Chapter 6: The Shadow in the Garden
Age: 5 Years
The afternoon sun beat down on the Ye Clan's Beast Pavilion. It was a restricted area where the clan raised Spirit Beasts for mounting and combat.
I sat on a wooden fence, swinging my short legs, watching a Scarlet-Maned Tiger pace in its enclosure. To the beast keepers, this was a Rank 2 Spirit Beast—a man-eater capable of tearing a cultivator in half.
To me, it looked like a grumpy house cat.
'Its gait is uneven,' I observed. 'Ria, scan its rear left leg.'
"Bone spur," Ria replied instantly. "It's in pain. That's why it's roaring so much today."
I hopped off the fence. I was five years old now. I wore a fine blue silk robe, and my hair was tied in a neat topknot. I looked like the perfect image of a spoiled Young Master.
"Young Master Rudra!" a voice called out from behind a row of hedges. "You shouldn't be here! It's dangerous!"
I turned. A man in the rough grey robes of a gardener was limping toward me, carrying a pair of shears. He had a wide, friendly smile, but his eyes were flat. Dead.
'Ria,' I thought.
"Killing intent detected," she whispered, her voice sharpening. "Low level. He's hiding his cultivation. He appears to be a mortal servant, but his dantian is humming with Grey Qi."
Grey Qi. The signature of the Order of Providence.
So, they had finally sent someone to check on the "Anomaly."
"I was just looking at the kitty," I said, widening my eyes innocently.
The gardener stepped closer, looking around to ensure we were alone. The Beast Pavilion was empty at this hour; the keepers were at lunch.
"The kitty is hungry, Young Master," the gardener said, his voice dropping an octave. "You should come with me. I have some… candy in the shed."
'Candy in the shed? Really?' I internally scoffed. 'That's the best the secret rulers of the world can come up with? Amateur.'
"I don't want candy," I said, stepping back toward the tiger cage. "I want to pet the tiger."
The gardener's smile twitched. He dropped the act. He realized there were no guards around. He didn't need to lure me away; he could just grab me.
"You are a strange child," he muttered, dropping the shears. "The device detected a fluctuation from you five years ago. We thought it was an error. But looking at you now… your soul feels… heavy."
He took ' step forward. A faint grey mist began to coil around his hands.
"Warning," Ria alerted. "He is a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator. He is going to use a Soul-Binding technique to kidnap you silently."
'If I use my Qi to fight him, the Order will know I'm awakened. They'll send an army,' I calculated. 'I need an accident. A tragic, bloody accident.'
I backed up until my back hit the iron bars of the tiger cage.
Inside, the Scarlet-Maned Tiger stopped pacing. It smelled fresh meat. It growled, eyeing the gardener.
The gardener laughed softly. "Don't worry about the beast, boy. I put a sleeping powder in its food. It won't wake up."
He lunged at me, his grey hand reaching for my throat.
I didn't dodge. I simply looked past him, directly into the eyes of the tiger behind the bars.
'Wake up,' I commanded mentally.
I unleashed a sliver of my Beast God Bloodline.
It wasn't a roar. It was a psychic pulse of pure, primal dominance. To the tiger, I wasn't a human child. I was the Apex Predator. I was the Dragon King demanding obedience.
Inside the cage, the Tiger's eyes snapped open. The "sleeping powder" was instantly burned away by the adrenaline spike of pure terror.
ROAR!
The sound was deafening. The ground shook.
The gardener froze, his hand inches from my face. "What? It should be asleep—"
I side-stepped.
The Tiger didn't just roar. Driven by the fear of me, it lunged at the only thing standing between it and its King. It slammed into the iron gate. The gate, which I had secretly unlocked moments ago using a vibration technique, swung open.
"Good kitty," I whispered.
The gardener spun around, his eyes bulging. "No—!"
The Scarlet-Maned Tiger, a 500-pound beast of muscle and fire, leaped.
It tackled the assassin.
CRUNCH.
The scream was cut short as jaws clamped around the gardener's shoulder. The grey Qi flickered and shattered under the brute force of a Spirit Beast.
"Help! Help me!" the assassin shrieked, thrashing on the ground.
I stood there, watching calmly. The tiger looked up at me, its muzzle bloody. It whimpered, asking for permission to continue.
I gave a subtle nod.
The tiger dragged the screaming man deeper into the cage.
Seconds later, the screams stopped.
I waited a moment, then took a deep breath. I messed up my hair, rubbed some dirt on my face to look distressed, and started screaming at the top of my lungs.
"HELP! HELP! THE GARDENER FELL IN! HEEEELP!"
• * * Ten minutes later, the Beast Pavilion was swarming with guards and Elders. My father, Ye Tian, was holding me tight, checking me for injuries.
"I told him!" I sobbed, burying my face in my father's chest. "I told him not to get too close! He tried to feed the kitty!"
The Head Beast Keeper was pale, looking at the bloody remains in the cage. "This… this is impossible. The cage was locked! And the Tiger… it looks so calm now."
Inside the cage, the tiger was sitting quietly in the corner, licking its paws. It refused to make eye contact with anyone, especially me.
Elder Xuan (my secret teacher) walked over to the corpse. He kicked the gardener's severed hand. He saw a faint grey tattoo on the wrist—an eye inside a triangle.
Xuan's eyes narrowed. He looked at me. I was busy pretending to cry.
He walked over to Ye Tian. "Patriarch. This wasn't a normal accident. That man… he has the mark of a foreign organization."
Ye Tian's face went cold. "An assassin? Targeting my son?"
"It seems the Heavens are jealous of the Ye Clan," Xuan muttered. He leaned down and whispered to me, so only I could hear. "Nice work, brat. But next time, don't unlock the cage. You could have been eaten."
I stopped crying for a split second and whispered back. "It wouldn't dare."
Xuan chuckled, shaking his head.
"Burn the body," Ye Tian commanded, his voice filled with killing intent. "And double the guards. If anyone else tries to touch my son, I will slaughter their nine generations."
I watched the guards drag the remains away.
'One pawn down,' I thought. 'But now the Order knows the "Anomaly" is defended. Next time, they won't send a gardener. They will send a Reaper.'
"You have about two years before they try again," Ria estimated. "We need to speed up. You need to reach the Foundation Establishment realm before age ten."
'Agreed. Tonight, we raid the pill storage.'
I buried my face in my father's shoulder again. "Daddy, I want ice cream."
Ye Tian held me tighter. "You can have all the ice cream you want, Rudra. All of it."