The Darkness System: Rise of the Broken Sovereign

After engaging in sexual activity with Seraya, Kael pulled his clothes back on and bent down beside her. Her emerald hair was scattered across the moss, her black garment still hiked up, her chest heaving as she caught her breath.

”Why did the tribe decide to cut off contact?” Kael asked.

Seraya pouted, turning her face away. ”What do you care?”

Kael tilted his head, an evil grin spreading across Finesh’s face. ”If you don’t answer, I won’t fuck you again.”

Seraya’s pout deepened. She stared at the moss for a long moment, then snorted.

”Fine.” She sat up slowly, pulling her garment down with visibly shaky hands. ”The Patriarch decided to tell every emissary of the Vorns and the Dravens to leave our territory. They didn’t listen.”

She paused, picking a piece of moss from her scales. ”So the Patriarch got angry after multiple rejections and decided to kill them. After all, they were just all at the Early Spirit Soul realm.”

Kael filed that away. Early Spirit Soul realm emissaries killed by the Patriarch — a Late Spirit Soul realm cultivator with Soul Condensation stage soul power. The power gap made it trivial.

He leaned against a tree and asked the question that had been nagging at him since he arrived. ”Why can’t anyone above the Early Spirit Soul realm enter the Gra-Khazul territory?”

Seraya looked at him with a flicker of surprise. ”You don’t know? Don’t you at least read?”

”Enlighten me.”

”There is a barrier around the territory,” she said, crossing her legs. ”Set up by our ancestors thousands of years ago. It prevents anyone above the Early Spirit Soul realm from entering. But members of the tribe can enter and leave as they please, though most hardly even bother to leave the territory.”

She brushed a strand of hair from her face. ”Even a Peak Origin Realm master can’t break the barrier.”

No wonder, Kael thought. The Vorns and Dravens couldn’t send their heavy hitters. They were limited to Early Spirit Soul realm emissaries — expendable pawns who could be killed without consequence. The entire power dynamic between the Gra-Khazul and the outside world was shaped by that barrier.

”Why did the Patriarch tell the emissaries to leave in the first place?” Kael asked.

Seraya’s golden eyes narrowed slightly. ”The inheritance ground will probably open in the next two to three years. The Patriarch wants to cut off outside knowledge so that nobody from the outside world will come to take what belongs to our tribe.”

She leaned back against the root wall. ”Normally, the Vorns and the Dravens send two people at the Early Spirit Soul realm anytime it opens. But nobody — not even members of the tribe — have gotten past the second trial of the inheritance ground.”

Kael raised an eyebrow. ”Second trial?”

”The inheritance ground normally opens every twenty to twenty-five years,” Seraya continued. ”But since the Vorns and the Dravens only discovered our existence thirty-five years ago, they haven’t figured out the pattern or the timeline. So they keep emissaries around to keep investigating.” She shrugged. ”After all, even the rewards from the first trial are quite tempting enough, especially for Soul cultivators and runemasters.”

She held up three fingers. ”It’s been eighteen years now. So we estimate it will open in two to three years’ time.”

Seraya lowered her hand and studied Kael’s expression. ”Wait, why do you ask?”

Kael shrugged. ”I was just curious.”

The silence that followed stretched for several seconds. Seraya’s lips curved into a slow, knowing smile.

”So,” she murmured, her voice dropping to something softer. ”Will you fuck me again now?”

Kael looked at her with cold, flat eyes. ”No.”

He turned and walked away without another word. Behind him, Seraya’s mouth opened, then closed, ”FINESH, how dare you?:

Kael moved through the forest with Vael-Serpent Stride, covering ground rapidly. His mind processed everything Seraya had told him.

The Dravens were very arrogant people. If their emissaries had been killed and they couldn’t send anyone stronger because of the barrier, their next move wouldn’t be diplomacy. It would be force. They would find a way — a loophole, a weapon, an artifact — to breach the barrier or neutralize it.

An attack on the territory was likely coming.

Before that happened, Kael was going to take full advantage of the soul wells and the mana concentration here. Every day counted.

He collected the leather bags of beast meat from where he’d stashed them near the clearing and made his way back to the Nesh Clan settlement.

Goran was outside his home when Kael arrived, inspecting a bone weapon one of the clan’s crafters had made. He looked up as Kael approached.

”It seems today’s hunt was quite good.” Goran’s reptilian eyes dropped to the three full leather bags. ”I heard you went alone.”

”It was manageable,” Kael said.

Goran set down the weapon and studied him for a moment. ”It seems your soul power has improved drastically for you to be handling Rank 5 Mana Heart beasts on your own.”

He sighed and reached into a pouch at his belt. His fingers closed around something, and he tossed it to Kael.

Kael caught it. The weight was familiar. The purple glow was unmistakable.

A Soul Vein Crystal.

”These stones are wasting in the chamber,” Goran said, turning back to the bone weapon. ”They will be more useful to you.”

Yeah, they will be more useful to me, Kael thought, suppressing a smile. King Grade materials sitting in a minor clan’s training room, given away like pebbles. The Gra-Khazul had no idea what they were sitting on.

”Thank you, Father.”

The old man raised a hand without looking back. ”Go and cultivate.”

Kael nodded, tucked the Soul Vein Crystal into his pouch, and descended into the root tunnel leading to the soul well.

The misty purple vapor rose around him as he settled into his meditation position. The soul force saturated the air, thick and warm, seeping into his consciousness like rain into dry soil.

Kael closed his eyes and began to cycle.