Lin Yue POV
The pain stopped.
I gasped for air, my whole body shaking on the cold stone floor. The ritual array's light had faded. Why did it stop? Through blurry vision, I saw Elder Liu step back, frowning at the glowing circle.
"The array needs recalibration," he said, his raspy voice echoing in the basement. "Her Pure Yin root is stronger than expected. We need more spiritual stones to contain the energy during extraction."
Extraction. The word made my stomach turn.
"How long?" Father's voice came from the doorway. He stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at me like I was a broken tool, not his daughter.
"One hour. Maybe two." Elder Liu's wrinkled face twisted into something that might have been a smile. "Don't worry, Clan Leader Lin. The girl isn't going anywhere."
Father nodded and left without looking at me again.
I tried to move, but my arms and legs wouldn't work right. Whatever Elder Liu had done to freeze me earlier was wearing off slowly. My fingers twitched. My toes curled. If I could just stand up, maybe I could run—
"Don't bother." Lin Xian's voice made me freeze. She walked down the stairs, her silk dress whispering against the stone. "The basement door is locked. Guards are posted outside. And even if you got past them, where would you go? Everyone at this party knows what's happening. No one will help you."
She crouched down next to me, and I finally saw it—the real her. Not the perfect sister who braided my hair and called me "little Yue." The hate in her eyes was so strong it burned.
"Why?" My voice cracked. "What did I do to you?"
"What did you DO?" Lin Xian laughed, but it sounded more like a sob. "You were born, Lin Yue. You were born with everything I wanted. Father's favorite daughter. The Pure Yin spiritual root. Zhao Ming's love. Everyone always said, 'Lin Yue is so special. Lin Yue is so blessed.' What about me? I worked twice as hard in cultivation, studied twice as long, but you were still the precious one."
Tears ran down her face, but her expression stayed twisted and angry.
"Do you know what it's like?" she continued, her voice rising. "Living in your shadow? Hearing father say he wished I had your talent? Watching Zhao Ming look at you the way I wanted him to look at me?"
"Xian..." I didn't know what to say. I'd never known she felt this way.
"Two years ago, Elder Liu came to me with an offer." Lin Xian wiped her tears away roughly. "He said he could take your Pure Yin root and give it to me. All I had to do was weaken you first. So I bought poison from him—special poison that looks like a cultivation aid. I put it in your tea every morning for two years. Watched your cultivation slow down. Watched you get weaker while I got the attention I deserved."
Horror washed over me in cold waves. The tea. She'd always brought me tea, saying it would help my cultivation. I'd trusted her.
"You poisoned me," I whispered. "For two years."
"And today, I take what should have been mine from the start." Lin Xian stood up, brushing off her dress. "Elder Liu will transplant your root into me. I'll become the genius. I'll marry Zhao Ming. I'll be Father's favorite. And you'll finally stop stealing my life."
She walked to the stairs, then paused. "Oh, and don't think you'll survive this. Father made Elder Liu promise you'd die during the procedure. Can't have you running around telling people what we did."
The basement door closed behind her with a heavy boom.
I was alone in the dark with the ritual array and the knowledge that my own sister had been slowly killing me for two years.
My body finally started responding. I pushed myself up to sitting, then standing, wobbling on weak legs. The array glowed faintly beneath my feet, waiting to rip me apart. I had maybe two hours before they came back.
Think, Lin Yue. Think!
I stumbled to the walls, feeling along the stones for any weak spot, any hidden door. The Lin family basement was old—hundreds of years old. There had to be something—
My hand pressed against a loose stone, and it shifted inward with a grinding sound.
Part of the wall swung open, revealing a dark tunnel. Air rushed out, stale and cold. An escape route? But where did it lead?
Heavy footsteps echoed from above. Voices. They were coming back already.
"The stones are ready," Elder Liu's raspy voice drifted down. "Let's finish this. I'm hungry for that Pure Yin energy."
I heard Father's voice: "Make it quick. The guests are asking questions."
I had seconds to decide. Stay and die in the ritual array, or run into the mysterious tunnel and maybe die lost in the dark.
I chose the tunnel.
I squeezed through the opening and pulled the stone closed behind me just as the basement door opened. The tunnel swallowed me in complete darkness. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. The air smelled like dirt and old death.
Behind me, I heard muffled shouts. "She's gone! The array is empty!"
"Find her!" Father's voice roared. "Search the entire estate! She can't have gone far!"
I pressed my hand against the tunnel wall and started moving forward, away from the voices, away from the family that wanted me dead. My feet stumbled over loose rocks. Something skittered past my ankle—a rat, maybe, or something worse.
The tunnel sloped down, getting colder with each step. How deep did it go? Where did it lead?
Then I felt it—spiritual energy, but wrong. Dark. Twisted. Demonic.
The tunnel opened into a cave, and pale blue light glowed from mushrooms growing on the walls. In the center of the cave sat a stone altar covered in dried blood. Old bones littered the floor. Human bones.
This wasn't an escape route.
It was a sacrificial chamber.
And carved into the altar in ancient script were words that made my blood freeze:
"Those who enter here become offerings to the Devouring Dark. Your flesh feeds the shadows. Your soul feeds the void. There is no escape. There is no mercy. There is only—"
A sound echoed from deeper in the cave. Something breathing. Something big.
Heavy. Hungry.
Moving toward me.
I spun around to run back to the tunnel, but the opening was gone. Solid stone wall. No seam. No way out.
Behind me, the breathing got louder.
And then, in the darkness beyond the mushroom light, two enormous eyes opened. They glowed red like burning coals, and they were staring right at me.
A voice rumbled from the darkness, ancient and terrible:
"Finally. After three hundred years of waiting, another sacrifice has come to me."