“Your core is shattered. You will never cultivate again.”

  “Trash like you should never have touched the Dao.”

  “Throw him into the Bone Pit.”

  Those voices echoed in Li Xuan’s skull like rusted chains. Years had passed since that night, but the pain was burned deeper than any scar. It wasn’t just his spirit core they broke. They had taken his name, his future, his dignity.

  But they had left him alive.

  That was their final mistake.

  The gate of Crimson Veil Academy loomed before him, carved from bck spiritstone and veined with veins of glowing crimson. Formations pulsed across its archway, a warning and a promise—only those chosen by the Dao may enter.

  Li Xuan stood at the threshold, cd in a tattered servant’s robe. His long bck hair fell over his shoulders like night ink, hiding the fire in his eyes. Around him, other students filed in—young heirs in silk, inner sect geniuses with flying swords strapped to their backs, noble daughters attended by spirit beasts.

  Not one of them recognized him.

  Not yet.

  He pced his palm against the gate’s sigil. A fre of qi resistance pushed back—testing him.

  And then, it woke.

  [Crimson Veil System Activated]

  “Host recognized: Li Xuan.”

  “Mode: Vengeance Protocol — Path of Devouring Ascension.”

  A sudden searing pain surged through his chest as red sigils fred beneath his skin—spiraling from his sternum out to his limbs. No one else could see it. The system interface appeared in his mind like a brand burned onto reality.

  [STATUS PANEL]

  Name: Li Xuan

  Cultivation Level: None (Suppressed Core)

  System Fme Level: Ember (1/9)

  System Mode: Vengeance Protocol

  Abilities Unlocked:

  Infernal Allure (Passive): Targets with Yin-heavy qi are naturally drawn to host.Devour (Locked)Technique Steal (Locked)Bloodline Extraction (Locked)Dual Essence Merge (Locked)

  His heart thundered. It was real. The voice he’d heard in the Bone Pit—that deep, ancient whisper that promised power through sin—was not madness. It had been the system awakening. And now…

  “Consume to grow. Seduce to ascend. Kill to refine.”

  “Your enemies are marked. Begin recmation.”

  (Continuing shortly with: rival introduction, harem seed, and first dark quest…)