Chapter 8: The Primordial Roar and the Blood Negotiation
Time seemed to freeze in the shattered courtyard of the Liu Manor.
City Lord Duan, floating mere centimeters from the ground, frowned. His storm-cloud-colored eyes flashed with a cold, lethal irritation. A mere youth, a boy who had barely stepped onto the first rungs of true cultivation, dared to look him in the eye and challenge his absolute authority.
"You don't leave jobs half-finished?" Duan repeated. His voice was soft, almost a whisper, but it carried the weight of a mountain falling into the ocean. "Boy, you seem profoundly confused about how the world works. Sects, Clans, and Noble Families can make noise; they can kill each other in the shadows. But in these lands, the Empire is the sky above your heads. And I am the deity that holds up that sky in this city."
The City Lord took a single step forward.
He didn't execute any martial technique. He didn't invoke the world's Qi. He simply stopped holding back and released an additional 10% of his Origin Realm (Stage 3) aura.
CRACK!
The reinforced marble floor beneath Samael's feet was instantly pulverized, sinking half a meter into a perfect crater. The atmospheric pressure multiplied a hundredfold. It wasn't just gravitational force; it was the conceptual majesty of a millennial Empire trying to crush a rebellious insect so it would know its place.
"Kneel," Duan ordered, his voice reverberating in the bones of everyone present. "Drop the weapon and accept imperial judgment. Your little blood vendetta is not worth the administrative mess you've caused tonight."
In the distance, beyond the fissure in the barrier of light, Kael tried to run to his leader's aid.
"Patriarch!" the redhead roared.
But before he could take a second step, the shockwave of Duan's aura hit him. Kael was pinned face-down against the grass, his muscles paralyzed, unable to move a single finger under the overwhelming weight of the Origin Realm.
In the center of the crater, Samael was doubled over. His knees trembled violently, millimeters from touching the ground. His bones creaked with a sickening sound, fracturing under the pressure. His mortal human body had reached its absolute limit.
The System in his mind became a cacophony of blood-red alarms.
[LETHAL DANGER! Structural collapse of the physical body detected.]
[Imminent multi-organ failure due to Origin Realm suppression.]
[Host Resistance: Insignificant.]
Faced with the true power of an expert who commanded the laws of Heaven and Earth, Samael's Void—still in its lowest stage—was insufficient to devour the pressure.
But then, in that abyss of despair, the Unknown Variable in his blood awakened.
It wasn't the cold, calculating, and devouring Qi of the Void. It was something much older. It was wrath. A volcanic, primitive wrath of incomprehensible pride. A voice encrypted in his very DNA rose up and roared against the heavens: Kneel? I, the Sovereign? Before a mere ant that has barely touched the origin of the world?
[SYSTEM ALERT! Critical Stress surpassed.]
[Bloodline [???] reacting aggressively to external suppression.]
[Initiating Emergency Forced Awakening: 1% assimilation.]
The blood within Samael's veins ceased to be a human liquid. It boiled at thousands of degrees, becoming thick, heavy, and an incandescent golden color, like stellar magma flowing through his meridians.
Samael's eyes underwent a terrifying mutation. The usual, icy violet glow was devoured by a burning gold. His pupils slit, turning into wild vertical lines—the unmistakable gaze of the universe's apex predator.
"I... will... not... KNEEL!"
Samael threw his head back and opened his mouth. The sound that emanated from his throat was entirely inhuman. It was a guttural frequency, a sonic shockwave that vibrated the very souls of those present, cracking the walls of the manor and shattering the defensive light array that still stood.
ROOOOARRR!
It was the roar of a primordial dragon. An echo of a beast that in past eras devoured stars.
City Lord Duan's eyes flew wide open. For the first time in a hundred years, he felt a shiver of pure terror run down his spine. For a fraction of a second, Duan's fusion with Heaven and Earth was severed, because the instinct of the world itself screamed at him to flee from the creature that had just opened its eyes.
"What...?!" Duan faltered, taking an involuntary step back, his perfect aura flickering and weakening from the surprise. "What kind of monster is hiding beneath that human skin?"
That single instant of doubt and primal terror was enough. The suppressive pressure on Samael lightened just enough.
Samael didn't commit the stupidity of attacking Duan. Capitalizing on the millisecond of freedom, he turned his scaled face toward Ancestor Liu, who lay on the ground a few meters away. The crippled old man's sadistic smile froze, transforming into a mask of pure horror upon seeing Samael's golden, reptilian eyes fixed on him.
"The contract of your blood... is closed," Samael hissed, with a dual, metallic voice.
Samael opened his left hand and let Obsidian Fang drop. Gravity did the rest. The heavy black blade fell like a perfect guillotine, slicing through Ancestor Liu's neck and severing his head from his body in one fluid motion.
[Mandatory Main Quest: COMPLETED.]
[Liu Family: EXTERMINATED.]
Silence returned to the courtyard with the same violence with which it had vanished.
The roar ceased, and the vertical slits in Samael's eyes disappeared, returning them to their violet hue. But the price of invoking that 1% had shattered his mortal vessel. Blood spurted from every pore of his skin, from his eyes, his nose, and his ears. His human body simply wasn't designed to channel the power of a deity.
Duan recovered his composure quickly. The momentary terror morphed into an icy indignation. He had been intimidated by a mere boy in the Qi Sea stage.
"Insolent and suicidal," Duan declared, his storm eyes darkening.
Duan raised a hand and launched a casual palm strike toward Samael. He didn't use his full power, but a giant hand of solid, blue Qi materialized in the air and struck Samael directly in the chest.
BOOOOOM!
Samael was launched backward like a siege cannonball. His body crashed through the first stone wall of the courtyard, flew across the gardens, smashed through the manor's outer wall, and slammed brutally into the street pavement, kicking up a cloud of rubble and dust.
The final impact shattered all his ribs and turned several of his internal organs to pulp. Duan had deliberately held back; if he had truly wanted to kill him, Samael would currently be a mist of red blood floating in the wind.
The City Lord floated smoothly through the holes in the walls until he reached the street. He frowned upon seeing that, amidst the rubble and dust, the boy was moving.
Samael stumbled to his feet. His right arm was useless, his chest was caved in, and his breathing was a bubbling of blood. He stood leaning on his sword, held up solely by a will that defied death itself.
"You have extraordinary guts, or you are the most stupid being to ever step foot in my city," Duan said, descending until his feet touched the ground in front of him. "You have murdered a noble under my imperial protection right before my eyes. The laws demand your head."
Samael spat out a bloody piece of lung tissue and looked up, sketching a crooked smile.
"If you kill me now... you'll have to deal with the Valois Family mess all by yourself."
Duan raised an eyebrow, genuinely intrigued by the audacity of the threat.
"Do you truly believe the Empire fears a simple noble family from the North?" Duan scoffed. "The Valois have powerful warriors and a Half-Saint Ancestor, it's true. But the Empire has dozens of Half-Saints, true Saints, the Emperor himself, and his Supreme Generals. We could wipe the North off the map tomorrow if necessary."
"I know," Samael panted, his voice hoarse and broken. "I know you can kill them. But you don't get paid to start massive civil wars, City Lord. You get paid to maintain order, the flow of commerce, and peace."
Samael coughed up more blood, but didn't look away.
"If Alaric Valois arrives in the city and discovers you killed his prey, he'll throw a tantrum worthy of a spoiled child with too much power. He will demand compensation. He will cause riots in your streets. He will burn the outer villages to vent. It will be a massive administrative and political headache for you. And sooner or later, the Emperor's bureaucrats will ask you why a simple Origin Realm expert couldn't control a few nobles in his own territory without causing a civil massacre."
Duan stopped dead. The gears of his millennial mind turned.
The damned bloody boy was absolutely right. Duan didn't care about human lives; he cared about balance. Fighting the Valois elite squads would stain his streets with blood, halt commerce, and draw the central government's gaze to his administration.
"Continue," Duan demanded, his tone turning calculating.
"Let me go," Samael proposed, leaning all his weight on the sword. "I will be the perfect bait. Alaric isn't coming to conquer your city; he's coming for my head and the twins. If I am in the Mist Valley, he will follow me there, far from your immaculate walls. Your city remains spotless and neutral. And I... I will take the Northern trash with me."
Duan stared at the young man. He remembered the primordial roar. He remembered those golden eyes that for a second made him feel like he was the prey. Killing this boy would be wasting a fascinating anomaly. It was much more useful to let the "dragon" and the "Northern hunters" kill each other far from his jurisdiction.
"You have seven days," Duan decreed, turning around, suddenly losing interest in the broken scum at his feet. "My informants confirm that in exactly seven days, the Northern elite vanguard will cross our borders. If by dawn on the eighth day you are still alive and set foot in my city, I will personally hand you over to them tied up to save myself the paperwork. Get out of my sight, Morningstar."
And with a flash of light, the City Lord vanished.
Kael, finally freed from the overwhelming pressure, ran desperately through the holes in the walls.
"Patriarch!" Kael caught Samael just as his eyes rolled back and his body collapsed completely.
As Kael hoisted his cousin over his shoulder and sprinted toward the safety of the woods, the System erupted into a series of critical notifications that only the unconscious Samael could receive in the void of his mind.
[CRITICAL STATUS: Host's body damaged at 85%. Multiple systemic failure.]
[Primordial Bloodline Energy [???] detected flowing freely. Initiating Assimilation Protocol (1%).]
[WARNING: The current mortal vessel cannot withstand the bloodline. Destroying and rebuilding physical foundations.]
[Initiating Forced Cultivation Leap due to blood assimilation!]
Transcendence Stage 1... SURPASSED.
Transcendence Stage 5... SURPASSED.
Transcendence Stage 7... SURPASSED.
[Projected Cultivation Destination: Transcendence Realm - Stage 9 (Peak).]
[QUEST REWARDS (Difficulty SSS - Mythic):]
* +10,000 Family Luck Points. (Current Total: 18,800 - One step away from Grade 8).
* Earth Grade Treasure Chest (High).
* Heaven Grade Treasure Chest (High).
(System Note: Rewards stored in the Soul Vault. Require Host's consciousness to be opened).
[HIDDEN BONUS (For surviving the suppression of an Origin Realm expert):]
[New Function Unlocked: "Blood Fusion".]
Description: Allows the Patriarch to purify the bloodlines of his subordinates to eliminate bottlenecks (massively increasing their potential) or extract "Talent Essence" from powerful defeated enemies to bestow upon loyal clan members.
Hours later, in the impregnable depths of the Mist Valley.
The atmosphere inside the immense main cave was absolutely funereal. Kael stumbled in, carrying Samael's smoking, bloody, and shattered body, and deposited him with extreme gentleness onto the large stone table in the center of the enclosure.
"Patriarch!" shouted the dozens of disciples in unison, terror disfiguring their faces upon seeing their invincible god reduced to a broken corpse.
The four surviving Clan Elders—Elder Marcus (defense), Elder Livia (healer), Elder Torian (weapons master), and Elder Sela (strategist)—rushed to surround the stone, accompanied by Grand Elder Lilith.
Livia, her hands glowing with a soft, healing water Qi, tried to touch Samael's caved-in chest.
ZAP!
A spark of violent, golden energy repelled Livia's hands, burning her palms.
"I can't get near him!" Livia gasped, backing away in terror. "His body is burning from the inside. There's a wild, incomprehensibly dense energy destroying and rebuilding his organs simultaneously. If we try to inject external Qi, his core will react like a bomb and explode."
"What the hell happened out there, Kael?" asked Lilith, her face paler than wax, gripping her staff with her only hand.
"He challenged the City Lord face to face..." Kael answered, falling to his knees, exhaustion finally overcoming him. "And he won... politically. He bought our survival. But we have a death deadline. The Valois elite assassins will arrive in exactly seven days."
The silence that fell over the room was heavier than the mountain covering them.
Seven days. And their Patriarch, the only reason they were still breathing, was in a deep coma, enveloped in a light that threatened to incinerate him.
Eris and Violeta, the twins, approached the stone table crying silently. Their foreheads, where their Taboo Red Destiny marks resided, glowed and throbbed, resonating mysteriously with the monstrous golden aura emanating from their older brother. They knew he was alive, but they felt him distant, sunk in an ocean of pain.
"What do we do now?" asked Elder Marcus, his deep voice trembling with despair. "With the Patriarch unconscious, we are blind and crippled. We don't have the strength to fight the Northern experts. This is the end."
Suddenly, a figure stepped forward from the shadows, walking with a lethal, measured grace.
It was Seraphina.
The platinum-haired young woman stood in front of the stone table, turning her back to Samael's burning body to face the council of elders. Something in her had changed drastically. She was no longer just the rescued, beautiful fiancée; her posture, her gaze, the way she tilted her chin... everything exuded the authority of a sovereign who had ruled entire worlds in a forgotten life.
For a fraction of a second, a Golden aura (Supreme Empress) flashed around her—an undeniable pressure that made the four hardened elders snap their mouths shut out of pure instinctual submission.
"He left us very clear instructions before leaving for the Golden City, in case this happened," Seraphina lied. Her voice didn't tremble; it was cold, calculating, and possessed such absolute conviction that no one dared doubt her words.
Seraphina looked down at the redhead on the floor.
"Kael. Bring out the Formation Disk you retrieved from the first treasure chest. Now."
Kael blinked, shaken by the girl's aura, and obeyed immediately. He extracted a heavy black jade disk from his spatial ring, engraved with silver runes that looked like captured stars: the Formation Array "Dark Nebula Veil" (Low Heaven Grade).
"Elders Marcus, Torian, Sela, Livia," Seraphina ordered, addressing the veterans by their names, assuming absolute command of the clan without asking permission. "Take this disk to the center of the valley, to the main altar. Activate it using each and every spirit stone we have left in reserve. Empty the vaults if necessary. This formation will not only hide our presence from the outside world, but it will assassinate anyone below the Origin Realm in the mist who tries to cross the forest."
"And what if the Valois bring someone from the Origin Realm or higher?" asked Torian, gripping his spear, sweating under the young woman's gaze.
Seraphina slowly turned her head, her blue eyes settling on Samael's glowing, incandescent figure.
"Then we kneel and pray to the heavens that he wakes up in time," Seraphina replied, her voice turning into a fierce murmur. "He has the resources. He possesses the secrets that can save us. Our only mission in this life is to buy him enough time to return from death."
Grand Elder Lilith, her eyes burning with pride for the woman her nephew had chosen, struck the base of her staff against the stone floor, the sound echoing like war thunder.
"You heard Lady Seraphina. There is no time to cry," Lilith roared. "Activate the formation immediately! Kael, get up and organize the surviving Shadow Legion on the eastern perimeter. No one sleeps in this valley. No one rests. For the next seven days, the Mist Valley disappears from the continent's map."
While the clan ran frantically to prepare the mountain for a suicidal siege, in the center of the cave, Samael slept soundly.
Trapped in a mental ocean of golden magma, his mortal body began to fragment and emit strands of solid light, slowly weaving an impenetrable cocoon around him. In the silence of his soul, his cultivation made monstrous, unnatural leaps, with two legendary chests floating in the void, waiting patiently for their true Sovereign to open his eyes.