The winter in the Azure Cloud Mountains was not merely a season; it was a predator. Its icy claws gripped the land, tearing at anything that dared to breathe. Under a sky the color of a bruised corpse, a line of ragged teenagers shuffled through the knee-deep snow. The wind howled like a thousand tormented souls, flaying their skin and turning their brittle bones into jagged shards of ice. Their faces were hollow, their lips a deathly blue. Yet, they kept moving, their eyes fixed on the towering jade gates of the Scarlet Cloud Sect, a beacon of immortal light that promised an escape from their miserable mortal lives.

  Among them was Hua Sui.

  He was gaunt, his frame so thin it seemed a stiff breeze might snap his bones. His hands were thrust deep into his tattered sleeves, gripping his own forearms to steal meager warmth. His body radiated an unnatural cold, a chill that seemed to seep from his very marrow. While the other youths shivered from the biting wind, Hua Sui's cold was internal—a constant companion that had plagued him since birth. His heart beat sluggishly, his breath a barely visible wisp in the freezing air. He had fallen ill three days ago, a fever that clawed at his insides, making every step a monumental effort.

  "Keep moving, you useless dregs!" A harsh, guttural shout pierced the wind. "Anyone who falls behind gets left for the wolves!"

  It was Wang Er, the leader of this desperate procession. A hulking brute of a man, his face scarred and his eyes glinting with a savage amusement. He carried a thick wooden club, its end worn smooth from countless beatings. Wang Er wasn't much older than the youths, but years of hardship and brutality had twisted him into a petty tyrant. He was the village chief's son, a man who believed his position granted him absolute power over those weaker than himself.

  Suddenly, a young girl with braids stumbled, her small body collapsing into a snowdrift. Before she could even cry out, Wang Er's club descended with a sickening thud.

  Wang Er kicked her body with a sneer. "Useless trash. The Scarlet Cloud Sect only wants strong spiritual roots, not weaklings."

  His gaze swept over the remaining youths, lingering on Hua Sui. He hated Hua Sui. He hated the way the boy never begged, never cried. He raised his club, the heavy wood whistling through the air to stop inches from Hua Sui's nose.

  "What about you, corpse? Still breathing, or should I help you find a grave?"

  Hua Sui slowly raised his head. He didn't flinch. For the first time, he let the mask of weakness slip, just a fraction. He met Wang Er's gaze with a pair of hollow, abyssal eyes that seemed to belong to something that had already died and crawled back from the void.

  In that split second, the air around Hua Sui didn't just feel cold—it felt hungry. An unnatural, localized chill rippled outward, causing the frost on Wang Er's club to crystallize into jagged needles. Wang Er felt a visceral shudder run down his spine. It was a primal fear, the kind a sheep feels when it realizes the 'sickly lamb' next to it is actually a wolf in a rotting skin.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Wang Er's hand trembled. He wanted to strike, to crush that haunting gaze, but his muscles wouldn't obey. He choked on his own breath, backed away half a step, and covered his fear with a frantic shout. "Tch... move it, freak! Don't look at me with those cursed eyes!"

  Hua Sui lowered his gaze, the chilling ripple vanishing as quickly as it appeared. Not yet, he thought, his sluggish heart giving a sudden, powerful thrum. My path starts at the gates, not in the snow.

  The journey stretched for another agonizing day. By the time the ragged group reached the outer gates of the Scarlet Cloud Sect, only a fraction remained. The magnificent gates, carved from ancient jade and radiating a faint spiritual glow, loomed over them like a mocking god.

  A tall, austere elder with a crimson robe and a long, white beard emerged. This was Elder Hong. His gaze, sharp as a hawk's, radiated a powerful spiritual pressure that made the very air crackle.

  "Rise, all of you!" Elder Hong's voice boomed. "Now, let us test your roots!"

  One by one, the youths stepped forward. Most were dismissed with a wave of a hand, their hopes crushed into the dirt. A few were led away with joy on their faces. Then it was Hua Sui's turn.

  As Elder Hong's hand rested on Hua Sui's head, the elder's expression visibly darkened. To the onlookers, it looked like Hua Sui was having a seizure. But beneath the skin, something impossible was happening.

  The Grey Seed in Hua Sui's heart, a dormant curse since his birth, suddenly pulsed with a predatory hunger. As Elder Hong's spiritual force flooded into the boy to test his meridians, the seed didn't break under the pressure. It opened like a bottomless maw.

  It began to suck. A microscopic sliver of the Elder's powerful Qi was forcibly dragged into Hua Sui's inverted meridians. It was like a drop of holy water falling into a pool of grey acid. The seed refined it instantly, turning the golden light into a jagged, grey spark that settled in Hua Sui's marrow.

  "Inverse Meridians!" Elder Hong snatched his hand back as if burned. His voice was laced with a mixture of fear and disgust. "This... this is an abomination! A crippled vessel! An inverted flow that devours Qi instead of circulating it!"

  The other recruits recoiled, whispering the word like a plague: Abomination. Jinx. Broken Vessel.

  Wang Er laughed, clutching his Seventh-Grade badge. "See? I told you he was bad luck! He's a walking corpse!"

  Elder Hong looked at Hua Sui's deathly pale face. He saw a 'cripple,' but he couldn't shake the strange sensation of his own Qi being nipped at. He narrowed his eyes, a cold calculation replacing his disgust.

  "Wait," Elder Hong said, stopping the disciples who were about to throw Hua Sui out. "While your meridians are inverted and useless for standard cultivation, your tenacity is... unusual. And Old Man Qin at the Broken Soul Pavilion has been complaining about his 'materials' dying too fast."

  He turned to a disciple. "Take him to the Pavilion. He will be a Pill Slave. His unique constitution might survive the corrosive toxins of the experimental elixirs longer than a normal human."

  The crowd gasped. They knew what a Pill Slave was—a living cauldron, forced to eat poison until their organs melted. It was a fate a hundred times worse than death.

  But as Hua Sui was led away, he didn't cry. He felt the jagged, grey spark in his heart—the tiny bit of Qi he had just 'stolen' from the Elder. It was the first time in his life he felt a spark of warmth.

  Pill Slave? Hua Sui looked at the dark, toxic spires of the pavilion. They want to feed me poison? Good. Let them feed me. I will eat their toxins, I will eat their pills, and eventually... I will eat this entire sect.

  He was no longer just an orphan. He was the Inverse Path's first breath.