The silence inside the Great Pill Vault was heavy, like the air inside a tomb.
Rows of jade shelves towered above Jiang Chen, glowing with the soft, multicolored luminescence of ten thousand spirit pills. The air was thick enough to chew—a dense fog of medicinal Qi that made his skin tingle and his lungs burn with pleasure.
BOOM!
The obsidian door behind him shuddered.
"He's inside!" Elder Han's muffled scream penetrated the barrier. "Grand Elder, do not blast the door! The shockwave will detonate the volatile pills! We'll lose everything!"
"Open the formation, you fool!" The Grand Elder roared back. "Override the seal manually!"
"It... it will take five minutes!"
Jiang Chen smiled. His teeth looked whiter, sharper in the gloom.
"Five minutes," he whispered.
He turned to the nearest shelf. Low-Grade Spirit Gathering Pills. Hundreds of bottles.
He didn't uncork them. He smashed the first bottle against the shelf. The ceramic shattered, and ten blue pills spilled out.
He shoveled them into his mouth.
Crunch.
They tasted like mint and ozone.
DING!
[Consumed Spirit Gathering Pill x10]
[EV +50]
[Qi Reserves: Overflowing.]
"Too slow," Jiang Chen grunted. He swept his arm across the shelf, knocking twenty bottles to the floor.
Crash. Shatter.
He dropped to his knees and scooped up the mixture of pills and broken glass. He shoved it all into his maw.
The glass cut his gums, but the Iron Skin and Regeneration healed the cuts instantly. He swallowed the shards. The System dissolved them into raw minerals.
[Consumed Mixed Pills x100]
[EV +500]
[Warning: Energy density critical. Vessel integrity at 85%.]
"More."
Jiang Chen scrambled to the next aisle. Middle-Grade Blood Pills.Bone-Forging Pellets.Qi-Explosion Orbs.
He ate like a starving animal. He didn't taste the flavors anymore; he only felt the rush. It was a tsunami of power. His veins bulged, turning black as the sheer volume of medicinal energy tried to tear him apart from the inside.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
His heart sounded like a war drum.
Outside, the door hissed. The red barrier began to dim.
"Hurry!" Elder Han shouted. "The seal is fading!"
Jiang Chen looked at the center of the vault.
On a pedestal made of white jade, protected by a single glass case, sat one pill.
It didn't glow. It was a swirling vortex of gold and black, suspended in mid-air.
[Item Detected: The Golden Sun Pill (Peak-Grade).]
[Value: Incalculable.]
[Contains a fragment of "Yang" Essence.]
[Advisory: Host body cannot withstand this. Consumption will result in death.]
Jiang Chen staggered toward it. His skin was cracking, leaking golden light. He looked like a porcelain vase about to shatter.
"Death?" Jiang Chen laughed, blood dripping from his chin. "I'm already dead."
He smashed the glass case with his claw.
He grabbed the Golden Sun Pill.
It scorched his hand. It smelled like a burning star.
"Open the door!" The Grand Elder shouted from outside.
CLICK.
The obsidian door slid open.
Grand Elder Feng and Elder Han rushed in, their faces twisted in panic.
They stopped.
They saw the wrecked shelves. The shattered glass. The empty bottles.
And they saw Jiang Chen, standing in the center, holding their most precious treasure.
"You..." Elder Han's voice cracked. "That is the sect's foundation... put it down..."
Jiang Chen looked at them. His eyes were no longer human. One was red. The other was a vertical, molten gold slit.
"Thanks for the meal," Jiang Chen said.
He threw the Golden Sun Pill into his mouth and swallowed.
SILENCE.
For one heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then, Jiang Chen screamed.
It wasn't a scream of pain. It was the sound of a soul being ripped open.
A pillar of golden fire erupted from his chest, blasting through the roof of the Vault, through the mountain rock, and shooting into the night sky.
[SYSTEM ALERT: CRITICAL ENERGY OVERLOAD.]
[VESSEL DESTRUCTION IMMINENT.]
[PROTOCOL: WAKE THE SLEEPER.]
Inside the void of Jiang Chen's soul, the black ocean boiled.
Apeiron opened both eyes.
"FINALLY," the Serpent roared, its voice shaking the foundations of reality. "SUBSTANCE."
The Serpent uncoiled. It didn't eat Jiang Chen's soul. Instead, it opened its mouth and inhaled the golden fire raging through Jiang Chen's body.
The energy that would have killed the boy was sucked into the Void, feeding the Beast.
In the real world, the golden fire vanished.
Jiang Chen stood there, smoking. His clothes were burned away. His skin was now a patchwork of human flesh and black, diamond-hard scales.
DING!
[Gluttony Event Complete.]
[EV Gained: 5,200.]
[Cultivation forceful breakthrough...]
[Layer 3... Layer 4... Layer 5.]
[Current Rank: Qi Condensation Layer 5.]
Grand Elder Feng stared at the monster in front of him. He felt a fear he hadn't felt in a hundred years. The boy's skin was cracking, revealing shifting black scales underneath, and his aura was suffocating.
"What... what are you?" the Grand Elder whispered, stepping back.
Jiang Chen tilted his head. His voice was layered—his own human voice overlaid with a deep, grinding growl from the Void.
"I am the Hunger."
He raised his hand. [Void Claw] activated, the claws extending six inches long and composed of pure, light-absorbing darkness.
"And you look like a meal."