The Fallen System: Gaining Bloodlines of the Fallen-Chapter 46 - 4° stage of the Qi Accumulation realm

The sound of the system echoed in Cairen’s mind like a clear metallic bell in the silence of the forest.

He stopped and focused on the words before him.

[Secondary Mission: Show the strength of the Fallen and enter the War Academy]

{Reward: Random Fallen Bloodline (Grade 2)}

A slow, predatory smile spread across Cairen’s lips.

It was always like this, he thought, always appearing out of nowhere, dictating his path.

But, just like the other times, the path was already his. He had already decided that entering the academy would be his next step. To receive a reward like that.

Another Grade 2 bloodline, as powerful as the Nhamara lineage, just for doing what he already intended to do, was more than he could hope for.

The promise of power burned inside him, another spark of determination in the furnace of his ambition.

He then noticed that, like the main mission, this one required a demonstration of strength.

It seemed that the system didn’t want him to hide for some reason he still didn’t know. But he wasn’t concerned about that.

If it were necessary, he would do it.

After thinking for a while, Cairen realized that killing beasts in the Qi Accumulation realm had become far too trivial for him. He needed a real test now.

Then suddenly, his spiritual sense, now covering a slightly larger area due to his adaptation to the mist, caught a presence.

It was denser, more aggressive, a contained fury that made the mist vibrate.

A beast whose strength was comparable to that of a cultivator in the early stage of the Qi Liberation realm.

It was a stone bear, its skin a carapace of living rock, its eyes small slits glowing with a primitive, feral intelligence.

Perfect.

Cairen approached, his chains emerging from his palms and slithering through the air around him, like a personal guard of special metal.

The bear spotted him, rising onto its hind legs with a roar that made the trees tremble.

The beast was massive, nearly three times Cairen’s size, and the pressure emanating from it was terrifying.

The charge came like an avalanche. Cairen didn’t try to meet strength with strength. He moved, but speed was his weakness.

The chains shot forward, trying to reach and bind the bear’s limbs. The beast, however, was cunning.

A forepaw wrapped in thick Qi struck the chains with enough force to deflect them, though not to break them. The superior quality of the chains after his vision remained, but the bear’s brute strength was still overwhelming.

Cairen felt the impact reverberate through his connection with the chains, staggering him and forcing himself to stay in control.

The bear then closed the distance, its claws slicing through the air where Cairen’s head had been a second earlier.

Sensing the movement just before it came through his spiritual perception, Cairen retreated at the last instant, his chains returning like enraged vipers, trying to flank the beast.

He guided them with his mind, one in each hand, forcing the bear to divide its attention between two constant threats. It was a dangerous dance.

One mistake, one moment of slowness, and those claws would reduce his body to a smear on the forest floor.

The bear roared, its eyes blazing. The pressure of its presence crushed the mist around them, each step a heavy thud on the ground.

Cairen took a deep breath, keeping the chains spinning in defensive circles like serpents sharpening their fangs.

He would not back down. This battle wasn’t just to gain more fallen energy, it was... a test. It was to test himself.

The chains lunged forward again first, their sharpened tips taking the shape of blades. With circular movements, he launched them toward the bear’s torso, aiming at the cracks in its joints of stone.

The impact rang out like hammers striking a bell.

Sparks flew, shards of rock splintered through the air, but the armor held. Still, lines of cracks spread across the creature’s chest.

The bear roared, the sound vibrating like thunder in Cairen’s ears. It spun its body with brutal strength and brought a paw crashing down with colossal force.

The impact opened a crater, the ground splitting into lines that reached Cairen’s feet. He leapt sideways, but his speed was still inferior.

The second paw came right after, descending like a cleaver. Cairen barely had time to raise a chain in defense.

The shock reverberated through the chain into his bones. His feet sank several centimeters into the soil, and his entire arm, the one from which the chain extended, throbbed with pain.

"Tsk... too much brute force."

The chains retracted and shifted again, the blades folding back as their tips expanded into heavy spiked spheres.

Another form of the chains: the iron maces.

Cairen twisted his wrists, and the maces spun like dark comets before colliding with the bear’s carapace.

The impact echoed through the forest. The armor shattered into fragments, dark blood oozing from the cracks.

The bear staggered backward but answered with greater fury. It charged like a living wall, ignoring pain.

Cairen tried to retreat, but the ground trembled. The bear struck forward with both open paws, like crushing walls.

Too fast.

His spiritual sense screamed the warning at the last instant. Cairen crossed the chains in front of his body, the maces bursting against the beast’s paws.

The shock sent him flying backward, his body rolling across the ground until it slammed into the thick trunk of a tree.

The wood splintered. He spat blood but stood up with a crooked smile.

"Shit..."

The bear roared again, but at that instant, Cairen let his eyes sink into the abyss. Darkness then took over.

’Veil of Blindness.’

The beast’s gaze went blank. The slits of its eyes lost their glow, and it froze, roaring in desperation.

It struck wildly in all directions, tearing up entire trees and shattering the ground, but none of its attacks came close to Cairen.

He walked in circles around the beast, the chains rotating calmly, analyzing every movement.

Then the chains rose, crossing above the blind creature like a symbol of judgment.

In the next moment, the links expanded, and the ends of the two chains split into four, wrapping around the bear’s neck.

The beast’s roar turned into a muffled groan as the chains glowed with gray energy.

"Judgment!"

Cairen’s voice rang cold, filled with authority.

The chains tightened, draining absolutely everything that remained in the beast’s body until nothing was left but dust and a dense fallen energy that was absorbed into his dantian.

As soon as the beast’s body was fully absorbed, an internal explosion occurred within Cairen.

His dantian expanded. His strength surged.

The energy from the bear was enough for him to break through once more, now reaching the 4° stage of the Qi Accumulation realm.