The pressure of Seris Kaeldra's Spiritual Sense was not a wave; it was a mountain. It crushed the air from Kael's lungs, pinned his soul, and ground his face into the dirt. Beside him, he could hear Lyra's choked gasp as she too was forced to her knees. This was the power of a Core Formation expert—an absolute, suffocating dominance that made his own newfound abilities feel like a child's tantrum.
Her question hung in the silence, each word a shard of ice. "...how did you kill three poisoned men without drawing your blade?"
The lie had failed. Kael's mind, a razor honed by a lifetime of survival, raced through a thousand doomed scenarios. Running was a joke. Fighting was suicide. Lying further was an insult to her intelligence. There was only one path left, a desperate, terrifying gamble that could either save his life or hasten his dissection. He had to give her something. A taste.
"It was…" Kael choked out, forcing the words past the crushing pressure, "my bloodline."
He did it. He pulled on the core of his power, not to attack, but to reveal. For a single, fleeting second, he allowed a sliver of his Devouring aura to flare—a cold, hungry, unnatural energy that was fundamentally different from any Qi. It was just enough. A calculated risk.
The mountain of pressure on him flickered. The other elder, Borin, recoiled as if struck by a snake, his face a mask of revulsion.
"Seris, what is this madness?" he hissed, his voice trembling with a mixture of fear and righteous fury. "That aura… it's an abomination! A demonic art! We must purge this monster immediately!"
Seris did not even glance at him. Her entire focus was on Kael. A flicker of a new expression crossed her face, replacing the cold suspicion. It was not disgust. It was not righteousness. It was the intense, obsessive gleam of a scholar who has just stumbled upon a lost scripture, the rapacious greed of a dragon discovering a new hoard. Any powerful cultivator could feel the unnatural hunger in the boy's aura, but Seris, with her profound knowledge of forbidden texts, understood its earth-shattering implications.
Her voice, when she spoke, was not for Borin, but for Kael, a silken trap laced with undeniable fascination.
"An interesting gift you have, boy," she said, the words dripping with academic curiosity. "Devouring-type bloodlines... so rare they are considered myths."
Her lips curved into a smile that held no warmth, only the chilling promise of ambition. She looked down at him, a predator assessing its most valuable prey.
"I will keep your secret," she said. "I will report that you and the girl were simply victims, fortunate to have survived a bandit attack. The Azure Moon Sect will even take you in. We will protect you. Nurture you."
The offer hung in the air, a lifeline thrown into a sea of fire. Kael saw a flicker of desperate hope in Lyra's eyes. Protection. Safety. It was everything they had never had.
"In exchange," Seris continued, her voice dropping to a predatory whisper that was meant only for him, "you belong to me. You will become my personal research subject. You will answer my questions. You will allow me to study this… gift… of yours. And you will serve me, and only me." Her eyes hardened. "Refuse, and I will personally announce to the world that I have found a budding demonic cultivator in our woods. A thousand righteous sects will hunt you to the ends of the earth just for the glory of claiming your head. The choice is yours."
The trap was sprung. It was a gilded cage, but a cage nonetheless. He had escaped immediate death only to be offered a life sentence of servitude. He glanced at Lyra, seeing the terror in her eyes. His gamble had not only damned himself, but it had dragged her down with him. She was now bound by this monstrous deal as surely as he was.
"Do we have a deal, Kael Ardyn?" Seris asked, the mountain of her Qi not lessening by a single ounce. The pressure was a constant, suffocating reminder of his powerlessness.
There was no other path. He had walked into the lion's den, and the lion had offered him the position of its favorite pet. It was a role he would have to play, for now.
Gritting his teeth until his jaw ached, Kael forced a single, choked nod. "Deal."
The mountain vanished. The air rushed back into his lungs, and he gasped, his body trembling with the aftershock. Seris's smile widened, a cold, triumphant expression. She had won.
"Good," she said. She turned to the still-fuming Elder Borin. "Borin. Take the girl back to the outpost. Get her wounds treated and have her statement recorded as per my report. She is a witness, and under our sect's protection."
Her gaze then fell back to Kael, who was slowly, painfully pushing himself up from the ground.
"The boy… has one more task to perform for me tonight."
A sliver of ice slid down Kael's spine. Seris's eyes flickered toward the dark thicket where he had hidden the boar's corpse.
"The faint, unnatural scent of that other creature you so clumsily tried to hide," she said, her voice laced with chilling curiosity. "I want to see what it was. And I want to watch you… finish your meal."
OOC – End of a Chapter 6
MC Name: Kael Ardyn
Cultivation Realm: Mortal Stage (Early)
Divine Soul Rank: Grey-tier (Trash) - Shadow Serpent Soul (Aura Suppressed)
Bloodline: Ancient Devouring Bloodline (Known to Seris & Borin)
Known Techniques: Devour Essence, Aura Suppression
Items: Black Book of the Devourer (soul-bound)
Lifespan: 80 Years
Notable Changes: Secret partially revealed. Forced into a "deal" with Elder Seris Kaeldra, becoming her research subject. Elder Borin established as an internal threat. Kael's life is saved, but his freedom is lost. He is now under the direct control of a powerful, ambitious, and dangerous master.