My System Devours Immortals

Crawling Out

Cris climbed.

The pit walls were jagged, slick with moss and old blood. His fingers found cracks. His toes found ledges. The ring pulsed on his hand, feeding him strength with every movement.

Halfway up, his grip slipped.

He fell three feet before catching a root. His shoulder wrenched. He hung there, breathing hard, legs dangling over the darkness below. Something howled at the bottom of the pit. Something else answered.

Cris pulled himself up.

He reached the top as the sun set behind the mountain. The training yard was empty. Disciples had gone to dinner. No one guarded the pit. No one expected anyone to climb out.

He crawled onto flat ground and lay there, staring at the sky. His body was a map of pain. Bruises covered his ribs. His left arm hung wrong. But he was alive.

The system spoke.

"Status."

A faint image appeared in his mind. Not words on a screen. More like knowledge, pressed directly into his thoughts.

Name: Cris

Realm: None

Meridians: 1% repaired

Devour Cooldown: Ready

Techniques: None

Bloodline: Unknown

"One percent," Cris muttered. "That's it?"

"You devoured a dying beast. A weak meal. Kill stronger prey. Grow faster."

Cris sat up. His arm needed to be set. He grabbed a wooden post and braced himself. Then he shoved his shoulder back into place.

The pain nearly made him black out. He bit his tongue until he tasted blood. When his vision cleared, he stood.

The outer sect sprawled before him. Mud huts. Cracked training stones. Disciples in gray robes, the lowest rank. This was his world for three years. A world that had beaten him, starved him, thrown him away.

No more.

He walked toward the dormitories. His steps were slow, but steady. Disciples passed him. None looked twice. To them, he was still trash. Still the cripple.

That would change.

---

Wei was the first to notice him.

Wei was Zhao Kun's lackey. Seventeen. Qi Gathering Third Layer. He had held Cris down while Zhao Kun broke his ribs last month. He had laughed.

Now he stood outside the dining hall, arms crossed, watching Cris approach.

"You're alive?" Wei asked. "Zhao Kun said you'd feed the beasts."

"I did," Cris said. "They weren't hungry."

Wei frowned. "What?"

Cris kept walking. Wei stepped in front of him.

"You don't get to walk away, trash. Zhao Kun wants you dead. Maybe I should finish what he started."

He reached for Cris's collar.

Cris moved first.

His fist caught Wei in the throat. The lackey gagged, stumbling back. Cris grabbed his arm and twisted. Bone cracked. Wei screamed.

Disciples turned. Some gasped. None intervened.

"Kill him," the system whispered. "Devour."

Cris hesitated. Killing Zhao Kun's lackey would send a message. But it would also bring attention. He wasn't ready. Not yet.

He leaned close to Wei's ear. "Tell Zhao Kun I'm coming. Tell him I remember everything."

He shoved Wei into the mud and walked away.

---

The dormitory was empty. Cris sat on his broken cot and stared at the ring.

"What are you?" he asked.

"I told you. A furnace. A spirit. A system."

"Where did you come from?"

"A dead man. A fool who thought he could devour an immortal. He failed. I waited. Now you."

"Why me?"

"Because you were broken. The broken are hungry. The hungry devour."

Cris turned the ring on his finger. It was warm. Alive. He should be afraid. He wasn't.

"What can you do?"

"I devour the dead. Their cultivation. Their techniques. Their memories. Everything they were, I take. Everything I take, you gain."

"The dead only?"

"For now. Grow stronger. Then we devour more."

Cris lay back on the cot. His body still ached. His meridians still flickered with weak light. But for the first time in three years, he felt something he had forgotten.

Hope.

The door slammed open.

Sun, another of Zhao Kun's men, stood in the doorway. Behind him, three more disciples. All armed.

"Wei says you're back," Sun said. "Zhao Kun wants to see you. Personally."

Cris stood slowly. His ribs screamed. His arm throbbed. But he smiled.

"Good," he said. "I want to see him too."

Sun frowned. "You're not scared?"

Cris looked at the ring. It pulsed. Hungry.

"Should I be?"