Chapter 6: The Mythic Shadow and the Silence of the Chens
In the freezing gloom of the Patriarch's cave, the Celestial Roulette spun. It was a colossal artifact, woven with stardust and void matter. Each click of the golden needle passing through the reward slots resonated like a heartbeat of doom in Samael's mind. His violet eyes followed the hypnotic movement. The Dark Red aura, indicating a Mythic Grade prize, was so close... but the wheel's inertia was dying. The needle braked sharply, stopping in the Golden zone (Legendary Grade).
Click... click... clack.
[Celestial Roulette Result: "Imperial Guard of Golden Lions" (Legendary Grade).][Description: Summon of 50 Light-element soldiers, focused on defensive arrays. Growth potential limited to the Saint Realm.]
Samael gritted his teeth. Frustration burned his throat like acid.
"Trash!" he growled to himself, his voice bouncing off the stone walls. "I don't need golden shields that draw attention. I need assassins. The Valois family reinforcements are on their way, and if the rumors are true, those monsters from the North surpass even the City Lord. They are above the Origin Realm! A defensive guard will never allow me to erase two clans in seven days without making a sound."
It was then that something rumbled beneath his skin. It wasn't Void Qi; it was something deeper, anchored in the marrow of his bones. It was ancient, absolute, an innate tyranny flowing through his unknown bloodline that flatly refused to accept a mediocre result.
[SYSTEM ALERT! Variable Detected: [Primordial Blood (Unknown)].][The Host's inherent Will rejects the inferior destiny.][Overwriting the laws of probability...! Forcing the Roulette!]
An invisible force, dense and terrifying, shook the roulette's golden needle. The cosmic metal ground, breaking its designated orbit. The needle jumped, disobeying fate itself, and fell heavily into the narrow abyss of Dark Red.
[MYTHIC STROKE OF LUCK!][Successful Summon: "The Legion of Silent Shadows".]
The cave floor whispered. The solid rock cracked open with an unnatural crunch, but neither light nor lava emerged from the fissure. Instead, liquid darkness gushed out, dense as boiling tar, spewing a cold so absolute that the moisture in the air crystallized and fell like black snow.
In the most sepulchral of silences, figures began to emerge from the pools of shadow. They wore frayed black hoods that seemed woven from the night itself. They had no faces, only an absolute void beneath the fabric. Their hands ended in claws of solid smoke, and each brought with them an echo of forgotten death.
There were exactly one hundred specters.
At their forefront, the darkness seethed and condensed into a colossal figure over two meters tall. He was wrapped in thick black iron chains that emitted inaudible laments, and in his right hand, he wielded a massive, rusted scythe that seemed capable of reaping the soul itself. The giant stepped forward and took a knee on the ground before Samael.
[Unit Leader: Malak, the Reaper of Silence.][Rank:] Mythic (Unlimited growth potential). [Malak's True Base Level:] Transcendence Stage 9 (Peak). [Summoning Restriction:] To avoid consuming the Host's life force, the Legion automatically seals itself to the Patriarch's current level. [Current Level of the Legion and Malak:] Qi Sea Realm - Stage 9 (Peak). [Malak's Special Skill:] "Unchain". He can release his temporary restrictions by sacrificing the shadows of his subordinates.
Samael, who had just consolidated his own base at Qi Sea - Stage 9 (Peak) thanks to the Aether Heart Pill, felt the link in his mind. They were not simply summoned servants; they were an extension of his own will, shadows he had endowed with fangs.
"Rise, Malak," Samael ordered, and the smoke giant obeyed without a sound. "Tonight, the Chen Family will learn to fear the Morningstars."
At the edges of the Mist Valley, Kael and Seraphina waited under the moonlight. When Samael emerged, flanked by the host of specters that emitted neither sound nor heat, Kael swallowed hard. His instincts, sharpened by the recent awakening of his blood, screamed at him to flee.
"Patriarch... those things..." Kael muttered, his hand gripping the hilt of the Whisper of the North. "They are not natural. They smell like a desecrated grave."
"They are our hidden dagger, Kael," Samael affirmed, his violet eyes shining in the gloom. "We have less than 48 hours before the Northern vanguard crosses the territory's border. Malak and his shadows will go in first and clean out the interior of the Chen manor. No one will know they exist until they have a claw buried in their throat."
Samael looked at his cousin sternly.
"You are our outer wall. If any Chen guard or leader manages to escape the shadows and makes it out to the gardens, cut them down before they can take three steps. Use your Sword Seed."
"Understood!" Kael nodded, striking his chest.
As they advanced toward the city, Samael mentally reviewed the technique the System had granted him after investing in his cousin.
[Void Sword Manual: Dimensional Slash][Effect:] A single slash that ignores the barrier of distance by bending space itself between the user and the target. [Cost:] 40% of the user's total Qi per use. [Critical Risk:] Because the Host is only at the Peak Stage of the Qi Sea, forcing the laws of space will tear the meridians in his arms after repeated use.
A one-hit technique, Samael thought, clenching his left fist. I will only have two attempts before exhausting my Qi and shattering my arms. Absolute precision. If I miss against their Ancestor, I am dead.
Night fell over the immense Chen Manor, located in the commercial district of the Golden City, with an unusual weight.
The six hundred guards patrolling the walls and hallways felt their skin constantly crawling. The air had grown heavy, as if forecasting a storm, and the torches embedded in the stone walls burned dimmer, as if the flames themselves feared what lurked in the corners.
In the sumptuous main hall, Patriarch Chen drank jasmine tea that tasted like ash to him. Beside him meditated Ancestor Chen, an old man with long white eyebrows, whose cultivation base was firmly seated at Transcendence Realm - Stage 7.
Both men hid their nervousness behind masks of arrogance, but the fear of Morningstar retaliation pulsed just beneath the surface.
"Relax," said Ancestor Chen, without opening his eyes. His voice was a disdainful whisper. "My Spiritual Sense covers half a kilometer around us. If that Morningstar pup comes anywhere near our gates, his pathetic Qi Sea level will shine like a torch in the night. I will disintegrate him before he touches the door."
But death did not come walking through the front door. It did not cross the air or alter the defensive formations. It came from below.
In the east watchtower, a veteran guard yawned, rubbing his tired eyes. Suddenly, the shadow cast by his own body in the moonlight twisted. A hand of black smoke, with claws sharp as razors, emerged from the floor, grabbed his ankle, and pulled him with overwhelming force. The guard fell, but before he could open his mouth to scream, the shadow expanded and swallowed him completely. The wet, crunching sound of breaking bones and shredding flesh was devoured by the darkness itself.
In the outer disciples' barracks, the shadows snaked under the closed doors and slithered beneath the beds. They transformed into ethereal blades that slit throats, tendons, and eyes in a single synchronized blink. Warm blood splattered the wooden walls, but there were no alarms, no cries of pain. The specters, all operating at the peak of the Qi Sea, absorbed the sound along with their victims' last breaths.
One hundred, two hundred, three hundred men fell.
They were suffocated in the hallways, dismembered in the latrines, decapitated in the armories. The spiritual mastiffs patrolling the courtyards tried to howl upon detecting the scent of death, but the specters ripped off their jaws before the sound could emerge.
In less than fifteen minutes, the glorious Chen Manor had become an absolutely silent slaughterhouse. Only a thick, sickly scent of iron and residual terror lingered in the air.
In the outer gardens, the massacre was not entirely perfect. The Young Master of the Chen Family, escorted by five elite guards (all at Qi Sea - Stage 5), felt the fluctuation of death from his isolated pavilion. Terrified at seeing the shadows devouring their servants, they attempted to flee down a hidden path through the bamboo trees.
But a wall of flesh and rusted steel blocked their way.
Kael, his red hair fluttering in the night breeze, unsheathed the Whisper of the North.
"Step aside or die!" shouted one of the elite guards, launching a fiery slash with his saber.
Kael did not possess the elegance of a refined master. His way was a "Sword Seed," a raw intent, born of murderous instinct and pain. His golden eyes shone with the ferocity of an awakening dragon.
Kael ducked under the fiery slash and, using pure brute strength and speed, lunged forward. The Whisper of the North hummed, freezing the moisture in the air. Kael unleashed a savage horizontal sweep. It wasn't a clean movement, but the sword intent imbued in the blade shattered the guard's weapon and cleaved his torso in two.
Blood bathed Kael. Without stopping, he blocked a thrust from behind, pivoted on his heel, and pierced the second guard's throat. Although he was at Stage 2 of the Qi Sea, the lethality of his Sword Seed allowed him to slaughter those at Stage 5. Within seconds, the five guards lay dead, and Young Master Chen fell to his knees, sobbing, before Kael sank his sword into his chest.
"The outer wall is sealed," Kael whispered, wiping the blood from his blade.
In the main hall, the tea in Ancestor Chen's cup began to tremble. The old monster's eyes snapped open, the veins on his forehead bulging until they almost burst.
"Blood!" roared the Ancestor, his voice losing all its arrogance, replaced by pure panic and disbelief. "The stench of death is suffocating! My spiritual sense doesn't detect anyone alive in the entire west wing! Where are our guards?!"
BOOM!
The massive double oak doors exploded into a thousand pieces.
Samael Morningstar crossed the threshold, walking slowly over a carpet of black mist that entered with him. The Obsidian Fang sword rested in his hand, hungry. Behind him, hovering half a meter off the ground, entered Malak. The mere presence of the Reaper of Silence caused the hall's candles and chandeliers to extinguish instantly, plunging the place into supernatural darkness.
"Good evening, Patriarch Chen," Samael said, his ironic tone slicing through the tense air. "I've come to collect what I'm owed. With interest."
Patriarch Chen leaped to his feet, paling. Upon seeing Samael's violet eyes and the giant of black chains behind him, the Chen leader backed away, tripping over the base of his own throne, losing all dignity.
"Ancestor, kill him!" shrieked the Patriarch, pointing at Samael.
Ancestor Chen did not hesitate. He unleashed all the overwhelming pressure of his Transcendence Stage 7. The air in the room became so heavy that the marble floor began to sink beneath his feet. In his hands, he condensed a two-meter energy spear, purely blue and crackling.
"Demonic brat! I'll send you to join your pathetic father!" roared the old man. "Earth Grade Spear Technique: Heaven Piercer!"
The Ancestor hurled the blue light spear. The projectile tore through the air, breaking the sound barrier, aiming straight for Samael's head. It was an attack designed to annihilate mountains.
Samael didn't even blink.
Malak stepped in like a wall of shadows.
But Malak, restricted to the Qi Sea - Stage 9 level, couldn't block a Transcendence Stage 7 attack. Samael knew this. That was why, with a thought, he gave the order to unleash hell.
[Host Command: "Unchain".][Malak temporarily sacrifices the energy of 50 shadow soldiers to break his seals.]
The thick black chains wrapping Malak's body shattered to pieces. His aura exploded, leaping from the Qi Sea Realm, crossing the nine stages of Transcendence in a millisecond, until it stabilized at Transcendence Stage 9 (Peak).
CLANG!
The clash of Malak's rusted scythe against the blue energy spear generated an expanding shockwave that blew away the hall's silk walls. Malak didn't just stop the attack; with a sharp twist of his wrist, he shattered the Ancestor's Qi spear into a million harmless sparks.
Ancestor Chen took a step back, his eyes wide as plates, absolute terror breaking his sanity.
"Transcendence Stage 9?!" the old man babbled, his voice pitched high with panic. "That's impossible! How does a boy in the Qi Sea have a servant on the verge of the Origin Realm?!"
"Malak," Samael said coldly. "Immobilize him. Don't kill him. His life belongs to me."
Malak dissolved into a torrent of black smoke, dodging the Ancestor's desperate defensive attacks, and materialized behind him. Dozens of black chains, solid and freezing, erupted from the floor, piercing the old man's shoulders, knees, and wrists. Ancestor Chen screamed in agony, nailed to the floor like a broken puppet, his Qi completely suppressed by the overwhelming difference in level.
Samael took a deep breath. Void Qi began to burn in his meridians. He raised the Obsidian Fang.
It was his moment.
"Sword Art: Dimensional Slash."
Samael launched a vertical slash into the air, ten meters away from his target.
The effect was devastating. Samael felt 40% of his Qi Sea evaporate instantly. A sharp pain, as if hundreds of red-hot needles were piercing his muscles, ran down his entire right arm. He was forcing the laws of space with a mortal body.
But the technique fulfilled its divine purpose.
The space in front of Ancestor Chen literally folded. A thin black line appeared directly on the old man's neck, ignoring physical distance, whatever defensive Qi barriers he had left, and any attempt to dodge. Ancestor Chen's head separated cleanly from his shoulders and fell with a dull thud against the marble, his face still frozen in an expression of absolute disbelief.
Samael fell to one knee, the world spinning dizzily around him, his right arm trembling uncontrollably. The technique was a weapon of gods, but the toll on his body was brutal.
Seeing his invincible protector decapitated with a single gesture from afar, Patriarch Chen collapsed. He crawled across the floor toward Samael, leaving a trail of urine behind him, begging.
"Mercy! I beg you!" the Chen leader wept. "I'll give you the deeds to the mines! I'll give you my daughters! All my treasure is yours! Just let me live!"
Samael, breathing heavily, stood up slowly. He looked at the human wreckage before him with a mix of absolute contempt and cold determination.
"I don't need you to offer me anything," Samael replied. "I'm going to take it all anyway."
Samael extended his left hand and placed it on the Patriarch's head.
[System Function: Destiny Plunder Activated.]
A torrent of golden light burst from the man's skull, swirling like a tiny hurricane into Samael's palm. The young Patriarch felt fragments of another's memories flooding his peripheral mind: vault passwords, the locations of the alliance's hidden treasures, the taste of betrayal, and finally, absolute emptiness.
Beneath Samael's hand, Patriarch Chen aged decades in a matter of seconds, shrinking into a dried, grey-skinned mummy that slumped lifelessly.
[Main Quest: Purge of the Golden City - Progress 50%.][Chen Family: EXTERMINATED.][Plundered Luck: +4,000 points.]
Samael staggered, leaning on his sword. The manor was silent once more.
"Malak..." Samael ordered, his voice hoarse from the effort. "Devour everything. The flesh, the blood, the bones. Let not a single drop of red remain on this entire property. Make it look like the entire Chen family simply vanished into thin air."
Samael wanted the City Lord—the expert in the Origin Realm—to find an incomprehensible mystery that would make him hesitate to intervene, rather than a crime scene, when he investigated the manor tomorrow.
Samael went out to the gardens, where the cool night air slightly relieved his suffocation. Kael was there, surrounded by the corpses of the elite guards, but unharmed.
"Patriarch?" Kael ran to support him seeing Samael falter in his steps. "Your arms... they are bleeding."
"I'm fine," Samael lied, forcing himself to stand straight. "The Dimensional Slash is absurdly expensive and dangerous for my current level. But it works."
Samael looked up toward the other end of the Golden City, where the roofs of the Liu Manor stood out against the moon.
"We'll rest for an hour so I can recover my Qi with one of the System's pills," Samael decreed. "Then, we go for the Lius. Before dawn, the Golden City will have two massive voids where power once stood, and the Valois won't have anyone to welcome them."