Feiyin stirred, a dull ache throbbing through his body. His mind swam in confusion, his senses hazy from whatever technique they had used to render him unconscious. He tried to move, but the cold, jagged stone beneath him sent a sharp pain through his limbs, making him wince. Slowly, his eyes fluttered open.
Darkness.
An unending void surrounded him, stretching beyond what little he could perceive. His breath hitched as he pushed himself up onto his elbows, trying to shake off the lingering grogginess. The air was damp, thick with the scent of mildew and something metallic, blood. His heartbeat quickened.
The echoes of soft whimpers and hushed sobs filled the cavern around him. There were other children.
His breath steadied as his eyes adjusted to the dim glow coming from the very center of the cave, where a single figure stood. The figure's black robes blended into the surrounding darkness, the only contrast being the eerie light that illuminated him from below.
Feiyin didn't need his oscillation sense to feel the suffocating presence rolling off of the man. Terror clung to the air. Despair festered in the atmosphere, thick and palpable.
His gaze flickered around, taking in the others. Youth of various ages, their faces pale, their eyes wide with panic and uncertainty. Some were curled up, trembling. Others stood frozen, eyes locked on the man in the center, too afraid to speak.
Then, the black-robed man finally moved.
"Welcome to your new life." His voice was smooth, almost pleasant, but it carried an unmistakable edge of cruelty.
Feiyin's fingers curled into fists.
The man's gaze swept over them, his expression unreadable. "You are all now the possessions of the Saint Spirit Sect."
A collective shudder ran through the group.
Possessions.
Not disciples. Not even prisoners. Just possessions.
"If you prove useful, you will live. If you do not..." The man tilted his head, his lips curling slightly. "You will either die, or we will kill you. It makes no difference to us."
The sobs around him grew louder, some children gasping in fear. One boy, no older than nine, clutched his arms tightly, his entire body trembling. Another, a girl who seemed closer to twelve, gritted her teeth, her expression one of barely contained fury.
Feiyin's stomach twisted.
The black-robed man gestured to the cave around them. "This is your first trial. You will remain here for one month. There will be no food, no supplies, and no light to guide you."
Silence.
Someone hiccupped a sob. Feiyin's heartbeat pounded in his ears.
"You may find water if you're lucky, and if you're desperate enough, you can eat the insects and beasts lurking within this cave system," the man continued, his tone mockingly casual. "That is, if they don't eat you first."
A few children gasped, and the fear among them spiked, sending another wave of shudders through the group.
Feiyin swallowed hard, trying to steady his breathing. He had grown stronger. He had trained hard under his father's guidance. But this, this was unlike anything he had ever faced before.
"Of course," the man said, his voice turning almost playful, "some of you may be thinking of escape."
Feiyin stiffened.
The man chuckled. "That would be foolish. Each of you has had a Heart-Eating Worm implanted inside you."
A sharp, collective inhale. Horror rippled through the children, while Feiyin's blood ran cold.
Heart-Eating Worms.
He had heard of them before, parasitic creatures used by cruel cultivators to control their subordinates. As long as they were given the antidote on a regular basis, they remained dormant. But if the antidote was withheld…
The worms would burrow into their host's heart and devour it from within.
"You will receive an antidote once a month. That is, if you survive." The man's gaze darkened, and his smile turned sharper. "But if you try to escape, disobey orders, or even think of resisting… you will not receive your next dose."
One boy collapsed to his knees, hands gripping his stomach as if he could already feel the worm inside of him. A girl bit her lip so hard it bled, her hands shaking at her sides.
Feiyin forced himself to stay still. The Saint Spirit Sect.
They weren't just killing people, they were harvesting them, turning them into slaves, weapons, tools.
A slow, burning anger ignited in his chest.
The man surveyed them one last time, as if savoring their terror. "That is all. I suggest you get comfortable with your new reality."
And then, without another word, he turned and walked away, disappearing into the shadows.
The light in the center of the cave flickered, then vanished.
Darkness swallowed them whole. For a moment, there was nothing but silence. Then the chaos began.
Someone screamed. A boy started hyperventilating, clutching his chest as if he could tear the worm out. Another child started sobbing uncontrollably, wailing for his parents.
"I don't want to die!" a voice cried. "I don't want to be here!"
"Get away from me!" another yelled. "You might try to steal my food!"
"There is no food!" someone else snapped, their voice trembling with hysteria. "We're going to starve!"
Feet shuffled. Someone tripped in the dark, crashing onto the hard stone floor with a cry of pain.
The cave was descending into madness.
Feiyin clenched his teeth. He could feel it. The desperation. The fear. The sheer hopelessness spreading through the group like wildfire.
It was suffocating, and it was dangerous.
If they all lost themselves to panic now, they wouldn't even last a day.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, Feiyin let his senses expand.
He focused, pushing past the fear, past the noise. He needed to find his center, to drown out the chaos around him and think.
The darkness was absolute, but the oscillations weren't. He could feel them.
The uneven, erratic pulses of the terrified children. The shaking, unstable rhythm of those on the verge of collapse. The rapid, erratic thuds of frantic heartbeats.
Then there were the surroundings, the cave itself. The cool, unmoving stability of the stone beneath him. The quiet, almost imperceptible skittering of insects on the walls. The distant, rhythmic drips of water.
It wasn't much, but it was something. His fingers curled into fists. If he wanted to survive this, he had to stay calm. He had to keep his mind sharp.
The others, however, were already losing control.
A scuffle broke out somewhere to his left, the sound of a body slamming against the stone.
"Back off!" a voice snarled. "This is my spot!"
"There's nothing here!" another snapped. "We're all going to die!"
More shuffling. More panic.
Feiyin exhaled slowly.
This was only the first night.
And it was already turning into hell.
He had no weapons.
No food.
No allies.
Only the darkness and the monsters, both outside and within.
His heartbeat slowed. Fine.
If this was what they wanted…
Then he would survive. He would endure.
And one day,
He would make them regret taking him.
Feiyin exhaled slowly, forcing his thoughts into clarity as the cacophony of panic and despair continued around him. His father's words echoed in his mind, steady and certain.
"Trying to reason with a frightened mob is futile. Words fall on deaf ears when fear has taken hold. You either use overwhelming strength to shock them back to their senses… or you wait for the storm to pass."
He clenched his jaw. Overwhelming strength? That wasn't an option, not yet. He had no weapons, no clear advantage in this situation beyond his wits and training. And waiting? If he let things spiral too far, there might be no one left sane enough to form any semblance of order.
No, the best course of action was to find people who weren't completely lost in terror, those who were still rational, still grounded enough to think beyond their immediate panic. If he could find them first, he could shift the tide.
His father always said, "You don't control chaos. You guide it. Start with what you can handle, and let the rest follow."
He closed his eyes, sharpening his senses, letting his inner perception expand.
The cave was vast, stretching far beyond what he could see, but in this consuming darkness, his senses were his greatest weapon. He felt out the frantic oscillations, erratic, unstable, trembling like thin reeds in a storm. The ragged breaths, the uneven heartbeats, the restless shuffling of bodies searching blindly for some sense of stability.
Then, something different.
Something still.
Amidst the turmoil, there was one frequency that stood in stark contrast to the others. Not calm, not composed like a warrior facing death with acceptance. No, this was something else entirely.
Dull. Unmoving. As if the boy didn't care if he lived or died.
Feiyin's brow furrowed. Why? Was it shock? Resignation? Apathy?
He stepped forward, maneuvering through the trembling forms of his fellow captives. He had to be careful, not to touch anyone too suddenly, not to provoke someone into lashing out in blind panic.
The closer he got, the clearer the presence became. The boy was crouched in a shadowed corner of the cavern, away from the worst of the chaos. When Feiyin finally reached him, his eyes adjusted enough to make out a faint silhouette.
A thin frame, slightly hunched, with a quiet yet heavy presence that didn't quite blend into the background. His posture was loose, almost slumped, his breathing steady, unshaken by the surrounding madness.
And when Feiyin finally got a glimpse of his face, he understood.
The boy wasn't just calm.
He had long since given up.
His features were sharp, angular in a way that set him apart. His ears, slightly pointed. His skin, pale but with a faint underlying hue that hinted at something other than human. His hair was a deep charcoal gray, strands falling over emotionless red eyes that stared into nothing.
A hybrid. A half-demon.
Feiyin inhaled sharply. He had seen depictions in books, heard stories about the demon races that lived far beyond the borders of the Azure Cloud Kingdom. Half-bloods were rare, and those that existed were often treated as lesser beings in some places, outcasts among both humans and demons alike.
It suddenly made sense. To someone like him, being thrown into this hellish place meant little. What was another cage when life had never been free to begin with?
But Feiyin wasn't about to let him sink further into that abyss.
He crouched down, bringing himself level with the boy. "You're really calm," he said.
The half-demon's gaze shifted slightly, but there was no spark of interest, no reaction to the chaos around them. "No point in panicking," he muttered. His voice was hoarse, dry, as if he hadn't spoken in days.
Feiyin tilted his head. "Why not?"
The boy shrugged, his movements lethargic. "I was born worthless. Lived worthless. I'll probably die worthless." A mirthless chuckle. "Whether it's in this cave or in some alley back home makes no difference."
A slow, simmering frustration rose in Feiyin's chest.
"That's stupid."
The boy blinked, the first sign of actual emotion flickering across his face.
Feiyin's eyes narrowed. "How can you think you're worthless?"
Silence.
Feiyin pressed on. "Look around. Everyone else is panicking, breaking down, losing their minds. But you're not." He gestured toward the trembling figures in the darkness. "You're calm. You're aware. That's not something just anyone can do."
The boy scoffed, looking away. "Doesn't mean anything."
"It means everything," Feiyin countered. His voice was firm, unyielding. "What do you think strength is? Just raw power? No. Strength is control. Strength is endurance. Strength is seeing clearly when no one else can."
His fists clenched. "If you were cast out, if people rejected you just because of how you were born, don't you want to prove them wrong?"
The half-demon's red eyes flickered with something, something Feiyin couldn't quite place.
Feiyin held his gaze. "Don't you want to survive? To get out of here and make them regret throwing you away?"
For the first time since their conversation started, the boy hesitated.
Feiyin pushed forward. "I'm going to survive this," he said, his voice carrying a quiet certainty. "And I'm going to make sure those bastards pay for what they did to my village." His fingers curled into a fist. "But I can't do that alone."
The words hung in the air between them. Seconds passed.
Then, finally, the boy exhaled, a slow, tired sound.
"...You're strange," he muttered.
Feiyin smirked. "I've been told."
The half-demon was silent for a long moment. Then, he sighed. "Fine. If I'm going to die anyway, might as well see how far I can go."
Feiyin's smirk grew into something sharper, something more determined.
"Good," he said, standing up. "Then let's survive together."
The boy rose as well, his movements slow but steady. "...What's your name?"
"Feiyin," he answered. "Cai Feiyin."
A beat of hesitation.
Then, quietly, the boy said, "...Ren."
Feiyin's grin widened. "Alright, Ren. Let's get started."
As the chaos of the cave raged on around them, a single ember of defiance sparked to life.