Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

The screams abruptly stopped.

The pain is not over.

Instead, the pain was so intense that his vocal cords could no longer produce any sound.

In the memory.

Little Jiang Yining suddenly tilted her head back, the veins on her neck bulging like earthworms, and her eyes, which should have been innocent and carefree, were now filled with a lifeless emptiness.

And... hatred.

It was a hatred powerful enough to burn the heavens and the earth.

Gu Qinghan floated in the air, watching this scene intently as an uninvolved bystander.

The dark green pith venom seeped into her broken skin, colliding with the purple lightning that was already raging within her body.

sizzle-

That was the sound of flesh being corroded and bones being reconstructed.

It's like forging a piece of pig iron into steel.

Every reorganization is like taking people apart and then putting them back together.

"Write it down."

The black-robed elder coldly gave the order.

"After receptor number 17 was injected into the pith, the lightning rejection response decreased by 30%. Bone density increased by two times."

The assistant beside him quickly made notes on the jade slip.

Even through memories, Gu Qinghan could feel that suffocating cold-bloodedness.

This is hardly cultivation of immortality.

This is clearly creating a monster!

He finally understood.

Why does Jiang Yining have that illogical coexistence of thunder and wood in her body?

Why can her blood devour all energy?

It's not talent.

It is an instinct that has been forcibly instilled from countless brushes with death.

Her body had developed a morbid memory—no matter what kind of energy entered, she would die if she didn't absorb it.

"In order to survive..."

Gu Qinghan muttered to himself.

His gaze fell on that tender yet distorted little face.

Xiao Jiang Yining bit her lower lip hard.

Fresh blood flowed down the corner of his mouth and dripped into the bubbling medicine.

She did not beg for mercy.

There wasn't even a single cry or scream.

She just stared intently at the high and mighty elder, her eyes like those of a lone wolf that had not yet grown up but had already shown its fangs.

That look in his eyes...

Gu Qinghan's soul trembled violently.

so similar.

It was so similar to the memory deep within him of being locked in a dark, icy cellar, watching his mother freeze to death.

He was like that back then too.

Don't cry, don't make a fuss.

He simply etched the faces of everyone who had hurt him into his very bones.

Then, one by one, they were made into specimens.

"That's enough..."

Gu Qinghan subconsciously reached out, wanting to touch that small figure.

Although reason tells him that this is just a memory, an illusory past.

But he couldn't help wanting to stop the atrocity.

Just then.

The scene suddenly changed.

Time seems to have jumped to several years later.

The scene remains the same dark water dungeon.

But Xiao Jiang Yining has grown taller, and looks about seven or eight years old.

At this point, she was no longer a passive experimental subject enduring torture.

She was huddled in the corner of the cage, clutching a sharpened piece of bone tightly in her hand.

That was a "knife" she had broken off herself when she was losing her baby teeth, and then spent three months sharpening it against the wall.

That was the only thing on her body that truly belonged to her.

It was also her last fang.

The iron gate was opened.

The black-robed disciple responsible for feeding the medicine walked in.

He held a bowl of medicine emitting black smoke in his hand, a mocking smile on his face.

"Number 17, it's time for your medicine. The elder specially added something extra today, saying it's to let you experience the feeling of 'a thousand ants gnawing at your heart'."

He was caught off guard.

In his eyes, this little girl who had been tormented for several years should have long been a complete mess.

He casually handed over the bowl, and even tried to reach out and pinch Jiang Yining's cheek.

In that very instant.

The little girl, who had been huddled in the corner and seemed to be on the verge of death, moved.

It was as fast as a black lightning bolt.

puff!

The sharp baby tooth pierced the disciple's tiger's mouth with perfect accuracy.

Although the force was not great, the position was extremely accurate.

That's where the nerves are most concentrated in the palm.

"ah--!!"

The black-robed disciple screamed, his hand trembled, and the medicine bowl fell to the ground.

Jiang Yining, however, clung to him like a mad dog, refusing to let go, and even... sucking his blood.

Gudong.

Gudong.

Gu Qinghan floated in mid-air and clearly heard the sound of the seven or eight-year-old girl swallowing large gulps of blood.

There was no fear in her eyes, only a chilling greed.

That was a thirst for energy.

It's an obsession with survival.

"court death!"

The black-robed disciple reacted and kicked Jiang Yining hard in the stomach.

boom!

Xiao Jiang Yining was kicked away and crashed heavily into the wall, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

But she smiled.

His mouth was full of blood, and he was still clutching that bloody tooth tightly in his hand, laughing like a demon crawling out of hell.

Because of the blood she had just sucked, she was able to live for another day.

"I see……"

Gu Qinghan was deeply shocked by what she saw.

He finally understood why her body had that terrifying "devouring" instinct.

That wasn't some rare and precious gift that bestowed upon me.

That was a "morbid" state she had evolved through countless brushes with death in order to survive.

Her body had learned that whatever it was, as long as it had energy, she should eat it.

Poison, blood, even lightning or wood marrow.

If you don't eat, you'll die.

This instinct was etched into her bones, fused into her blood, and eventually transformed into a terrifying constitution capable of devouring everything.

"The lightning-forged bones were forcibly infused with lightning-struck wood."

"The vitality of the wood element stems from being used as a medicinal cauldron, soaked in the venomous sap of the wood marrow."

"The two fought each other inside her body, but because of her crazy devouring instinct, they eventually reached a strange balance."

The logic is complete.

Gu Qinghan looked at the little girl licking her wounds in the corner, the probing in his eyes gradually fading, replaced by an extremely complex heaviness.

This secret is too heavy a burden.

It was so heavy that even he, a powerful cultivator at the Dao Inquiry Realm, felt somewhat breathless.

This is a survival story written in blood and flesh.

……