The air in the clearing was thick with the stench of ozone, blood, and the faint, sweet perfume of terror rolling off Lyra Veylan. But Kael's heightened senses were focused on a different sensation entirely—the two powerful Qi auras approaching from the east. They moved with the steady, implacable confidence of true experts, suns of power in a forest of candle flames.
"We have to go! Now!" Lyra's voice was a panicked hiss, her eyes wide as she stared into the eastern darkness. "If the Azure Moon Elders find us here…" She didn't need to finish the sentence. They both knew what happened to those who were found standing over corpses and practicing forbidden arts.
Kael was already moving, his mind a whirlwind of cold calculation. He grabbed the desiccated husk of the Rock Boar, intending to drag it into the deepest part of the thicket. There was no time. The Elders were closing in. A minute, maybe two, before their Spiritual Sense would sweep over this clearing.
It was then that the twig snapped. Not from the east, but from the west.
Three figures emerged from the shadows, their movements lacking the grace of cultivators. They were clad in mismatched leather armor, their faces etched with the cruel, greedy lines of men who lived by the blade. Their Qi was pathetic, barely at the first or second stage of Qi Condensation, but their eyes held the universal language of malice.
The lead bandit's gaze swept the scene—the dead boar, the bloodstained boy, the wide-eyed girl. His lips twisted into a sneer, a complete and fatal misreading of the power dynamic.
"Well, well," the bandit captain rasped, his eyes lingering lecherously on Lyra. "Looks like you two had a bit of trouble. Don't you worry your pretty little heads. We'll be happy to take that beast's core off your hands. And any other valuables you might have. A toll, for passing through our woods."
Lyra's hand flew to her sword, her fear momentarily replaced by defiant anger. But before she could draw, Kael's hand shot out and gripped her shoulder. His touch was cold, steady, and held a silent, absolute command.
Idiots, Kael thought, the chaos of the situation bringing a strange, sharp clarity to his mind. They have no idea what's coming. He could feel it all now: the three weak, greedy flames to the west, and the two powerful, searching suns to the east. The suns were getting closer. A real fight would be a dinner bell, its noise drawing them here instantly. But letting these three live to tell the tale of the boy who could drain a spirit beast was a risk his newfound predatory instinct refused to take. Loose ends were a liability.
There was only one option. The silent one.
He leaned in close to Lyra, his voice a whisper that was colder than the grave.
"Don't scream."
Before she could process the words, before the bandits could even register the shift in his posture, it happened. The air grew heavy, and the shadows around Kael's feet seemed to boil. It was not the unrestrained maelstrom he had unleashed on the boar. This was different. It was controlled. Tactical. Lethal.
Three shadow tendrils, no thicker than a man's finger, erupted from the ground. They moved with the impossible, silent speed of striking vipers, each locking onto a different bandit.
The men's eyes went wide. A flicker of confusion, then dawning horror. They opened their mouths to scream, but no sound came out. They felt not a physical blow, but a horrifying, intimate violation as their vitality, their Qi, their very life force was ripped from them through an invisible straw. The world grayed around them, their muscles locked, their lungs refusing to draw breath.
It was over in three seconds.
The three men collapsed, not like bodies, but like empty sacks of leather. They hit the ground with a dry, rustling sound, their skin already tightening over their bones, their eyes wide with the silent, frozen terror of their final moment.
Kael turned to Lyra. The forest was utterly silent, save for the frantic pounding of her heart, a sound he could now hear as clearly as if it were his own. She was staring at the three new corpses, her face a mask of pale, horrified shock. Her sword was half-drawn, her knuckles white.
She understood. He hadn't just defended them. He had executed them. He had murdered three men without a sound, without a thought, with a casual ruthlessness that was more terrifying than any spirit beast's fury.
Kael's face was a calm, emotionless mask. He took a step toward her, and she flinched, a part of her expecting a fourth tendril to emerge.
"They would have talked," he said, his voice flat and devoid of remorse. "Now they won't." He held her gaze, his dark eyes boring into hers. "You were never here. You saw nothing. Understand?"
He was not asking for her silence. He was commanding it. He was not threatening her. He was stating a fact. In that moment, Lyra Veylan realized her situation had changed. She was no longer just a witness to his power. By standing here, by not screaming, by being the other living person in a clearing with four fresh corpses, she was now an unwilling accomplice. Her silence was no longer just for her safety; it was for their safety.
Just as the crushing weight of that realization settled upon her, Kael's head snapped to the east. His eyes narrowed. The powerful Qi auras were no longer just approaching. They were converging. Here. At high speed.
The sounds of the boar's initial struggle, the bandits' approach, the silent, terrifying drain of life—it hadn't been loud, but it had been enough.
They were coming. And they were coming now.
OOC – End of Chapter 4
MC Name: Kael Ardyn
Cultivation Realm: Mortal Stage (Early)
Divine Soul Rank: Grey-tier (Trash) - Shadow Serpent Soul
Bloodline: Ancient Devouring Bloodline (Awakened)
Known Techniques: Devour Essence (Tactical, Silent Execution)
Items: Black Book of the Devourer (soul-bound)
Lifespan: 80 Years (Standard Human)
Notable Changes: First tactical use of Devour Essence on human cultivators. First calculated killings. Solidified a pact of silence with Lyra, making her an unwilling accomplice. Immediately facing the consequences as Sect Elders converge on his position.