The "Wall of Penance" wasn't just a cliff; it was a tombstone for the desperate. Three thousand feet of sheer, slick limestone, battered by a wind that tasted of ice and salt. For a mortal without cultivation, climbing it wasn't brave. It was suicide.
Jiang Chen stood at the bottom, the lightning gone, leaving him in a suffocating, heavy dark.
[Quest Tracker: Return to the Sect]
[Distance: 920 Meters. Vertical.]
He placed a hand on the wet rock. His fingers, still tacky with the rat's drying blood, hooked into a hairline fracture.
"I used to get dizzy just looking off the edge," Jiang Chen muttered, his voice swallowed by the wind. "Now... I just want to see the look on their faces."
He pulled.
He expected the strain. He expected his shoulder to pop. Instead, he flew upward.
The Strength +0.2 on the blue screen was just a number, but in his body, it was physics. He felt lighter. The meat on his bones felt denser, woven tight like wet leather. It wasn't the strength of a cultivator; it was the strength of something wild.
He began to climb.
Hand over hand. Foot over foot. The wind howled, trying to peel him off the wall like a scab, but his grip was absolute.
One hour passed. Then two.
The euphoria of the "rat feast" began to fade. The burn returned. Lactic acid flooded his muscles, turning his limbs into lead weights.
[Warning: Muscle fatigue at critical levels.]
[Advisory: Rest.]
"Shut up," Jiang Chen gritted out.
He reached for the next hold, but his hand slipped. The sharp shale sliced his fingertips open. He hissed, jamming his bleeding fingers back into the crack to hold his weight.
But as he hung there, panting, he noticed something.
The pain in his fingertips vanished too quickly.
He looked at his hand. The blood wasn't dripping; it was hardening. The skin around his nails was darkening, turning rough and gray. It wasn't just healing; it was adapting.
The biomass from the rat was being repurposed. Deep in his marrow, the System was calcifying his fingertips, turning them into primitive, jagged climbing claws.
It doesn't care if I'm human, Jiang Chen realized with a shiver. It just cares that I don't fall.
He dug his new "claws" into the stone. They bit deep. He continued upward.
When he reached the final hundred feet, the wind brought a sound that froze his blood.
Voices.
"Did you hear something?"
Jiang Chen slammed his body flat against the rock face, hanging just below the lip of the cliff.
Above him, on the patrol path of the Outer Sect, two shadows moved. They held glowing Spirit Stones—shards of soft, white light that spilled over the edge, illuminating the mist.
"Probably just a wind bat," a second voice laughed. It was a nasally, arrogant sound. "Or maybe the ghost of that trash Jiang Chen coming back to scrub the toilets."
Jiang Chen's eyes narrowed.
Liu Ming.
Senior Disciple Wang's favorite dog. The one who had held Jiang Chen down while Wang broke his ribs.
Jiang Chen's heart hammered against his ribs. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
It was deafening. In the silence of the cliff, his heart sounded like a war drum. If they listened, they would hear him. If they looked down, they would see him.
[Alert: Host detected.]
[Stealth Required.]
[Activate "Serpent's Breath"?]
Yes! Jiang Chen screamed in the silence of his mind.
He triggered the memory he had bought.
It didn't feel like a technique. It felt like dying.
The air in his lungs turned into a thick, cold liquid. He exhaled slowly, forcing his diaphragm to lock in an unnatural position. The Qi he didn't know he had began to circulate, wrapping around his heart like a suffocating blanket.
Fwooo...
His heartbeat didn't stop, but the thumping vanished. He felt his body temperature plummet, matching the cold stone of the cliff. To the world, he was no longer a boy. He was a rock. A shadow. A void.
Above him, Liu Ming peered over the edge, swinging his lantern. The light passed right over Jiang Chen's knuckles.
Normally, a cultivator could sense the "life heat" of a mortal nearby. But Jiang Chen was as cold as a corpse.
"Nothing there," Liu Ming grunted, pulling back. "Let's go. Use the spirit stones to warm up some wine. This patrol sucks."
"Heh. Served that kid right, though. Stealing Spirit Grass... who does he think he is?"
The footsteps faded.
Jiang Chen held the breath until his lungs burned, until black spots danced in his vision. Only when the voices were gone did he let it out.
[Proficiency Gained: Serpent's Breath (Beginner -> Novice)]
He hauled himself over the edge, rolling onto the grass of the Outer Sect.
He lay there for a moment, smelling the air. It didn't smell like the ravine. It smelled of medicinal herbs, burning incense, and ozone.
It was the smell of power. The smell of the people who ruled the world.
He stood up. His servant robes were tattered, stained with mud and rat blood. His hair was a matted mess. He looked like a demon crawling out of a grave.
[Quest Complete: Return to the Sect.]
[Reward: 20 EV.]
[Current EV: 20]
He had done it. He was back in the lion's den. But this time, he wasn't a sheep.
He looked at the backs of the retreating disciples. The soft glow of the Spirit Stones in Liu Ming's hand bobbed in the dark.
A thought, unbidden and cold, slithered into his mind. It felt like his own thought, but it was sharper. Hungrier.
They have Spirit Stones. Stones contain energy. Pure energy.
If I eat the stones... I get stronger.
Jiang Chen shook his head, blinking. Eat stones? That's crazy. I should just steal them.
But the hunger lingered. It wasn't a hunger for food anymore. It was a vibration in his teeth.
[New Quest: The Foundation of Revenge]
Objective: Reach Qi Condensation (Layer 1).
Advisory: Human cultivation takes months. The System offers a shortcut.
Task: Consume 3 Low-Grade Spirit Stones OR 10kg of Spirit Beast Meat.
Jiang Chen stared at the panel.
"A shortcut?"
He looked at the direction Liu Ming had gone. They were drunk. They were careless. And they were carrying his cultivation in their pockets.
"Wang... Liu Ming..." Jiang Chen whispered to the darkness. "I'll return every scar you gave me."
The predator in his gut stirred, coiling tight.
The hunt wasn't over. It had just moved up the food chain.