After the guards escorting Duan Jian withdrew, the secret chamber fell silent.
Duan Jian knelt on the floor, his body covered in fresh lash wounds and his coarse trousers worn to tatters. Yet his spine remained ramrod straight, and an unquenchable hatred burned in his eyes as he stared fixedly at Nie Li before him.
He could not fathom this youth's background. A few words from him had sent the Silver Wing Family's guards packing, and he had exposed Duan Jian's identity. However he looked at it, this was no idle passerby.
Nie Li did not beat around the bush. He raised a hand and tossed him a porcelain bottle.
The bottle landed beside Duan Jian's feet with a clack, rolled half a turn, and stopped.
"Top-grade Healing Pills. Take one first."
Nie Li folded his arms, his tone as casual as if he were discussing some trivial matter. "Sikong Yi tortured you like an animal. Are you planning to endure it for the rest of your life?"
Duan Jian did not move. His eyes were full of suspicion. "What do you want?"
"To help you get revenge."
Nie Li crouched down, his gaze falling on the faint markings across Duan Jian's abdomen. "The Black Dragon Bloodline. You've hidden it well. Unfortunately, the Sikong family sealed most of it with a Secret Method. You have all that potential but can't use it, leaving you at everyone else's mercy."
Those words struck Duan Jian's mind like a thunderbolt.
Nie Li continued, "I can help you break the Bloodline Seal and fully awaken your black dragon power. If it works, your physical strength could approach Legend Rank. Forget Sikong Yi-even the entire Silver Wing Family together wouldn't be able to stop you from taking revenge. If it fails, the worst that can happen is death. Better that than clinging to life like this, neither human nor ghost." He paused, then offered his final condition. "There's only one price. From now on, you follow me."
Duan Jian stared into Nie Li's eyes for a long time.
His gaze was calm, without the arrogance of someone handing out charity or the cunning of a schemer, as though he were discussing the most ordinary transaction imaginable.
In his twenty-odd years of life, Duan Jian had seen more than enough of the Silver Wing Family's hypocrisy and cruelty. No one had ever said anything like "I'll help you get revenge" to him.
The restlessness sleeping in his bloodline surged up together with the hatred he had bottled up for over a decade. He gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead. "If you can truly help me avenge this great wrong, my life is yours. I, Duan Jian, will serve you loyally for the rest of my life, without a second allegiance."
With that, he grabbed the porcelain bottle from the floor, tipped out a pill, and swallowed it without the slightest hesitation.
The Silver Wing Family's stronghold lay hidden deep within the Underground Rift. Thick stone walls shut out the wind outside, while lanterns swayed beneath the corridor eaves, casting shifting shadows.
Outside the secret chamber where Duan Jian was held, two armored guards stood watch with their spears planted on the ground. Both unconsciously leaned their ears toward the door, their faces a little pale.
"Hear that? He's screaming again..." The shorter guard swallowed, keeping his voice extremely low. "Duan Jian really does have iron bones. When they dragged him back before, they whipped him day and night for three days, and he never even grunted. How long has he been in there now? And he's already in this state."
The taller guard edged aside, glanced toward the door, then quickly looked away.
"You're telling me. Young Master Lei Zhuo looks so gentle and refined. Who would've thought he'd be this terrifying when he tortured someone? Those screams carry clearly through several walls. You could hear them miles away."
The two exchanged a glance, each seeing the dread in the other's eyes.
They were both Sikong Yi's personal guards and had witnessed plenty of ruthless methods for dealing with traitors. Yet this was the first time the sounds alone had made their scalps prickle.
Neither dared investigate what was happening inside. They simply assumed this visiting young master was interrogating a traitor on the family's behalf.
In the main hall directly opposite the secret chamber, the lights shone dazzlingly bright. Wrapped in a brocade robe embroidered with gold patterns, Sikong Yi sat in a broad Beast-Skin Chair, the wings behind him half folded and his face expressionless. A subordinate kneeling on one knee had just finished reporting the situation in the secret chamber and waited with his head lowered for instructions.
"Patriarch, Young Master Lei Zhuo has begun testing the medicine."
Sikong Yi did not answer at once. His fingers tapped slowly against the armrest, producing dull thuds. After a while, the corner of his mouth tugged upward, a hint of surprise in his voice. "Oh? This boy... really does have talent."
Standing beside him, Sikong Hongyue frowned, her arms folded across her chest and her expression wary throughout. She took half a step forward and lowered her voice. "Father, I thought it over after I went back. There's still something suspicious about Lei Zhuo."
"Suspicious?" Sikong Yi turned to look at her.
Sikong Hongyue spoke quickly, every sentence striking at the heart of the matter. "How could there be such a coincidence? He approached us of his own accord. Who knows what intentions he's harboring?"
Instead, Sikong Yi laughed after hearing her out. He waved a hand, looking completely assured.
"Heh, none of that matters. As long as there's a chance he can cure our family's bloodline disease, he's useful." His fingertips tapped the armrest again, and his gaze grew colder.
"At the very least, we can wait until we've coaxed the complete formula out of him before killing him."
Sikong Hongyue's gaze sharpened, and she nodded firmly. "Yes!"
The father and daughter's conversation in the hall was quiet, but their voices drifted through the ventilation cracks in the stone and into the shadows along the corridor.
Shen Fei stood with his back against the cold stone wall, his presence suppressed to the utmost and even his breathing slowed to a crawl. Using a survey of the surroundings as his excuse, he had circled behind the main hall to learn the stronghold's defensive arrangements. He had not expected to overhear this conspiracy.
He felt little surprise. In fact, this seemed entirely consistent with how such families operated. The Silver Wing Family had spent so many years tucked away underground, relying on its bloodline gifts to maintain its foothold. Its actions had always been governed by profit, never principle.
Killing the donkey once it had finished turning the mill was their favorite trick. Unfortunately, they had miscalculated. Nie Li had never been a soft persimmon for anyone to squeeze. If they truly tore off all pretense, there was no telling who would live and who would die.
Shen Fei did not linger. Pushing off on his toes, he slipped silently back.
He had just reached the corridor in the residential area when he heard footsteps coming from the secret chamber.
He stepped sideways into a pillar's shadow and saw Nie Li approaching from the end of the corridor. His clothes were smooth and his hair undisturbed; he looked nothing like someone who had just finished "interrogating" a prisoner.
Lu Piao, Du Ze, Xiao Ning'er, and the others waiting in the corridor immediately went to meet him. Lu Piao scratched his head, looking conflicted, and leaned closer to ask quietly, "Brother Li, you didn't really test the medicine on him, did you?" He had nearly called out Nie Li's real name and hastily corrected himself. "Young Master Lei Zhuo."
Xiao Ning'er also frowned, a hint of disapproval in her eyes. She knew Duan Jian was a traitor who had betrayed his family, but testing medicine on a living person was far too vicious.
Nie Li glanced over them without answering directly, then looked back toward the secret chamber. His tone was calm. "I gave him an opportunity. How far he can go will depend on his own fortune."
They all froze for a moment at those words. Du Ze was the first to understand, realization flashing in his eyes-so those screams had not come from torture, but from the pain of awakening his bloodline? He was about to ask for details when Nie Li waved a hand, cutting him off.
"Let's leave him be and go cultivate." Nie Li strode forward. "The spiritual energy in the Silver Wing Family's underground space is denser than it is on the surface. It's a good place to cultivate. Don't waste time."
At that, the others asked no more questions and nodded their agreement. Xiao Ning'er brought up the rear. As she passed the pillar where Shen Fei was hiding, her steps paused, and she glanced toward the shadows.
She saw no one, but faintly sensed a familiar presence. While she was still wondering about it, Lu Piao called to her from ahead. She looked away and hurried after them.
Only after everyone had left did Shen Fei emerge from the shadows. Looking at Nie Li's retreating back, his gaze darkened.
An opportunity. He made it sound so easy.
To forcibly raise a Gold-Rank Cultivator whose bloodline had been sealed to the point where he could awaken the Black Dragon Bloodline-no one in all of Glory City could accomplish such a feat.
Nie Li had casually bestowed it on a traitor he had never met before. The sheer scale of his investment was astonishing. Shen Fei knew this was not generosity. It was laying out his pieces.
From the very beginning, Nie Li had calculated Duan Jian's temperament and Sikong Yi's greed. Through a seemingly brutal "medicine test," he had both won Duan Jian as a fiercely loyal subordinate and lulled the Silver Wing Family into complacency, killing two birds with one stone.
Such calculation, such depth of cunning, far surpassed what most people possessed.
Shen Fei stood there thinking for a moment, then turned and returned to his own room.
Before you continue