeked of moisture, old blood, and burned incense.
Jin Wei walked in silence, his footsteps echoing off the stone corridor like distant war drums.
Behind him, the three cultists followed until they reached the heavy iron door at the end.
The barrel-chested one stopped.
Barrel-Chested Man (gruffly):
"This is as far as we go. She doesn't like... clutter."
Jin Wei (dry):
"You mean backup."
The lean one gave a lopsided smirk.
Lean Man:
"She doesn't need backup."
Woman (arms crossed):
"And you'll understand why, soon. If you come back out, that is."
Jin Wei glanced at them once, shrugged, and stepped through.
[Interior – The Hall Below]
The moment he crossed the threshold, a chime struck in his head.
📜 [SYSTEM UPDATE COMPLETE]
📜 [THRONE SYSTEM — FULL ACCESS GRANTED]
📜 [ALL RESTRICTIONS LIFTED]
📜 [VOICE INTERFACE: ENABLED]
And then—there it was.
Throne (stretching sarcastically):
"Whew. Finally out of quarantine. Thought I was gonna die of boredom in there."
Jin Wei (flat):
"You're... Throne!!."
Throne:
"BINGO! Mother-Fucker."
Throne (tone shifting):
"Alright, listen. That woman you're about to meet? Don't take her too seriously."
Throne (cold and clear):
"But if you wanna live... just do what she says. For now."
The chamber ahead was massive. Shadow-cloaked. Chains hung from the ceiling like dead vines.
Runes pulsed in the floor—faint red and slow, like a heartbeat stuck between anger and sleep.
In the center sat a woman.
Cross-legged, unmoving, wrapped in black smoke that curled around her like it belonged there.
She wasn't glowing. She didn't have demonic horns or divine light. Just silence. And weight.
She looked like someone who didn't need power to prove it.
She didn't look up.
Didn't speak.
The silence was thick.
Then—
Two eyes opened.
White. Hollow. Not glowing—but empty.
A pair of void-like orbs blinked to life in the black silhouette of the woman seated at the room's center.
No pupils. No reflections. Just blank whiteness peering from the shadows.
And then it hit.
Pressure.
Not a presence. Not killing intent.
Pure instinctual dominance.
It slammed through the chamber like a collapsing mountain. The walls groaned. Chains rattled.
The runes on the floor pulsed violently, as if recoiling from her awakening aura.
Even outside—the cultists standing guard behind the door stumbled back, eyes wide with sudden terror.
Their Qi rippled, reacting on its own, like prey trying to flee the presence of a predator.
Jin Wei gritted his teeth—then blinked as a translucent screen bloomed into his vision.
📜 [WARNING: BLOODLINE SUPPRESSION DETECTED]
📜 [EFFECT NULLIFIED - Xhao Jin Wei is a part of XXXNIS XXCE]
Jin Wei (thinking) : "What... XXXNIS XXCE."
Throne (flatly):
"She's Body Realm. Just barely. But she's got Nightmare Blood in her veins. That aura you're feeling? It ain't cultivation. It's ancestry."
Jin Wei didn't flinch.
Didn't bow.
Didn't bend.
Instead, he straightened his back.
The pressure didn't vanish—it never vanished. But he stood untouched by it, as if walking through storm winds that knew better than to touch his flame.
Keel's silhouette shifted.
Not moved—shifted.
The smoke coiling around her swirled tighter, like breathing in reverse.
And then—
She spoke.
Her voice was velvet and razors.
Keel (curious):
"Hoo~..."
"Still standing. That's... rare."
"You're not affected?"
Her tone wasn't impressed.
More... intrigued.
Like a scientist watching an insect survive acid.
Jin Wei swallowed once before answering—kept his voice level.
Jin Wei (carefully):
"I don't know what that was… but."
"That counts for something, right?"
Her body shifted slightly, smoke trailing from her shoulders like shadows slithering backward.
Keel (quietly amused):
"No trembling. No drooling. No begging for your life."
"…Interesting."
Jin Wei didn't respond.
She stood slowly.
The floor didn't shake. No blast of Qi.
But Jin Wei could feel every inch of her rise, like the room itself held its breath.
Now, fully visible—Dark smoke skin, strange smoke-hair, eyes like faded moons—like a living Shillute.
She stepped forward. No threat in her gait. No speed.
But every step made the air tighter.
She stopped two paces from him.
Keel:
"You're... quiet."
"Most at your level cry, piss themselves, or try to fight me."
"You did none of that."
Jin Wei exhaled carefully.
Jin Wei:
"I figured silence was safer."
She blinked once.
No laugh.
Just stillness.
Keel:
"You're not strong."
"But something's wrapped around you. Protecting you."
"I want to know what."
Jin Wei didn't answer.
He didn't have an answer that wouldn't get him gutted.
The system. The lightning. The Throne.
Too much. Too weird. Too fast.
He played dumb.
Jin Wei:
"I don't know."
Suddenly, without warning—Keel vanished.
Jin Wei's pupils shrank.
What—?!
A gust of cold wind brushed his nape. His instincts screamed. He spun—too slow.
A soft whisper of breath. A shadow behind him.
There.
Her slender palm, now as pale as moonlight, descended like a phantom. Not a strike—just a sharp, swift chop aimed straight at his neck.
He jerked sideways, body reacting on its own, desperation flaring through his bones.
But—
「 INTERVENTION GRANTED 」
A bell-like tone echoed inside his skull.
Time twisted.
And then, a voice.
Cold. Familiar. Inevitable.
"This is the first and last time I will help you."
"Because right now… you are far too weak to do anything."
Jin Wei's eyes rolled back. A wave of force surged through his nerves, halting his movement entirely.
His limbs locked.
He couldn't even twitch.
Then—
Keel's chop landed clean.
Black.
Soundless.
Collapse.
He hit the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
The dirt felt distant, the cold biting his cheek as consciousness slipped through his fingers like sand.
SILENCE!!!
[3 Hours Later...]
Drip.
Drip.
A slow, steady patter echoed in the darkness. It wasn't rain.
Jin Wei's eyes fluttered open.
"Woah, What happend...?"
SILENCE!!!
Jin observed.
Trees loomed overhead like silent witnesses. The air was heavy, thick with the scent of iron.
His head throbbed.
Pain laced every nerve as he rolled over with a groan—
—and froze.
Four bodies.
Lying in a circle around him.
Their eyes wide open. Glassy. Blood soaked into the forest floor beneath them in ritualistic spirals—but they weren't drawn by human hands.
Limbs twisted. One man's jaw was torn clean off. Another had his heart missing.
The girl—the one who spoke in tongues—her skull was slashed from the inside. And as if she screamed until her vocal cords turned to knives.
"The Shillute girl was nowhere to be seen, but shadow-like limbs were scattered throughout."
He tried to stand. His legs buckled.
📜「 SYSTEM ERROR: STABILIZATION INCOMPLETE 」
📜「 HOST NEURAL PATTERN — RECALIBRATING 」
And then—
the voice.
Not his own. Not the cult's.
The Throne.
"You should not ask what happened."
"When the time is right, you'll know naturally."
Jin Wei staggered back, heart hammering. His hands—clean. No blood.
But his shadow…
…was still dripping.
He observed. He just stood there, knowing one truth deeper than fear.
He didn't kill them.
📜「 Congratulations! You have broken through to Qi Realm — 2nd Seal 」
A chime echoed in his mind.
Jin staggered where he stood, blinking against the swirling mist of blood and dawn.
He clutched his chest, feeling the subtle shift—the pulse of qi moving slightly faster, cleaner, sharper.
"...Huh?" he whispered. "I broke through?"
He blinked in disbelief.
"How... how did I break through?"
Silence.
Then—
The voice again.
"When the time is right, you'll know the answer."
"Don't ask for now."
Jin Wei's brow furrowed. He took a moment, scanning the crimson-stained clearing, the corpses, the smell of rot in the air.
"...You're not going to harm me, are you?" he asked the Throne quietly.
A long pause. Too long.
"Why would I?"
Jin didn't know if that was meant to reassure him—or scare him.
🔸 Quest Completed : Break Through the Mortal Realm!
Reward: 70 [D] + 2x Low Grade Healing Potions added to Inventory.
His eyes went wide. "WOAH—!"
Before he could celebrate, another message blinked into existence:
🔹 Loot Acquired from 4 Confirmed Kills :
— 4x Storage Rings (contents secured)
He blinked, still a bit overwhelmed.
"...Oh. let's see what you bastards left behind."
He raised his hand and focused on the first ring.
A faint pulse responded.
With a thought, the ring's contents spilled into view through a translucent interface.
📜 Inventory:
14 Gold Coins
Rotten Herbal Satchel (low-grade)
Ritual Dagger (Grade: Trash)
Cultist Robes x2
Cracked Focus Crystal
Human Tooth (???)
Jin Wei raised an eyebrow. "The hell were these freaks doing…?"
He moved on to the second ring.
📜 Inventory:
Blood Ink Jar (half-used)
Worn Diary
Copper Storage Token
Fragment of Beast Hide (Jaquill)
Throne (chuckling):
"Ohh... looks like you got lucky. That diary? That's from one of the Tongue-Bearers."
"Could be a key to understanding why the cult wanted you alive."
Jin Wei:
"...Or why I woke up surrounded by corpses I didn't kill."
Throne:
"Semantics."
He waved his hand again for 3rd storage ring.
A flash of light flickered from his palm as items materialized into the interface.
📜 Inventory:
3 Beast Cores (Grade : 1)
Burnt Battle Notes (illegible)
Jade Pendant (Engraved with symbol: "⛧")
Vialr of Unstable Qi
Leather-bound Cult Codex
Jin muttered, "Cultist bastards really were carrying half a horror novel."
The pendant pulsed faintly. The moment he touched it, a message popped up:
⚠️ [WARNING: Fragmented Blood Sigil Detected — Insufficient Authority to View]
He flinched back instinctively. "Okay... that one stays sealed for now."
Then, the last ring.
He hesitated. It was Keel's.
He could still remember the moment she appeared behind him like a ghost—her hand against his neck like a death sentence.
It was only because of Throne that he even survived.
The aura around this ring was different. Darker. Denser. As if the ring itself was alive.
📜 Inventory:
- Darksteel Dagger (Soul-bound)
- 120 Spirit Cluster
- Ethereal Lotus (Corrupted, sealed)
- Sealed Scroll : [Nightmare Inheritance]
Activation Requirement : Heroic Realm or above.
- Wooden Slip.
Jin Wei's breath hitched.
"Nightmare... Inheritance?"
Throne (low, intrigued):
"Now that's a surprise."
"You know what this is?" Jin asked, eyes narrowed.
Throne:
"Only idiots try to control Nightmare-type legacies. They eat the soul from the inside out. But if you survive...?"
"…You stop being prey. You become the dream the predators fear."
Jin closed the ring slowly.
"...So I can't access it now?"
Throne:
"Correct. Try it now, and it'll swallow you whole."
He stood, pocketed the rings, and glanced once more at the corpses.
His expression was cold now. Not with hate. Not with grief.
Resolve.
"Well, I've got a long way to go."
A breeze stirred the treetops as he turned toward the forest path.
Behind him, the blood-soaked clearing grew silent once more.
NEXT DAY.-----
The next day, Jin Wei slipped into the outskirts of the next town under a gray morning sky.
Dust clung to his legs as he crouched behind a crumbling wall, eyes locked on the bounty board nailed beside the town's rusted gate.
There it was.
WANTED — UNKNOWN MALE
CRIME : Murder of 3 Disciples and 1 Elder of the Holy Devil Sect
BOUNTY : 10,000 GOLD COINS
INFORMATION : Face unknown. Last seen heading west from Stonia city.
Jin Wei (thinking) : "Woah, 10,000 Gold Coins for me."
Jin Wei stared at the parchment. Inked blood-red, the words might as well have been carved into his soul. His lips curled.
So they didn't know his face. Good. Let them hunt shadows.
A voice echoed in his mind, ancient and heavy with amusement.
"You got lucky no one was around," the Throne muttered inside him.
Jin Wei lowered the hood of his ragged cloak just a little tighter. His eyes scanned the road.
Merchants. Peasants. A few guards with crooked spears. None paid him attention.
But that price tag—they would start looking soon. Every rat in this town would sniff for gold.
TO BE CONTINUED.-----