The Gacha Of Forbidden Taboos

Chapter 9: Territorial Claims

Lin Feng's POV

The High Priest looked at Young Master Shen, then back at me. His lips thinned into a line of pure distaste.

"Tie Yan was a servant of the House of Flame. He owned nothing but his life and his debt. What 'station' could a Nullity possibly claim from a fallen dog?"

I wiped a streak of muddy gore from my cheek.

"The Scavenger Pits. Tie Yan was the overseer of the waste-tunnels. I claim his title. I claim the Pits. Every stone, every scrap of rot, and every soul currently breathing in the dark."

A ripple of confused laughter broke the tension. To the elites, I was asking for a kingdom of trash. To me, I was asking for a factory of suffering.

"Granted," the Priest spat, waving a dismissive hand. "Take your throne of filth, Lin Feng. It suits you."

Returning to the Pits wasn't a retreat, it was a homecoming.

Within six hours, I had gathered the forty-two "Commoners" who lived in the damp crevices of the lower levels.

They were hollow-eyed, skeletal things, men and women who had been broken by the Academy’s "lessons" until they were more ghost than human.

They looked at my scorched skin and the Silver-Spire badge at my belt with a mixture of awe and terror.

"I’m not here to lead you," I said, standing atop a rusted crate of drake-fodder. "I’m here to show you how to stop being cattle."

I showed them the scraps of mana-conductive ore hidden in the spirit-beast waste, discarded fragments the Elites were too proud to sift through.

Under my direction, we began to forge a perimeter.

We didn't build walls of stone, we built traps of wire and bone. I taught them how to "harvest" the residual mana from the drakes’ shedding scales to heat the tunnels.

For the first time in the history of the Spire, the "Nullities" weren't just surviving. We were organizing.

[NEW TERRITORY ACQUIRED: THE VOID-NEST.]

[PASSIVE GENERATION: 100 AGONY POINTS / HOUR (COLLECTIVE DESPAIR).]

By the second night, the Scavenger Pits had become a labyrinth of shadows. I sat in the deepest chamber, the Cursed Tablet resting on my knees.

It felt heavier now, pulsing with a rhythmic, dark heat that seemed to synchronize with my own heartbeat.

"It’s a crude fortress, but effective for a beginner." The voice was like silk sliding over a blade.

I didn't reach for the [Phantom Rib] immediately, but the Abyssal Chains coiled beneath my skin, ready to lash out.

Standing in the archway of my "throne room" was a girl who looked like she had been birthed from the nebula itself.

Her hair was a shock of white-silver, and her eyes were a piercing, unnatural violet. She wore the robes of the High-Spires, the inner circle of the Academy where even Shen wasn't allowed to tread.

"You’re a long way from the clouds, High-Talent," I said, not moving from my seat.

She stepped into the dim light of the phosphorescent fungi. "My name is Yue. And I’m not here to 'lesson' you, Lin Feng. I’m here to offer you a deal for that piece of dead god on your lap."

She pointed a gloved finger at the Tablet. "I know what it is. I know it’s hungry. And I know you don't have enough blood to satisfy it yet."

I stood up, the Tablet's weeping eyes glowing a dull crimson. "Many have tried to take things from me lately. They’re all currently feeding the drakes."

Yue didn't flinch. She smiled, a cold, knowing expression that made my skin crawl. "Don't be provincial.

You think you’ve stumbled upon a unique toy? That is the Tablet of the First Sorrow. It is one of the Seven Forbidden Keys."

She took a step closer, her voice dropping to a whisper that echoed in the stone chamber.

"The other six aren't held by 'Young Masters' or Academy Priests, Lin Feng. They are the cornerstones of the Seven Great Empires.

The World Emperors use them to harvest the suffering of entire nations to fuel their immortality."

I looked down at the stone.

I had thought I was playing a game against a school bully."If they find out a 'Zero' is holding the Seventh Key," Yue continued, her violet eyes locking onto mine, "they won't send hunters. They will erase this entire mountain range from the map just to bury you."

[WARNING: WORLD-LEVEL THREAT DETECTED.]

[NEW QUEST: THE EMPEROR'S SHADOW.]

I gripped the Tablet until my knuckles turned white. "And why are you telling me this?"

"Because," she said, reaching out to touch the cold surface of the stone, "I want to see what happens when the cattle finally bites the butcher."

The Tablet suddenly shrieked, a sound only I could hear. The red screen erupted in front of my face, flashing a message I had never seen before.

[SYNCHRONIZATION DETECTED: KEY #7 TO KEY #3.]

[LOCATION OF SECOND TABLET REVEALED: THE IMPERIAL CAPITAL.]

"The hunt has already begun, Lin Feng," Yue whispered. "Are you going to pull, or are you going to die?"