The battlefield was silent now.
Only the crackle of distant fires remained, painting the corpses around me in a sickly red glow. My wounds had closed into black scars, my body stronger than it had ever been, yet heavier—as if I carried the weight of every soul I had just devoured.
I staggered to my feet, breath harsh, eyes scanning the dead. None of them stirred. None of them remained.
All of them were mine.
This power… it's real.
But before I could think further, symbols carved themselves into my vision again.
[Abyss Points: 37][Access: Abyssal Archive Unlocked.][Enter Shop? Y/N]
A… shop?
I clenched my fist. The System had already devoured corpses, rewritten my dantian, branded me as Heaven's Enemy—and now it wanted me to buy something?
Still, I wasn't in a position to refuse. My body screamed for strength.
"Yes."
The world around me stuttered. The battlefield dimmed until only darkness remained. Then—like cracks in black glass—runes spread outward, revealing a list.
Cold. Mechanical. No explanations.
[Abyssal Archive – Shop]─────────────────────Fragment: Withered Flame Dao – 20 APForbidden Scripture: Hollow Palm – 35 APSoulbrand Parasite – 50 APUnbound Fate Thread – 100 AP??? – 500 AP (Locked)─────────────────────[Balance: 37 AP]
My eyes narrowed. The names were simple, but each word dripped with menace.
Withered Flame Dao… Hollow Palm… Parasite… Fate Thread.
No descriptions. No instructions. If I chose wrong, I could cripple myself. The System wasn't guiding me—it was gambling with my life.
I stared at my balance: thirty-seven points. Enough for the Hollow Palm Scripture or the Withered Flame Dao fragment.
Flame Dao meant destruction, firepower, but… Dao fragments were precious, weren't they? That was what cultivators killed for. On the other hand, a scripture might give me an immediate technique.
Power now… or foundation later?
I clenched my jaw. Alden, my cousin, was still alive. My clan had thrown me away. This battlefield was only the beginning. If I couldn't defend myself in the days to come, I'd die again—system or not.
I chose.
"…Buy Forbidden Scripture: Hollow Palm."
[Transaction Complete. -35 AP][Balance: 2 AP][Hollow Palm Scripture Acquired.]
A surge of pain shot through my mind. My vision blurred, and the runes twisted into burning script, searing themselves into my consciousness. Words without words. Techniques without explanation.
I fell to one knee, clutching my head as the knowledge branded itself into me.
When the pain faded, I understood.
The Hollow Palm. A strike that consumed vitality. A technique meant not to kill outright, but to drain. Flesh, qi, even fragments of soul. A starving palm that mirrored the abyss itself.
Perfect.
I laughed bitterly, the sound hollow in the silence. The System had given me a technique that didn't protect, didn't defend, didn't heal—only devoured more.
So be it.
If fate wanted me to crawl as a cripple, if Heaven wanted me to die forgotten, then I would walk a path of my own.
A path carved by hunger.
A path built on ruin.
A path that ends with me consuming everything—Heaven, Dao, even fate itself.