The Blood Sect was famous for two things:
1. Drowning enemies in oceans of blood.
2. Throwing elaborate banquets the night before they did it.
Ren Kairo arrived during the second part.
He wore plain robes and a traveler's hood. Yi Meilan followed behind, her aura dampened, features hidden under a veil of spirit fog. The gate disciples barely looked up as they passed. One bowed lazily.
"Name and business?"
Kairo smiled. "Guest elder from the Thousand Thorn Hall. Here to exchange research on bloodline purification techniques."
The man blinked.
That was a completely made-up hall.
But he didn't know that.
After all, the Blood Sect didn't care who you were—as long as your techniques were cruel, efficient, and sounded vaguely demonic.
"Ah. Welcome, Elder." The disciple nodded and waved him in without question.
Kairo didn't even need the Codex to manipulate these people. Just a calm voice and the right vocabulary.
Inside the sect grounds, it was chaos hidden under ceremony.
Disciples laughed, drank, and boasted in crimson courtyards. Decorative chains hung between jade pillars, and a black lotus pond in the center bubbled with what he really hoped wasn't liquefied qi blood.
A girl was screaming somewhere deeper inside. No one reacted.
Yi Meilan's fingers twitched beneath her sleeves.
Kairo murmured, "Don't draw attention. These people enjoy seeing cracks."
"I want to break something."
"You will," he said. "Just not yet."
[Codex Thread: Blood Sect History Detected.]
[Echo Summary: Hidden Vault beneath the Grand Altar. Contains forbidden throne fragments.]
[Alert: Vault can only be opened by a recognized guest elder or core disciple.]
Bingo.
"Time to make friends," Kairo whispered.
The banquet hall was filled with inner elders and crimson-robed prodigies. Skulls lined the walls. A blood mist floated above the table like incense.
Kairo took a seat near the edge, not too close to the center—but just close enough to be noticed.
His first hook was simple: silence. While the others bragged about tearing apart enemy sects or slaughtering rogue cultivators, Kairo said nothing. He let their curiosity build.
Eventually, a voice broke the lull.
"You there. Stranger."
A middle-aged man with a cracked bone mask leaned forward, holding a cup of something thick and clotted.
"I don't recognize your aura. And the Thousand Thorn Hall hasn't sent anyone in decades."
Kairo smiled and said "Most elders enjoy the shadows. I enjoy results."
He placed a small scroll on the table. A technique formula—altered just enough from a Codex-refined memory to look obscure and potent.
The elder frowned, then unrolled it.
Two seconds later, his eyes widened.
"You inverted the marrow-rending cycle? That's…"
He trailed off.
Kairo just nodded. "Reverses internal blood decay. Enables reabsorption. Good for prolonged regeneration cycles during large-scale combat."
The elder stared and said "You're lying."
Kairo shrugged. "Try it."
Another guest elder, younger and greedier, snatched the scroll and ran a sliver of his qi through it. His hand twitched. He stabbed himself with a ceremonial dagger.
Blood spilled.
Then stopped.
And flowed backward.
The man gasped. His wound sealed.
Everyone went quiet. Even the meat stopped sizzling on the trays.
[Codex Sync – Psychological Control Established.]
[Blood Sect – 13 inner elders flagged with interest. 3 flagged with suspicion. 1 flagged with murderous intent.]
Perfect.
Now all Kairo had to do was keep breathing and let them draw the wrong conclusions.The masked elder leaned forward again. "Such refinement… You must've studied under the Crimson Reaper."
Kairo nodded once.
He had no idea who that was. But clearly, it impressed them.
The elder laughed. "Then allow me to make an offer."
Here it comes.
"You've earned the right to visit our Vault of Echoes beneath the altar. Normally reserved for core bloodline heirs—but innovation should be rewarded."
[Codex Update – Throne Fragment Access Approved.]
[Warning: Vault Guardian Active. Identity: Fleshweaver, Spirit Rank: Late Saint.]
Kairo raised his cup in thanks.
The blood tasted like ash and iron.
They led him down later that night. Not all the elders. Just one—the woman who hadn't spoken during the banquet.
Tall. Pale. A face like carved porcelain. And cold, unreadable eyes.
She said nothing until they reached the door of the vault.
"I know you're not from any sect."
Kairo didn't flinch.
"Of course not" said kairo.
"I don't care," she said, turning the bone key in the altar lock. "The Blood Sect thrives on chaos. If you can feed it, we don't ask questions."
The vault door opened.
Inside was darkness but it was Alive and Hungry.
[Throne Fragment Detected: Unclassified – Subset of Unknown Lineage.]
[Potential Identity: Throne of Chains (Fragmented)]
[Caution: Curse contamination level 62% – Mental degradation likely.]
Ren kario realised, It wasn't an altar nor It was a throne.
"It was a cage" said kairo.
A twisting lattice of bone and qi-steel, holding something that looked like a writhing chain of voices.
Kairo stepped forward, but his vision blurred.
Chains wrapped around his thoughts.
Bind. Serve. Bleed. Repeat.
[Codex Override Engaged.]
[Dispel curse waveform… Syncing memory echo… Injecting counter-truth…]
Suddenly, he saw it.
Not a throne.
Not a power.
A prison.
This wasn't a cultivation tool—it was a failed experiment. A throne fragment turned into a trap. Someone had tried to refine the Throne of Chains into a technique—and failed so catastrophically, it gained will.
The Blood Sect didn't store it here because it was sacred.
They were terrified of it.
Kairo reached into his sleeve and drew a needle—a Codex-forged seal spike.In one motion, he stabbed it into the fragment's anchor rune.
The chains screamed.
The porcelain woman flinched.
Then went still.
[Throne Fragment Sealed.]
[New Technique Unlocked: Chainbind Reversal – Temporarily redirect throne curses into target meridians. Duration: 5 seconds. Cost: 30% mental clarity.]
[Compatibility: 41%]
[Hidden Alert: Blood Sect Eyes Watching.]
Time to go.
He stepped out of the vault alone. The porcelain woman was gone and so were the elders from earlier.
Yi Meilan appeared from shadow, tense. "What happened?"
Kairo pulled his hood up.
"We're done here."
"What did you find?"
"Proof that this world builds prisons and calls them cultivation."
"And you stole one?"
He smiled.
"I freed it."