The pink jellyfish swayed gently in the deep, freezing currents of the ocean floor.
Its translucent bell pulsed with a warm, rosy light. It looked soft, defenseless, and entirely alone on its basalt perch. Two thousand fathoms down, in the pitch-black silence of the abyss, it was the only speck of life in sight.
Envoy Xue Sha crawled through the black silt on his belly.
His armor was cracked and dented. Cold mud caked his bearded cheeks. His stomach cramped with hunger, and his dantian burned from days of frantic blood-escapes.
“Just one kill,” Xue Sha whimpered under his breath. Bubbles of sour saliva escaped his cracked lips. “Just give me one single point of experience.
Just enough to show the system I am hunting.”
He stopped five paces away from the basalt rock.
He didn’t take any chances. Even for a tiny jellyfish, Xue Sha channeled his full remaining strength. Crimson blood-qi gathered along the shaft of his bone-tipped spear.
