"Argh! Argh!"
"P-Please, just kill !"
"Why are you doing this to ? Ahhh..."
A scream echoed through the stone corridors.
It reverberated against walls carved with blazing sun motifs, rising and falling like a dying ember struggling against the wind.
Then-
Silence!
Thud!
The tallic scent of blood thickened the air.
Inside the underground chamber, a formation array pulsed with searing golden light.
Runes shaped like miniature suns rotated slowly in midair, each inscribed with ancient characters that radiated scorching heat.
At the center-
A body convulsed violently.
Skin cracking.
Veins bulging black beneath a surface glowing molten red.
Golden flas erupted from within the flesh, burning outward.
The figure arched once-
Then collapsed.
Charred.
Dead!
The golden runes dimd.
The chamber fell quiet except for the faint hum of formation lines cooling.
A man stood nearby, hands folded behind his back.
His robes were embroidered with a radiant sun crest-threads of gold that shimred even in the dim chamber light.
His expression did not change.
Not at the scream.
Not at the death.
Only his eyes moved-cold, analytical.
"Another failure."
His voice was calm.
Almost bored.
A subordinate standing several steps behind imdiately lowered his head further.
"My apologies, Elder."
The man ignored the apology.
He stepped forward, crouching beside the corpse. Two fingers extended, lightly touching the blackened chest.
A thread of spiritual sense seeped into the remains.
He examined the ridians.
The dantian.
The shattered spiritual pathways.
"Compatibility ratio... twenty-three percent."
He muttered to himself.
"Better than the previous batch. But still insufficient"
He straightened slowly.
The golden array flickered again as he lifted a small shard from within the corpse's ruined dantian.
A fragnt no larger than a fingernail.
It glowed faintly-
Like a dying sun.
The Sun Dao Fragnt.
He clicked his tongue.
"The human body remains too fragile. At the slightest mistake, they end up
dead."
His gaze drifted toward the far side of the chamber.
There-
Iron cages lined the wall.
So empty.
So not.
Small hands gripped the bars.
Eyes wide.
Trembling.
They were just materials.
Nothing more.
"Bring in another specin."
His tone remained steady.
The subordinate didn't hesitate.
"Yes, Elder!"
He turned and gestured.
Two disciples dragged forward a frail teenage boy, chains clinking against the
stone floor.
The boy struggled weakly, tears streaking down soot-stained cheeks.
"Please-please don't-!"
The Elder did not respond.
His fingers traced a seal in the air.
The formation array flared once more.
Golden light swallowed the chamber.
Screams resud.
The Elder's eyes narrowed slightly-not at the suffering-
But at the reaction of the Dao fragnt within the boy's body.
The fragnt pulsed violently.
"Unstable. Too much rejection."
The ridians began to rupture almost instantly.
"Hmm."
He observed clinically.
"No structural adaptation. Imdiate collapse. It seems the materials they
brought were of low quality."
The screaming cut off abruptly.
Smoke rose from the formation's center.
Another corpse.
Another wasted fragnt.
The Elder exhaled slowly.
Irritation.
Not grief.
The Elder flicked his sleeve lightly.
Ash scattered across the formation platform. "Bring three more."
His tone was no different than before.
As if requesting additional herbs for alchemy.
The subordinate stiffened.
Silence stretched.
The Elder did not turn around.
But the golden aura around him flickered faintly.
"Is there a problem?"
The subordinate imdiately dropped to one knee. "E-Elder... there are not that many left."
The chamber seed to grow colder.
Behind the iron bars, several children instinctively shrank back.
The Elder slowly turned his head.
"Tsk! Supply has been declining."
He turned toward his subordinate.
"The last shipnt yielded only three success."
His tone sharpened faintly.
"That is unacceptable." The subordinate swallowed.
"Well, people have beco more careful, and it has beco harder to acquire
materials-especially high-quality ones."
The Elder's eyes cooled.
"Damn! If only the war with the Demonic Forces had continued longer, we
would have obtained far more material without any problems."
He began pacing slowly before the formation array, golden light reflecting off
the polished stone floor.
During the height of the war, entire cities had been emptied overnight. Villages burned to ash. Refugee caravans vanished without a trace. Investigation
had been impossible.
The Imperial Family's forces had been deployed to the frontlines, and the great clans had been bleeding their elites dry.
There had been no ti to track the missing, no attention to the children who
disappeared, the wandering cultivators who never returned, the entire refugee groups that were simply gone.
All had been swallowed by the chaos, their fates ignored in the wake of greater
disasters.
Reports had been filed, suspicions raised, but the battlefield had demanded every capable hand.
Experts could not be spared for searching for the missing people. Those had been the Elder's golden month. The chaos had offered freedom.
Entire shipnts moved without obstruction. Even when rumors surfaced, they were dismissed as collateral damage, nothing more than background noise in a world at war.
It had been the perfect cover to conduct experints freely, without oversight,
without restriction.
Hundreds of trials had been completed, the success rate climbing steadily, the refinent of techniques accelerated by the lack of interference.
Now, the war had ended. The Demonic Forces had retreated, the frontlines
stabilized, armies were returning ho.
The rulers and sects, freed from urgent threats at their gates, had turned
inward.
The Imperial Family had begun internal audits, minor trafficking networks were being uncovered and uprooted, scrutiny increased across every region. The freedom that had once allowed unimpeded experintation had vanished. Acquisition channels had to be smaller, indirect, more cautious.
Materials were scarce, lower in quality, and with lower-quality materials ca
lower compatibility. Experints stagnated.
The Elder's frustration simred beneath the surface, golden qi pulsing faintly around him in reaction.
"Expand the acquisition radius. It doesn't matter whether they are mortals or cultivators-bring in everyone we can." His voice lowered slightly.
"If we delay any longer, the Sect Leader will start becoming displeased."
The subordinate bowed deeply. "Yes, Elder!"
The golden light dimd again.
The Elder looked once more at the dying glow of the Sun Dao fragnt in his
palm.
"So many failures..."
His lips curved faintly.
"But the success rate has been climbing slowly. Once we reach more than fifty
percent..."
The fragnt brightened subtly in response to his spiritual qi.
"...then we will be able to rule this world!"
He closed his hand.
The fragnt vanished.
"Go."
His voice returned to its indifferent calm.
"Resupply!"
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