?The moon hung low over the Alchemy Peak, a pale, unblinking eye watching the carnage below.

  ?Jiang Chen moved through the forest like a smudge of ink on a dark painting. His new body didn't disturb the underbrush; the [Void Foundation] naturally dampened his acoustic footprint, absorbing the sound of his footsteps before they could echo.

  ?He wasn't running. He was stalking.

  ?He reached the base of the stone stairs leading up to Elder Han's compound. A week ago, simply standing here would have made his heart hammer against his ribs in terror. Now, looking up at the looming pagoda, he felt nothing but a cold, predatory calculation.

  ?"The atmospheric Qi is twisted here," Apeiron noted, his voice sliding through Jiang Chen's mind like oil. "It tastes... sour. Desperation. Someone is trying to force the laws of nature to bend, but they lack the strength to break them."

  ?"Han," Jiang Chen whispered.

  ?He checked the Enforcer's spatial ring. He pulled out a heavy iron token embossed with the Alchemy Hall's seal.

  ?"This should get me through the perimeter ward."

  ?He stepped onto the first stair. The air shimmered, a barrier of red light manifesting to reject him. Jiang Chen held up the token. The barrier rippled, tasted the signature, and dissolved.

  ?He walked up.

  ?The silence on the peak was unnatural. Usually, the Alchemy Hall was a hive of activity—apprentices scrubbing cauldrons, fires roaring, the clinking of glass. Tonight, it was a graveyard.

  ?Jiang Chen reached the main courtyard. He stuck to the shadows, merging with the darkness under the eaves of the servant quarters.

  ?What he saw made his eyes narrow into violet slits.

  ?The central plaza, usually reserved for drying herbs, had been cleared. In its place, a massive blood-array had been painted on the flagstones. It wasn't the precise, geometric geometry of orthodox cultivation. It was jagged, frantic, painted with a mixture of cinnabar and... something that smelled like rot.

  ?In the center of the array stood a cauldron. Not a standard refining vessel, but a vat of black iron, bubbling with a thick, green sludge.

  ?But the ingredients were the problem.

  ?Around the perimeter of the array, twenty wooden posts had been driven into the cracks of the stone.

  ?Tied to each post was a disciple.

  ?They were stripped to their undergarments, their mouths gagged with talisman paper. Their skin was pale, veins bulging black against the flesh. Tubes ran from their wrists, draining their blood into narrow channels that fed directly into the central vat.

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  ?Jiang Chen recognized them.

  ?Disciple Wei, who had kicked him for spilling water last month.

  Disciple Lin, who had stolen his rations.

  The girl from the laundry duty who had once given him a bandage.

  ?Bullies, bystanders, and victims. It didn't matter. To Han, they were all just fuel.

  ?"Crude," Apeiron sneered. "Mass extraction of low-grade vitality to synthesize a pseudo-spirit fluid. He's trying to brew a 'Life Extension Elixir' using garbage as the base. It will fail, of course. The yield will be impure."

  ?"He thinks I'm dead," Jiang Chen observed, his gaze fixed on the bubbling vat. "I was supposed to be the main ingredient. The 'Perfect Vessel' to filter the toxins. Without me, he's substituting quality with quantity."

  ?He watched as a figure in a heavy apothecary robe walked out of the main hall.

  ?It was Elder Han.

  ?The old man looked manic. His hair was wild, his eyes bloodshot. He held a checklist in one hand and a jagged knife in the other. He walked to the nearest disciple—a boy named Chen—and checked the flow of blood.

  ?"Faster, faster," Han muttered, his voice carrying across the silent courtyard. "The moon is reaching its zenith. If the catalyst isn't ready, the Chimera Core will reject the graft."

  ?He tapped the tube. The boy whimpered behind the gag, his eyes rolling back in terror.

  ?Han slapped the boy across the face. "Quiet! Your suffering sours the blood! Be grateful. You are contributing to the ascension of a god!"

  ?Jiang Chen felt a spike of cold rage. Not for the disciples—most of them would have watched him die without blinking—but for the sheer, arrogant waste of it.

  ?"He is stealing my food," Apeiron said, the voice dropping an octave. "That blood contains trace amounts of cultivation. It belongs to the Void. Kill him."

  ?"Not yet," Jiang Chen thought. "Look at the array. It's connected to the main lab. If I attack now, he activates the defensive formations. He might blow the whole peak to cover his tracks."

  ?"So?"

  ?"So, I want his research. And I want his stash."

  ?Jiang Chen looked away from the courtyard, scanning the layout of the compound. His eyes, enhanced by the System, traced the flow of energy. The blood from the disciples was being funneled into the vat, but the energy from the vat was being piped underground.

  ?Into the laboratory beneath the main hall.

  ?"He's not cooking out here," Jiang Chen realized. "This is just the pump. The real ritual is downstairs."

  ?He stepped back into the shadows.

  ?"We go underground," Jiang Chen decided. "We sabotage the intake valves. We let him start the ritual. And when he tries to pull the energy..."

  ?"We poison the well," Apeiron finished, a dark amusement coloring the tone. "I like it. Devious. You are learning."

  ?Jiang Chen slipped away from the courtyard, moving toward the ventilation shafts he had cleaned a thousand times as a servant.

  ?He paused for a second, looking back at the disciples draining away on the stakes.

  ?"Should we cut them loose?" he asked himself.

  ?"Irrelevant," Apeiron said. "If you cut them, the alarm sounds. They die either way. Focus on the prey."

  ?Jiang Chen didn't move.

  ?"If they die, the Sect investigates immediately," Jiang Chen reasoned. "Mass murder of disciples brings the enforcement elders. I need time to loot."

  ?He flicked his finger.

  ?A tiny spark of [Void Qi] shot out, invisible in the night. It hit the main valve controlling the extraction rate on the blood tubes.

  ?It didn't break it. It just jammed it slightly open.

  ?The flow slowed down. It wouldn't stop the ritual, but it would buy the victims an hour before they were drained dry.

  ?"Just to keep the noise down," Jiang Chen muttered.

  ?He turned and vanished into the ventilation shaft.

  ?He was inside the belly of the beast. And the beast didn't even know it was about to be eaten.