Blood in the Dark
Inside a mountain cave, night clinging like a cold shroud…
After Soren Ravyn crushed the last wild berry between his teeth, he leaned forward and carefully fed the pulp into little Yara's mouth.
The infant's tiny lips trembled, her pale lashes fluttering. For a moment, she quieted—silver-white hair like threads of moonlight resting against his arm.
But peace didn't last.
Barely an hour passed before she cried again.A weak, hungry wail that cut through the cave like a blade.
Soren froze. His heartbeat hammered in his ears.
The fruits he'd gathered… there weren't many. Barely a handful.Midnight wrapped the forest outside in pitch-black danger—impossible to forage now.Every sound outside felt like teeth waiting to close around them.
Inside the cave, Soren paced, his arms cradling Yara against his chest.He tried to rock her gently, whispering to her, swaying… begging the world to let her sleep.
But hunger gnawed at her.The more she cried, the weaker she became.Her voice cracked, thin, desperate.
In the suffocating dark, Soren's figure trembled.His shadow quivered on the stone walls like a candle flame.
He hesitated.
Then—after a breath that hurt to take—he lifted his hand to his mouth.
His jaw clenched.
And he bit down.
Hard.
Teeth tearing his fingertip until blood burst warm and metallic across his tongue.Pain shot up his arm, but he didn't loosen his bite.Not until the wound opened, dripping.
He lifted his hand to Yara's lips.
"Please…"
His voice was nothing but air and fear.
Yara latched instinctively, drinking his blood like milk.Her crying eased, breath softening into tiny hiccups.Her eyes—icy blue like a glacier lake—blinked up at him with a fragile spark of trust.
Relief hit Soren so hard he almost collapsed.
But his body betrayed him.
A faint shimmer gathered over the wound—his young body, brimming with dormant power, mended itself.
The tear sealed shut.
The blood stopped.
Yara whimpered again.
Soren stared.Teeth clenched.Face pale.
Then he bit deeper.
Again.And again.
Feeding her with his own lifeblood.
In less than an hour, his hand was a canvas of torn flesh and half-healed scars.He had to rip them open repeatedly just to keep her alive.
His vision blurred.He swayed, but he didn't stop.
Outside the Crystal Lotus Mirror
A silent audience watched, breath held.
The projection shimmered like glass filled with memories.
They stared at the scene—a six or seven-year-old boy, handsome face smeared with dirt and blood, long black hair plastered to his cheek, blue eyes hollow with exhaustion—feeding a baby with his own blood.
Not crying.Not hesitating.Not once complaining.
A Cultivator in the crowd whispered, voice trembling like prayer:
"No wonder he became the Supreme Lotus Emperor of the Seven Blue Lotus World… That ruthlessness… that devotion… ordinary hearts break long before reaching this step."
Fin Ravyn—watching in silence—exhaled sharply.His hands curled into fists.
Next to him, Yara stood frozen.Adult now. Powerful. A beauty sculpted like the heavens dreamed of her.But here, in this memory, she was helpless—nothing more than a starving infant in his arms.
Seeing it, her body trembled.
The memory struck like lightning.
She stared at her younger self, drinking Soren's blood, and she couldn't breathe.Her lips parted, but no words came out.
He saved me… with his own life.
Back Then
Night crawled toward dawn like a wounded animal.
When sunlight finally scraped across the horizon, Soren sat slumped against the cave wall.Yara slept bundled in his arms, finally breathing peacefully.
His eyes were red.He hadn't slept.His body shook with every breath.
He stood on legs that barely held him and stepped back onto the road.
If he stayed, she would die.Starve.Fade before ever learning to smile.
He couldn't let that happen.
A Village on the Scarlet Plains
By luck—or fate—the next village was unguarded.No Cultivators in sight.No black-robed hunters from the Supreme Lotus Palace.
Soren slipped into a sheep shed, heart rattling in his ribs.He milked half a bowl of goat's milk with trembling hands and fed it carefully to Yara.
Color returned to her cheeks.Her silver-white lashes fluttered as she drank.
For the first time in days, she looked… alive.
Soren's shoulders sagged, and something like hope dared to spark.
Days Later
Soren wandered east, Yara cradled close.Every day was a battle.
He gathered mushrooms.Goat's milk.Sometimes even animal milk when he had no choice.But human milk—that was what she needed most.
So he traded.He hunted rabbits in the hills, delivering every catch to a woman who had just given birth.In return, once a day, she nursed Yara.
The infant thrived.
Soren did not.
His once-round cheeks hollowed.His body stayed small, stunted by hunger and sleepless nights.His clothes hung loose on him, patched and dirty.
But Yara grew chubby, cheeks rosy like a lotus petal.She looked like a blessing the heavens dropped into his arms.
Sometimes villagers approached.
"Give her away," they said."She's not your burden. You're a child yourself.""You'll die like this. Let someone else take her."
Every time, Soren shook his head.Tight-lipped. Eyes burning like embers.
He whispered the same words, over and over, like a vow carved into his bones:
"She's the last bloodline of the Sylvan family…I'll protect her.I'll let her grow up safe…even if it ruins me."
His voice would crack.But his resolve never did.
And still, he walked.
A boy carrying the world.
A baby carrying his heart.
In the Seven Blue Lotus World, the path of fate twisted like smoke.But that night in the cave, when he fed her with his own blood…
That was the moment destiny bent around them.
The moment a future Supreme Lotus Emperor was forged in pain and love.
And the girl in his arms—
The one who would one day shake the heavens—
slept, unaware that her life had just been purchased by a boy's scars.