?Jiang Chen didn't rush the climb. He paused just below the rim of the chute, listening to the hum of the laboratory above.
?He looked at his hands. They were pink and healthy, the skin renewed by the massive influx of energy.
That was a problem.
Elder Han expected a victim, not a survivor.
?Jiang Chen reached into the bucket of slag. He scooped up a handful of the warm, black tar and smeared it over his face, neck, and arms. He rubbed it into his hair until he looked like he had been birthed from a swamp. Then, he deliberately scraped his knuckles against the rough stone wall until they bled, masking his regeneration with fresh, superficial wounds.
?Deception is the first layer of armor, he thought.
?He hauled himself up the ladder and stumbled onto the laboratory floor, letting the bucket clang loudly against the stone.
?Elder Han was waiting. He stood by a bronze cauldron, measuring out powdered bone. He didn't turn around immediately.
"You're alive," Han said, the disappointment faint but audible.
?"Done," Jiang Chen rasped, keeping his head low. He pushed the bucket forward with his foot.
?Han turned. His eyes swept over Jiang Chen's filth-encrusted form, lingering on the bloody knuckles. He nodded, satisfied by the display of suffering.
"And the chute?"
?"Scraped to the stone, Elder."
?Han walked past him, peering into the dark opening of the waste chute. He sniffed the air.
"The sulfur concentration has dropped significantly," Han muttered, surprised. "You didn't just clean it; you stripped it."
?He turned back to the bucket. He dipped a long silver needle into the black sludge. The needle turned a vibrant, toxic green.
"Excellent potency," Han murmured, his greed surfacing. "The concentration of fire poison in this slag is higher than I calculated. You've saved me weeks of gathering materials."
?He looked at Jiang Chen, his gaze assessing.
"You have utility, boy. Most disciples would have dissolved their lungs in there within ten breaths. You stayed for an hour."
?Han reached into his robe and tossed a small, coarse pouch onto the floor. It landed with a dull clink.
"Three Spirit Stones. Your payment."
?It was a pittance. A starvation wage for the work done.
Jiang Chen grabbed the pouch, bowing deeply to hide the sneer on his face.
"Thank you, Elder."
?"Get out," Han waved a hand, already turning back to his cauldron. "Wash yourself. If you track that filth into my sleeping quarters, I'll skin you. Report back in three days for the next... extraction."
?Jiang Chen backed out of the room, clutching the pouch and the hidden ring in his belt.
He didn't walk to the servant quarters. He went to the woodline behind the Alchemy Peak, finding a secluded hollow beneath the roots of a twisted pine tree.
?Only when he was sure he was alone did he sit down.
?First, the payment.
He opened the coarse pouch. Three grey, low-grade Spirit Stones. They were clouded, full of impurities—trash to a real cultivator, but currency to the poor.
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?[Item: Low-Grade Spirit Stone x3]
[EV Value: 5 EV each.]
?"Fifteen points," Jiang Chen scoffed. He tossed them into his mouth like peanuts. Crunch.
?[Consumed: Spirit Stone x3]
[EV +15]
[Current EV: 256]
?He felt a tiny trickle of Qi enter his Dantian, barely a drop in the bucket compared to the Feast of the Chute.
He wiped his mouth and pulled out the real prize.
?The tarnished silver ring.
?It sat in his palm, cold and unassuming. A "Spatial Ring." Even the lowest grade cost a thousand spirit stones. Possession of one by a servant was a death sentence.
?"System," Jiang Chen whispered. "Analyze."
?[Target: Damaged Spatial Ring.]
[Security Seal: Blood-Lock (Owner Deceased).]
[Integrity: 12%.]
[Bypass Possible: 100 EV.]
?Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow. The System could brute-force magical locks?
"Do it."
?[EV -100]
[Current EV: 156]
[Initiating Void Intrusion...]
?Black sparks danced from Jiang Chen's fingertips, wrapping around the silver band. The ring vibrated, resisting for a second, before the blood-lock shattered with a microscopic pop.
?Jiang Chen sent a thread of his consciousness inside.
The space within was small—barely a cubic meter—and unstable. The edges of the pocket dimension were fraying, grey fog eating away at the contents.
?There wasn't much.
A pile of rotting clothes.
A rusted dagger.
And a small, leather-bound notebook wrapped in oilcloth.
?Jiang Chen pulled the notebook out.
He ignored the dagger and the clothes. Information was the rarest resource in the sect.
?He opened the book. The pages were brittle, the ink faded. It was written in a frantic, scratching hand.
?Entry 4:
The fumes are getting worse. Elder Han thinks I don't know what he's making. He calls it medicine. It's poison. He's feeding the failures to the outer disciples and recording how long it takes them to die.
?Entry 12:
I found a way out. There's a drainage pipe in the lower cistern. It's too small for a man, but the map says it leads to the Old Mine under the Beast Peak. If I can get a shrinking charm...
?Entry Final:
He knows. Han knows I saw the ledger. He's sending me to the chute today. If you find this... don't trust the pills. The 'Bone Tempering' pills are laced with parasitic eggs. He's breeding them inside us.
?Jiang Chen slammed the book shut.
The silence of the forest seemed to press in on him.
?"Parasitic eggs," he whispered.
He thought back to the "failed" pill he had eaten to break through. The "fire poison" he had digested.
Was it poison? Or was it a larva?
?[System Query: Biologic Scan.]
[Result: Confirming. The "Fire Poison" digested contained trace biological markers of a Spirit Insect.]
[Status: Digested. Converted to Protein/Qi.]
?Jiang Chen let out a low, dark chuckle.
Elder Han wasn't just an alchemist. He was a farmer.
And the disciples were the soil.
?"Good," Jiang Chen said, his eyes narrowing. "A villain with a secret is easier to kill than a saint with a shield."
?He put the notebook into his own inventory (the System space), then slipped the ring onto his finger. It was invisible to the naked eye, masked by the System.
?He stood up.
He had 156 EV.
He had a map to a secret mine.
And he knew Elder Han's dirty laundry.
?It was time to spend those points.
?"System," Jiang Chen commanded. "Open the Evolution Tree."
?[Evolution Tree Accessed]
[Current EV: 156]
?[Available Upgrades:]
?1. Iron Skin - Bronze Skin (Cost: 150 EV): ?Effect: Major increase to physical defense. Immune to normal steel. Resistance to Qi attacks increased by 10%.
?2. Rending Claw - Void Claw (Cost: 120 EV): ?Effect: Claws gain a "phase" property, partially ignoring physical armor. ?
3. Unlock New Organ: Adrenal Gland (Variant) (Cost: 100 EV): ?Effect: Active Skill [Burst]. Doubles speed and reflex for 10 seconds. heavy stamina cost.
?Jiang Chen looked at the options.
He was strong, but he was slow. If he had to fight a cultivator who used ranged attacks or flying swords, he would be a sitting duck.
?"Speed," he decided. "And violence."
?[Select: Unlock Adrenal Gland (Variant).]
[EV -100]
[Current EV: 56]
?Pain shot through his lower back, right above his kidneys. It felt like someone had stabbed him with a hot needle.
He gritted his teeth, sweating through the pain as a new organ stitched itself into his biology.
?[Evolution Complete.]
[New Skill Acquired: Blood Burst.]
[Description: Overclock the nervous system. The world slows down. You move fast. Consequences: Hunger increases by 200% after use.]
?Jiang Chen exhaled, the pain fading into a dull throb.
He felt... wired. Like a coiled spring.
?"Three days until the next extraction," he muttered, looking toward the distant silhouette of the Beast Peak.
"I'm not waiting three days."
?If the dead cleaner was right, there was a tunnel to an Old Mine. And mines meant minerals. Rare earth. Or maybe... sleeping beasts.
?Jiang Chen turned and sprinted into the forest. He didn't run like a human anymore. He ran low to the ground, silent and terrifyingly fast.
