THE BOY THEY CALLED A JINX BECAME THE SUPREME CULTIVATOR

8 - BLOOD II

He wondered if Mo Wudi was currently sitting in a warm pavilion at the Azure Dragon Hall, sipping premium tea and celebrating his flawless victory.

The thought should have filled him with a burning wrath, but he was simply too tired to hold onto the anger anymore.

He let his heavy eyelids fall shut, surrendering to the quiet darkness as his heartbeat slowed to a faint, irregular flutter.

He did not know how long he drifted in that silent, painless void beneath the crushing weight of the ocean.

Consciousness returned not as a slow dawn, but as a blinding explosion of pure agony that shattered his peaceful oblivion.

A guttural scream tore itself from his throat as the unmistakable smell of searing flesh filled the water around him.

His eyes snapped open to find Ye Canghai kneeling over him with a fist-sized, glowing red thermal rock clutched in a pair of bone tongs.

The old man was pressing the super-heated stone directly into the ragged, bleeding tear Mo Wudi had left in Zhentian's chest.

"Hold still," Ye Canghai commanded, his voice devoid of any sympathy as he applied more pressure to the smoking wound.

Zhentian thrashed against the muddy floor, his broken body fighting the restraint as the intense heat violently fused his severed blood vessels shut.

The boiling water bubbled fiercely against his skin, carrying away the charred remnants of his own flesh into the dark, swirling current.

Ye Canghai finally pulled the glowing rock away, tossing it aside to sizzle quietly in the freezing mud a few feet away.

Zhentian lay gasping for air, tears of pain blurring his vision as the residual heat pulsed relentlessly through his hollowed core.

"You survived the teeth," the old man noted, wiping a smear of dark blood from his weathered cheek with the back of his hand.

Zhentian tried to formulate a response, but his parched throat could only produce a ragged, broken wheeze that tasted like ash.

"You also proved you are exactly as foolish as every other pampered disciple walking the surface world today," Ye Canghai continued, his tone hardening.

The old man reached down and grabbed Zhentian by the collar of his ruined robes, dragging the boy's head up to meet his cold gaze.

"You tried to seal a mortal wound using a shattered Yellow Root in an environment that actively crushes weak Qi."

Zhentian grimaced as his broken collarbone shifted under the rough handling, but he refused to look away from the scarred assassin.

"I had to stop the bleeding," Zhentian rasped out, his voice sounding thin and hollow in the vast silence of the trench.

"You merely accelerated your own demise by forcing a broken tool to perform a task it was never meant to handle," Ye Canghai shot back.

The old man let go of the robes, allowing Zhentian to drop back down into the soft mud with a dull thud.

"Out here, your shiny martial arts and your pathetic attempts to circulate energy will only get you eaten faster."

Ye Canghai stood up, towering over the boy like a grim shadow against the faint ambient light of the deep ocean.

"This is not a sparring ring where a referee steps in when you start coughing up blood, boy."

Zhentian pressed a trembling hand over his newly cauterized wound, feeling the rough, blistered skin where the hole used to be.

The agonizing pain was still there, but the steady flow of warm blood leaking into the freezing ocean had finally stopped.

"You watched me fight that thing," Zhentian said, narrowing his eyes as he looked up at the Genesis Overlord.

"I watched you survive by pure luck," Ye Canghai corrected smoothly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You used the environment to your advantage, which is the only reason you are not currently being digested in that beast's stomach."

"It worked, didn't it?" Zhentian muttered, struggling to sit up despite the dizzying wave of nausea washing over him.

"A lucky trick only works once in the abyss before the predators learn your scent and adapt their hunting methods," Ye Canghai warned.

The old man turned his back, slowly walking over to inspect the massive carcass of the Abyssal Crawler resting in the dirt.

"You think because you killed one blind feeder, you are ready to conquer the dark waters with a broken arm and a useless core."

Zhentian gritted his teeth, humiliated by the harsh truth in the old man's words.

He had barely survived a mindless beast, yet his ultimate goal was to climb back to the surface and slaughter an entire sect.

"I will learn," Zhentian stated firmly, pushing himself up until he was leaning heavily against a smooth rock outcropping.

Ye Canghai paused his inspection of the carcass, glancing over his shoulder with a chilling lack of emotion in his eyes.

"Learning requires abandoning everything you think you know about strength, cultivation, and survival."

The old man reached down and pulled a long, razor-sharp fang from the dead beast's jaw with a sickening crunch.

"Your Azure Dragon Hall taught you to rely on a glowing root in your chest to solve all your problems."

Ye Canghai tossed the bloody fang into the mud near Zhentian's boots, the sharp tip sinking easily into the dense dirt.

"That root is gone, and the pathetic yellow scrap left behind is nothing more than a liability waiting to snap again."

Zhentian stared at the fang, the reality of his crippled state crashing over him anew.

"If I cannot use Qi, how am I supposed to fight my way out of this trench?" Zhentian asked, frustration bleeding into his voice.

"You learn to hunt like the things that live down here," Ye Canghai answered, turning fully to face the broken boy.

"You use silence, you use leverage, and you use the environment to crush your enemies before they even know you are there."

The old man took a slow step forward, the faint blue light casting deep, menacing shadows across his scarred face.

"But if you ever try to circulate standard Qi like a righteous sect disciple again, do not worry about the monsters in the dark."

Ye Canghai's voice dropped to a terrifying whisper that seemed to chill the very water around them.

"I will kill you myself to save us both the trouble."