The cold iron bars bit into Zhun Te's wrists. The stench of sweat and blood hung heavy in the air, mixing with the distant screams echoing through the night. Around him, the other children huddled in silence, their eyes hollow but burning with a shared fear.
They were not prisoners. Not slaves. At least, that's what the soldiers claimed. They were "subjects" — experiments to fuel the ambitions of Caoluan's masters. And tonight, the "Selection" loomed closer.
The guards' footsteps echoed sharply on the stone floor. Zhun Te's heart hammered in his chest as the heavy iron door creaked open. A tall, scarred man stepped inside, his cold eyes scanning the cramped cell. The other children shrank back, but Zhun Te stood his ground, the fire inside him refusing to be snuffed out.
"You're up next," the man said gruffly, pulling Zhun Te roughly to his feet. "The Blood Selection. Survive, and maybe you earn your freedom. Fail, and you're nothing but meat for the arena."
Zhun Te didn't flinch. Freedom. It was a word whispered like a ghost in these walls, but he clung to it like a lifeline.
As he was dragged through the compound, the screams of the others echoed behind him, mingling with the roar of distant beasts in the forest beyond. The air was thick with tension , tonight, some would die, and only a handful would rise.
At the edge of the camp stood the arena : a brutal pit ringed with stone, stained by the blood of countless Hybrids. Zhun Te's pulse quickened. This was the crucible. The test. The beginning of his rise.
He took a deep breath, steel hardening in his eyes. "I will not be broken. I will be more than what they made me."
.....
A few leagues from the arena, a gigantic alabaster tower of immaculate white stood, and from it emanated a considerable Qi.
In the room on the top floor of the tower, four men and a woman were talking.
They were all dressed in white tunics with a symbol on the back:
A tree
A flame
A rock
A sword
A wave
They were the five elders, the highest authority in Caoluan. They were both genius cultivators and peerless alchemists. It was the master of all five who had discovered the secret of hybridization 110 years earlier, allowing the kingdom to increase its military power and prosper.
"What do you think of this year's selection?" asked the rock man. "It doesn't matter," snapped the sword man. "These creatures are incapable of cultivation, they're nothing more than beasts of burden, dogs of war. I don't even know why we're continuing this experiment when it's clearly a failure."
"If I were you, I wouldn't be so sure, Jin Lei," said the tree man. Jin Jie stared at him and questioned him. "We succeeded," said the tree man. "The Unique Being Project."
"Don't make fun of us, Lin Mu," spat the flame man. "We've been trying for decades."
"I'm serious, Huo Zhan," said Lin Mu before turning to the only woman in the gathering.
Shui Lian took a deep breath. Lin Mu had drawn attention to herself, something she hated, but she would make do. "Lin Mu is right, the superior hybridization experiments have borne fruit on those of this generation, seven subjects have produced conclusive results... and three of them are in the arena tonight."
"WHAT?! Are you crazy?" Huo Zhan struggled to remain calm, and the temperature in the room rose with his anger. An ordinary cultivator would have already suffocated, but the other elders were unaffected.
"If they ever kill each other in the arena, we'll lose them all at once," Huo Zhan yelled.
"Then that would mean they were too weak, and therefore useless. Then we'd just have to repeat the experiments on other slaves; we don't lack them." Jin Lei spoke as coldly and calmly as ever, and no one contradicted him, because they all knew he was right.