Lin Yue POV
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Couldn't think.
The red eyes filled my entire vision, each one bigger than my head. The creature stepped into the mushroom light, and I saw what three hundred years of imprisonment had created.
It was massive—easily three times the size of a house. Black scales covered its serpent-like body, but it had four legs with claws that scraped against stone. A dragon. Or something that used to be a dragon before it turned into a nightmare.
"Please," I whispered, my voice barely working. "Please don't eat me."
The creature's laugh rumbled through the cave like thunder. "Eat you? Child, I don't eat sacrifices. I devour their spiritual energy and leave the empty husks for the rats."
It lowered its enormous head, sniffing me. Hot breath that smelled like sulfur washed over my face.
"But you..." The creature's eyes narrowed. "You smell wrong. Broken. Where is your spiritual root?"
"They—they're taking it right now." Tears burned my eyes. "My family. They're ripping it out to give to my sister. I ran, and I found this place, but the tunnel closed and I'm trapped and—"
"Silence." The creature's voice cut through my panic. "You're telling me you entered my prison while your spiritual root was being harvested? That's impossible. The anchoring spell should have—"
The creature suddenly jerked back, its scales rattling. "No. No, it can't be. You're the anchor breaker?"
"I don't understand—"
"Your root!" The creature roared, making rocks fall from the ceiling. "It was connected to this cave! The Lin family built this prison three hundred years ago using a Pure Yin spiritual root as the lock. Your ancestor's root. And you—you carry her bloodline. When they started removing your root, they broke the seal!"
The cave started shaking. Cracks spread across the walls. The stone altar split in half with a deafening crack.
"The prison is collapsing," the creature said, and something like joy crept into its voice. "I'm going to be free. After three centuries, I'm finally going to be FREE!"
The shaking got worse. A boulder crashed down inches from my head. I scrambled backward, but there was nowhere to go. The cave was falling apart around us.
"Wait!" I screamed over the noise. "If the cave collapses, I'll die!"
"Yes, you will." The creature spread its wings—huge, torn things that barely looked like they could fly. "But I'll survive. Finally taste fresh air. Finally hunt again. Your death will give me freedom, little sacrifice. You should be honored."
Another boulder fell, smashing into the ground where I'd been standing a second before. Dust filled the air, making it hard to see or breathe.
I was going to die here. Not from the ritual. Not from my family's betrayal. But crushed in a collapsing cave while an ancient demon escaped to terrorize the world.
Some birthday this turned out to be.
But then—anger. Sudden and hot and overwhelming. I'd been betrayed, poisoned, nearly killed, and now the universe wanted to crush me like a bug? No. NO.
"I refuse!" I shouted at the creature. "I refuse to die here! I survived my family trying to kill me. I survived your prison. I'm not dying because you want freedom!"
The creature paused, one clawed foot raised to launch into flight. Its red eyes fixed on me with something that might have been surprise.
"You refuse? Child, you have no power here. You're broken. Rootless. Dying. What could you possibly—"
"Make a deal with me!" The words burst out of my mouth before I could think them through. "You want freedom? Fine! But I want to live! I want power! I want to make my family PAY for what they did!"
"A deal?" The creature's laugh was sharp and cruel. "What could you offer me? You're nothing but meat and bones about to be crushed into paste."
"I can offer you a body!" I screamed. "You said you've been trapped for three hundred years. You're weak. Dying. That's why they could imprison you! But if you save me—if you help me survive this—I'll let you share my body. My life force. We can escape together!"
The cave groaned. More rocks fell. The ceiling was coming down.
"You're insane," the creature said. "Offering your body to a demon? You don't even know what I am. What I've done."
"I don't care!" Blood ran into my mouth—I'd bitten my tongue when a rock hit my shoulder. "Right now, you're my only chance. And I'm yours. We either die here together, or we live together. Choose!"
The creature stared at me for a long moment. The cave was collapsing faster now. Seconds left before we were both buried alive.
Then the creature smiled, showing teeth like swords.
"You have spirit, little broken thing. Very well. I accept your deal."
It lunged forward, mouth opening impossibly wide. For a horrible second, I thought it was going to eat me after all. But instead, its body dissolved into black smoke that poured into my mouth, my nose, my eyes—
Pain. Worse than the ritual array. Worse than anything.
The demon's essence burned through my shattered meridians like acid. I felt it burrowing into my broken dantian, wrapping around the hollow space where my spiritual root used to be. It was taking over. Changing me. Remaking me from the inside out.
My body lifted off the ground, floating in the air as black smoke swirled around me. The cave continued collapsing, but the rocks passed through the smoke like it wasn't there.
"Your body is mine now," the demon's voice echoed inside my head. "Your life is mine. Your revenge is mine. We are one creature now, little host. I am Hei Long, the Devouring Shadow Dragon, and you are my vessel."
"Then help me!" I screamed, both out loud and in my mind. "Help me get out of here!"
"Oh, I'll do more than that." Hei Long's laugh rumbled through my bones. "I'm going to teach you how to become the nightmare your family fears. But first—look at your hand."
I raised my right hand and gasped. Black scales covered my skin from fingertips to elbow. My nails had become claws. And when I flexed my fingers, dark smoke leaked from between them.
"Welcome to demonic cultivation, little host. Let's go teach your family what happens when they throw away something precious."
The cave gave one final shudder and collapsed completely.
But we were already gone—shooting through the falling rocks as black smoke, heading toward the surface, toward freedom, toward revenge.
And inside my head, Hei Long whispered:
"They wanted to harvest your Pure Yin root? How delightful. Let's harvest theirs instead."