The night was a thick, suffocating black.
It was the kind of oppressive darkness that presses down on you, where the silence is broken by sounds you'd never hear in the daylight. A whisper that wasn't there, the faint cry of a child, the low wail of a stray cat that sounded all too human. It was enough to make your skin crawl.
Across the sprawling Jiang Manor, only the bravest guards dared to be outside, huddled together to watch over the most important areas. Everyone else was locked in their rooms, refusing to even think about stepping out.
Inside his own quarters, Jiang Dao was lost in his practice, running through the newly acquired Life-Nourishing Formula again and again. He'd been at it for hours, ever since he'd gotten back. The third watch of the night was already approaching.
Then, he felt it—a faint flicker, the first whisper of qi.
Instantly, a new line of text materialized on his mental panel:
Life-Nourishing Formula (Initiate) [Modifiable]
Jiang Dao let out a slow breath, a glint in his eye. "Just as I thought."
Internal cultivation methods weren't like standard martial arts. You had to actually cultivate a sense of qi before they'd register on the panel. External styles, on the other hand, just needed a quick explanation or a demonstration, and they'd pop right up.
He focused on the panel, his mind zeroing in on the word [Modifiable]. He tapped it with his intent.
Swoosh.
The panel blurred, the text spinning.
Ten Years!
Twenty Years!
Thirty Years!
…
It didn't stop until it hit sixty years.
In that moment, a distinct warmth bloomed in his lower abdomen. It felt like a gentle current, tracing a path through specific meridians before flowing back to its source. The stream of energy wasn't thick—maybe the width of an old-school headphone cable—but every time it completed a circuit, he felt a jolt of clarity. The exhaustion and fatigue from the day began to melt away.
"So this is internal qi..."
As he focused on the feeling, a flood of information poured into his mind—all the insights and instincts that came with sixty years of mastery. The Life-Nourishing Formula, he now understood, wasn't built for combat. It had two primary benefits. First, it would let him live a long, long time. Second, it had healing properties.
The average person in this world was lucky to see fifty. Now, Jiang Dao could easily live to be a hundred, and he'd be immune to common diseases. The healing was just as straightforward. No matter the injury, circulating his qi would dramatically speed up recovery. It even gave him a decent resistance to toxins. A common poison wouldn't even faze him anymore.
On top of that, the internal qi gave him a subtle boost in strength. It was nothing like the explosive power from an offensive cultivation method, but he was more than happy with the results.
"If sixty years can do all this," Jiang Dao mused, "what about 120? Or 200? Being completely immune to all poisons might not be just a pipe dream."
The thought of the strange young man he'd met earlier sent a chill down his spine. The guy's unnerving calm was what really got to him. It was the calm of a predator, someone who saw the entire Jiang family as nothing more than ants. He was just playing with his food, waiting for the right moment to crush them.
And that trick with the wall… what kind of power was that? He had just touched it, and the stone had started to rot away. His palm had to be laced with some kind of horrific poison.
The night deepened, silent as a demon's shadow cast over the world.
The maid, Biyu, stirred in her bed, woken by a pressing need to use the outhouse. She tiptoed to her feet, but one look at the inky blackness outside made her face go pale with fear.
"The Young Master is right next door," she whispered to herself, trying to calm her racing heart. "I'll be fine. I'll be fine..."
As a chambermaid, her room was connected to Jiang Dao's, separated only by a folding screen. But to keep the rooms smelling fresh, the maids weren't allowed to use chamber pots. That meant a trip outside, even in the middle of the night. With evil spirits on the loose and some dark power targeting the manor, it felt like a death sentence.
She threw a thin shawl over her shoulders and slipped out of bed. In the next room, Jiang Dao's eyes snapped open. He heard the faint rustle of her movements and knew instantly where she was going. Frowning, he focused his senses on her, ready to intervene if any evil spirit tried to make a move right under his nose.
Biyu eased the door open. A biting wind swept in, carrying a foul, decaying stench. She couldn't shake the feeling that a pair of malevolent eyes were watching her from the shadows, enjoying her fear. She shivered, lit a small lantern, and started down the long corridor.
"Young Master, please protect me, please protect me..." she chanted under her breath.
THUD.
A heavy footstep landed right behind her. It came out of nowhere.
Biyu froze, her body trembling. "Young Master?" she whispered. "Is... is that you?"
Silence.
She swallowed hard, and with every ounce of courage she had, she slowly, deliberately, turned around.
There was nothing there. The hallway was empty.
Panic seized her. She swayed, nearly collapsing. It was just the wind, she told herself. Something must have fallen. It wasn't a spirit. The Young Master is right here. He'd know if something was wrong.
She turned back and forced her feet to move, lifting her lantern higher.
But the footstep came again. It was in sync with her own. Every time she took a step, it took one too.
Thud... thud... thud...
The sound was closer now, more hurried. The darkness felt like it was closing in. Pure terror gripped Biyu's heart, and tears welled in her eyes.
"AHHHHH!"
The scream ripped through the night.
In a flash, Jiang Dao's eyes blazed. He grabbed the long saber leaning against his bed and exploded into motion. With a tremendous CRASH, he burst through his own door, his powerful frame a blur of motion. He tore through the night air like a freight train, homing in on the scream.
He saw her. Biyu was being dragged into the darkness by a grotesque, shadowy figure. The creature, which reeked of rot, glanced back at him over its shoulder, a horrifying grin stretching across its face from within the gloom, its eyes glowing a sickly green. Biyu was already unconscious, a dead weight in its grasp, her face chalk-white.
"INSOLENT!" Jiang Dao roared.
Every muscle in his body coiled and bulged. Veins stood out on his skin as his frame seemed to swell. He surged forward, his speed multiplying, transforming into a human juggernaut.
"DIE!"
WHOOSH!
The Blood Shadow Soul-Chasing Saber screamed through the air, aimed directly at the creature's head. The very air seemed to curdle with the scent of blood as the blade cut a vicious arc.
The shadow creature reacted instantly, shoving Biyu's limp body in front of it like a shield. A blackened, rotting hand snaked out from behind her, clawing straight for Jiang Dao's chest.
But Jiang Dao didn't even flinch. His blade continued its lethal path downward.
SPLAT!
The illusion of the maid's head was split in two. Before the creature's hand could even touch him, Jiang Dao's saber had already slammed into the true target hiding behind the mirage.
CRACK!
The illusion shattered. Biyu was gone.
"SKREEEE!"
A rotting, humanoid creature, now with a deep gash in its head, let out a piercing shriek of agony. Its eyes burned with pure hatred as it dissolved into a gust of foul wind and tried to flee.
BOOM!
Jiang Dao was on it in an instant. His saber became a whirlwind of blood-red afterimages, each strike hammering down on the fleeing specter with maximum force.
Every slash was a soul-chasing deathblow.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Caught in the storm of Jiang Dao's relentless assault, the creature shrieked again and again as the blades found their mark, tearing it apart piece by piece.