The outer forest at midnight was a different world.

  Jiang Chen moved through it like smoke, the Starless Breath reducing his presence to something less than shadow. The moon was a thin crescent, providing just enough light for the Void Eyes to work with—every heat signature a bright bloom against the cool darkness, every qi fluctuation a visible ripple.

  Lu Pao followed twenty metres behind, struggling to keep up and keep quiet.

  "Boss," Lu Pao whispered for the third time. "Are you sure about this? Three hunts in three days is—"

  "Necessary," Jiang Chen said without turning around. "I need 175 Evolution Points. The forest has them. We collect and leave."

  "You're talking about it like picking mushrooms."

  "Mushrooms don't run." Jiang Chen stopped at the edge of a small clearing. "And they're worth fewer points."

  He activated the Void Eyes fully. The world shifted into overlapping layers—heat, qi density, life force. He scanned the treeline methodically, cataloging everything within two hundred metres.

  Three Tier 1 beasts to the north. Shadow Rats. Worthless—maybe 15 EV total.

  One Tier 2 to the east. Ironbark Bear. Territorial, slow. Probably 80-100 EV.

  Something bigger to the south. Heat signature is strong but erratic. Injured maybe.

  "South," Jiang Chen decided. "Injured prey."

  Lu Pao looked in that direction and saw nothing but trees. "How do you know it's injured?"

  "Its heat distribution is uneven. Left flank is cold—blood loss or damaged circulation." Jiang Chen started walking. "Wounded animals are easier to kill and just as valuable. Basic economics."

  Lu Pao muttered something that sounded like a prayer.

  They moved south for ten minutes, and then Jiang Chen smelled it—blood, fresh, mixed with the bitter tang of venom. He signaled Lu Pao to stop and wait.

  The clearing ahead was a mess. Torn earth, broken branches, scorch marks from a brief fight. And in the center, a Tier 2 Thunder Lynx, one of its hind legs half-severed, lying in a pool of its own blood.

  It wasn't dead. Its chest still rose and fell in shallow, rapid breaths.

  Jiang Chen approached carefully. Void Eyes traced the damage—the leg wound was from another predator's claws, probably a territorial dispute. The lynx had won but paid the price. It was dying slowly.

  Estimated EV: 120-150. Perfect.

  The lynx's ear twitched. Its head turned slightly, one yellow eye focusing on Jiang Chen despite the blood loss. It growled—a wet, bubbling sound.

  "I know," Jiang Chen said quietly. "You fought hard. You won. And now something else is going to eat you anyway."

  He stepped closer.

  The lynx tried to stand. Couldn't. Its good legs trembled with the effort.

  "That's life," Jiang Chen continued, almost conversational. "The strong eat. The weak are eaten. You were strong enough to win your fight. Not strong enough to survive the aftermath."

  He knelt beside it.

  The lynx snapped at him, teeth clicking inches from his face.

  Jiang Chen caught its jaw with one hand—not struggling, just holding. His grip was iron. The lynx's strength was already gone.

  "I'm not going to let you suffer," Jiang Chen said. "That's more mercy than most get."

  He placed his other hand on the lynx's chest, feeling the frantic heartbeat beneath fur and muscle.

  Then he activated Devour.

  The Void Foundation pulled.

  It wasn't violent. It was gentle, almost tender—a steady drain, like water circling a drain. The lynx's qi flowed out of it in wisps, pale blue threads that disappeared into Jiang Chen's palm.

  The lynx's breathing slowed. The tension in its muscles released. Its yellow eye dimmed.

  After thirty seconds, it was over.

  [SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

  Thunder Lynx consumed (Tier 2 - Late)

  +142 EV

  Lightning affinity increased slightly

  Current EV: 1,967

  Jiang Chen stood. The corpse was intact—drained of qi but otherwise unmarked. He could have eaten the flesh for additional minor gains, but time was a factor. The scent of blood would attract scavengers.

  He left it there and moved on.

  The second target was easier.

  A Tier 2 Venom Spider had built a web between three old oaks, thirty feet across, glistening with toxin-laced silk. The spider itself was the size of a cart wheel, hanging motionless in the center.

  Jiang Chen studied it from below.

  Tier 2, Early stage. Probably 60-80 EV. Venom Core will convert the poison into a bonus.

  He picked up a stone and threw it into the web.

  The spider moved instantly—blindingly fast, eight legs skittering across the silk. It pounced on the stone, injecting venom reflexively before realizing the mistake.

  Jiang Chen was already behind it.

  He'd climbed the opposite tree while the spider was distracted, moving branch to branch in absolute silence. Now he dropped onto the spider's back, one hand driving Void Claw through the carapace at the joint where head met thorax.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The spider convulsed. Tried to shake him off. Failed.

  Jiang Chen held on, claws buried deep, and drained it the same way he'd drained the lynx. Gentle. Efficient. Professional.

  [SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

  Venom Spider consumed (Tier 2 - Early)

  +68 EV

  Venom Core processed toxins: +12 EV bonus

  Current EV: 2,047

  Forty-seven points over the target. Enough for a buffer.

  Jiang Chen dropped from the web and landed in a crouch. Lu Pao was watching from behind a tree, eyes wide.

  "That's it?" Lu Pao asked. "Two kills in twenty minutes?"

  "I told you. It's farming, not fighting." Jiang Chen brushed spider silk off his sleeve. "The forest is a resource. You just have to know which resources are worth the time."

  "You're talking like a merchant."

  "Lu Pao, you are a merchant. I'm surprised you haven't started taking notes."

  Lu Pao blinked. Then, slowly, he pulled out a small notebook and actually started writing.

  Jiang Chen almost smiled.

  They headed back toward the sect boundary. The hunt was over. Clean, efficient, no unnecessary risks. Jiang Chen had what he needed.

  As they walked, Apeiron spoke for the first time since they'd entered the forest.

  You've changed your hunting style.

  "I learned from the assassins. No wasted movement. No excessive force. Just identify the target, close the gap, finish it."

  You sound proud of that.

  "Should I not be?"

  I'm not criticizing. I'm observing. Three months ago you would have felt guilt for killing that lynx. Tonight you gave it a speech about natural law and killed it without hesitation.

  Jiang Chen didn't respond immediately. They crossed a fallen log, stepped over a small stream.

  "The lynx was dying anyway," Jiang Chen said finally. "I just accelerated it."

  That's a rationalization. A good one. Well-practiced.

  "So?"

  So you're getting better at lying to yourself. That's useful. But eventually, you won't need to lie anymore. You'll just do it because it's what you do.

  Jiang Chen stopped walking.

  Lu Pao, sensing the tension, quietly moved a few metres away and suddenly became very interested in a tree.

  "What's your point?" Jiang Chen asked.

  No point. Just noting the progress. Apeiron's voice was neutral. You have enough EV for the upgrade. The Void Affinity will slow the sync rate growth. It's objectively the smart choice.

  "But?"

  But it's also another step toward becoming more like me and less like what you were. The upgrade will rewrite parts of your bloodline. Make you fundamentally compatible with the Void. That's permanent.

  "Everything I've done has been permanent."

  True. I just want you to understand what you're choosing. This isn't a technique you can unlearn or a skill you can disable. This is genetic. It will change your children, if you ever have them. It will mark your bloodline forever.

  Jiang Chen looked at his hands. They looked normal in the moonlight—human, despite everything. But he knew what they could do. What they'd done.

  "I was crippled by my own family," Jiang Chen said quietly. "Thrown into a pit to die. Survived by bonding with an ancient cosmic predator. Killed and ate my way back to life." He looked up. "I'm never going to have a normal bloodline. This ship sailed a long time ago."

  So you're choosing power over humanity. Again.

  "I'm choosing survival. If the cost is humanity, then humanity was overpriced to begin with."

  Apeiron laughed—a sound like wind through a grave.

  Good. Then buy the upgrade. Let's see what you become.

  Jiang Chen waited until he was back in his quarters to make the purchase.

  He locked the door. Activated the privacy formation. Sat cross-legged in the center of the room.

  "System. Open shop. Purchase Minor Void Affinity."

  [SYSTEM SHOP]

  [Minor Void Affinity — 2,000 EV]

  Increases compatibility with Void techniques. Reduces sync rate growth by 10%. Permanent bloodline modification.

  Confirm purchase?

  "Confirm."

  [PURCHASE CONFIRMED]

  [INITIATING BLOODLINE INTEGRATION]

  The pain started in his bones.

  Not his muscles, not his skin—his actual skeleton. A deep, grinding ache as if something was rewriting the marrow at a cellular level.

  Jiang Chen gritted his teeth. He'd been through worse. The Corpse Pit. The transformation in the Spring. He could handle—

  The pain doubled.

  Tripled.

  His bones felt like they were dissolving and reforming simultaneously. He tasted copper. His vision went white, then black, then a nauseating swirl of colors that didn't exist in normal reality.

  Inside his dantian, the Yin-Yang Balanced Foundation shifted.

  The black half—the Void side—expanded slightly. Not dominating, but deepening. Where before it had been a shadow on water, now it was an absence. A true void. Something that didn't just lack light but consumed it.

  The change rippled outward through his meridians. Every channel that carried qi was subtly altered, lined with something that made the flow smoother, hungrier, more efficient.

  His blood changed last.

  It didn't turn black—not visibly. But if someone had examined it under spiritual sight, they would have seen threads of absolute darkness woven through the red, like ink dispersing through water but never fully mixing.

  The pain peaked.

  Jiang Chen heard himself screaming, distant and muffled as if underwater.

  Then it stopped.

  He collapsed forward, gasping, drenched in sweat. The floor beneath him was scorched in a perfect circle—not burned by heat, but by the absence of heat. A cold burn.

  [SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

  BLOODLINE INTEGRATION COMPLETE

  Minor Void Affinity acquired

  Changes:

  Void technique efficiency: +30%

  Qi consumption efficiency: +15%

  Sync rate growth: -10% (permanent modifier)

  Bloodline marker: Void-touched (detectable by high-level cultivators)

  Resistance to light-based attacks: +20%

  Vulnerability to certain purification techniques: +10%

  Warning: This modification is permanent and heritable. Descendants will carry Void affinity.

  Current Stats:

  Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Middle - Peak)

  Sync Rate: 1.5% (growth rate now 0.9x normal)

  Current EV: 47

  Note: Your foundation has stabilized with Void characteristics. Further cultivation will be easier but increasingly divergent from orthodox paths.

  Jiang Chen slowly pushed himself upright.

  He felt... different. Not stronger, exactly. More aligned. Like a machine that had been running with slightly misaligned gears and now everything fit properly.

  He stood and walked to the small bronze mirror on his desk.

  His reflection looked the same. White-and-black hair. Gold and silver eyes. Pale skin.

  But when he focused on his left eye—the void-silver one—he saw something new. A faint pattern, like frost on glass, barely visible unless you knew to look for it. Geometric. Alien.

  The mark of the Void, Apeiron said. Anyone with True Sight will recognize what you are now.

  "What am I?"

  Something between human and Other. Not quite either. Not quite both. A pause. Congratulations. You're officially a heretic by every orthodox sect's definition.

  Jiang Chen touched his reflection. The glass was cold.

  "Good," he said. "I was never going to fit in anyway."

  He turned away from the mirror and sat back down.

  The System interface was still open, showing his updated stats. 47 EV remaining. Sync rate at 1.5% but now growing 10% slower.

  That would buy him time. Not much—maybe a few extra months before hitting the next milestone—but time nonetheless.

  What now? Apeiron asked.

  Jiang Chen closed the interface. "Now I sleep. Tomorrow I submit my research proposal to Elder Qiu. I want access to the Restricted Archives."

  What will you research?

  "The sect's founding. The Corpse Ravine. What they were really built to contain." He lay down on his thin sleeping mat. "I want to know what I've become part of. And whether anyone else has done what I did."

  Survived bonding with me?

  "Survived bonding with anything like you."

  They didn't, Apeiron said simply. Every other host dissolved. You were the first success in ten thousand years. That's why I find you interesting.

  "Lucky me."

  Indeed.

  Jiang Chen closed his eyes.

  Sleep came easier than expected—probably a side effect of the bloodline integration exhausting his body. He drifted into unconsciousness thinking about archives, ancient texts, and the secrets buried under eight hundred years of sect history.

  He didn't dream.

  Or if he did, he didn't remember.

  When he woke six hours later, the sun was rising, and Lu Pao was knocking frantically on his door.

  "Boss! Boss, wake up!"

  Jiang Chen rolled to his feet and opened the door. "What?"

  Lu Pao was pale. He held out a jade slip, trembling.

  "Scholar Hall just posted the weekly announcements. You've been summoned to a disciplinary hearing."

  Jiang Chen took the slip and read it.

  NOTICE OF INQUIRY

  Outer Scholar Jiang Chen is hereby summoned to appear before the Discipline Committee on the 5th day of the Moon of Frost (three days from now) to address questions regarding:

  Unexplained disappearances in the outer forest (three separate incidents)

  Cultivation advancement inconsistent with recorded resources

  Suspected unauthorized possession of Elder-grade items

  Failure to appear will result in immediate expulsion and sect-wide arrest warrant.

  Signed,

  Elder Mo, Head of Discipline

  Elder Qiu, Scholar Hall Representative

  Elder Yan, Combat Hall Observer

  Jiang Chen read it twice.

  Then he looked at Lu Pao.

  "Three days," Jiang Chen said. "That's not a lot of time."

  "Boss, what are you going to do?"

  Jiang Chen handed the slip back. "What I always do."

  He smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.

  "Prepare."