The Fallen System: Gaining Bloodlines of the Fallen-Chapter 43: Spiritual Monster

The forest seemed endless. The mist dragged itself like a living veil at every moment, and each step carried Cairen and Ling deeper into a muffled world, where the air smelled of iron and rot.

Cairen always walked a few steps behind Ling. The silence between them grew with each passing day. She walked with a calm expression, often letting slip a cold smile whenever she found traces of beasts.

He, on the other hand, withdrew more and more into his own feelings.

The beasts they hunted along the way no longer surprised them. Feline beasts, boars, wolves, bears, and even mist birds had been slain, crushed by the princess.

Cairen did the same, but in a more methodical manner. The chains appeared, judgment descended, and the beasts were absorbed one by one, leaving not even their carcasses behind.

Over time, he noticed the difference. The fallen energy inside his body grew denser, his movements lighter.

After four days, he felt an implosion occur. The flow of fallen energy expanded in a spiral within his dantian. Expanding slightly.

He had broken through to the 2° stage of the Qi Accumulation Realm.

Cairen did not celebrate. He only took a deep breath, finding it inevitable, even thinking it had taken longer than expected.

That night, the two of them rested upon the thick branches of an ancient moss-covered tree. The fog swirled below them.

Cairen gazed at the invisible horizon when he finally murmured in his mind.

’System.’

Silence was his answer. Only the distant wind among the trees replied.

’I had already become a Fallen before the execution, hadn’t I?’

Nothing. Again, nothing was the answer.

Cairen’s eyes narrowed. A cold irritation coursed through his chest.

’Why was my lineage enhanced when I saw my old memories?’

Again, the void.

He clenched his fist tightly. That system answered only when it wanted, as if it truly had a will of its own.

The weight of frustration accumulated more and more, but deep down, Cairen knew he was bound to it. And he did not hate this situation. Quite the opposite. Cairen understood that he was only here because of the system.

Yet even so, he could not help but feel irritated.

The two weeks planned in the mountain range were already taking shape in his mind after those days.

He would hunt.

Train his Fallen abilities. Understand how to use them in the most efficient way possible.

And strengthen his cultivation before heading to the War Academy.

The vision he had seen before only reinforced his desire to live what he could not in the past. Now he had strength and a clear path. Now he had another life. And he would make of it whatever he wished.

Time passed slowly. Beasts appeared and were hunted, soon turning into energy within Cairen’s dantian. But then, on the fifth day, something changed.

They were walking beneath thick trees when the air seemed to grow heavier. The mist surrounded them as always, but something was wrong.

Cairen expanded his spiritual sense. The invisible net seemed to crash against an impenetrable barrier, as if striking glass.

He frowned, never having experienced such a situation.

There was indeed something affecting both of their senses.

"We’re trapped," Cairen said suddenly.

Ling glanced sideways at him, her silver eyes narrowing.

"What do you mean?"

"We’re walking in circles. My senses can’t see ahead. There’s something keeping us from moving forward."

The princess sniffed the air but detected nothing. The smell of mist, moss, and rot. But no sign of beasts, no sound beyond their own footsteps for some time now.

Cairen narrowed his eyes. If his spiritual sense was blocked, there was another option he hadn’t used yet since reaching the Qi Accumulation Realm.

’Let’s test it.’

Cairen took a deep breath. The Qi within his body flowed into his eyes, burning faintly beneath his eyelids.

’Spiritual Eyes.’

Suddenly, the world around him changed.

The mist vanished in layers, as if veils were being torn away. The forest revealed another face.

He looked at Ling and at himself. In truth, they were not walking freely. Not among trees, but rather at the center of a vast field, covered in gray flowers stretching in every direction.

Cairen immediately remembered the Nhamara flower field from his vision.

Each flower petal glowed with soft pulses, releasing a whitish smoke that mingled with the air, blending with the forest mist.

The most disturbing part was when he looked down. His feet were not just touching grass. There were roots, dozens, hundreds, wrapping around his legs, waist, and arms.

The roots crept upward slowly, thin as serpents. Until now, he hadn’t felt anything, but they were there, binding him.

"Shit."

Cairen’s heart raced. That was definitely not natural. It wasn’t an illusion but a disguised prison.

Cairen raised his hand. In a swift motion, he cut his own arm with the blade-shaped tip of a chain. Blood ran hot, splattering onto the roots.

In the same instant, the hidden poison in his blood revealed itself.

The Serpent’s Plague.

The tainted blood evaporated all the roots with ease, a hiss echoing across the field and then. A scream.

Shrill, monstrous, as if dozens of voices cried at once. The sound tore through the forest, vibrating in their bones until it hurt their ears.

Ling, who until then saw nothing but ordinary fog, staggered. Her eyes gleamed as the enchantment shattered. Suddenly, the roots became visible on her body.

"So that was it." She said, and with a low growl, she grabbed the tendrils and ripped them out by force.

Pieces crumbled in her hands like dry branches.

Cairen sighed as he lifted his gaze toward the source of the scream. The Spiritual Eyes remained open, piercing through the layer of mist and the illusion of flowers.

In the distance, within the shadows of the flower field, something moved. It was not just the wind.

The mist twisted, and within it, a tall, twisted silhouette rose as if made from the very roots.

The eyes of the silhouette glowed with searing hatred, fixed upon the two of them. Ling immediately stepped forward, placing herself at the front.

"It’s a spiritual monster. Its strength must be in the Qi Liberation Realm. Be careful," Ling said for the first time without jokes, her tone serious, worried for Cairen’s meager strength.