The path leading up to the Ninth Peak was overgrown with strange, purple moss and choked with thorny vines that seemed to track Theo’s movements.
As Theo crested the final ridge, he didn’t find the serene pagodas or floating pavilions that characterized the rest of the Silent Thunder Sect. Instead, the Ninth Peak was an absolute disaster zone.
Giant cages, most of them bent or melted, littered the courtyard.
Glass vats filled with bubbling green fluid hummed with ominous energy, and the main living quarters looked less like a cultivator’s temple and more like the laboratory of a mad scientist who had recently suffered an explosion.
And in the center of the chaos, slumped against a half-melted cauldron, was Elder Vespera.
She was covered in soot. Her white hair was wildly singed on one side, and she was attempting to reattach a spider-like leg onto the back of an unconscious, deeply sedated direbear.
Theo stood at the edge of the courtyard, watching her work with genuine fascination.
Elder Vespera slowly turned her head.
"Who are you?" Vespera rasped, her voice sounding like two rocks grinding together.
"I’m Theo. Your new janitor," he said, holding up his assignment token. "Though I think ’janitor’ might be a bit of an understatement given the... robust nature of this mess."
Vespera stood up, wiping her hands on her already ruined robes.
She walked toward him. "Tell me, boy, what is the chemical composition of a Shadow Stalker’s venom sac?"
"It’s a necrotic neurotoxin," Theo answered immediately, thanks to the Great Sage whispering the answer directly into his mind. "High concentration of dark-elemental qi, stabilized by trace amounts of phosphorus. It paralyzes the motor functions while slowly dissolving the muscle tissue."
Vespera’s eyes widened. "Get over here! Hold this bear’s spine open while I solder the conduit!"
Theo didn’t flinch. In fact, his smile grew just as wide as hers.
"You know," Theo said, rolling up his sleeves and walking toward the sedated monster, "I think you and I are going to get along famously, Elder."
For the next four hours, Theo plunged his hands into the work of chimera creation.
He didn’t use any cultivation techniques or spiritual energy; he simply followed Vespera’s instructions, acting as the perfect anchor for her mad experiments.
As they worked, the Great Sage was having a field day...
[Notice. Ambient exposure to demonic beast blood detected.]
[Absorbing trace genetic material...]
[Synthesizing...]
[Minor resistance to neurotoxins acquired.]
[Minor enhancement to bone density acquired.]
Every time Vespera cut into a new creature, Theo absorbed the residual essence, slowly padding his stats without ever needing to kill the monsters himself.
By the time the three suns set, the direbear was outfitted with an array of spider legs.
Vespera collapsed into an armchair, entirely exhausted.
"You have steady hands, boy," Vespera grunted, wiping her mouth. "The last three assistants the outer sect sent me fainted when they saw the blood. The one before that tried to run, so I used his legs for a centipede graft."
Theo chuckled, wiping his own bloody hands on a rag. "I’ve seen worse things in the mines. So, what’s the actual goal here? Building an army?"
"An army? Bah!" Vespera spat. "The Sect Master is obsessed with creating perfect cultivators. I am trying to prove that flesh is inherently flawed, and that true ascension lies in forced evolution. Combining the raw superiority of demonic beasts with the precision of spiritual machinery!"
She slammed her fist on the table. "But the fools deny my funding! They sent you here to mock me!"
Theo stopped wiping his hands.
He looked at Vespera, his Destiny’s Eye flaring to life.
[Name: Vespera]
[Age: 142]
[Destiny: Deep Purple]
[Evaluation: A brilliant pioneer of bio-alchemy. Her own body is failing due to decades of experimental backlash. She is isolated, starved for resources, and on the brink of madness.]
A deep purple destiny?
She wasn’t a Reborn Empress, but she was an untapped goldmine of potential!
"You are using low-grade iron and standard spiritual conduits to graft these limbs. The rejection rate must be over 80% percent. It’s why your own body is failing." Theo continued, stepping closer to the desk.
Vespera stiffened, her hand flying to her left side. "How do you know that?"
Earlier that day, before the initiation ceremony began, he had spent his remaining 200 system credits on a very specific, seemingly useless item from the System Shop.
He pulled out a small ingot that pulsed with a soft, iridescent light.
"This is living steel," Theo said, placing the ingot on Vespera’s desk. "It grows, it bleeds, and it channels qi without any resistance. Use this for your conduits, and your rejection rate will drop to zero."
Vespera reached out with trembling hands. The moment she made contact, the metal subtly shifted, molding to the contours of her fingerprints.
"This... this is impossible," Vespera whispered. "...where did you find this?"
"Consider it my resume," Theo smiled, leaning over the desk. "I want to be your partner. You provide the lab and the crazy ideas, and I will provide the impossible materials."
Vespera looked up at him. "Partner," Vespera breathed, testing the word. "I like the sound of that."
The moment she agreed, golden text exploded across Theo’s vision.
[Investment successful. Investment: One Ingot of Living Steel.]
[Calculating reward...]
[Congratulations, Host! Reward: ’Master Alchemist’s Compendium’ and 20,000 System Credits!]
Theo suppressed the urge to laugh out loud.
"Alright, partner," Theo clapped his hands together, looking around the courtyard. "First things first. Where do you keep the really dangerous monsters?"