Chapter 31: Bloodline Problems
For the first time since arriving at the castle, Cairen woke up alone.
The absence of the silent, silver presence standing by his bed, always faintly unsettling, was a profound relief that made him let out a long sigh.
His body relaxed against the soft sheets.
The routine had settled. Food was brought, he ate, and then he sat down to return to cultivation. A night’s rest had erased his exhaustion.
The Embrace of the Deep Ocean technique flowed through him, drawing the dense Qi spread throughout the castle, transforming it into his own Fallen energy within his dantian.
It was slow, methodical work, a constant sensation of progress. He had the feeling he might break through today.
Until, suddenly, a sharp, violent twist in his chest tore him from his cultivation state.
It wasn’t physical pain. It was something deeper, a spiritual agony that echoed through the bond linking him to Ling.
A sense that something terrible was happening, that an ancient fury was breaking free of its restraints. Something was terribly wrong with her.
Without even thinking, he shot to his feet so fast he knocked furniture aside with a crash. He ignored it, bolting for the door and out into the corridor.
His perception, now locked onto their bond, pulled him in one direction like a phantom thread.
He didn’t know exactly where to go, but his body knew. Running through hallways he had barely registered until now, he stopped before an ornate door, identical to his own, but from which a terrible pressure emanated.
He didn’t knock. He shoved it open, bursting through with force.
What he saw made him freeze.
Ling Xiyue stood in the center of the room, but it was not the princess Ling he had always known.
Her hair was a wild golden cascade, spilling around her. Her eyes, two burning golden spheres of fury.
The horn on her forehead had elongated into a blade-like weapon. Bone plates covered her arms and legs, while sharp spikes jutted from her knees and elbows.
An aura of pure destructive strength radiated from her, heavy and suffocating. Her cultivation seemed to have risen to the next realm, and with it, her lineage had evolved, awakening the beast within, ravenous.
She was hunched over, trembling, her golden eyes fixed on him with a mixture of recognition and fury.
"G-Get out!" she managed to scream, her voice like a growl of agony.
"Now!"
Cairen didn’t move. Through the bond, he felt not only her fury but also despair and struggle. A silent suffering behind the monstrous facade. She seemed to be losing herself.
Before he could finish his thought, a torn scream of pain ripped from her throat.
And then she moved. With no technique, only raw speed like a hurricane, her claws lunged for him.
There was no time to hesitate. Instinct took over.
’Veil of Blindness!’
In an instant, Cairen’s black eyes, already indistinguishable between iris and pupil, became two pits of absolute darkness.
A sudden, suffocating silence fell over the room, followed by an even more terrifying scream from Ling.
She stopped her charge abruptly, her claws slicing the air inches from him. Her golden eyes were vacant, unfocused.
In that moment, she could not see. Could not hear. Could not sense the world around her. Total darkness, complete sensory deprivation, had engulfed her.
Cairen watched, breathless, as she thrashed, blind and deaf. Like a beast caught in an invisible trap.
Her claws and spikes shredded everything around, curtains, furniture, even the very structure of the room, in a frenzy of madness and panic.
He had to contain her, and fast. The King had given no instructions. He would have to improvise.
Seeing an opening, the Shackles of the False Genocider shot from his hand. The chain wrapped around Ling’s arms with all the strength he could muster.
Immediately, he felt the resistance. She was absurdly strong. The chains strained as if they would snap.
Without thinking further, he lunged forward. Closing his arms around Ling’s torso and pulling her against his chest.
It was like embracing a moving iron statue. He could barely move her body, which felt like it weighed tons at that moment.
But then, something happened.
The moment their bodies touched, the raging fury he felt through their bond... lessened.
Not much, but enough. Her violent struggle shifted into intense trembling. He held her tighter, ignoring the danger of the bone plates cutting into his body.
"COME BACK TO YOURSELF!" he roared, his face buried in her wild golden hair. He could not let her fall. His own life depended on it.
Seconds dragged like hours. And then, the tremors ceased. The tension in her body eased.
"I... I’m fine." A weak voice, the true voice of Ling, whispered, trembling.
"Thank you... for helping me. Now... please, return my senses. This feeling is... truly horrible."
Cairen then released his Fallen ability.
The darkness and silence dissipated. Ling’s golden eyes blinked, fury replaced by profound exhaustion.
The transformation began to recede. Her golden hair dissolved back to silver, the horn shrank, and the plates and spikes retracted beneath her skin, leaving only the princess he knew.
Pale and faintly trembling.
She then looked down. At Cairen, still holding her tightly, his arms firm around her.
"Hmmm." She voiced again in her usual flat tone.
"I understand you wanting to do this, but I don’t think it’s appropriate. After all, we’re not married yet."
The moment Cairen heard this, he released her as if she were on fire. Jumping back, his face was a mixture of anger and residual embarrassment.
"I... you... I was forced to do it."
Before he could process the situation, she closed the distance in an instant, her hand clamping onto his shoulder like an iron vise. Pinning Cairen’s body to the floor.
"Are you alright?" she asked. And for the first time, he heard a spark of something, genuine concern, in her voice.
"What do you mean? I should be asking you that! You nearly went insane! If I hadn’t come, wouldn’t I also be dead soon after?!" he snapped back, veins bulging on his forehead.
She ignored his words, but her other hand moved. Unlike the grip on his shoulder, this touch was light. Almost delicate.
Her fingers traced up to Cairen’s face, and the tip of one rested softly beneath his left eye, then beneath the right.
It was only then Cairen realized. A thin line of dark blood was running from each of his eyes. The price of forcing Veil of Blindness upon someone like Ling.
But that wasn’t what truly surprised him. It was the fact that when his blood touched Ling’s immaculate skin... nothing happened.
No sign of the Serpent Plague’s corrosion. His blood, always a vector of corrosive destruction, was harmless to her.
’So... is the Narakai lineage somehow compatible with Ling? Why?’ He thought quickly.
’She seems immune to the venom...’
"Are you alright?" Ling repeated, her voice a little softer, her eyes fixed on the blood she now wiped away with her sleeve.
"Yes. I’m fine," he finally answered. The anger dissipating, giving way to exhaustion.
She cleaned the blood from both his eyes efficiently, then released his shoulder.
"And you?" Cairen asked, somewhat reluctantly.
"I’m in control. For now," she said. Without thanking him again, her gaze was less impersonal than usual.
Cairen then cast one last look at the ruined room and at the princess standing at its center. Intact, but visibly shaken.
He turned and left, leaving her behind. He had done his duty. He fulfilled the role expected of him.
’Looks like I’ll have to postpone breaking through to the next realm until tomorrow.’