Jade couldn't believe what he had just obtained.
An Awakened Data.
He lowered his head, staring at the translucent System screen floating before him. Even after surviving the Trial, he had never expected his first hunt in the Spiritual Realm to reward him with something of such quality.
An Awakened Demon.
Its Data was far beyond what an ordinary Initiate should possess.
Yet before excitement could settle in...
A scorching sensation erupted throughout his body.
Jade suddenly stumbled backward.
"What...?"
He looked down.
There wasn't a single flame on his body.
No crimson fire.
No smoke.
Nothing.
Yet every inch of his flesh felt as though it had been thrown into a furnace.
His muscles tightened painfully.
His veins throbbed beneath his skin.
Jade clenched his teeth.
Immediately, he remembered the reckless attack he had performed moments ago.
He had wrapped himself completely in the destructive Blood Flame.
At the time, he hadn't cared.
The only thing on his mind had been killing Silent Fang.
Now...
The consequences had arrived.
"So this..."
"...is the backlash."
Although the flames belonged to him, they were still capable of burning their owner if used carelessly.
Jade slowly sat beside the corpse of Silent Fang, breathing heavily.
The burning sensation spread deeper into his body.
It no longer felt like ordinary pain.
It felt as though something inside him had been scorched.
Then another realization struck him.
His essence...
Wasn't recovering.
Normally, after a battle, Jade could already feel small streams of essence naturally flowing back into his pathways.
Now...
Nothing.
His essence reserves remained almost completely empty.
He frowned.
"This isn't because of the Blood Flame..."
His expression gradually darkened.
"It was Silent Fang."
Every strike from the Awakened Demon had devoured portions of his essence.
It hadn't merely drained it temporarily.
Something deeper had been damaged.
Jade sighed helplessly.
"I fought an Awakened Demon while being only an Initiate..."
"I should've expected consequences."
Still...
He didn't regret it.
A smile appeared despite the pain.
"I won."
His stomach suddenly growled loudly.
The sound echoed throughout the quiet forest.
Jade laughed weakly.
"So much for looking cool."
Without hesitation, he summoned Ant Demon.
Clusters of black ants crawled from every nearby shadow.
Thousands...
Tens of thousands...
They gathered together before slowly forming a familiar humanoid figure.
The terrifying Ant Demon silently appeared before him.
Its crimson eyes looked toward Jade.
Then toward the corpse.
Jade pointed lazily.
"Feed me."
Ant Demon immediately obeyed.
It cut a large portion of meat from Silent Fang before handing it toward Jade.
The raw flesh still dripped with warm blood.
Under ordinary circumstances...
Jade would've been disgusted.
Now...
He was simply starving.
Before eating, he activated Shadow Sense.
Darkness spread outward.
Every nearby shadow entered his perception.
No monsters.
No humans.
Nothing dangerous approached.
Satisfied, Jade finally bit into the raw meat.
The taste was...
Surprisingly acceptable.
Not delicious.
Certainly not.
But compared to the food served in the Government Residential...
It wasn't bad at all.
As he swallowed the first bite, the familiar voice of the System echoed inside his mind.
Silent Fang Beast Body detected.
Jade blinked.
"...Detected?"
He frowned.
"That's strange."
He had expected something else entirely.
Perhaps...
You have gained one Beast Fragment.
Or maybe...
You have absorbed beast essence.
Instead...
The System had spoken of a Beast Body.
Before Jade could think further...
Another notification appeared.
Five Pure Blood Fragments acquired.
Your bloodline has taken another step toward its primordial origin.
Jade stopped chewing.
Pure Blood Fragments?
He had never seen those words before.
Curiosity immediately overwhelmed him.
Without hesitation, he summoned his profile.
A translucent screen appeared.
His eyes immediately searched for the familiar section.
Then...
He froze.
The previous entry had disappeared.
In its place...
Pure Blood Fragments: 5/1000
Beneath it...
A completely new line had appeared.
Pure Blood Core: Dormant
Jade stared silently.
He remembered clearly.
Before today...
There had never been a Pure Blood Core.
Something fundamental had changed.
"But..."
"...what exactly is Pure Blood?"
No answer came.
The System remained silent.
Jade slowly dismissed the screen.
At that exact moment, his wandering shadow returned.
The little creature walked casually through the forest as though it had spent the entire battle sightseeing.
Before reaching Jade...
Something strange happened.
For the briefest instant...
Red light circulated throughout the shadow's body.
It flowed like blood beneath its dark surface.
Then...
It disappeared.
The shadow returned to normal.
Jade narrowed his eyes.
"Did you change too?"
The shadow tilted its head innocently before shrugging.
Clearly...
It had no intention of explaining anything.
Jade sighed.
"You're becoming stranger every day."
The shadow proudly placed both hands on its waist.
Jade couldn't help smiling.
He continued eating.
Piece after piece.
The burning pain inside his body remained.
His essence still refused to recover.
Yet his hunger gradually disappeared.
Time passed quietly.
Hours.
Then almost two full days.
Jade barely moved.
Whenever creatures approached, Ant Demon eliminated them before they came anywhere close.
Occasionally, Titan Beast also joined the battle.
Since Jade could barely circulate essence anymore, his summons had effectively become his bodyguards.
Although frustrating...
He accepted reality.
"I've become a cripple for now."
The thought made him laugh bitterly.
Eventually, Jade decided it was time to leave.
He couldn't remain inside the Spiritual Realm forever.
His injuries required rest.
More importantly...
He needed information.
Someone had to know why his essence refused to recover.
As Ant Demon lifted him effortlessly onto its shoulder, Jade reviewed the notifications he had received over the past two days.
Most of them were ordinary.
A few Beast Fragments.
Some monster materials.
Then...
One Data.
Another mount.
Jade looked at the description before shaking his head.
"What terrible luck."
The mount possessed an Initiate Mystic rank.
Any ordinary Initiate would've celebrated wildly.
Mystic-rank creatures were incredibly valuable.
Their rarity alone made them priceless.
Yet Jade simply sighed.
"A mount."
"I'd rather let Ant Demon carry me."
After all...
A mount couldn't fight.
It couldn't protect him.
It couldn't save his life.
Ant Demon, despite possessing a lower class, was infinitely more useful in battle.
Its terrifying death aura alone made most creatures hesitate before attacking.
If another Initiate heard Jade's complaint...
They would probably slap him without hesitation.
Complaining about receiving a Mystic-rank mount...
It was almost insulting.
As Ant Demon continued walking through the endless forest, Jade's living shadow wandered ahead, happily exploring everything it saw.
Unlike before...
This time it wasn't simply playing.
It was searching.
Searching every shadow.
Every ruin.
Every abandoned structure.
Finally...
The little shadow suddenly stopped.
It excitedly pointed forward.
Jade slowly raised his head.
Far beyond the trees...
An enormous stone wall emerged from the mist.
Broken towers.
Collapsed buildings.
Cracked roads.
An abandoned human citadel.
Even after countless years, traces of humanity still lingered within its ruins.
Jade's eyes narrowed.
For the first time since entering the Spiritual Realm...
He had found evidence that humans had once truly lived here.
And somehow...
His instincts told him that this forgotten city still held secrets waiting to be uncovered.