Jin Xiao stood in the shadows, his breath slow and controlled. The blood of his first victim, Zhao Ren, still clung to his skin, the metallic scent thick in the air.
But what filled him more than anything was power.
The stolen qi burned through his veins, raw and unstable, but it was his.
"So this is what cultivation feels like."
His fingers twitched, an unfamiliar sensation coursing through them.
It wasn't much. A mere fragment of what real cultivators possessed. But it was a beginning.
And beginnings… were all he needed.
The First Refinement
Jin Xiao sat cross-legged in the underground tunnel, where no one could see him. He focused inward, feeling the stolen qi thrashing inside him like a wild beast.
"This power isn't mine yet. It's just borrowed."
He needed to tame it.
But he had no system. No technique. The usual methods of cultivation were not available to him.
"Then I'll make my own."
Jin Xiao recalled the scientific principles he had learned—how energy moved, how it transferred, how it could be shaped.
If qi was just another form of energy, then all he needed was a way to force it into submission.
He gritted his teeth and began compressing the energy with sheer willpower.
The pain was immediate.
His blood boiled. His bones screamed. His very cells seemed to reject what he was doing.
"Tch—!"
But he didn't stop.
Pain meant nothing. He had endured far worse.
The cultivators thought they could break him, that pain was a tool to force submission.
They were wrong.
Pain was his companion. His teacher. His sharpening stone.
Minutes passed. Hours.
And then—
Something clicked.
The wild qi inside him stopped thrashing. It moved. Obeyed.
For the first time, he felt it—control.
A slow, cruel smile spread across his face.
"This is just the beginning."
The First Experiment
Jin Xiao needed to test his new power.
He needed another subject.
He climbed out of the underground tunnel, moving through the slums. The night was thick with desperation—cultivators hunting mortals, mortals groveling for scraps of power.
Then he saw it.
A group of three system users laughing over the corpse of a young girl.
One of them, a man with a jagged scar down his cheek, kicked the body aside like trash.
"Useless. She didn't even have enough qi to be fun."
Another cultivator, a woman with short red hair, scoffed.
"That's what happens when mortals think they're worth something. She should've just spread her legs if she wanted to live."
Jin Xiao's fingers twitched.
He didn't care about the girl. She was already dead.
But these three…
They were perfect test subjects.
The Hunt Begins
Jin Xiao stepped forward, his voice calm.
"You wasted her body."
The three cultivators turned sharply.
Scar-cheek frowned.
"Who the fuck are you?"
Jin Xiao smiled.
"No one important. Just a scavenger."
The red-haired woman narrowed her eyes.
"Tch. Another rat trying to act tough?"
Jin Xiao tilted his head.
"Not tough. Just… curious."
He moved.
His stolen qi surged. His body, previously weak, felt light. Fast.
Scar-cheek barely had time to react before Jin Xiao's fingers dug into his throat.
"Gh—!"
CRACK.
Jin Xiao ripped his larynx out.
Blood sprayed. The cultivator dropped, choking on his own fluids.
The red-haired woman's eyes widened.
"What the—"
She reached for her weapon.
Too slow.
Jin Xiao was already behind her. He grabbed a fistful of her hair and slammed her face into the stone wall.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Her skull split like an overripe fruit.
The last cultivator, a younger man, stumbled backward, shaking.
"W-Wait! I—"
Jin Xiao grabbed his jaw.
"You were the weakest of the three, weren't you?"
The man trembled, nodding frantically.
Jin Xiao chuckled.
"Good. Then you'll last longer."
The First True Cultivation
Jin Xiao didn't just kill him.
He made a discovery.
He could refine qi from living bodies.
As he absorbed the cultivator's energy, he noticed something—if the victim was alive, their qi resisted less. It entered him more willingly.
"Interesting."
The man screamed as Jin Xiao drained him dry.
His flesh shriveled. His eyes hollowed. His body collapsed into a withered husk.
Jin Xiao exhaled, feeling the energy surge through him.
[Qi Absorption: Success]
[Rank: Qi Refining Stage 1]
He laughed softly.
"I've found my method."
He didn't need spiritual roots.
He didn't need a system.
He would take power. Rip it from the living. Make it his.
And when he was strong enough…
He would turn this world into his hunting ground.
The Predator Gets Closer
High above the city, the silver-haired woman sat on a floating platform, her golden eyes half-lidded in amusement.
She had felt it again—a ripple in the flow of energy.
But this time, it wasn't just a disturbance.
It was a new force. A new predator.
"My little rat… what are you doing down there?"
She licked her lips, her curiosity deepening.
The hunt was getting interesting.