I. The Silence After the Thunder
The forest, outside the domains of the Sleeping King, possessed a different kind of silence. It was not the expectant and predatory silence of the swamp, where every absence of sound indicated an imminent ambush. This was a natural silence, indifferent, composed of the whisper of the wind through pine needles and the creaking of old wood. It was the silence of the real world, and yet, for the Morningstar group, it felt foreign—as if they had forgotten how to inhabit a reality that was not actively trying to kill them.
They had walked for four hours without rest since the collapse of the sanctuary, driven by adrenaline and residual terror. But the body has limits that the will cannot eternally ignore.
—"Here," Kael said, pointing to a natural cavity beneath the roots of an ancient tree growing against a limestone rock wall. —"It's defensible. The river is close enough to wash away our scent. We stop."
No one argued. The order was received not with discipline, but with pure relief.
Kael gently laid Eris down on a bed of dry moss. The fire sister, usually vibrant and explosive, was alarmingly pale. Her skin, always warm to the touch, was now merely lukewarm, almost cool. The excessive use of her Vital Essence to empower Kael and feed the Bone Lantern had left her Dantian dangerously empty.
Elara moved immediately, pulling bandages and ointments from her dimensional bag. Her movements were efficient, but Kael noticed the slight tremor in her hands.
—"She will be fine," Elara said, answering the unasked question in Kael's eyes. —"But she needs real rest. Her fire meridian is stressed, like a muscle that has carried too much weight. If she tries to use Qi in the next twenty-four hours, she could fracture her foundation."
Kael nodded and turned toward Violeta.
The younger sister was sitting a bit apart, knees pulled to her chest, staring fixedly at nothing. Or so it seemed. Since they had left the swamp, Violeta had been strange. She wasn't catatonic; she responded when spoken to, but her blue eyes seemed to focus on things that weren't there.
Kael sat beside her. The pain in his own ribs was sharp—likely a fissure from the Guardian's blow—but he ignored it. His Blood cultivation was already working slowly to knit the damaged bone.
—"Vio," he called softly.
Violeta blinked slowly and turned her head. —"Hello, brother."
—"How do you feel? And don't tell me 'fine.' You were frozen in the Void."
Violeta looked down at her own hands. She opened and closed them, watching the skin stretch over her knuckles.
—"It wasn't cold," she said, in a whisper that barely overcame the wind. —"That's what people don't understand. The Void isn't cold. Cold is a temperature. The Void is... absence. It's like forgetting who you are, little by little. First you forget your name, then you forget you have a body, and in the end, you forget that anything other than darkness exists."
She looked up at Kael. Her gaze held an intensity that chilled his blood.
—"I heard you, Kael. In the darkness. I heard Eris burning herself to call me. I saw the golden light tear through the nothingness like a sword." Violeta extended a finger and traced a line in the air. Where her finger passed, space seemed to distort slightly, like air over hot asphalt. —"Now... now I see the seams."
—"The seams?" Kael asked, frowning.
—"The world is stitched together, Kael," she explained with disconcerting naturalness. —"Space isn't solid. It's a fabric. And it's full of holes, patches, and mends. I can see where the fabric is thin. I can see where to put my fingers to... open it."
Kael felt a mixture of pride and fear. His sister had survived, yes, but she had come back changed. Her spatial bloodline awakening had been forced by extreme trauma. She was no longer just a talented cultivator; she was someone who had stared into the abyss and learned its geography.
—"Rest, Vio," Kael said, placing a hand on her shoulder. He felt a slight vibration under his palm, as if Violeta's skin were humming. —"Tomorrow is another day. And I promise you, I won't let you go back to that darkness."
Violeta smiled, a small and sad smile. —"I know. But the darkness hasn't left, brother. I brought it back with me in my pockets."
II. The Theory of Blood and Space
The night passed in guard shifts. Kael took the first and the last, refusing to sleep deeply. He used the dead hours to meditate.
His cultivation had advanced. Constant crisis was a cruel but effective teacher. The Blood Refinement technique he practiced had taken a qualitative leap. Before, he could only manipulate blood once it was outside the body, using it as projectiles or whips. But the fusion with Eris's Qi and Violeta's guidance had given him a new perspective.
Kael closed his eyes and visualized his own blood flowing through his veins. Not just as a biological liquid, but as a river of energy.
«Violeta's Void is external space. My Blood is internal space,» he thought. «If I can control my blood with the same precision she uses to see the cracks in space, I could increase my explosive speed without damaging my muscles. I could become a living hydraulic engine.»
He tried to move a drop of blood inside his index finger, forcing it to circulate against the natural flow. The pain was instantaneous and sharp, like a needle being driven in. Kael gritted his teeth and held the pressure.
«Control. Not force. Control.»
He was in a cold sweat when Elara touched his shoulder for the shift change, but he had managed to keep that drop static for ten breaths. It was a start. His path toward true blood mastery was far off, but the map was being drawn.
III. The Path to the Citadel
By dawn, Eris's condition had improved enough for her to walk, though she complained that her body felt "as heavy as a Royal Alchemist's ego." Her humor, at least, was intact.
The group set off, guided by Elara's star map and the position of the sun.
—"We are leaving the wild zone," Elara informed them as they walked along a goat path that wound down the mountains. —"According to the ancient maps, within half a day's walk, we should find the Pilgrim's Road. It's an old trade route that connects the border towns with the Bronze Citadel."
—"Bronze Citadel?" Violeta asked, walking in the center of the formation.
—"It's a military outpost that turned into a city," Kael explained, recalling bits of information from his past life and the books he had read. —"It's the entry point to 'real' civilization in this sector. They have high walls, strict laws, and most importantly, markets where they don't try to eat you... metaphorically speaking."
—"We need supplies," Elara said. —"Our food is gone, and my medicinal herbs are at a minimum. Besides, we need information. The awakening of the Sleeping King won't go unnoticed. The Qi waves would have been felt for miles. There will be curious people, and curious people are dangerous."
—"We'll keep a low profile," Kael decided. —"Hoods up. Hide your cultivation. Violeta, you especially. Your spatial aura is... erratic. It feels like static. Try to contain it."
—"I'm trying," she murmured, "but it's like trying to hold smoke with your hands."
IV. The Scavengers of the Edge
At noon, just as Elara predicted, they reached a road paved with broken cobblestones. But they were not alone.
A group of six men blocked the path. They had overturned an old cart to create a makeshift barricade. They wore patched leather armor and carried a hodgepodge of weapons: rusted sabers, spiked maces, and the leader, a spear that glowed slightly with low-quality Qi.
They weren't common bandits. They were cultivation scavengers. Vultures who waited at the edges of dangerous zones to assault wounded explorers returning with treasures.
The leader, a man with a scar across his nose and yellow teeth, smiled upon seeing Kael's group. His eyes scanned the hooded figures, pausing on Eris's tired posture and Violeta's apparent fragility.
—"Well, well," the man said, stepping forward and twirling his spear with an unnecessary flourish. —"It seems the swamp spat out something interesting today."
Kael raised a hand, signaling his sisters and Elara to stop.
—"We're just travelers passing through," Kael said, keeping his voice flat and calm. He didn't want to fight if he could avoid it; Eris wasn't fit for combat and Violeta was unpredictable. —"We aren't looking for trouble."
—"No one looks for trouble, boy. Trouble finds you," the leader laughed, and his men laughed with him, spreading out to surround them. —"A tremor was felt last night. A golden light that touched the sky. You lot come from that direction. And you smell of... ancient magic."
The man spat on the ground. —"The toll for using this road is simple: half of whatever you're carrying. And maybe..." his gaze fell lewdly on Elara, "a bit of company to ease the boredom."
The air around Kael changed. The temperature didn't drop, but the pressure densified.
—"I will give you one chance to step aside," Kael said. His right hand slid slowly toward the hilt of his sword.
—"Ha! Are you threatening me, brat?" The leader released his aura. He was in the middle stage of the Foundation Realm. For a road bandit, it was impressive. To Kael, it was pathetic. —"Kill the boy! Leave the women alive!"
The six men lunged into the attack.
—"Elara, protect Eris," Kael ordered.
He didn't unsheathe his sword immediately. Instead, he stomped his foot on the ground.
Blood Art: Detection Pulse.
He felt the hearts of his enemies. Six drums beating rhythmically. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
Kael moved. He didn't use the Void. He used pure physical enhancement fueled by blood. He dodged the first slash of a saber by ducking under the attacker's guard. With a fluid motion, he struck with an open palm against the man's chest.
It wasn't an external blow. Kael injected a tiny needle of his own Qi into the bandit's circulatory system.
—"Clot."
The man stopped dead, clutching his chest, gasping like a fish out of water as his heart failed instantaneously. He dropped dead without a scream.
Kael spun, unsheathing his sword now. The red steel drew an arc in the air. He blocked the leader's spear and, with a raw strength that surprised the bandit, pushed him back.
—"He's a demon cultivator!" one of the men shouted, seeing his companion fall without visible wounds.
Two attackers tried to flank the girls. Elara pulled her daggers, ready to intercept them, but it wasn't necessary. Violeta raised her hand. There was no fear on her face, only a clinical curiosity.
—"You are too close," she whispered.
She made a "pushing" gesture with an open hand. The space in front of the two attackers compressed. It wasn't a wind; it was as if the distance between them and a nearby tree ceased to exist.
CRACK!
The two men were thrown laterally with absurd violence, slamming into the oak trunk with such force that their leather armor shattered. They fell to the ground, groaning with multiple broken bones.
The bandit leader froze, staring at his fallen men. —"What... what the hell are you people..."
Kael seized the distraction. Shadow Step. He appeared in front of the leader, the tip of his sword resting gently against the man's throat, right over the Adam's apple.
—"We are what comes out of the swamp when the King sleeps," Kael whispered, his eyes glowing with a faint crimson hue. —"Leave. Before I decide your blood serves me better outside your body than in."
The leader dropped his spear. He was shaking uncontrollably. —"I'm going... I'm going... Mercy!"
—"Run," Kael said, withdrawing the sword.
The bandit and the two who remained standing (those who hadn't attacked Violeta) dragged their wounded away and fled down the road, stumbling and looking back as if pursued by a ghost.
Kael sheathed his sword and sighed, letting the tension leave his shoulders. He turned toward Violeta.
—"That was... effective," he said, looking at the groaning men in the distance.
Violeta looked at her hand, frowning. —"I miscalculated. I only wanted to push them a meter. They moved five. The space here is more... slippery than in the swamp."
—"You'll have to practice," Elara said, stowing her daggers. —"But thank you."
V. The Bronze Citadel
They continued the journey without further incident. Fame of "the demons of the road" would likely spread fast, but that worked in their favor for now; no one else tried to stop them.
By late afternoon, they reached a hill overlooking the valley. And there it was.
The Bronze Citadel was not made of metal, but of a sandstone that, under the sunset light, glowed with a coppery and golden tone. It was immense, much larger than any settlement they had seen so far. Twenty-meter-high walls surrounded a nest of buildings, towers, and chimneys spewing strangely colored smoke—byproducts of alchemical forges and spiritual smithies.
The constant flow of people entering and leaving through the main gate was visible: merchant caravans, squads of soldiers in shining armor, and lone cultivators flying on swords or riding domesticated spiritual beasts.
The noise of the city reached them as a constant hum of life, trade, and conflict.
—"There it is," Kael said, feeling a mix of relief and caution. —"Hot food. Soft beds. And thousands of people who would sell their mother for a cultivation pill."
—"Sounds charming," Eris said, some color returning to her cheeks at the prospect of civilization. —"I hope they have wine. Real wine, not that fermented root garbage we made in the cave."
—"Let's go," Kael said, adjusting his hood. —"Remember: we are siblings traveling. Fake names if necessary. We don't show wealth. We don't show special techniques unless it's life or death. And above all..."
He looked at Violeta and Eris.
—"...no one mentions the Womb of the Sleeping King. To the world, we are just lucky survivors of a failed expedition. Understood?"
The three women nodded.
With the sun setting behind them, casting long shadows that looked like claws trying to hold them back, the Morningstars descended the hill toward the open jaws of the Bronze Citadel.
The nightmare of the swamp was over, but the jungle of asphalt and human ambition was about to begin. And Kael knew, from his past life experiences, that human-faced monsters were often the hungriest.
[End of Chapter 98]