Inside the Jiang Ancestral Hall
The scent of burnt incense still lingered faintly in the air as Gu Changge pushed open the heavy doors of the Jiang Clan's ancestral hall. The torches along the obsidian walls flickered to life one by one, reacting to his presence. His footsteps echoed solemnly as he moved deeper into the hall, past ancestral tablets, each etched with names and titles soaked in centuries of blood and ambition.
Before the altar, a carved statue of the Jiang progenitor stared back with blank stone eyes. Gu Changge ignored it.
> "As always, the most damning sins lie beneath reverence."
He placed his hand on the floor tile just before the altar — a smooth slab of white jade veined with crimson. With a pulse of qi laced with Voidshade energy, the jade glowed and slid aside, revealing a dark stairwell spiraling downward.
---
Beneath the hall, silence ruled.
"The stairwell opened into a vast, hidden chamber, dimly lit by the eerie glow of ancient formations still pulsing with life after untold centuries. Black jade lined the walls, their polished surfaces absorbing more light than they gave. The air was dense—not merely with the weight of years, but with a cloying, almost sentient pressure. At the chamber's heart stood the Ritual Altar."
It was just as he'd seen through the Soul Echo Crystal: a circular platform, cracked and bloodstained, engraved with ancient demonic script. The runes writhed faintly beneath his gaze, as though alive.
Half-buried in the obsidian ground, black jade chains coiled around the altar like serpents, still clinging to a power long sealed. The core of the altar pulsed once—slowly, rhythmically—like a slumbering heart.
Gu Changge stepped onto the platform.
> "No ordinary bloodline ritual… this was engineered heresy."
He crouched beside one of the broken ritual stelae. With a flick of his sleeve, he cleared away dust and flaking blood. Strange etchings became visible:
> "Host Vessel Project: Phase Two Awakening."
> "To forge the binding link between Outer Spirit and Jiang bloodline... through refined grafting of soul marrow."
His gaze narrowed.
So the Jiang Clan had long abandoned natural cultivation. They had been forging artificial cultivators—host vessels—specifically attuned to the Demonic Spirit Sect's outer spirits. A sacrificial generation, puppets engineered to serve a hidden master.
Near the altar's edge, a large slab of obsidian was chained to the wall. Its surface was smooth—too smooth—until Gu Changge infused it with a wisp of dark qi.
Lines flared.
A black lotus sigil emerged. Corrupt, ancient. Familiar.
> "Same as the one etched into the abyss scroll… This is tied to the True Demonic Lotus Path."
He extended a jade vial from his sleeve and waved his hand. A stream of corrupted qi—dense, writhing with whispers—rose from beneath the altar's crack and flowed into the vial. The jade trembled but held firm as Gu Changge sealed it with a spiritual talisman.
> [Villain Value +400 — Deep Secret Exposure: Ritual Truth Uncovered]
His eyes glinted with satisfaction. This wasn't merely a discovery — it was leverage.
The Jiang Clan had become breeders of vessels, a demonic farm under the guise of ancient nobility. Whatever came next — whether confrontation or manipulation — he now held the true root of their shame in his hand.
And soon, he'd use it to choke them with their own legacy.
---
Phoenix court-
The lanternlight flickered softly within the Phoenix Court, casting elongated shadows upon the floor of polished spiritwood. Outside, cicadas hummed in rhythmic waves, but within, silence reigned like a sharpened blade.
Lady Feng knelt low before the dais, her head bowed so deeply that her forehead nearly touched the jade tiles. Her breathing was steady, controlled—well-trained, though the tension in her back betrayed the weight of her message.
"Your Majesty… Gu Changge and Yuerou have vanished from their manor."
A thin chime rang out as the Empress set down her teacup. The porcelain clicked lightly against the saucer, yet the air within the Phoenix Court grew heavy, oppressive—as if all warmth had been drawn out of the room.
"They vanished?" Her tone was soft. Too soft. Like silk hiding a dagger's point. "The Shadow Guard was stationed around their estate. You mean to tell me they disappeared under watch?"
Lady Feng remained bowed. "Yes, Your Majesty. No struggle. No signs of forced movement. They were seen before dusk. By dawn, only silence."
A long silence followed. The air trembled faintly with rising pressure—not from anger, but from tightly held power. The Empress eyes narrowed, her gaze distant, calculating.
"Summon Si Ye," she said.
The silence broke with the sound of a rustling silk curtain as a figure emerged from the far shadows of the court—as if he had always been there, merely waiting for his name.
Si Ye bowed without sound, his pale face expressionless, eyes like twin obsidian moons—void of emotion, yet impossibly watchful. His presence exuded neither qi nor scent, as if light itself rejected him.
"You heard," the Empress said, not as a question.
"I did, Your Majesty." His voice was cold mist—neither high nor low, yet it lingered like the echo of footsteps in snow.
"I want them found. No one simply vanishes—not from my kingdom. Not while watched. Trace the roots. Interrogate the silence. Burn the shadows if you must."
Si Ye bowed again. "It shall be done."
She waved her hand.
"And if you find out any of the Shadow Guard turned their eyes away even for a breath…"
Her gaze turned lethal.
"…pluck their souls from their bodies and send them to the Frozen Bell Tower. Let them contemplate the cost of blindness."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Si Ye faded once more, like a dream exhaled into night.
Only when he was gone did Lady Feng raise her head slightly. "Your Majesty suspects... treachery?"
The Empress stared into the cooling tea, her voice quiet.
"No. Worse. I suspect purpose."
---
Deep beneath the ancestral halls of the Jiang Clan, the air turned thick with blood-humid silence. The dim glow of spirit lanterns flickered along damp stone walls as muffled screams rose from the cell block—low, inhuman.
In one of the innermost cells, a boy lay chained to a ritual slab. No older than twelve, his pale skin was inked with half-formed demonic script. His body convulsed violently, limbs jerking as if strings had been pulled by unseen hands.
A surge of unstable qi burst from his chest. The runes ignited crimson. The chains groaned, tightened—and then snapped.
Guards outside the door panicked.
> "He's awakening again—!" "Sound the—"
Boom.
The metal door slammed outward, scorched by black fire. One guard flew back, his robes aflame.
And then—
Gu Changge stepped through the smoke. His eyes gleamed like obsidian, calm amidst the chaos. With one fluid motion, he lifted his hand and pressed a blood-stained talisman between two fingers.
The demonic talisman pulsed.
The boy's writhing halted. The crimson script dimmed. The storm of demonic qi froze mid-air—like a tantrum stopped mid-scream.
Gu Changge entered the cell.
The child's glazed eyes locked onto him.
Then… the boy bowed his head.
> "You…" he croaked. "You're the same as me. Your blood… smells like me…"
A flicker—buried deep beneath cold calculation—passed through Gu Changge's gaze.
Recognition? Or revulsion?
---
> ⚠️ SYSTEM PROMPT
Karmic Thread Detected: Vessel Child 07 shares latent fate with Lin Tian.
Side Quest Unlocked: Turn the Thread — make the vessel a Follower or Kill to sever the fate.
Reward: 5,000 Villain Value
Thread influence will manifest in the future.
.
---
Gu Changge narrowed his eyes.
Now he saw it: a faint, spectral thread of dark gold—barely visible—twisting from the boy's chest, out through stone and time…
Toward Lin Tian.
A karmic tether.
But reversed.
> Not fate following the protagonist… but fate escaping him.
> "You're not supposed to exist," Gu Changge murmured, crouching beside the trembling child. "A failed prototype of their grand design... yet here you are. Reacting to me."
The boy blinked slowly, lips cracked and trembling.
> "Mother said… I wasn't meant to survive. But if I did… I'd burn the world."
A violent tremor rippled through him.
---
⚠️ SYSTEM PROMPT – Hidden Trait Activation
🩸 Analyzing Vessel Physique...
🔍 Result: Host Vessel 07 possesses concealed bloodline trait —
> 💠 Silent Moon Physique
— Gains power under moonlight.
— Body becomes partially ethereal at night, evading spiritual or divine detection.
— Can silence all sound and movement in a short radius.
> Classification: Rare Physique – Assassin Class
---
Gu Changge's pupils contracted slightly. His voice turned quiet.
> "Silent Moon Physique…" he whispered. "No wonder the grafts failed. They didn't know what you were."
But even now, the shadows around Gu Changge pulsed—thicker, heavier. His very blood carried something older. Something that made even the cursed silence shiver.
The demonic qi in the air shifted—tentative now, uncertain whether to recoil or kneel. The child's convulsions stopped. A pale moonbeam filtered from a crack in the ceiling—and the boy's outline blurred, nearly vanishing.
Yet standing before him, Gu Changge remained perfectly clear—undimmed. The moonlight bent around him. The silence bowed beneath him.
The boy stared, wide-eyed.
> "You're… stronger than me," he said softly. "Even the moon… doesn't hide you."
Gu Changge didn't answer at first. Instead, he let a small sigh pass through his lips.
> "You're a blade," he said. "Forged in silence. Hidden until night."
The boy tilted his head.
> "Mother said… my footsteps should never be heard. That the world shouldn't know I walked it."
> "Your mother?" Gu Changge asked.
A pause.
> "She's gone. They took her… when they started the carving. But I still remember her voice."
Gu Changge was silent again.
> A flicker—not recognition this time.
> Kinship.
Or was it disgust at the echo of his own creation?
He pressed the talisman into the boy's chest. Whispered the sealing chant from the Jiang Clan's Forbidden Codex. The script etched into the boy's skin dimmed, then receded like ink from stone.
The boy's breathing slowed. Clarity returned to his hollow gaze.
And then—
He bowed his head.
> "I… surrender," the boy whispered.
> "Why?" Gu Changge asked, voice cold.
> "Because you're not like them," he said. "Because your blood is louder. It feels… right. You can find her. You… can make them pay."
---
⚠️ SYSTEM PROMPT
> Villain Value +5000 → Total: 6,720
✅ Side Quest Complete: Turn the Thread — Vessel 07 has become a Follower.
🎯 New Trait: Silent Moon Physique – Acquired (Follower)
🔒 Hidden Quest Unlocked: The Moon Does Not Speak – Train Vessel 07
✅ Optional Action: Bestow New Name (Recommended)
---
Gu Changge crouched once more, brushing soot and dried blood from the boy's forehead.
> "They called you Vessel Child 07."
He paused.
> "But that's a leash name."
The boy stayed quiet.
Gu Changge's voice lowered.
> "You need a name that bends fate. One you'll answer with a knife in the dark."
He thought a moment. Then nodded once.
> "Yue Wusheng."
> Moon Without Sound.
The boy blinked, then nodded—eyes clearing.
> "Yue… Wusheng
---
[ End of chapter 24 ]
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