The alley was silent, broken only by Jin Hao's ragged breathing and the rhythmic drip of water from a cracked eave. The pile of grey dust that had once been the ring and the ancient soul inside it had already scattered in the wind, lost to the dirt of the city streets.
Jin Hao leaned against the rough brick wall, his legs feeling weak. He stared at his bare finger, where the skin was pale from the band that had been there for five years.
He shuddered. He had read those stories. The "Grandpa in the Ring" was supposed to be a helpful guide, a mentor. But that was just a fairy tale.
Reality was a nightmare. What he had was a monster, a creature with claws and a screaming shadow.
If he hadn't awakened the System tonight, if he had let that thing feed on him for another month, he would have been erased. He would have been devoured by a fiend. He would have been nothing but a memory.
"Trust no one," he whispered to the darkness, his eyes hardening. "In this world, only my power is real. Only the System is loyal."
"I need to get back to the Jin estate," he muttered.
He began to walk, sticking to the shadows of the side streets. He was still a "trash" young master with no guards and no carriage. Walking alone at night in a cultivation city was risky, but his newfound confidence, boosted by the Treasure Devourer System, gave him a swagger he hadn't had an hour ago.
He was the main character. Main characters didn't get mugged in alleys. They found opportunities in them.
As he walked through the dimly lit streets of the artisan district, searching for a shortcut back to the guest compounds, a strange sensation washed over him.
It was a vibration in the air, a hum that seemed to resonate deep within his bones.
[Ding!]
The blue interface suddenly appeared, startling him.
[System Notification: High-Grade Spiritual Energy Source Detected.]
[Range: 10 Meters.]
[Direction: Below.]
Jin Hao stopped. "Below?"
He looked down. He stood on a cobblestone street that looked centuries old. To his left was a boarded-up shop that hadn't seen a customer since the previous dynasty. To his right, a collapsed stone wall revealed what looked like a dried-up well or a cellar entrance, half-buried in rubble and overrun with spirit-weeds.
The hum came from there.
A thrill of excitement surged through him. This is it, he thought as a grin spread across his face. The classic story! The protagonist survives a crisis, sheds misfortune, and immediately discovers a life-changing opportunity! The Heavenly Dao is apologizing to me!
He scrambled over the collapsed wall, ignoring the dirt that stained his hands. He pushed aside the thorny weeds, his heart racing. The entrance led down into an underground chamber, likely an old storage cellar for a long-forgotten alchemist or blacksmith.
The air inside was stale and dry. It was pitch black, but the faint moonlight from the street above illuminated a single object on a stone pedestal in the center of the room.
It was a gourd.
About the size of a man's head, it looked like obsidian glass but felt like ancient wood. It was a deep black that seemed to draw in light. But what made Jin Hao's blood run cold were the markings.
Crimson veins pulsed across its surface like infected arteries. The air around the gourd warped and shimmered, as if the space itself was in pain. A dissonant whisper filled the chamber, expressing an insatiable hunger.
It radiated a sinister aura.
Jin Hao froze, his hand half-extended toward it. The triumphant grin vanished, replaced by the frightened look of a man who just stepped on a snake.
This... this doesn't feel like a holy artifact. It doesn't feel like a good treasure left by a wise sage.
It felt like the ring.
Only worse.
The crimson light pulsed, and for a moment, the shadows in the room seemed to lunge at him. The whispering grew louder, sounding like gnashing teeth.
Demonic.
The word flashed in his mind like fire.
"No," he whispered, stumbling back until his back hit the cold stone wall. "No, no, no! Not again!"
Fear, fresh from his encounter in the alley, engulfed him. The Heavenly Dao wasn't apologizing. It was trying to finish what it started!
First the ring, now this? His mind raced. This is a trap! It's a Demonic Artifact! It might hold an Ancient Devil or a Blood Ancestor! If I touch that, it'll suck my blood dry and wear my skin like a suit!
He looked at the gourd again. The crimson veins seemed to beckon to him. Come, the aura seemed to say. Feed me.
"I'm not falling for it!" Jin Hao yelled, his voice cracking. "I'm not a side character! I'm not some fool who picks up a cursed sword and becomes a slave! I see through your tricks!"
He called up the interface, his mental voice urgent.
"System! Scan it! Tell me I'm right! It's a trap, isn't it?!"
[Scanning...]
[Target Identified: Demonic Refining Gourd (Damaged Divine Artifact).]
[Attribute: Dark.]
[Status: Hungry.]
"Hungry?!" Jin Hao screamed. "It's hungry! I knew it! It wants to eat me!"
He scrambled up the rubble, trying to distance himself from the cursed object. But then he stopped. Wait. He had the Treasure Devourer System.
A fierce light came into his eyes. He wasn't going to just run away. That would be cowardly. He was going to destroy it. He would prove to the heavens that he couldn't be fooled.
"System!" he commanded, pointing a shaking finger at the pulsing black gourd. "I don't want it! It's evil! It's a trap! Refund it! Devour it! Turn it into energy before it wakes up and eats my soul! Get rid of it NOW!"
[Command Acknowledged. Initiating Devour Protocol on target: Demonic Refining Gourd.]
A beam of blue light shot from Jin Hao's forehead, enveloping the terrifying gourd. The gourd vibrated, the crimson veins flaring brightly as if resisting, and the whispering rose to a shriek.
"Die, you demon trash!" Jin Hao shouted, feeling a rush of triumph.
And then the gourd disappeared.
The heavy aura lifted instantly. The chamber returned to being just an empty cellar.
Jin Hao slumped against the rubble, wiping sweat from his forehead. He let out a mix of laughter and relief. "Nice try," he muttered to the empty air. "Nice try, Heavenly Dao. But I'm too smart for that."