She had never been treated as harshly as he was during their four years of bitter slavery under the Raging Bulls, though.
While Kahn was beaten, starved, and forced to perform the most brutal, backbreaking labor until he was eventually thrown into a dark cell, Seraphina was kept entirely separate.
She was usually kept close to the sect elders, housed in the inner compound away from the cruel slave quarters where the rest of the survivors rotted.
He didn’t think of this separation as a good thing at all, however, and had always thought the absolute worst about her situation within the demonic sect.
He knew the ruthless nature of the Raging Bulls too well to believe they were acting out of genuine kindness or mercy toward his sister.
Instead, he had been convinced that they were secretly preparing her for an eventual marriage with the brutal sect leader himself.
Seraphina was only fifteen years old currently, a mere child by the standards of his previous life.
But unlike back on Earth, where pedophilia was openly frowned upon by society and was treated as an incredibly serious, heavily punished crime, it was not the same here in this harsh cultivation realm.
In this world ruled by raw power and ancient traditions, young girls from defeated families were frequently used as political pawns or concubines for powerful older cultivators, a grim reality that had fueled Kahn’s deepest nightmares throughout his imprisonment.
In this brutal cultivation world, the laws of standard morality simply did not exist, and one could do basically anything they desired, as long as they had enough power to back up their actions.
Might made right, and the strong dictates the rules that the weak were forced to follow without a single word of complaint.
If a powerful cultivator coveted a treasure, a piece of land, or a young girl, they would simply take it by force, knowing that the heavens would not descend to punish them for their cruelty.
Ordinary people and weaker cultivators may find such heinous acts utterly disgusting in their hearts, harboring deep resentment against the tyrants who ruled over them.
However, despite their inner revulsion, most would never dare to openly stand against a powerful cultivator or voice their disapproval, lest they face immediate, ruthless death.
Survival required absolute submission, and challenging the whims of the powerful was a guaranteed way to get oneself and their entire family completely wiped from existence.
This horrific fate was exactly what Kahn had been desperately trying to stop from happening to his little sister ever since they were brought to the demonic sect.
He refused to let her be defiled or used as a cultivation plaything, and out of sheer desperation, he had even tried escaping the sect grounds along with her late one dark night.
Unfortunately, their desperate bid for freedom failed miserably, and they were caught by the guards before they could even clear the outer walls of the compound.
The punishment for their defiance was immediate and brutal.
Kahn was dragged to the center of the courtyard and whipped harshly until his back was a bloody, shredded mess, his agonizing screams echoing through the night before he was ruthlessly thrown into the deep underground prison cell to rot.
This failed escape attempt had occurred exactly four months ago, and since that horrific night, he hadn’t set his eyes on his younger sister a single time.
He had been completely cut off from the rest of the world, left alone in the dark with his broken body and his maddening thoughts, wondering every single day if she was still safe.
The separation had been a constant, agonizing torture, fueling his hatred for the Raging Bulls with every passing second.
Hearing Ter’s unexpected words right now about a hidden bloodline, Kahn became even more intensely worried about her safety than he had ever been before.
If the sect elders knew she possessed a rare, valuable lineage, their plans for her would be infinitely worse and more urgent than simple servitude or marriage.
A dangerous surge of fury erupted within his chest, completely shattering his remaining patience and overriding any need for restraint.
Before Ter could even twitch his fingers or adjust his fighting stance, Kahn charged forward at the blue-robed inner disciple with explosive, terrifying speed.
He crossed the intervening distance like a flash of white lightning, his movement so fast it practically blurred the air in the corridor.
He reached out with his right hand, violently clasping his fingers firmly around the man’s throat with an iron-like grip that instantly choked off Ter’s breath.
Using the monstrous, unchecked strength of his supreme-grade physique, Kahn slowly lifted Ter entirely off the solid stone ground by his neck alone.
His hand continued to tighten relentlessly around the man’s throat, the pressure crushing the blue robes and cutting off the blood flow to the inner disciple’s head.
Ter’s legs flailed wildly in the empty air, his hands instinctively moving up to scratch desperately at Kahn’s unyielding wrist, but it felt like trying to claw through solid bedrock.
Ter was completely and utterly shocked by the sudden, terrifying turn around of things.
His mind reeled in absolute panic as his face began to turn a deep, suffocating shade of purple under Kahn’s crushing grip.
He had been completely confident in his own Qi condensation strength just a moment prior, but now he was being held aloft like a helpless, pathetic chicken.
The last thing he clearly remembered was Kahn standing several feet across from him, completely still and seemingly trapped in thought.
Now, before his brain could even register a single footstep or a shift in the air currents, the white-haired intruder had somehow completely crossed the distance in a fraction of a second and was now choking the life out of him.
The sheer disparity in speed was completely mind-boggling, shattering Ter’s understanding of combat.
As his vision began to blur at the edges from the lack of oxygen, Ter’s mind screamed in terror, a final, frantic thought echoing through his consciousness.
’I didn’t... sense him at all,’ he thought.