Chapter 14: Reboot in the Dark
Silence. Absolute, suffocating silence. Not the quiet of the forest, but the void left by the **System's collapse**. Kai lay buried in the crushing darkness at the base of the Skyrend Gorge, the weight of displaced Skyrend Ore pressing down on him like a mountain. No blue screens. No sarcastic commentary. Just the agonizing throb of his **Celestial Meridians**, the violet cracks glowing faintly through the grime on his skin like dying embers. **Stability: 62%** – a number he felt rather than saw, a constant, grinding pain that threatened to shatter him from within.
The **Heavenly Lock's** glacial pressure was worse without the System's buffer. It felt like the sky itself was crushing his dantian, amplifying the meridian strain. Above, muffled by tons of rock, Elder Mo Gan's furious roars vibrated through the stone – a predator denied its kill. Search parties scoured the upper gorge, their Qi signatures faint tremors against Kai's raw, over-sensitized nerves.
*Alone. Broken. Buried.*
The Absolute Bullshit Cultivator was reduced to a wounded animal in a lightless tomb. Panic clawed at the edges of his mind. He couldn't Void Shimmer. He could barely move without sending lances of agony through his arms. His SP was down to **95**, useless without the Shop interface. His only lifelines: the stolen **Skyrend Ore** pressing against him, radiating dense spatial Qi, and the remaining vial of **Stabilized Roc Blood Elixir**.
He fumbled blindly in the dark, the movement excruciating. He found the vial, uncorked it with trembling, cracked fingers, and drained it. The familiar burn spread, momentarily pushing back the cold of the Heavenly Lock and the agony in his meridians. **Stability: 68%.** A tiny reprieve, bought with amplified pain – every heartbeat was a drumbeat of suffering, every scrape of rock against his skin felt like razors. But it gave him enough control to think. To *plan*.
The spatial pouch was pinned under him. He wriggled, gritting his teeth against the shrieks from his arms, and managed to get a hand inside. He pulled out chunks of **Skyrend Ore**. In the utter darkness, they pulsed with their own soft, internal light – deep indigo streaked with silver, humming with dense, anchoring energy. He couldn't convert it to SP without the System, but maybe…
The Alchemy Primer knowledge, burned into his mind, surfaced. *Skyrend Ore: High spatial stability. Conductive to anchoring arrays. Can be attuned to disrupt localized Qi signatures…*
An idea sparked, born of desperation and the amplified pain focusing his mind like a laser. *Disrupt localized Qi signatures.* Could he use the raw ore to mask his own leaking, chaotic Violet Qi signature? To hide from Mo Gan's relentless spiritual sense?
He arranged the ore chunks around his body in a rough circle, focusing his will, his pain, his dwindling Violet Qi on *pushing* his own signature *into* the ore. Not an elegant array, but a crude, instinctive **Qi Sink**. He visualized his fractured energy bleeding into the dense spatial matrix of the Skyrend, being absorbed and diffused.
Minutes crawled by. Sweat and blood mingled on his brow. Above, the vibrations of searching cultivators grew fainter, moving away. Had it worked? Was the spatial Qi of the ore enough to mask the instability of his Celestial Meridians? Or was Mo Gan simply searching elsewhere?
**<< ...rebooting... >>**
**<< ...core protocols online... >>**
**<< ...damage assessment... catastrophic... >>**
The blue screen flickered erratically in his mind, lines of text glitching and jumping. Relief warred with dread. It was back. But damaged.
**<< SYSTEM STATUS: CRIPPLED MODE ACTIVE. >>**
**<< FUNCTIONALITY LIMITED: >>**
**<< - Shop Access: Locked (Repair Cost: 300 SP) >>**
**<< - Advanced Analysis: Offline >>**
**<< - Bullshit Overdrive: Locked (System Integrity Insufficient) >>**
**<< PRIMARY FUNCTION: STATUS MONITORING & BASIC OBJECTIVES ACTIVE. >>**
**Host: Kai**
**Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage - Unstable)**
**Celestial Meridian Stability: 66% (Degrading: 0.5% per hour)**
**System Integrity: 21%**
**SP: 95 (Acquisition Penalty: -50% Active)**
**Debuffs: Heavenly Lock (Qi Regen -30%), Sensory Hyperactivity (Pain Amplification - Severe)**
**Objective: SURVIVE. (No Bullshit.)**
Kai almost laughed, a hoarse, painful sound. "Crippled Mode. Fitting." Even the sarcasm felt strained. He focused on the SP count. 95. He needed 300 just to unlock the Shop. The ore around him pulsed.
**<< Skyrend Ore Detected (Low-Grade). Estimated SP Value: 2 SP/lb. Convertible? YES (Manual Process Available). >>**
**<< WARNING: Manual conversion requires direct Qi infusion and bears risk of Meridian Feedback. >>**
Risk? His meridians were already fracturing. What was a little more feedback? He placed a hand on a large chunk of ore. He drew a sliver of his unstable Violet Qi, focusing it into the stone. The ore absorbed it greedily, its internal light flaring brighter. A faint pulse traveled back up his arm – not painful, but a strange *resonance*. The System SP counter flickered: **96**.
It worked. Slowly. Painfully. But it worked. He was mining SP from his own prison.
He worked in agonizing cycles: Infuse Qi into ore. Absorb the faint resonance feedback. Watch the SP tick up by single digits. Rest as the pain spiked and the stability degraded. Infuse again. **SP: 97... 98... 99...**
Hours bled away in the absolute dark. The faint sounds of the search above vanished entirely. Mo Gan's oppressive aura remained, a distant glacier, but seemingly stationary now – perhaps guarding the sabotaged drill. Kai's world shrank to pain, the pulse of the ore, and the glitching blue numbers.
**SP: 150.** Halfway to the Shop repair. **Stability: 63%.** The degradation was slowing, perhaps due to the constant, minute interaction with the Skyrend's spatial Qi? Or was he just getting used to the agony?
**<< Alert: Foreign Qi Signature Detected. Proximity: 10 meters. Approaching. >>**
Kai froze, hand still on the ore. Not Mo Gan. This signature was smaller, fainter, curious rather than predatory. It moved with unnerving silence through the rock debris near his hiding spot. His painfully enhanced senses picked up the faintest scrabble of claws on stone, a whisper of displaced air.
A pair of eyes opened in the darkness mere feet away. Not human eyes. Large, slitted pupils that glowed with a soft, intelligent **silver light**. They regarded him from the shadows cast by the Skyrend ore.
**<< Scan Attempt... Partial Data Recovered. >>**
**<< Spirit Beast: Shadowfox Kit (Tier-1 - Juvenile). Attributes: High Stealth, Spatial Affinity (Minor), Curious. Threat Level: Low. >>**
A juvenile Shadowfox. Drawn by the spatial energy of the Skyrend? Or by his own fractured, Violet resonance? It tilted its head, silver eyes unblinking. It took a cautious step closer, sniffing the air. It didn't seem afraid. Intrigued.
Kai remained perfectly still, his mind racing. A spirit beast, even a juvenile Tier-1, was a wildcard. Could he use it? Could it lead him out? Or would its presence attract Mo Gan?
The kit padded closer, its sleek, dark fur almost invisible. It stopped inches from the circle of Skyrend ore surrounding Kai. It lowered its head, sniffed a chunk, then gently nudged it with its nose. It looked back at Kai, its silver eyes seeming to ask a question in the silent dark.
**<< Objective Updated: Establish Contact? Potential Asset: Egress Pathfinder. Risk: Alerting Mo Gan. >>**
Kai held his breath, the amplified pain a drum solo in his skull. He had no food, no lure. Only pain, instability, and glowing rocks. Slowly, carefully, he extended a trembling, violet-cracked finger towards the kit, not to touch it, but to hover near the ore it was sniffing. He pushed a tiny, harmless wisp of his unstable Violet Qi through his fingertip, letting it dance over the surface of the Skyrend chunk like a will-o'-the-wisp.
The Shadowfox kit's ears perked up. It watched the flickering violet light with intense fascination. It let out a soft, almost inaudible *chirp*. Then, it looked past Kai, deeper into the crevice, and took a few steps in that direction. It paused, looked back at him, then back into the darkness, its silver eyes gleaming.
An invitation? Or a trap? Kai's crippled System offered no analysis. It was pure instinct, pure gamble. He gathered the last shreds of his strength, clutching a large chunk of Skyrend ore for its SP potential and its faint light. He pushed himself up, every movement a symphony of agony. **Stability: 62%.** The kit watched him, then turned and padded silently into the deeper blackness of the crevice.
Following a Shadowfox kit into the unknown bowels of the Skyrend Gorge. It was possibly the stupidest thing he'd ever done. Or the only bullshit play left. Kai limped after the faint silver gleam of its eyes, leaving the relative safety of his rocky tomb behind, the glitching System his only witness.
**<< ...rebooting spatial mapping... >>**
**<< ...terrain unknown... >>**
**<< ...proceed with caution... or don't. Your funeral. >>**