The Seventh Layer of the Raven mines reeked of chemical death, a suffocating amalgamation of scorched sulfur and the rancid stench of decomposing phantoms. For any ordinary cultivator, this abyss was a choking hellscape, but for Ether, it was the ultimate natural laboratory. He walked with heavy, dragging steps, leaning the entirety of his frail weight onto Kai's mutated shoulder. The void left behind by the sudden severing of eighty percent of his spiritual energy was not merely physical weakness; it was akin to a black hole gnawing at the very fabric of his soul. The Spiritual Sea within his dantian, which had been boiling with the ferocious power of a (Peak Rank 1) cultivator mere hours ago, had now regressed into a stagnant, shallow puddle, barely holding enough essence to keep his heart beating.
"Ether, your breathing is erratic," Kai noted, his voice entirely stripped of its former human resonance, now sounding like the grating friction of two rusted metal blades. "If Lady Miral perceives this magnitude of weakness, she will show absolutely no mercy. Nobles do not pity broken tools; they simply cast them into the smelting furnace to be recycled."
Ether offered a pale, bloodless smile, dried golden blood caking the corners of his lips. "Weakness, Kai, is the greatest smokescreen in the history of warfare. When your enemy looks down upon you and sees nothing but a fragile insect, they inherently stop sharpening their blade. Lady Miral is exceptionally intelligent, and that precise intelligence is her most fatal flaw. Geniuses trust their own deductions far more than they trust their raw senses. Therefore, I will simply hand-deliver the deduction she desperately wants to find."
Ether halted their progress in a dark, humid alcove just before they reached the main security checkpoint leading to the upper sectors. With a trembling hand, he withdrew his small, icy scalpel—the single instrument he had refused to surrender. The blade vibrated slightly due to his severe physical exhaustion, yet Ether's gaze remained as cold and steady as an elite surgeon standing over a patient, preparing to perform open-heart surgery on his own chest.
"Kai, watch the corridors. I am going to engineer the vessel."
With chilling apathy, Ether plunged the scalpel directly into his own chest, burying it just beneath his left lung where Miral's Sovereign Seed had previously taken root. He did not scream. Instead, he held his breath as the blade sliced through flesh and delicate spiritual meridians. The objective was not a physical incision; it was (Spectral Manipulation). He actively summoned the remnants of the (Antique Rust Phantom) he had just ingested. The phantom writhed within his veins like a nest of corroded copper worms, hungry and chaotic.
Utilizing his (Spiritual Microscope), Ether meticulously directed the Rust Phantom to tattoo a web of necrotic energy around the pathways of his lung. He was actively performing "biological forgery"—crafting a spectral scar that perfectly mimicked the residual footprint of the (Seed of Sovereign Obedience). He wove intricate threads of burnt, dead energy to make it appear as though the parasitic seed had fully entrenched itself, extending its tyrannical roots deep into his central nervous system.
"The seventh rule of Spectral Anatomy," Ether whispered, his voice strained as he hastily sealed the physical wound with a meager burst of frost energy. "To achieve perfection in a lie, one must sacrifice a tangible piece of the truth. For Miral to genuinely believe I am her absolute slave, my physical body must genuinely endure the exact torment her seed would inflict."
By the time they finally arrived at the Overseer's office, the atmosphere was already saturated with a heavy, oppressive Sovereign aura that made the ambient air feel as thick as molasses. Lady Miral sat regally behind a massive desk of polished black stone, leisurely inspecting a ledger of extracted energy crystals. She did not raise her eyes immediately; instead, she allowed Ether and Kai to stand in a degrading, suffocating silence for several agonizing minutes.
Suddenly, a blinding pulse of golden energy erupted from her eyes, sweeping over Ether's body like a microscopic hurricane. It was the "Sovereign Inspection." Ether felt the immense pressure crash against his engineered false seed. The Rust Phantom, perfectly disguised, reacted violently to Miral's pulse. Anticipating this, Ether deliberately hardwired his sensory nerves directly to his pain receptors, causing his body to convulse and spasm in a display of agony that was entirely, brutally real.
"I see you have returned, Ether," Miral stated, her tone dripping with cold mockery. "And you look like a corpse recently exhumed from a shallow grave. It appears my seed does not take kindly to frail, pathetic vessels. Tell me... was the underground auction entertaining?"
Ether collapsed onto his knees, masterfully feigning a desperate struggle for oxygen. "My Lady... the immense power you bestowed upon me... is an honor my lowly body can barely sustain. I ventured to the Seventh Layer to find a method to increase my efficiency in your service. I... I was forced to sell the vast majority of my spiritual cultivation just to acquire this..."
With trembling fingers, he presented a small glass vial containing a viscous, pitch-black liquid—the inactive, liquid remnants of the Rust Phantom, which he had cleverly rebranded.
"This is a 'Decay Accelerator.' This liquid can dissolve the hyper-dense bedrock in Sector Four without the need for expensive, volatile explosives. I sacrificed my rank and my martial future solely to double the production yields for the Raven family."
Miral rose gracefully from her seat and glided toward Ether. She placed a slender, pale hand on his shoulder, and Ether immediately felt her terrifying Rank 3 energy delve deep into his chest cavity, actively probing the "scar" he had so painstakingly engineered. This was the true trial. If she detected even a single microscopic thread of the living Rust Phantom, his head would be severed from his neck before he could blink.
But Ether's anatomical engineering was flawless. The Rust Phantom had been effectively "programmed" to behave as inert, dead energy that only pulsed in submissive resonance when touched by Miral's specific aura—mirroring the authentic seed perfectly.
"You are either a colossal fool, or the most perfect slave I have ever encountered, Ether," Miral murmured, slowly retracting her hand, a look of profound satisfaction settling on her pristine features. "To sacrifice eighty percent of your cultivation base for a mere production 'tool'? That specific brand of lowly, desperate loyalty is exactly what our family requires. Go. Utilize your little poison and multiply the output. But remember this: if the production drops by even a single carat, I will command the seed to devour your heart instead of your lung."
Ether bowed until his forehead touched the cold stone floor, then exited the office with Kai. The very second the heavy oak doors clicked shut and they were safely beyond the perimeter of her aura, the pathetic mask of submission dissolved from Ether's face. The violent trembling in his hands ceased instantly. The broken, subservient look in his eyes vanished, replaced by a cosmic, terrifying coldness.
"She swallowed the bait whole," Ether said, calmly wiping the cold sweat from his brow. "Now, Kai, Lady Miral firmly believes she holds the absolute key to my life, while in reality, she has just granted me total immunity. As her 'loyal, crippled slave,' absolutely no one will question my movements or my motives within the lower depths."
Ether turned his gaze toward the deepest, darkest descent of Sector Four, where the geothermal heat of the earth's core caused the rocks to glow with a faint, angry red. He had absolutely no intention of doubling Miral's crystal production. Instead, he was laying the groundwork for the (Great Spectral Reactor).
"Kai, from this moment forward, we initiate the recruitment protocol. We will gather the 'Outcasts.' Every single slave who has lost a limb to the crushers, or whose body has been irreversibly mutated by the toxic mine gases—they are the perfect candidates. I will surgically reconstruct their broken bodies. I will implant fragments of the Rust Phantom within their meridians, and I will refine their unending agony into pure, combustible fuel for this reactor. Lady Miral desires increased production? I will give her an explosive production that will shatter the very tectonic plates beneath her feet."
Ether looked inward, observing the dried, shallow basin of his spiritual sea. "I have emptied my cup of cheap, stolen wine, only to prepare it to be filled with the blood of Sovereigns. The power I build from this absolute zero will not be reliant on mere luck or the parasitic absorption of others. It will be built upon the brutal, undeniable engineering of fate."
As the suffocating darkness of the tunnels swallowed Ether's frail silhouette, Kai felt a profound, chilling sensation crawl up his mutated spine. Ether's aura, despite sitting at the absolute bottom of (Early Rank 1), felt exactly like an invisible, jagged dagger pressed firmly against the throat of the entire world. Ether was no longer just a cultivator trying to survive; he had metamorphosed into a highly organized, systemic "disease" incubating within the belly of the Raven family, patiently waiting for the precise moment to consume the host from the inside out.