13 Heavens: Rise Of The Bloodline Dreg

Devour or be Devoured

He had escaped the hunter. But he had jumped into the mouth of a different beast. The perfect energy of his 13th Level foundations was now a poison in this place, a shining beacon that the chaos wanted to extinguish.

He was alone, in hell, and his own body was beginning to turn against him.

In the swirling purple mist ahead, something huge and multi-limbed shifted, drawn by the scent of his pure, struggling energy. A low, gurgling growl echoed through the warped trees.

The fight was over. The survival had just begun. And he had nothing left to fight with but the System, and a body that was becoming his enemy.

Leo's heart was a frantic drum against his ribs. The whispers weren't just in his head now they were in the air, slithering through the glowing leaves, echoing from the pulsating ground.

The multi-limbed shadow in the mist took a heavy step forward. He saw a flash of chitinous plates, too many joints, and eyes that shone with a hungry, insane light.

He couldn't fight. His Qi was churning inside him like a stormy sea, fighting the corrupt energy trying to force its way in. Every breath with his perfect Zephyr Lungs was agony, like inhaling broken glass and poison.

[Qi Deviation Progress: 7%. Cellular stress increasing.]

[Recommendation: Immediate cessation of Qi use. Seal aura vents.]

Seal them with what? Leo thought desperately. He was a walking leak of pure energy in a world of rot.

The beast emerged fully. It was a nightmare of the Revival a stag, maybe once, but now twice as tall, with six legs ending in hooked claws. Its antlers were not bone, but clusters of glowing, jagged crystals that hummed with the same chaotic energy as the chasm. Its eyes were pools of swirling purple.

It sniffed the air, its snout wrinkling. It didn't see him as prey. It saw him as an irritant. A spot of painful, clean light in its comfortable darkness.

It lowered its crystal antlers and charged. The ground shuddered.

Leo dove sideways, his movements sluggish, his body screaming in protest. A crystal antler grazed his side. His Diamond Hide skin resisted the puncture, but a wave of cold, chaotic energy shot through the impact site, making his muscles seize.

He rolled, gasping. The beast turned, its movements unnaturally fluid. It was going to skewer him.

He was going to die here, in the mud, his perfect cultivation eaten by corruption.

[Emergency Protocol Activated.]

[The System cannot filter environmental energy. Host must adapt.]

[Proposed Solution: Assimilation. Devour the corruption. Refine it.]

The words burned in his mind. Devour the corruption. It was insane. It was the opposite of everything cultivation stood for. Purity was strength. This was poison.

The beast charged again. Leo had no other option.

As the crystal antlers came for his chest, he didn't try to dodge. He did the opposite. He reached out, his hands glowing with the last of his own pure, struggling Qi, and he grabbed the two central crystal prongs.

The moment he touched them, it was like grabbing a live power line made of madness.

Chaotic energy, raw and violent, blasted up his arms. It burned. It wasn't heat; it was a sensation of unraveling, of his very cells forgetting their purpose. He screamed, his voice lost in the chasm's hum.

But he held on.

[Initiating Forced Assimilation Protocol.]

[Channeling chaotic energy into refinement pathways.]

His body, rebuilt by the System for perfection, revolted. His Marrow shrieked as the corruption touched it. His Lungs seized, trying to reject the foul power. The pain was beyond anything he had ever felt deeper than bone, worse than death.

The beast roared, confused. This tiny thing was not only surviving its touch, but was clinging to it, sucking the energy from its antlers.

The crystals began to dim. The purple light in them flickered, flowing into Leo.

Inside him, a war raged. The perfect, structured energy of his 13th-Level foundations fought the invading chaos. But the System was a ruthless general. It forced the chaos into the same pathways used for refinement. It was treating this poisonous energy as a crude, terrible fuel.

The beast, enraged and weakening, tried to shake him off. Leo held on like a barnacle, his fingers locked, his body a conduit for a storm.

[Assimilation at 15%. Qi Deviation Stabilized.]

[Corrupt energy is being broken down. Efficiency: 0.3%. Waste product: 99.7%.]

He wasn't refining it. He was barely digesting it. But he was using it to stop his own energy from tearing him apart. It was like using mud to plug a hole in a dam.

The beast's crystal antlers cracked, then shattered with a sound like breaking glass. The creature stumbled back, bellowing in pain and confusion, its primary weapons gone.

It looked at Leo with something like fear before turning and crashing away into the purple mist.

Leo collapsed to his knees, his arms smoking, his skin covered in fine, black cracks where the chaotic energy had forced its way in. He vomited a thick, black sludge that hissed where it hit the ground.

He was alive. But he was changed.

He could feel it. The whispers in the chasm were quieter. The oppressive pressure felt less like it was crushing him and more like it was just... there. He had taken a bite of the poison, and survived.

He looked at his hands. The black cracks were already fading, healed by his Phoenix Marrow, but they left behind faint, silvery lines, like scars of lightning.

[Assimilation Protocol Successful. Host has developed a basic tolerance to low-grade chaotic energy.]

[Warning: This is not refinement. This is survival. Prolonged exposure or assimilation of higher-grade corrupt sources will lead to systemic failure.]

[New Status: Contaminated.]

He wasn't pure anymore. He was contaminated. But he was alive.

He had a tolerance. He could move. He could breathe without wanting to scream.

He got shakily to his feet. He was in the heart of the most dangerous place in New York. But for the first time since stepping in, he had a chance. He needed to find shelter. He needed to find a source of pure energy to rebalance himself, or the contamination would slowly eat him from the inside out.

The System pinged, scanning the area with newfound resistance to the interference.

[Anomaly Detected: 800 meters northeast. A pocket of stable, non-chaotic energy. Signature matches... Pre-Revival geological strata. Possible sanctuary.]

A sanctuary. A place the corruption hadn't reached.

It was a direction. A goal.

He began to walk, his steps unsteady at first, then firmer. The twisted trees seemed to watch him, but the creatures within them now hesitated, sensing the new, strange signature he carried—part pure prey, part toxic predator.

He was no longer just Leo Kaelen, the cultivator of perfection.

He was something else. Something that had stared into the chaotic abyss, and taken a bite.

As he pushed through a wall of glowing, rubbery vines, he emerged into a small clearing. And there, nestled against a cliff face, was the source of the pure energy signature. It was a cave mouth, but the rock around it was normal grey stone, not the pulsating purple of the chasm. Clean, wild grass grew at its entrance.

He had found it. A bubble of the old world.

He hurried toward it, hope flaring in his chest for the first time in days.

Just as he reached the cave entrance, a figure stepped out from the shadows within, blocking his way.

It was a man. He was dressed in tattered, old-world clothes that had been expertly repaired. He was lean, with a long, grey beard and eyes that were clear and sharp, not clouded by madness. In his hand, he held a simple, wooden spear, its tip sharpened stone.

He looked at Leo, his gaze taking in the silvery scars, the torn Aetherius clothes, the wild look in his eyes.

The old man didn't look afraid. He looked curious, and deeply, deeply wary.

He spoke, his voice rough but steady, cutting through the chasm's whisper.

"You," the old man said, lowering his spear point just slightly. "You carry the stink of the outside world, and the new stain of the deep chasm. Which one are you? And why have you come to my door?"