Rain.
It fell in freezing sheets. Turning the dirt outside the shack into a slurry of mud and pig shit.
Kaelen stood in the doorway. Behind him, Liu's body was cooling on the floor.
To a normal person, it was a crime scene.
To Kaelen, it was a pantry.
"System. Analyze."
> **[Target: Servant Liu]**
> **State:** Deceased.
> **Cultivation:** Body Refining Stage 2.
> **Essence:** Low.
"Better than nothing."
Kaelen knelt. He didn't chant. He didn't meditate.
He placed a pale, blood-stained hand on the corpse's chest.
*Pull.*
**Heaven-Devouring Scripture.**
It was visceral.
It felt like drinking thick, hot syrup through a straw. A crimson energy—invisible to the naked eye but roaring in his senses—surged up his arm. It bypassed his stomach and hit his dantian like a shot of adrenaline.
Liu's body withered instantly. Skin tightened against bone like vacuum-sealed meat.
> **[Vitality Absorbed]**
> **[Strength +2]**
> **[Agility +1]**
> **Status:** Body Refining Stage 1 (Peak).
Kaelen stood up.
He flexed his fingers. The stiffness was gone. He felt light. Hungry.
"Barely an appetizer," he muttered. He kicked the husk aside.
He needed gear. He was wearing rags, and the Vane family didn't give handouts to corpses.
He stepped out into the storm.
He moved toward the Servant Quarters. He didn't skulk. He moved with the silence of a predator. The mud didn't squelch under his feet because he knew exactly how to distribute his weight.
As he neared the barracks, laughter spilled from a cracked window.
"...face when the Lady crushed the ring? Priceless!"
"Master Thorne beat him so bad I heard ribs snap from the hallway. I bet the trash is already dead."
Kaelen paused.
He knew those voices. Thorne's dogs.
He peered through the crack.
Three men.
**Goran:** Big. Stupid. Drinking rice wine. Body Refining Stage 3.
**The Rat:** Sharpening a dagger. Stage 2.
**The Third:** Passed out. Irrelevant.
Stage 3 meant Goran had skin like cured leather. He could punch through a door.
Kaelen was physically weaker.
*Strength isn't everything,* Kaelen thought. *Leverage is.*
He pushed the door open.
The hinges shrieked. The laughter died.
Goran blinked, cup halfway to his mouth. When he saw Kaelen—wet, pale, looking like a drowned ghost—he slammed the cup down.
"Kaelen?"
Goran stood up, swaying. "You little cockroach. You're supposed to be dying in your hole."
He walked around the table, arms wide. Muscles thick with crude Qi.
"Did you come to beg? Or did you come to lick the mud off my boots?"
The Rat snickered. Testing the edge of his blade.
Kaelen stepped inside.
He closed the door.
*Click.*
"I came for clothes," Kaelen said flatly. "And a weapon. Yours will do."
Goran stared. Then roared with laughter.
"The beating scrambled his brain! You want my sword?"
He cracked his knuckles.
"I'm going to break your legs for real this time. Then I'll drag you to Thorne for a bonus."
Goran lunged.
It was a bar-brawl swing. Wild. Wide. Fueled by cheap booze.
Fast for a mortal. Slow for a Demon Lord.
*Too wide. Feet unplanted.*
Kaelen didn't retreat. He stepped *in*.
He dropped his weight. Ducking under the massive arm. As he rose, he didn't punch. He drove his elbow upward like a piston.
Target: The throat.
*THUD.*
It sounded like hitting a wet sandbag.
Goran gagged. Eyes rolled back. His windpipe crushed.
Before the big man could fall, Kaelen swept his leg. He kicked out the back of Goran's knee.
Goran went down hard.
Kaelen grabbed a handful of hair. He slammed Goran's face into the stone floor.
*CRACK.*
Silence.
Goran lay twitching. Blood pooled rapidly around his nose.
The Rat froze. His whetstone clattered to the floor.
"You... you used a demonic art! You cheated!"
He grabbed his dagger. Panic rose in his voice.
"Die!"
He charged.
"System," Kaelen thought. "**[Pain Nullification]. Max output.**"
The Rat was faster than Goran. He thrust the dagger straight at Kaelen's stomach.
Kaelen didn't dodge.
He twisted just enough.
*Shluck.*
The blade missed his organs. It buried itself in the muscle of his side.
Pain flared—hot and sharp.
The System deleted it.
To Kaelen, it was just information. *Damage detected.*
The Rat's eyes went wide. He expected a scream. He expected fear.
Instead, Kaelen stepped *forward*. He impaled himself deeper to close the distance.
"Gotcha," Kaelen whispered.
His fingers formed a rigid claw.
He struck the Rat's eyes.
"AAAAHH!"
The man shrieked. Dropping the weapon. Clawing at his bloody face.
Kaelen spun. A roundhouse kick to the temple.
The Rat dropped like a sack of potatoes.
Kaelen pulled the dagger out of his own side.
*Squelch.*
He didn't wince. Blood soaked his rags, but the wound was already clotting thanks to the *Bone Forging Pill* residue.
He looked at the third man.
Awake now. Trembling against the wall. Holding a stool as a shield.
"Wait! Young Master! It was Thorne! Thorne told us to starve you!"
The man fell to his knees. Head banging the floor.
"Mercy! Please!"
Kaelen walked over. The bloody dagger hung loose in his hand.
"Mercy is for the living," Kaelen said.
He swung the blade.
***
Ten minutes later.
Kaelen walked out.
He wore Goran's dark grey training robes. Loose, but dry. A steel dagger tucked into his belt. A pouch of twelve spirit stones stripped from the bodies.
Inside, three dried husks lay on the floorboards.
> **[System Report]**
> **Vitality Absorbed: 3 Targets.**
> **Cultivation:** Body Refining Stage 2.
> **Quest Triggered:** *First Blood.*
> **Objective:** Kill Thorne Vane.
> **Time Limit:** 3 Days.
Kaelen looked up at the Vane Manor. It loomed on the hill like a gravestone.
Stage 2. Stronger. But Thorne was Stage 6.
If they fought now, Kaelen would lose.
"Three days," Kaelen whispered into the rain.
"I won't need that long."
He turned his back on the house. He headed for the black tree line of the mountains.
The night was young.
And he was still hungry.