She also noticed how so of the fortress’s strongest Awakeners seed oddly dull-eyed when near the anchor, as though sothing had hollowed them out.
Most telling of all, she once overheard two servants whispering late at night outside the kitchens:
"...the offerings again. My cousin’s district. They say three families vanished. All recorded as ’relocated’."
"Shh! Do you want your tongue cut out?"
Ling Yu’s eyes had glead in the darkness, her suspicions confird.
One evening, while Xu Mochen was busy drunkenly boasting in the banquet hall, Ling Yu slipped away. She had morized the patrol routes. Her footsteps were silent as she moved through the dim halls, deeper into the fortress than she had ever been allowed.
The air grew colder the further she went. The walls here bore no decorations, no torches, only faintly glowing runes that pulsed in ti with the anchor’s rhythm.
And then she saw it.
A vast and circular chamber.
At its center stood a secondary construct, smaller than the anchor, but unmistakably linked to it by lines of energy crawling along the floor like veins. Chains of light rang the construct, and within those chains... she saw them.
Dozens of people were bound, kneeling in front of the altar, their eyes vacant. Their souls were being siphoned directly into the crystal, their bodies left alive only as empty vessels.
Ling Yu’s breath hissed between her teeth. Rage burned hot in her chest, sharp and rciless.
’So that’s your ga.’
Xu Mochen’s pursuit, the fortress’s perfection, the people’s silence, all of it existed to maintain this system of feeding.
The anchor wasn’t simply a parasite. It was a god’s altar. The divine beings erupted the mont her realization crystallized.
Ling Yu forced her breathing steady, stepping back into the shadows. She couldn’t expose herself yet, not without proof or knowing where Xie Lingzhou stood in this web of deceit.
But one thing was certain: the fortress was not a sanctuary. It was a prison, but a feeding pen for a god in the dark.
****
The air reeked of sweat, blood, and stale alcohol.
Torches blazed along the cavern walls, throwing jagged shadows over the jeering crowd that filled the underground chamber. Their voices rose in an ugly chorus, shouts of excitent, demands for gore, drunken laughter, all of it weaving together into a suffocating wave that pressed down on Ling Yu the mont she stepped into the arena stands.
Ling Yu was faced with Xu Mochen not long after she left the hidden room. And now, saying that he wanted to show sothing special to her, he led her towards a different place she didn’t expect to go into.
Xu Mochen’s hand was heavy at her waist, guiding her as though she were a prized ornant to be shown off. His voice dripped with false warmth.
"You’ll enjoy this, Yu’er. It’s one of the finer entertainnts we’ve built here in the fortress. Strength on display. Blood that feeds the anchor. It reminds people of their place, don’t you think?"
His words slithered into her ears like poisoned honey. Ling Yu smiled faintly, her expression unreadable, though inside her chest her heart pounded with cold fury.
Her gaze dropped to the pit below.
Two figures stumbled onto the sandy floor. One was a monstrous hybrid, sothing like a wolf twisted by infection, its limbs swollen and jaw split into jagged teeth. The other was a human, barefoot, shackled at the wrists, ribs visible under a layer of gri. His eyes burned with desperate defiance, but his body told another story: bruised, exhausted, trembling.
The gates slamd shut behind them. A horn blared as soon as the wolf-beast lunged.
The man dodged clumsily, too slow, too hungry. The creature’s claws raked across his side, blood spraying into the sand.
The crowd roared in excitent, cheers coming from all corners at once.
Ling Yu’s fingers clenched in her sleeve, nails biting into her skin.
’This is what you call entertainnt?’
She had seen much in her two lives of betrayal, cruelty, and the collapse of civilization itself. But there was sothing about this spectacle that stirred an older, deeper anger within her. Not just at the injustice of the strong devouring the weak, but at the way it was packaged, celebrated, and disguised as amusent.
This wasn’t survival. This was sadism made into a festival.
Her lips curved into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. "Interesting."
Xu Mochen chuckled, mistaking her flat tone for interest. "You see? It proves we are strong enough to ta chaos. The weak serve as entertainnt, the beasts provide catharsis. All of it... feeds the greater order."
Ling Yu said nothing. But her heart whispered: ’No. All of it feeds your anchor.’
By the third match, she could no longer stomach it.
The crowd howled for blood as a child barely into his teens was thrown into the arena with nothing but a rusted spear. His opponent was a mutated serpent the size of a carriage.
Ling Yu rose abruptly. "I need air."
Xu Mochen blinked, startled. "Yu’er—"
"I said I need so fresh air." Her tone brooked no argunt.
For a mont, she saw his charming mask crack, a hint of irritation flashing in his eyes. But then he recovered, plastering on a smile. "Very well. Don’t wander too far. I’ll fetch you when the real fights begin."
Ling Yu turned on her heel, ignoring the stares of jealousy and curiosity that followed her. She slipped into the corridor leading away from the stands, her steps brisk, purposeful.
And, as though fate itself were guiding her path, she nearly collided with Xie Lingzhou.
He leaned against the wall in the dim passage, arms folded, his expression unreadable. He wasn’t cheering with the crowd. He wasn’t smiling. His gaze, when it t hers, was heavy.
"Disgusting, isn’t it?" she said quietly.
His lips pressed into a thin line. "It’s barbaric."
"Then why do you stand here and do nothing?"
Her words were sharp, biting, deliberately so. She wanted to know. She needed to know.
Lingzhou’s jaw tightened. He glanced back toward the arena, then to her, lowering his voice. "Because I have no choice."
The simplicity of the admission startled her more than any excuse would have.
"No choice?" she echoed, her eyes narrowing. "You’re Xie Lingzhou, aren’t you? Forr movie king and the current faction leader. The people listen when you speak. And yet you claim you have no choice?"
His gaze flickered, sothing like sha passing through it. "Don’t mistake influence for freedom. This city runs on the anchor. Almost everything: the food, the protection, the order. If I refuse to accept it, my people will starve. And if I openly resist..." He let the sentence trail off, but the aning was clear.
’If I resist, my people will die. As their leader, I can’t let it happen since it would be a breach of my obligation.’
Ling Yu studied him in silence for a long mont.
In her past life, Xie Lingzhou had been nothing but an annoyance, a spoiled custor, a celebrity with too much vanity and too little patience. She had never thought of him as soone capable of bearing responsibility, of carrying others’ lives on his shoulders.
But now, in this fractured world, he was different. Worn, perhaps, but hardened.
And yet...
"You hate it," she said softly.
His eyes t hers. Cold. Controlled. But not indifferent.
"I hate it," he admitted.
Sothing in Ling Yu’s chest loosened.
For the first ti since entering this fortress, she felt the coil of rage in her heart ease, just slightly. He wasn’t her ally. Not yet. But he wasn’t Xu Mochen either. He wasn’t blind to the corruption, nor complicit by choice.
And that was enough.
Her lips curved into a faint smile. "Good."
His brows furrowed. "Good?"
Ling Yu’s eyes glead, sharp as blades. "Because if you hated it, but still chose to accept it... Then you can be moved. Manipulated. Used."
His breath caught, a flash of surprise breaking through his composure. Then, almost against his will, he chuckled. "You’re terrifying."
She tilted her head. "You’re only realizing that now?"
From that mont, her plan began to take shape.
If Xu Mochen dragged her here to flaunt his power, then she would turn it into his weakness. If the fortress was a den of corruption, then she would pry it open with careful, deliberate hands.
But first, she needed information. She needed to know how deep the anchor’s roots ran, how many of the factions were complicit, and how tightly Xu Mochen’s grip held.
And for that, she would need soone like Xie Lingzhou. Soone who hated the system but endured it. Soone who stood with one foot inside and one foot out.
The blood-soaked roar of the crowd echoed through the stone walls, but Ling Yu no longer heard it.
Her mind was already moving three steps ahead.
She glanced at Lingzhou, her voice soft but firm. "Then tell . What does the anchor demand? What price does it extract?"
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