Clara Vance stood in the doorway, her small fra dwarfed by her nightgown, staring at with an intensity that belied her young age. The cold energy I'd sensed earlier emanated from her like frost from an open freezer door.
"Are you going to answer ?" she demanded, her voice unexpectedly sharp. "Are you dating Isabelle Ashworth?"
William shot an apologetic look. "Clara, that's not appropriate—"
"It's fine," I said, studying the girl carefully. "Yes, Miss Ashworth and I are together."
Clara's lips twisted into a sneer. "She's way prettier than you. I've seen her in magazines."
"Clara!" William's face flushed with embarrassnt.
I couldn't help but smile. "You're absolutely right. She is much prettier than ."
The girl seed caught off guard by my agreent. She crossed her arms and leaned against the doorfra, her defensive posture not quite hiding how her legs trembled with fatigue.
"Clara, this is Mr. Knight. He's here to help with your nightmares," William explained gently.
"I don't need help. I'm fine." She glared at . "What are you supposed to be, anyway? So kind of doctor?"
"Sothing like that," I replied, rising from my chair. "I specialize in problems that other doctors can't solve."
As I moved closer, the dark energy around her pulsed defensively. Interesting. Whatever was affecting her knew I was a threat.
"May I?" I asked, extending my hand toward her forehead.
Clara jerked back. "No! Don't touch !"
"I won't hurt you," I promised, keeping my voice calm. "I just want to check sothing."
William placed his hands on his daughter's shoulders. "Please, Clara. Let him help."
"Fine," she huffed after a long pause. "But if you try anything weird, I'll kick you."
I suppressed another smile. "That's fair." TextacquiredfromM|V|LEMP&YR.
When my fingers gently touched her forehead, I imdiately felt it—a squirming, parasitic presence nestled deep within her. Sothing dark and ancient that didn't belong. Clara's eyes widened, sensing my discovery.
"What is it?" William asked anxiously.
"Not an illness," I said, withdrawing my hand. "Sothing else is causing her nightmares."
Clara took another step back, suddenly looking frightened. "What do you an 'sothing else'?"
I crouched down to et her eyes. "There's a... let's call it a filthy thing... that's attached itself to you, Clara. It's feeding off your energy, causing your nightmares."
William's face paled. "What kind of thing? How is that possible?"
"I'll explain later," I said, not wanting to scare Clara further. "First, I need to see her room."
Clara led us upstairs, her steps slow and hesitant. Her bedroom was painted pale blue with butterfly decals on the walls—a normal little girl's room. But the mont I stepped inside, the dark energy beca unmistakable, concentrated around her bed.
"How long have you lived in this house?" I asked William.
"About two years," he replied. "We moved here after..." He glanced at Clara, then lowered his voice. "After her mother passed away."
Clara climbed onto her bed, watching warily. "Are you going to do so kind of exorcism? Because that's stupid. Ghosts aren't real."
I smiled at her bravado. "Is that why you're clutching your blanket so tightly?"
She imdiately released her white-knuckled grip on the comforter, scowling at .
"Mr. Vance, would you mind waiting outside?" I asked. "This will go more smoothly with fewer people in the room."
William hesitated, clearly reluctant to leave his daughter.
"Dad, I'll be fine," Clara said, putting on a brave face. "If he tries anything weird, I'll scream really loud."
After her father stepped out, I sat on the edge of the bed. "The nightmares—what do you see in them?"
Clara hugged her knees to her chest. "A shadow. It... it whispers things."
"What kinds of things?"
Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "That I should hurt myself. That it's my fault mom died."
My jaw tightened. Whatever this parasite was, it was cruel.
"I'm going to remove it now," I said, standing up. "It might be scary, but I need you to stay absolutely still."
"This is so stupid," Clara muttered, but her trembling betrayed her fear.
I centered myself, drawing on my qi. Golden light began to emanate from my palms as I held them over Clara's head. Her eyes widened in shock.
"How are you doing that?" she gasped.
"Less talking, more staying still," I reminded her.
I focused my energy, probing deeper into her spiritual core. There—a dark blot amongst her life energy, like an ink stain on silk. I directed my qi to encircle it, creating a golden cage around the parasite.
"This might hurt a bit," I warned.
With a sharp tug of my qi, I began to extract the entity. Clara gasped, her back arching slightly as a dark shadow began to erge from her forehead. It resembled smoke at first, then coalesced into sothing more solid—a writhing, amorphous darkness.
As the last tendril pulled free from Clara's skin, the shadow emitted a high-pitched, inhuman shriek that made her cover her ears in terror.
"What is that thing?" she cried.
The door burst open as William rushed in. "Clara!"
"Stay back!" I commanded, maintaining my focus on the struggling shadow trapped in my qi-ford hand.
The creature thrashed violently, its form shifting between vague shapes—sotis appearing almost human, other tis like a twisted animal. I prepared to crush it, gathering destructive energy in my palm.
But sothing stopped .
The shadow pulsed with pure dark energy—different from my cultivation but sohow... complentary. My Chaotic Body seed to resonate with it, almost hungrily.
In that split-second of hesitation, I made an impulsive decision.
Instead of destroying it, I drew the shadow toward my chest. William shouted sothing in alarm, but I barely heard him. The dark energy rushed into , rging with my own power in a surge that sent electric thrills through every nerve.
Power. Raw, untad power flooded my system. My golden qi turned montarily black, then shifted to a shimring bronze as the energies rged and stabilized within .
"What did you just do?" William's horrified voice broke through my euphoria.
Clara stared at , wide-eyed. "Did you... eat it?"
The energy surge subsided, leaving feeling stronger than before. But as the power settled within , sothing solid materialized in my palm—two small, black, beetle-like creatures, now completely inert.
"No," I answered, extending my hand to show them the parasites. "I absorbed the dark energy, but these are what was causing your nightmares."
Clara leaned forward, disgust and fascination warring on her face. "What are they?"
"Parasites from the southwest," I said, placing the dead creatures in her small palm. "They attach themselves to people's spiritual energy and feed on negative emotions."
The girl stared down at the tiny corpses, her face a mixture of revulsion and relief. "They were... inside ?"
William looked equally disturbed. "How did they get into her?"
I considered the question, still processing the strange power surge I'd experienced. Sothing had changed within —a new avenue of cultivation had opened up, dark and enticing.
"That's what we need to figure out," I said, eting William's concerned gaze. "Because sothing—or soone—put them there on purpose."
Clara's fingers closed around the dead parasites, her young face hardening with the realization that her suffering had been intentional. "Who would do that to ?"
I placed my hand on her shoulder, feeling the absence of the cold energy that had surrounded her earlier. "I don't know yet. But I promise you, we're going to find out."
The dark energy still swirled within , intoxicating and dangerous—a forbidden power I shouldn't have taken, but couldn't bring myself to regret absorbing. Sothing told I would need every advantage in the coming days, no matter how questionable its source.
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