First Glance II

Lin Clan Estate

***

At the far edge of the city, near the base of the mountains, lay a grand estate.

Behind it, the mountain face had been cut flat and rose vertically, dark gray and black in appearance.

The estate itself was built from the same stone, and from afar, it seemed as if it were merely a natural extension of the mountain.

But it wasn't. The estate was divided into five sections, with the central area at its core.

The central section was for administrative duties.

The northern wing served as storage for valuable materials.

The western housed distant relatives.

The eastern quarter was reserved for direct family members.

And the southern wing was for entertaining guests.

From above, the entire estate resembled a large diamond with a circle at its center.

Numerous buildings filled each section, designed to meet every imaginable need.

In the eastern quarter lived all of Overseer Lin's concubines.

His name was Lin Mo.

Lin Mo had no official wife.

And no matter how much the clan elders insisted, he had no current plans to marry.

His condition for marriage was the birth of an heir who possessed the Echo Mirage Beast Martial Soul — and only if the child had a strong enough innate soul power.

Unsurprisingly, three of the women were currently pregnant.

Oh, Lin Mo did have other children, but none of them possessed both the talent and the Martial Soul he was looking for.

At 45 years old, he was still waiting for his heir to be born.

In the Sun-Moon Empire, this issue was taken far more seriously than in the other three empires: preserving and passing down high-quality Martial Souls to the next generation.

Extensive research had been conducted, but ultimately, the best strategy was deemed to be: have many children.

Not the most noble or clever path, but no one had yet been born who could unravel the true patterns of Martial Soul inheritance.

Still, some basic rules existed:

Never lie with someone who had no soul power.

Avoid those with weak-quality Martial Souls.

And steer clear of conflicting attributes.

Even then, success wasn't guaranteed.

Overseer Lin had followed these rules in choosing his concubines — well, except for the one.

Lin Mo sat at his desk.

A man with bronzed skin, thinning hair, and a strong jawline.

His sharp, alert eyes glinted, and a faint beard marked his rugged face.

He wore casual, sleeveless clothes sewn from fine thread that showed off his muscular forearms, along with well-tailored trousers.

Documents were piled high on his desk, awaiting review — but his gaze was lost in the distance, adrift among countless memories and worries.

His fingertips slowly traced the edge of a coarse sheet, but none of the documents had yet been read.

The room was silent, save for a soft humming from a soul-powered device keeping the office's temperature stable.

Sunlight filtered through the sheer fabric draped across the windows, gently illuminating his face.

The tension lines on his forehead stood out more in the light.

They deepened. His eyes closed in pain.

"Ugh."

His Spirit Sea surged into chaos — as if gravity itself had shifted, and the vast ocean of his consciousness was thrown into total upheaval

"Shall I bring the Calming Orb, Brother Lin?"

Overseer Lin waved a hand to decline. "No need," he sighed. "I've gotten used to it."

He spoke to the man standing motionless beside the window — Lin Fan, his close advisor and cousin.

Though Lin Fan lacked talent in spirit cultivation, he was one of the key reasons Lin Mo managed his affairs so effectively.

Overseer Lin let out a deep sigh and buried his face in his hands.

"How is Liru, Brother Fan? Any improvement?"

But the only response he got was a heavy silence.

He leaned his elbows on the desk and stared between his fingers.

Red veins glared in the whites of his eyes, as rage and grief boiled beneath the surface.

For a moment, his eyes seemed blood-colored, but he blinked and they returned to normal.

Still, the pressure in the room was real.

Papers flew off the desk as if a breeze had swept through.

Footsteps echoed as Lin Fan stepped forward to gather the fallen documents.

"You've done all you could, Brother Lin. The rest... must be left to fate."

Lin Mo ground his teeth.

"I should've known. She shouldn't have gotten pregnant again. We lost the first child..." He rubbed his face with both hands. "After the loss broke her heart like that, what was I supposed to do? Feng Liru left her family to be with me. For this? For it to end like this?"

"..."

Lin Fan searched for an answer — but there was none to find.

Among all of Lin Mo's women, Feng Liru had lived the best life... and seemingly received the worst fate.

The early months of pregnancy were uneventful, but for the last three months, she'd been wasting away.

Now in her ninth month, she looked like a mere skeleton of the once-beautiful woman she had been.

No matter how many healers were brought in, none could find anything unusual.

The best guess was that the pregnancy had drained her. But how? No one knew.

In a world where Martial Souls existed, and with so many strange soul skills, one might expect that every question had its answer — but that wasn't the case.

Still, people found their answers through signs and subtle clues.

Lin Fan murmured, "Maybe... we should've ended the pregnancy, Brother Lin."

A sigh. Then, after a pause, Lin Mo spoke.

"It's too late to think about that now. She could give birth any moment now. I told her, many times. But she wouldn't listen."

A flash of pain passed through his eyes.

"She said she doesn't want to feel that emptiness again."

"But we can't use soul power during childbirth. What if something goes wrong?"

Lin Mo's sharp gaze snapped to him, freezing Lin Fan in place.

He felt the weight of Lin Mo's pressure — invisible, but undeniably present.

He could've sworn he saw a red aura in his cousin's eyes.

"Nothing will go wrong."

When Lin Mo finally looked away, Lin Fan exhaled in relief.

Then he heard it again — softer this time, perhaps imagined:

"Nothing will go wrong."

Before he could speak again, footsteps raced outside the office, followed by a knock.

"Lord, lord! The lady is in labor!"

The office fell silent, then lit up.

Pressure. Intense pressure.

And color.

Three colors: yellow, purple, and black.

Seven Soul Rings appeared. The seventh spun wildly and pulsed.

The air rippled with energy, and then a creature appeared — like a boar, but with mirrored scales that shimmered like water.

Lin Fan blinked.

In that blink — just that one heartbeat — the creature vanished.

Only he remained in the office.

***

Nothing.

That was what Kyle saw.

Heard.

Felt.

He couldn't recall how long it had been.

He didn't even know if he was alive.

He could only think — about the past, and the painful memories within it.

Kyle hadn't wanted to kill the man who had taken him in.

Well… he hadn't killed him. Not directly. But he didn't deny his role in his master's death.

For as long as he could remember, he had been consumed by an overwhelming thirst for power.

He remembered doing everything to survive — stealing, begging, killing, every foul thing that could twist the soul of an innocent child.

And Kyle had been twisted.

With no family, no protector, surrounded by people who called themselves compassionate — he had to survive.

Maybe that was why, when he finally saw a chance for freedom, he leapt at it.

Maybe… even if he'd known what it would lead to, he still would have done it.

Will you ever forgive me, Master?

A fleeting thought — yet it echoed, as if shouted into the void.

It resonated like a tremor through the darkness.

And Kyle felt something again — the sensation of being wet. Floating.

Floating in water.

Pulled in a direction, then—

Floating in air.

And then, light returned to his world.

Perhaps he had regained his senses.

He couldn't be sure.

His perception was too foggy.

Not enough to tell where he was, when it was, or what state he was in.

But he felt weight.

A quiet, gentle weight.

Like a newborn held in its mother's arms, ready to close its eyes and sleep.

He thought the light was fading again. Darkness returned.

But then…

He saw a pair of eyes.

Bright. Shimmering.

Ocean-colored and filled with a feeling he had never known before.

And even if he wanted to, he didn't think he could ever forget them.

Such warm eyes.

-----------------------

✦ Enjoying the journey so far? Feel free to add this chapter to your collection or leave a comment — it truly means a lot and keeps me motivated to continue.

✦ Thank you for reading and being a part of this story!

✦ If you liked it and want to support: reymit.com/malqa