The voices still didn't stop.
If anything, they got louder. Clearer in my head.
"…please… don't… I didn't want to die…"
"…why did they do this to me…"
"…make them pay…"
Chen Wu's voice. My head was filled with them.
That's when I realised — monsters die quietly. Humans don't.
They scream in your head. They cry, they beg, they don't stop.
I could hear Chen Wu — not his voice, his soul — whispering in my ears, crawling through my thoughts.
Every sound, every breath he had left burned through me.
For a second, it felt like it was me dying there.
Like I finally understood what it meant to die.
It wasn't just an echo. It was right there in my head, like he was standing beside me, whispering through his last breath.
I clenched my teeth and bit my tongue, just to pull myself out of the pain.
My head still throbbed, like someone was hammering a nail straight through my skull.
"Make them… pay…"
"Make them… pay…"
I could hear the same voice of vengence again and again. Like his soul giving me command to kill them all. Fuck. Fuck.
I dropped to one knee, holding my head, but deep down, something inside me… smiled.
The whisper didn't break me. It filled me.
It burnt inside my chest like fire crawling up through my veins.
"Yeah…" I breathed out. "I'll make them pay."
My fingers dug into the dirt, trembling—not from fear, but from hunger.
Chen Wu's plea. His pain. His hatred.
They all sank into me.
Merged with mine.
And the vow that had been just words before… now felt alive.
Like a living curse wrapped around my heart.
I looked up, my eyes burning red under the fading light.
"They'll die, Chen Wu."
"One by one."
I stood up, the whispers fading, replaced by silence so deep it felt holy.
This was my vow.
And this time, it wasn't just mine anymore.
It was ours.
Power for Taint. Strength for sanity.
A double-edged sword. Huh
I pressed a hand against my chest, feeling the Seed pulse — alive, hungry, drinking everything.
This was no ordinary power. This was something that carried pieces of the dead.
Memories. Emotions. Hunger.
I looked at my trembling hands and let out a long, shaky breath.
The whispers finally faded, leaving only silence, and my heart felt cold.
I exhaled slowly. The pain in my head was gone.
"If the Abyss wants to whisper," I muttered, raising my palm again toward the dead serpents, "then let it whisper."
"I'll devour that too."
I pushed myself up. The echo hadn't broken me — it had forged me.
The fear, the pain, the voices — they melted into something else inside me.
Something sharper. Something darker.
"Hahaha…" I tilted my head and laughed. The sound came out rough, low, and wrong — even to me.
I had gained experience and a new bloodline skill.
A defensive one. A start.
Now it was time to take the rest—the three Venomfangs.
The gift left by Chen Wu's murderers.
I would gladly accept it.
And I would return that gift tenfold.
A grin crept across my lips, slow and cruel, as I looked at the Venomfangs lying before me.
I raised my hand.
"Void Eater"
From my palm, shadows slithered out — dozens of them, alive and hungry.
They wrapped around both corpses, biting and pulling, devouring them even in death until nothing remained but dirt and silence.
And in that silence, I smiled.
Because the weak part of me had died with Chen Wu.
What rose now… was something the world should learn to fear.
Multiple system screens flashed before my eyes.
[ Void Eater Activated ]
[ Devoured: 3 × Venomfang Serpent (F-1) ]
[ Experience Gained: +1500 ]
[ New Skill Gained: 3 × Venom Fang ]
[ Seed Growth: +3 ]
[Taint : -3]
[ Abyss Fragment Consumed ]
[ Progress: 3 / ??? ]
[ Void Eater Notice ]
[ Duplicate Skills Detected: Venom Fang (x4) ]
[ Fusion Progress: 4 / 5 ]
[ Next Threshold: 5 Duplicates Required for Skill Evolution ]
[ Total Experience : 3000 ]
[ Threshold Reached ]
[ Level Up — F-2 ]
[ Current Status ]
[Name: Shen Yan]
[Age : 18]
[BloodLine: Abyss Seed]
[Rank: F-2]
[Experience: 0 / 4800]
[Seed Growth: 19]
[Taint: 7]
[Authority: Abyss Evolution]
[Skill: RockSkin (F), Venom Fang (F)]
I blinked a few times, watching the light fade from the screen.
Then I felt it.
A pulse — deep in my chest, in my veins, in the root of the Seed itself.
It spread through me like a slow heartbeat, steady and strong.
My skin tingled. My muscles felt heavier, not from fatigue, but from raw density — like every part of me had been packed tighter, sharper.
I felt different — like there was no air between me and my movement.
Just me and the rush.
I flexed my hand, watching faint traces of black energy crawl across my knuckles before fading. A slow grin pulled at my lips.
"So this… is what power feels like," I murmured.
It wasn't just strength.
It was like something inside me finally woke up.
My body felt lighter, faster — every sound sharper, every breath deeper.
I could feel the dirt under my feet, the air brushing my skin, and even the faint tremor of life hiding in the trees.
"So this is F-2, huh?" I muttered. "Not bad."
Just one rank breakthrough, but it hit like punching through a wall I'd been ramming into for years.
I exhaled, long and slow, and a grin tugged at my mouth.
"Guess I should thank you, Chen Wu," I said under my breath. "You gave me the push I needed."
I looked down at the dirt where his body had vanished and tightened my fist again.
"Let's see how far this goes."
I ran. I knew where they went — north. I saw them head that way.
So I ran without stopping.
The moment I moved, I felt it.
F-2 wasn't just a number — it was a different body. A different me.
The ground under my feet felt softer, lighter. My muscles responded before I even told them to. Every push of my legs threw me farther than I expected.
Even the wind struggled to keep up. The trees blurred by like smudges of green and brown. My heartbeat didn't race — it hummed, steady and calm, like my body already knew this speed.
"I can feel it…" I muttered, half-laughing. "Everything's faster."
My breath didn't burn. My chest didn't ache. Stamina just kept pouring out of me like I had an endless well.
"I can catch them," I grinned, my voice breaking into a laugh. "Without even trying."
They were walking north — slow, careless, probably celebrating. Perfect.