13 Heavens: Rise Of The Bloodline Dreg

The Trojan Horse

The night in the white room felt endless. Quiet. Too quiet.

Leo didn’t sleep. He sat on the floor with his back against the wall, breathing slowly. Each breath pulled the thin, filtered air deep into his Zephyr Lungs.

He could feel the Qi-dampening field the System warned him about a faint pressure, like a heavy blanket pressed over the room.

But trying to block a Level 13 Zephyr Lung was like trying to stop the ocean with a fishing net.

He could sense tiny gaps in the field, little cracks where energy leaked through. His lungs drew it in anyway. Slowly. Weakly. But it was still enough to keep him steady.

Leo closed his eyes, thinking. Planning.

The System’s idea was risky, but it was the only thing that made sense. He couldn’t break his way out of here. Not yet.

“Play along,” he whispered to himself. “Be patient. Be smart.”

At dawn, the door slid open with a soft hiss.

Leo looked up.

It wasn’t Cora.

Instead, a young man in Aetherius grey stepped inside, holding a tray. And not the usual synth paste either real food. Steamed grains. Grilled meat. Fresh fruit.

The man set the tray down and cleared his throat.

“You, uh… should eat,” he said quietly. “Orders from above.”

Leo raised an eyebrow. “Since when do prisoners get room service?”

A gilded cage, Leo thought.

But still a cage.

He glanced at the food, then at the closing door.

“Fine,” he murmured. “Let’s see what game you’re all trying to play.”

"The Analyst will see you now," the young man said, his voice neutral.

Leo ate. He needed the strength. The food was delicious, a stark contrast to everything he'd known for years. It was another kind of trap.

He was led not to the interrogation room, but to an office with a wall of windows overlooking the monstrous, green-tinted city. Cora stood by the window, looking out.

"Have you considered our offer, Mr. Kaelen?" she asked without turning.

"I have," Leo said, keeping his voice flat, resigned. "You leave me no real choice. If joining you is the only way to keep breathing... then I join."

Cora turned, a satisfied glint in her stormy eyes. She had expected this. "A pragmatic decision. Welcome to the Aetherius Clan, provisional branch."

She walked to her desk and tapped a screen. "Your first examination is scheduled for this afternoon. We will begin with physical stress tests and aura mapping.

Your new quarters are on the 40th floor. You will have limited access to the clan's common areas and the basic cultivation library."

She looked up at him. "Do not mistake this for freedom, Leo. You are an investment. And we monitor our investments very, very closely."

"I understand," Leo said, bowing his head slightly. The perfect picture of a beaten man.

---

His new room was a small apartment, clean and modern. It was a hundred times better than his old place. It was also a prison with a better view. He could feel the subtle hum of surveillance in the walls.

The afternoon examination was as invasive as he feared. They put him in a chamber and subjected him to crushing gravity, searing heat, and blasts of pure aura, all while machines scanned every twitch of his muscle, every flutter of his Qi.

[System is masking core cultivation levels. Presenting readings consistent with high-tier Skin Refining (Level 9) and emerging Marrow Refining (Level 3).]

[Warning: Prolonged scanning may penetrate the deception.]

Leo played his part. He strained under the pressure, he grunted in pain, he let his aura flicker in a way that seemed strong for a dreg, but not impossibly so. He let them see what they wanted to see: a rare, rough diamond, waiting to be cut and polished by their expertise.

The lead technician, a man with glasses, seemed pleased. "Remarkable baseline resilience. The data is... messy, but the potential is undeniable. Analyst Cora will be fascinated."

After the tests, he was given a pass card. "Your access is limited to the residential wing, the mess hall, and the Public Theory Library on Sub-Level 2," the technician said. "Do not attempt to enter any restricted areas."

The Public Theory Library. That was his target.

Later that evening, Leo walked the sterile halls, his senses on high alert. He found the library a vast, quiet room with rows of data-terminals and old-fashioned books behind glass.

A few other low-level Aetherius members were there, studying. No one paid him any attention. The new, strange face was just another recruit.

He sat at a terminal and began to search. He wasn't looking for cultivation secrets; those would be in the restricted archives.

He was looking for maps. Logistics. City planning. Specifically, he searched for "Municipal Power Relays" and "Pre-Revival Sub-Basement Access."

The System guided him, highlighting useful fragments of data in the public records.

[Cross-referencing data. The Aetherius Tower's primary Qi-gathering array is powered by a dedicated fusion reactor in Sub-Basement 3. Security is focused on the reactor core itself. The coolant and auxiliary power systems are less guarded.]

[Hypothesis: A targeted disruption in the auxiliary systems could trigger a facility-wide containment protocol, including a temporary shutdown of surveillance and a lockdown of security fields.]

A plan, dangerous and desperate, began to form. He couldn't fight the guards. He couldn't break the walls. But if he could make the building itself blink...

He needed a tool. A distraction.

He remembered the basic cultivation manuals he was allowed to access. One was titled "Introduction to Qi-Channeling and Resonance." It explained how all matter, especially refined metals and crystals, has a resonant frequency. How a cultivator can, with fine control, find that frequency and... destabilize it.

He wasn't supposed to be able to do that yet. It was a technique for those deep into Qi Refining. But he wasn't a normal cultivator. He had Zephyr Lungs, capable of incredibly precise breath control and internal energy manipulation. He had the System to calculate the frequencies.

He spent the next two days being a model prisoner. He attended his humiliating examinations. He ate in the mess hall, head down. He went to the library every night, always studying the same basic manuals, playing the part of a eager but simple student.

On the third night, he was ready.

He waited until the late shift, when the library was empty. He walked to a section on architectural history. There, displayed in a case, was a scale model of the Aetherius Tower. It was made of a polished, piezoelectric crystal a material that vibrates under stress. A ceremonial paperweight.

It was perfect.

He looked around. The security camera in the library corner had a tiny, glowing red light. He focused on it, then took a deep, controlled breath.

He felt the air in his lungs, charged with the ambient Qi he'd been steadily absorbing. He focused it, not into a blast, but into a single, ultra-fine thread of vibration.

He exhaled, silently, toward the camera.

A barely audible hum. The camera's red light flickered once, then went dark. The System had found its resonance frequency and, with the precision of a surgeon, frazzled its internal circuitry for exactly sixty seconds.

He had one minute.

He moved fast. He didn't break the glass case. He placed his palm against it and exhaled another focused breath. The glass, too, had a resonance. He felt it through his Diamond Hide skin a sharp, singing note. He matched it, then pushed.

The glass didn't shatter. It sanded. It turned to a fine, silent powder that cascaded to the bottom of the case, leaving a neat hole.

He reached in and took the crystal model of the tower. It was cold and heavy in his hand.

The camera's light flickered back on.

He was just a man holding a book, standing away from the display case, which from a distance looked intact. The missing model wouldn't be noticed until morning.

He tucked the crystal model under his shirt and walked calmly back to his room. His heart was a drum in his chest, but his face was calm.

Back in his quarters, he held the model. The System interfaced with it.

[Analysis: Piezoelectric Crystal Matrix. Can be overloaded with a sustained, discordant resonant frequency, causing a localized energy surge.]

[Calculating optimal target: Central Auxiliary Power Coupling, Sub-Basement 2. A surge at this node will trigger a cascade failure in the monitoring grid for approximately 4.7 minutes.]

Four and a half minutes. That was his window.

He looked out his window at the dark, sleeping city below. He was deep in the heart of his enemy. He had a key made of crystal. And he had a plan.

Tomorrow, during the midday shift change, he would make his move. He would turn their own power against them and vanish into the chaos.

But as he lay in bed, the crystal model hidden under his pillow, a new message flashed across his vision, sharp and urgent.

[Warning: Unauthorized Bio-Scan detected.]

[Source: Apartment Air Vent. Scanning for... emotional stress indicators and covert energy use.]

They were watching him even here. Even in this tiny white room.

“Of course they are,” Leo muttered. “They want to see if I’ll behave.”

Every move he made was being judged. Every bite of food. Every breath.

They were testing him.

“So the game has already started,” he said quietly. “And the Aetherius Clan thinks they’re ahead.”

He gave a small, tired smile.

“Good. Let them think that.”