Yun Che woke to pain — the familiar, bone-deep ache of shattered meridians — but beneath it, something new pulsed.

The Sky Poison Pearl.

He had inherited it from his mother's bloodline, a treasure so rare that even the Sacred Grounds would go to war for it. It was not a weapon. It was a pharmacy. Within its inner space, the Pearl could cultivate any medicinal ingredient — spirit herbs, divine fruits, even the legendary Myriad Year Profound Ginseng — to perfect maturity in a fraction of the normal time.

And with the right ingredients, it could heal anything. Even shattered meridians.

Yun Che focused his remaining spiritual sense inward. The Pearl hung in his consciousness like a crystalline teardrop, its surface swirling with iridescent light. It had bonded to him the moment his mother died, and it had stayed dormant through his years of glory and his night of ruin, waiting for a catalyst.

His hatred had been that catalyst.

He projected his will into the Pearl. The space within was vast — a garden of spiritual soil that stretched to an artificial horizon, illuminated by a gentle blue-white light that came from nowhere and everywhere. The soil was barren now, empty of the treasures his ancestors had once cultivated here. But the earth itself was alive, humming with latent power.

"Show me what I need," Yun Che commanded.

The Pearl responded. Knowledge flooded his mind — a formula for the Body Refining Elixir, a medicine so potent it could rebuild a shattered cultivation base from scratch. The ingredients were rare, but not impossible: Profound Gathering Grass. Seven Profound Leaves. The core of a Profound Beast at the Spirit Profound Realm or above.

Each ingredient was a treasure that would bankrupt an ordinary clan. But Yun Che was not ordinary. He had been a prince. He knew every hidden resource, every secret stash, every forgotten cache in the Blue Wind Empire.

He opened his eyes. The dungeon was still dark. The guards were still laughing somewhere above, unaware that the cripple in the lowest cell was already planning his escape.

"Wait for me," he said to no one in particular. "I'm coming for all of you."