The corridor stretched endlessly before me.
Silent.
Empty.
Only the rhythmic sound of my footsteps accompanied me.
Tap...
Tap...
Tap...
The training facility had become strangely peaceful.
Most of the prodigies had already returned to their residences.
The conversations that had filled the halls moments ago had long since disappeared.
Only silence remained.
Yet...
The silence felt wrong.
Not threatening.
Watching.
I continued walking.
My thoughts remained fixed on the System's warning.
Bloodline Seal Integrity: 95%.
Accessible Bloodline Power: 5%.
Every increase in strength...
Every breakthrough...
Every victory...
Would weaken the seal.
It sounded absurd.
Cultivators spent their entire lives becoming stronger.
Yet for me...
Strength also carried another meaning.
Release.
I lowered my gaze toward my hand.
Slowly...
I clenched it.
Nothing happened.
No surge of power.
No transformation.
Only the familiar feeling of muscles tightening beneath my skin.
Even so...
I couldn't shake the feeling that something was quietly waiting beneath the surface.
Patient.
Silent.
Ancient.
I released my fist.
"...One step at a time."
There was no point worrying about a future I couldn't yet see.
The only answer was becoming stronger.
Stronger...
Without losing myself.
I had barely taken another step when—
The familiar blue glow suddenly appeared before my eyes.
"...System?"
It hadn't been summoned.
The translucent screen materialised by itself.
Then—
It flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The normally stable interface distorted violently.
Cracks of blue light spread across the screen like shattered glass.
Static rippled across every line of text.
For the first time since awakening the System...
It seemed...
Unstable.
My footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
"What..."
The interface trembled again.
Then—
Every line of information disappeared.
Leaving behind a single sentence.
---
> [Unknown Consciousness Detected.]
---
Silence.
The message remained for only a heartbeat.
Then—
It vanished.
The entire System disappeared.
Completely.
Not dismissed.
Not hidden.
Gone.
The blue light dissolved into nothingness.
Even the familiar connection I always felt with it...
Had disappeared.
A chill travelled down my spine.
"...System?"
No response.
The corridor remained empty.
Not a single fluctuation of spiritual energy could be sensed.
No hidden formation.
No illusion.
Nothing.
Then—
A voice.
Not from behind.
Not ahead.
Not above.
Not below.
It came from somewhere impossible to describe.
Somewhere...
Deep within my very soul.
Ancient.
Calm.
Majestic.
It carried no hostility.
No kindness.
No emotion at all.
Only absolute certainty.
> "...So..."
A pause.
As though it had waited an eternity for this moment.
> "...you've finally begun to wake me."
My breathing stopped.
My azure pupils contracted.
Instinctively—
My spiritual sense exploded outward.
Nothing.
The corridor remained empty.
No aura.
No pressure.
No life.
Only me.
And that voice.
A heartbeat passed.
Then—
It spoke again.
Softer this time.
Almost... amused.
> "Sleep a little longer..."
Silence.
Then—
> "...my little tiger."
The words drifted through my consciousness like a fading dream.
Before I could react—
The presence vanished.
Completely.
As though it had never existed.
The blue System screen suddenly returned.
Perfectly normal.
Not a single error.
Not a single warning.
Only the familiar interface floating quietly before me.
I stared at it.
Waiting.
Nothing happened.
No explanation appeared.
No notification.
No acknowledgement.
It behaved as though the interruption had never occurred.
Slowly...
The System dismissed itself.
Leaving me standing alone in the silent corridor.
I remained motionless.
My heartbeat gradually returned to normal.
One thought echoed relentlessly within my mind.
That voice...
...wasn't the System.
The certainty came instinctively.
The System was cold.
Precise.
Mechanical.
That voice...
Had been alive.
It had spoken with the confidence of something that had existed long before I was born.
Long before this body.
Long before...
Me.
A cold breeze drifted through the corridor.
For the first time...
It felt cold.
I slowly lifted my gaze toward the distant horizon beyond the training grounds.
Caelion's lesson returned to me once more.
"The closer you are to your bloodline..."
"...the closer you are to the beast."
Until today...
I thought those words were only a warning.
Now...
I understood.
They were a truth.
Because buried somewhere beyond flesh...
Beyond bone...
Beyond blood...
Something was sleeping.
Something ancient.
Something that had recognised me...
Before I had recognised it.
I slowly closed my eyes.
One question surfaced.
Not spoken aloud.
Not answered.
Only lingering within the silence.
Just...
What is sleeping inside me?
Far beyond the reach of my consciousness...
Hidden behind countless invisible chains...
Two ancient azure eyes slowly opened.
Watching.
Waiting.
Smiling.
— End of Chapter 28 —