Not long after Cairen thought of a plan to get out of there alive, the wooden door was suddenly blown apart with a loud crash.
The sound echoed through the cave walls like a roar. Cairen felt his heart sink when a terrifying pressure fell upon him.
Firm footsteps approached, heavy, slow.
"Who dares invade my sect?!?" The hoarse voice spread through the tunnel, even though he spoke softly, Cairen heard it perfectly.
He remained still, his body slightly tense.
'What the hell is this? This pressure I'm feeling.' Cairen wondered as he looked in the direction the voice was coming from.
"Come out, little rat, before I come get you." The voice came again, this time even colder. Impatient, carrying an authority that did not allow refusal.
Cairen took a deep breath for a moment before slowly stepping out from one of the dark tunnels. His hands raised in the air.
Their eyes met.
Cairen saw a tall man, his hair gray, tied up in a topknot. Dark green robes, with the same three-colored skull emblem he had seen before. The man was thin, far too much so. Behind him were the two Cairen had followed to get here.
On the other side.
The elder's gaze traveled up and down Cairen's body, assessing every detail of the one who had dared to invade his farm. But at that moment, the scowl he wore suddenly softened for an instant.
And a moment of clarity replaced the irritation from before. That happened when his eyes stopped on the black marks coiling like serpents around Cairen's arms.
'AWAKENED BLOODLINE!' the elder shouted in his mind, though he showed no trace of the excitement he felt. He kept his expression cold as he asked in a cutting tone,
"Who are you, kid? And what the hell are you doing in one of our sect's poison farms?"
"I don't know how I ended up here. I woke up in this cave a few hours ago. I was almost killed several times along the way, so I had to kill some beasts to survive. Then I followed these two people here trying to find a way out." Cairen replied calmly, without hesitation.
The elder cast a hard look at Cairen, trying to guess at some lie, but he felt no fear from him, nor did it seem he was lying.
He then tilted his head slightly, looking at the two disciples behind him.
"You didn't even realize you were being followed. Idiots." He said with anger, wondering how the hell people like this were disciples of his sect, even if they were only outer disciples.
"How did you not die breathing the air in this cave? You don't even seem to be suffering. The poison in this cave should have killed someone at your level before you ever got here without taking an antidote pill." The elder asked, crossing his arms and looking into Cairen's eyes.
"What do you mean?" Cairen asked, genuinely confused, raising an eyebrow. He hadn't noticed the air was poisonous, but now that the elder said it, he realized it was indeed, though it was extremely faint.
'Hooh… he didn't even notice the poison. Is it because of his bloodline? Peak of the first realm, and his body resisted it with ease. He must have an affinity with poisonous Qi.'
The elder then approached Cairen, pointing to his arms.
"That on your arms… Have you awakened your bloodline?"
Cairen looked down at his own arms and only now noticed the black marks slowly crawling along his skin. They were marks of the Narakai race, but now they were black instead of the beautiful color he had seen before.
"I… I think so."
At that moment, the two disciples behind the elder widened their eyes and shouted together,
"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!" They couldn't believe someone with an awakened bloodline had really appeared out of nowhere before them.
The elder completely ignored their outburst and kept his eyes on Cairen for a few seconds, until he decided something.
"For invading the sect, your punishment would be immediate death." His voice started calm and then turned threatening.
"But… since I'm in a good mood today, I'll do something different."
Cairen saw the elder take a poison vial from his waist and toss it toward him.
"Drink it. If you survive, I'll accept you as a core disciple of the Three Poisons Sect…"
The two disciples behind him remained slack-jawed, seeing that the elder had actually given someone a chance. Even though they judged it impossible for anyone to survive poison of the level the elder had thrown.
For them, the most likely thing was that the elder would have blown the intruder's brains out the moment he found him.
Cairen caught the vial in midair and, without hesitation, drank the purple liquid entirely without even smelling it.
The purple liquid slid down his throat, burning, an intense pain spreading quickly through his organs like lava. But just as it came, it vanished as fast as lightning.
Cairen's face changed in seconds from normal to red and then back to normal again just seconds later.
In front of Cairen, the elder smiled inwardly. A smile so rare that, though imperceptible to others, softened his expression.
"Follow me, young. You passed, and you will be one of the sect's core disciples. Your opinion doesn't matter. If you don't come, you'll spend the rest of your life with the beasts that live behind you."
Cairen didn't fully understand what it meant to be a disciple, but he accepted immediately. He hadn't been killed, and it hadn't been as difficult as he thought it would be.
'I really have to thank you!' Cairen said in his mind, remembering the Fallen Narakai child. Because of his bloodline, he had survived until now, and because of that, the man before him hadn't killed him yet.
The elder turned when he saw Cairen nodding and following.
"Good! Good!"
The disciples, who always trembled in front of the elder, looked at Cairen with surprise and envy, but they understood the reason for such treatment.
'So this is how those with an awakened bloodline are treated… The heavens are truly unfair.'
The elder passed the two disciples, Cairen following behind. Then he stopped for a moment and looked deep into their eyes.
"Nothing that happened here can leak out. Do you understand? To you, this kid does not exist."
The two nodded as fast as possible, cold sweat running down their bodies.
The elder then pulled out a robe similar to what the two were wearing. But these were dark blue with purple embroidery, made of a material many times superior. He tossed the robe to Cairen.
"Put this on immediately. And cover the marks on your arms."
Cairen understood, and after quickly changing, he walked out following the elder.
The first thing he noticed when he left the cave was the sunlight. It had been so, so long since he had seen it, and it eased his worries momentarily.
Then, the two walked through the sect. Cairen noticed that along the way, everyone looked at the elder with respect and fear.
He also saw people glancing at him with curiosity before murmuring to each other. They passed by people armed with swords, spears, and other weapons, but he noticed that the vast majority carried several vials of poison hanging or stored on their bodies.
They were all wearing similar clothing, but he saw no one wearing the same colors as his.
The buildings were completely different from what he was used to, and he observed them with curiosity, trying to understand exactly where he was. But he had never seen anything like this before.
After walking for some time, they finally arrived at a large hall. The elder and Cairen passed the people guarding the place without issue. The guards even bowed slightly to them.
Then they entered the hall. There was an elevated throne with many empty seats around the circular room.
Seated on the throne was an imposing man with black hair and sharp eyes. He looked closely at the elder and at Cairen in core disciple robes, but found it strange that he didn't recognize him.
"Oh? What happened for you to show your face, Old Xu?" The man on the throne asked, no expression on his face.
The elder didn't respond. He simply pulled up Cairen's sleeves, fully revealing the marks slowly moving beneath his skin.
"AWAKENED BLOODLINE!" His words echoed through the hall like thunder.
In an instant, before Cairen could even see how it happened, the man was already in front of him, holding his wrist. Cairen instinctively stepped back, but he couldn't move his body. It was as if he were completely restrained by that single touch from the sect leader.
"Who are you?"
His voice was deep, almost as if it spoke directly into his mind.
"Cairen Veyrith, sir."
"Old Xu, where did you find him? How could someone blessed with an awakened bloodline suddenly appear? And why is he wearing core disciple robes?" The man asked the elder without letting go of Cairen's arm, seemingly studying something.
"Sect Leader, it's like this…"
…
The elder quickly explained what had happened. The two spoke in front of Cairen as if he wasn't even there, completely ignoring him.
"Hmm, Old Xu, you were right to tell him to cover his arms. As long as he is as weak as he is now, no one should know about his awakened bloodline. Remember what happened when they discovered Princess Ling's bloodline. If it weren't for the King of the Rhyne Kingdom protecting her at the last second, she would have been killed before she could grow." The sect leader said seriously.
Then he fixed his gaze on Cairen.
"What is your bloodline ability?"
Cairen was silent for a moment. In his mind, thoughts ran wild. Show… or hide? He could just show the Narakai Physique. But then, a phrase echoed in his mind.
[Main Mission: Show them…]
He took a deep breath, deciding. He knew it wouldn't be so simple, but this time, Cairen wasn't going to live this life hiding like a rat again.
He brought his hand to his mouth and bit his finger hard. It was a bit difficult, but a small wound opened, enough for his dark blood to come out.
The blood dripped, and Cairen flicked it with his finger toward a nearby wall. The drop of blood began to corrode the wall immediately, spreading with a terrible hiss until it lost its strength, leaving a hole in the reinforced wall of the hall…