Even before the princess finished speaking, Cade’s blood surged to a near boil, his vision narrowing on the tantalizing rhythm of Jade’s carotid pulse. He fought the rising rage and the hunger it brought, clenching his fists under the table while repeating his father’s calming mantra—its steady rhythm the only weapon against the storm building inside him. His nails darkened, lengthening into his palms, their sharp tips piercing skin. The pain helped him focus, taking the edge away—just enough to maintain a semblance of a neutral expression.

  “Griswold, the tenth heir, has been kidnapped and badly hurt. The criminal viciously destroyed his cultivation and killed his Dao Protector. My father decided it was unacceptable to leave him in this state. Griswold was immediately fed a stasis pill—apparently, this kind of wound can’t be allowed to scar over—and brought back to the Empire. Now we need enough Rank 3 bloodseeker blood for the Tower alchemists to prepare a special third-tier pill, which then will be implanted in place of the missing pre-core by our expert healers. Oh, how I wish I could lay my hands on that man,” Jade continued with her explanation, her tone shifting from soft like cotton to hard as steel.

  Inhale. Exhale.

  Cade could sense Jade's jaw tightening under the veil as she retold her version of the story. Her emotional fluctuations pointed to feelings of injustice and outrage. She felt her family had been wronged and wanted to help her distant cousin.

  He let out a slow, silent breath, forcing his nails back into their human shape, and the shallow wounds in his palms healed over almost instantly. He wiped the remaining blood on the fabric of his red longcoat.

  The young Asura carried a bottle of ordinary stasis pills he had picked up in Kettle, so that wasn’t anything new to him. They were amazing in battle, preventing grievous wounds from killing someone before they could reach a healer. But a pre-core recovery pill?! I should have killed that pockmarked fuck when I had the chance. Once again, Cade focused on controlling his anger, and he gradually recovered his composure.

  I guess what’s supposed to hang won’t drown.

  He somehow managed to maintain a mostly neutral expression under the elder’s scrutiny, the old man’s lazy gaze constantly evaluating each change in his facial expression. Cade was sure there was nothing more to it other than the elder being protective of the princess, but he couldn’t afford to be careless.

  “It sounds terrible,” he briefly cleared his throat, assuming a serious tone. “I wonder whether anyone looked into what provoked such a level of violence?”

  Jade’s brow creased. “What do you mean?”

  “An heir is not a person someone randomly targets. From what you described, this sounds like a serious grudge, not a result of an argument with an innkeeper about the quality of his wine,” Cade elaborated.

  Jade’s gaze drifted as she considered his words. Then she turned to the elder. “Master? Why was Griswold kidnapped?”

  “I’m sure the kidnapper had his reasons. Deliberate violence such as this implies a degree of planning, and planning suggests a goal. What could this goal be, only the kidnapper would know. Maybe he just wanted Griswold to suffer. The boy said it was a robbery, but then why would the kidnapper destroy his cultivation? Historically, it’s not exactly rare for heirs to fight over position, but as far as I can tell, not even once did someone have their cultivation destroyed as a result. I’m sure the truth will come out eventually,” the elderly man answered, his fingers playing with the rim of a delicate, porcelain teacup in front of him.

  No mention of Veronica… Interesting. Could it be that her disappearance was kept quiet? This way they could frame the kidnapping as a robbery or internal struggle, steering the investigation away from digging too deep into Marius’s matters.

  Jade appeared lost in thought once again. She probably never considered this matter as more than a brutal, unjustified attack on her family. It was quite possibly presented to her this way.

  “Young man, are you here for the Sword Dao trial?” the elder unexpectedly asked, changing the subject.

  Cade wasn’t surprised by the question. Most young people from outside the elven race were here for the trial. “I am,” he confirmed.

  This pulled Jade out of contemplation, and her lips stretched into a smile. “Really?! That’s great! Me too!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands. He had to admit the princess’s mood changed quickly.

  “On account of me being more than fair with you, I have a favor to ask: can you keep an eye on my disciple during the trial and then in the monastery?” the old man asked, his expression serious.

  Jade sharply turned towards her master, but he raised his hand to stop her objections. For the second time, Cade had no idea what to say. “Why me?” he eventually asked.

  The elder’s eyes narrowed. “Because you killed three of my elders while being in the early Skeletal Reinforcement realm. Now you’re here, with not a single mark on you. However you did it, whatever trump cards you used, I won’t bother to investigate. Every cultivator has a right to keep their secrets. All I care about is that you possess the ability to keep her safe. What do you say? Naturally, I won’t have you lose out.”

  Cade didn’t answer immediately, trying to come up with some excuse, but he couldn’t think of any. Or rather, there were many he could make up, just none that would satisfy a great circle True Core cultivator. Shit.

  He watched as Jade’s pale complexion gradually turned red, and eventually, she could no longer hold it in. “Master, I’m not a child! Besides, why would I need protection inside the monastery?! My cultivation is higher than his anyway!” she argued with a raised voice. The girl wasn’t wrong. Being at the peak of the early stage of Foundation Establishment, she was a step ahead of him. Or rather, she would have been if he cultivated spiritual qi.

  The old man ignored her outburst and continued to calmly watch Cade with his piercing, green eyes.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “If for whatever reason I’m forced to choose between my life and hers, I’ll have to save myself first. And I can’t make any promises. I have to train, sleep, and cultivate. I can’t be looking over her all the time,” he finally answered.

  “What?!” Jade blurted out.

  A satisfied smile spread across the sect master’s face. “That’s all perfectly understandable. I just need to know there is someone on the inside who won’t look away when she’s being bullied. After the trial, I’ll remain in Oasis. Find me here if you run into any serious trouble. My name is Var Du Long.” The old man passed over a small piece of paper. It must have been something that had troubled him for some time, as the tension in his wrinkled face eased greatly. Cade found it quite intriguing that the elder’s name didn’t seem to be of imperial origin.

  He nodded, placing the slip in his storage ring. It would no doubt complicate his life, but he couldn’t exactly say no. And he didn’t doubt the Sect Master would pay him handsomely. Besides, Jade might have been temperamental, but she was also good-natured and rather naive, something most cultivators would sooner or later try to take advantage of. He wasn’t sure what approach the Sword Dao Monastery took to tempering their disciples, but he’d bet all his crystals that coddling wasn’t integral to their methods.

  “Are you both mad?! I don’t need a nanny! Why is nobody listening to me?!” Jade exclaimed, her voice cracking with disbelief.

  “If that’s all, then I’ll take my leave. I’m planning to arrive at the monastery a day before the opening trial, and I shall seek you out. Senior, thank you for your consideration. Princess, it was a pleasure to see you. Until we meet again,” Cade bowed towards the Sect Master, then cupped his fist towards the infuriated girl, who glared at him with daggers in her eyes.

  “Wait! We aren’t done here! You can’t just leave!” she rushed to her feet to stop him, but the elder’s hand wave told Cade he should go.

  The young Asura quickly slipped out of the room, breathing out in relief. He could hear Jade’s barely muffled voice as she loudly demanded answers from her master. One thing he desired most after arriving in the south was peace and quiet. The one thing he wanted to avoid was getting tied up with the Brighthearts. Apparently, fate couldn’t give a damn about his wishes.

  Have I done something to deserve this? Is this karma? Nobody’s luck can be this garbage.

  Over the next five weeks, Cade split his time between cultivation, hunting, and researching how to best feed his spherules. He had purchased several spirit pills adequate for a Foundation Establishment cultivator in order to test his idea about using spiritual energy in place of blood qi. Sadly, this approach failed to yield satisfactory results. His voracious heart was the limiting factor; it could not transfer all that qi into the spherules, and most of it dissipated. It seemed alchemy wasn’t going to help him with this problem, but there were many branching paths when it came to concocting pills; there was no reason to believe one of them couldn’t be productive for his cultivation.

  For now, Cade had to rely exclusively on blood for progress and—unwilling to spend his crystals before the trial—he decided to venture out into the desert to seek Rank 2 spirit beasts. Here, they were a lot more common than in the Verdant Sea. Fortunately, with his new abilities, creatures at this level were not generally dangerous unless they were in a larger group, which he simply avoided. With his disabling pulse, hunting solitary prey at this rank was much easier; he just had to make sure to use it at the right moment and in close proximity. He encountered only one troublesome opponent—a huge sand centipede—mainly due to its extremely hard carapace. His shortsword wasn’t sharp enough, and Cade was forced to unleash over a dozen blows, brutally hacking at the disabled beast like a mad butcher before its armor finally yielded. It was a shame the Asura War Form required blood from a scaled creature for its defensive component, as Cade had never encountered a spirit beast remotely as tough as this centipede. Then again, his experience was rather limited.

  While obtaining Rank 2 blood essence wasn’t a problem, it didn’t yield much in terms of results either. His spherules devoured most of the blood qi, and because there were so many of them already, their rate of growth slowed to a crawl. It greatly affected his cultivation speed, and Cade had barely made any progress during those few weeks. If he had a hundred steps to walk to reach the peak of the early stage, he had crossed maybe a tenth of the distance so far. It wasn’t an easy position to be in. He wasn’t confident enough to hunt even the weakest of Rank 3 beasts, not without putting his life on the line and throwing a coin. He desperately needed a longer weapon and a combat style that matched it. At the same time, Rank 2 creatures didn’t yield nearly enough blood qi for him to progress at a decent rate. His spherules couldn’t absorb more energy from the bead because his physique wasn’t strong enough to sustain their rapid growth. This led to both the spherules and his body developing at a snail’s pace.

  Purchasing high-rank carcasses would be an option, if not for their ludicrous prices. All available Rank 3 corpses were from creatures with unique bloodlines, which made their blood useful for alchemists. Some broke the price barrier of 150,000 crystals. The difference in price between Ranks 2 and 3 was mind-boggling. Normal beasts without special bloodlines rarely advanced past the second rank. This was one of the reasons why Rank 3 spirit beasts were so dangerous. It was a truly cursed circle with no solution in sight other than becoming wealthy overnight. He needed to find a way to stop the spherules from consuming most of the blood qi during coffin cultivation. Either that or become rich.

  Regrettably, none of his ideas had worked so far. No matter what he did, those greedy, prismatic bastards were the first to consume the majority of the incoming blood qi, leaving next to nothing for his body. In result, he had a large quantity of blood essence that wasn’t currently doing much and started using it to charge bloodstones. At least this way, it would benefit his survivability.

  As a small consolation, Cade was able to sell all the carcasses he had accumulated inside his ring, as most cultivators weren’t bothered about a Rank 2 creature missing its blood and gladly bought them, taking advantage of a lower price. He used the profits to purchase a high-quality cauldron with a comparable-level alchemical flame. Compared to the original cauldron he had used to produce crude spirit pills back in Springwine, this equipment was on an entirely different level.

  Time passed quickly, split between his poor attempts at concocting and cultivation. One day, Cade woke up knowing it was time to leave for the trial. The Sword Dao Monastery was located roughly 400 miles west of Oasis. For local cultivators with decent speeders, this could be considered next door.

  Cade said goodbye to Ameria, as he had kept mostly to himself and the receptionist was the only person he had regular interactions with. Prior to departing, he considered purchasing a larger sword, more suited to his build and reach, but he wasn’t sure what kind of weapon would work best for him. As far as he was aware, he didn’t need any weapon for the trial. The monastery was mostly interested in potential, not so much current skill. They had their own ways to measure talent, and their future disciples would need to learn a new combat style anyway. If Cade was accepted, he should be able to consult one of the Sword Masters in this regard.

  It was still early in the morning, his favorite time of the day. The Arrow flew west, devouring distance while bathed in orange sunlight. After about fifteen minutes, Cade noticed a faint, irregular shape looming on the horizon, resembling a jagged blade aimed at the clouds. While not quite as huge as the Tower of Arts, it nonetheless dominated the desert landscape. As he flew closer, the vague shape resolved itself into a black, solitary mountain. A gigantic citadel of black stone stood at its summit, overseeing the lands below like a dark, silent guardian. Even though Cade knew what to expect, he was still greatly impressed by its scale. Once he was around ten miles away from the black mountain, he slowed down, unconsciously rising from his rider's seat as his eyes widened, taking in the sight ahead.

  “What in the world…?!”