Night. The wind off the cliff cut like knives.

“No! Sister Shu, why? Why are you doing this to me?”

Seraphina Ashford lay in a pool of blood, her whole body shaking from the pain. Her face was white as paper, lips trembling, breath broken and ragged.

Vivienne Ashford crouched before her, blade buried in her dantian, twisting hard, digging and stirring with cruel patience. Then she yanked.

“Got it at last.” Her eyes blazed as she stared at the thing torn from Seraphina’s body. “An inborn Divine Vein. Look at that light. Look at it. This kind of treasure belongs to me.”

“What Divine Vein?” Seraphina’s voice cracked. Tears poured down her face. “Sister, it’s me. I’m Little Ninth. I was born with a crippled vein. Look at me. I’m Little Ninth!”

She cried until her chest felt torn open, but Vivienne only kicked her over.

Vivienne lifted the freshly ripped spirit vein and waved it in front of her face, smiling like a snake.

“Of course I know you’re Little Ninth. But what’s inside you was never some crippled vein.” She laughed low, smug and cold. “I should thank my mother for that. The moment you were born, she saw what you really were—someone born with a Divine Vein. So she sealed your spirit vein away herself.”

“We planned this long ago. Wait for you to grow up, then dig it out and give it to me.”

Her voice sharpened, jealousy spilling out plain and ugly.

“But then you just had to grow prettier than me.” She narrowed her eyes, face twisting. “And that old fool favored you in everything. He even betrothed you to Edmond Bates. The Bates family. A house more noble than even my mother’s side.”

“So of course I had to ruin you.”

She laughed and stepped on Seraphina’s swollen belly.

The stomp was vicious.

“You must still be wondering why you ended up in Beast Mountain, torn apart by a pack of beasts, hm?”

Vivienne threw her head back and laughed harder.

“Hahaha! That was me. I slipped you Huan Yi Dan myself. And I even scattered medicine all around to lure spirit beasts over.”

Seraphina nearly stopped breathing from the pain. Her eyes locked on the girl before her, wide and bloodshot, full of shock and terror. She shook her head with all the strength she had left.

“No... no, you wouldn’t... you’re lying... impossible...”

“Idiot.”

Vivienne ground her foot down harder.

“Ah—!”

Seraphina let out a shrill, broken scream. But at that very moment, a fierce surge of spiritual power burst from her belly, rushing upward, then slamming downward with brutal force.

Waa—

A baby’s cry rang out, bright and sharp, echoing through the valley.

Vivienne froze. Then her eyes flared.

“This is...” She bent down fast and snatched up the infant from the ground. The child was wrapped in dazzling spiritual radiance, the light so pure it almost hurt to look at. “Another inborn Divine Vein?”

Greed flooded her face. She stared at the baby as if she were staring at a treasure dropped from the heavens, then burst into wild laughter.

“Good. Good! This child is heaven’s gift. If I have two Divine Veins, then in the future...” She laughed so hard her shoulders shook. “Hahahaha!”

Seraphina’s eyes nearly split.

“My child... give me back my child! Vivienne Ashford—”

Seraphina Ashford dragged herself forward bit by bit, using the last scrap of strength in her body to crawl toward her.

But Vivienne Ashford did not even blink.

She lifted her foot and kicked her straight off the cliff.

Only a long, twisting trail of blood was left on the ground.

Ghostcry Cliff. Eagle-Sorrow Ravine.

Thunder ran wild across the sky. Wails rose like ghosts and wolves crying together. Wind and cloud churned into a black mess. Heaven and earth changed color.

The sudden omen shook the whole ancient seal.

Every bird and beast inside it seemed to feel a crushing force press down on them. One by one, they dropped to the ground and lay flat. In a blink, the entire sealed land fell dead silent.

Then the endless bolts of thunder roared together and slammed toward the mysterious man at the center of the seal.

Yet right then, the thunderclouds twisted.

They changed course on the spot.

Instead of striking the man, they shot toward the dying woman hidden deep in the forest.

Inside the thunder pool, the man slightly raised his eyes.

A trace of doubt flashed across that face, fine as a painting.

The heavenly lightning meant for a breakthrough... had been drawn away?

That meant...

A True Thunder Body had appeared nearby?

Three years later.

Seraphina Ashford was lying in the sun, bored out of her mind.

Then came a crack.

Above her head, the ancient seal slowly opened.

After being trapped in this damned barrier for three whole years, she could finally get out.

Once outside, she had to find medicine for her little one fast.

If the child’s body was left untreated any longer, real trouble would come.

She stood, brushed the fallen petals from her skirt, and called toward the distance, “Rosalie Ashford—”

Her voice carried inner force, rolling several miles out and startling countless spirit birds from the woods.

Not long after, a tiny milk-faced girl with a little sprout-like topknot on her head came running in on short little legs.

“Mommy—”

She rushed into the yard, her voice soft and sweet.

“Your little treasure is back!”

The little girl lifted her chubby arms and charged straight in, wrapping herself around Seraphina Ashford’s legs.

Seraphina lowered her eyes and looked at those tiny, multicolored “claws.” Her brows knotted at once. “Off. Move, you little menace. Speak straight. What did you wreck this time?”

Those soft little hands were smeared with spirit fruit pulp and the juices of all kinds of spirit herbs. No need to guess. This little brat had definitely gone and ruined her medicine patch again.

The girl only grinned, bright and shameless. “Hehe, Mother, your precious little treasure was just thinking—we’re leaving this place soon, right? We have to bring a few bits and pieces to protect ourselves.”

As she spoke, she fumbled inside her robe and pulled out a pile of little bottles and jars, holding them up one by one like she was showing off rare treasure.

“Mother, look. This pack is Fiery-Hot, this one is Slippery-Slick, and this, this one is amazing!”

Her big eyes shone. Her face was red with excitement.

“Mother, you’ll never guess, right? This is Itchy Powder—”

Her words snapped off.

All at once, the little girl dropped into a crouch, curling into herself, hugging her tiny body tight. Her face went white in an instant. Cold sweat beaded on her forehead, and the sparkle in her eyes shattered into pain.

“It hurts... it hurts so much! Mother... Brother, brother hurts... wuwu...”

Seraphina’s expression, calm just a breath ago, went rigid on the spot.

She knelt at once and pressed a hand against the child, guiding spirit power through her body, smoothing the chaos inside her meridians with practiced care.

Again.

It was this again.

Three years ago, Vivienne Ashford had ripped away her spirit meridian, stolen her newborn child, and driven her to death with hatred and despair burning in her chest.

But fate had not let her die clean.

She had fallen by sheer accident into this sealed land at the bottom of the cliff.

When she woke, she found there was still one child in her womb.

She had fought half to death to give birth to her. Only after the child was born did she learn the truth—this little one had a special constitution, born with two divine meridians. Yet yin and yang clashed inside her. Every time it flared up, the pain was savage enough to make even a grown man beg for death.

Luckily, after being blasted by ten thousand bolts of lightning, Seraphina had not only reforged her spirit meridian, but gained a mysterious mark in her mind.

That mark held many things.

And among them was a way to suppress the violent surging of the little brat’s meridians.

But this time... why was the child crying that her brother hurt?

Seraphina’s hand trembled almost imperceptibly.

Her heart, buried under years of blood, pain, and hatred, suddenly tightened hard, like it had been seized by an invisible claw.

Could it be...

that child...

was still alive?!

At the thought of that, something Seraphina Ashford had buried deep in her chest burst loose in an instant. A sharp, terrifying light flared in her eyes.

Chaos Domain. Spirit Gathering Hall.

Vivienne Ashford, who had been cultivating in seclusion, snapped her eyes open. She lowered her gaze to her dantian, staring at the spirit power stirring there like a beast about to break its chains. That near-loss of control made her face turn ugly at once.

Why was her spirit power slipping again?

These past few years, she had clearly used that little bastard’s blood to slowly suppress the spirit vein inside her body. So why was it acting up again now?

Could it be... that useless trash was still alive?!

She cursed under her breath and swiftly pulled out a communication jade slip from her robes. Her voice turned cold as she sent a message into it.

“Mother, the spirit vein in my body is getting hard to control again. Send Cousin Bianca Whitmore to check the area near Guiku Cliff. See whether that trash is still alive!”

“And listen well. Once she finds her, have her cut the roots clean. Leave no chance for trouble.”

Before the words had even fully faded, her eyes were already steeped in venom.

She rose at once and walked to the side, stopping beside the small child trapped within the formation.

The little one’s face was pale as paper, drained of all color. His eyes, which had been tightly shut, opened weakly when he sensed her approach. But those bloodless lips stayed pressed together, stubborn and tight.

“You little mongrel, has your blood stopped working?”

As Vivienne spoke, she stepped closer and drew out a dagger.

The child’s fine little face wrinkled immediately. His tiny body shrank back on instinct, giving a faint tremor.

“Maybe I haven’t taken enough blood. Fine. Then I’ll take more and see.”

Vivienne did not even spare him a proper glance. After all, this little bastard had been mute since childhood.

As she spoke, her hand moved without pause, slicing open the child’s wrist.

Blood instantly welled out from that pale, fragile wrist. But he looked long since used to it. Aside from his brows knitting faintly, he gave no other reaction.

Drop by drop, the blood flowed into the formation.

A dim blood-glow lit up across the array. In the end, it turned into strands of scarlet threads, slipping one after another into Vivienne Ashford’s dantian.

Caelum Blackwell pulled his gaze away and looked outside instead.

This woman was not his mother. He knew that much.

Then where was his mother?

That vicious woman had said she wanted to cut the roots clean. Was she going to kill his mother?

And his little sister, too.

Just now, from the Vein Pearl his father had left him, he had caught a trace of his sister’s aura.

Did that mean… they were both still alive?

The thought struck like a spark in dead ash. In the little boy’s dull, hollow eyes, a quiet hardness slowly rose.

He had to get out.

No matter what.