Chapter 1: Hollowed Out
Words : 2132
Updated : Jan 8th, 2026
At dusk, a makeshift camp sprawled across Ghost Ridge. The wilderness pressed in on all sides, insects chirring without pause. Salvatore Casson lay limp on the operating table bolted inside a minibus. Only his mouth still worked.
Ruby Showyer stood beside him, her eyes cold as glass.
"Ruby… what's happening to me?" Salvatore asked, voice faint.
She ignored him. A man in a blue hiking jacket climbed into the vehicle, three people in white lab coats and masks filing in behind him.
The trio closed in on Salvatore, stripped away his clothes, and slathered icy disinfectant across his chest and abdomen.
Salvatore jolted. "Ruby Showyer, what are they doing?"
Ruby's tone stayed even. "Salvatore. A certain VIP needs a heart transplant. Your heart is not only healthy, your constitution is unique. There would be no rejection after the transplant."
The words hit him like a thunderbolt. His past flashed before his eyes, and he finally understood. Love at first sight, destiny, all of it had been a death trap she set.
Just over a month earlier, graduation loomed, and the prettiest girl from the business school, Ruby Showyer, had begun to pursue him. They said when a woman chased a man, it was only a thin veil, and sure enough they fell headlong into romance.
The Showyer family were a major power in Jenos, yet Ruby's parents had been warm to Salvatore, inviting him to their home more than once.
After their relationship was official, Ruby suggested a camping trip to Ghost Ridge. Once there, he drank the soda she handed him and blacked out shortly afterward.
When he woke, he was already on an operating table.
The man in glasses looped an arm around Ruby and kissed her hard, then chuckled. "Ruby, you've worked wonders. This kid's body is special-transplant his organs into anyone and there's no rejection. That kind of constitution shows up in less than one out of two billion people. His five viscera are worth more than gold."
Ruby nestled against the man's chest with a syrupy smile. "Harry, I suffered plenty for you. I forced a smile every day and poured out sweet nothings that made my own skin crawl."
Harry Hauk burst out laughing. "Relax. Once I deliver his heart to the Mabre family in the capital, my father will jump three ranks and become a real power in Jenos. The Hauk family will vault into first-tier, and you, Ruby, will be my bride."
Ruby beamed and rewarded Harry Hauk with another kiss.
Salvatore's hatred boiled over. He roared, "You're monsters! I won't let you get away with this!"
Harry Hauk eyed his outburst with a thin smile. "What good are last words to a dead man? Still, if you have to go, at least you didn't die poor. Ruby is a rich heiress, and she's been gentle and compliant with you for weeks. That's not a bad way to spend a life."
Salvatore's eyes burned. He tried to curse them, but the anesthetic numbed his mouth. All he could do was lock his stare on the pair.
Harry checked the time and said coldly, "Do it. Take everything you can."
Salvatore watched as they opened his chest and harvested his organs.
During the procedure, Harry kept spurring them on. "Keep going! His liver and kidneys are priceless, the kind of thing top tycoons dream about."
Salvatore's heart turned to ash. Shock, rage, despair, refusal-all of it tangled tight. But he could do nothing. He could only watch as his liver, kidneys, lungs, and heart were taken one by one. Rage chewed at him.
"Drain the blood too! His blood is universal. That alone will fetch around a hundred grand." Harry laughed, eyes alight.
"And take the corneas. Those sell well," Harry added.
With his corneas gone, Salvatore saw nothing. He could only hear the two jackals talk.
Ruby said, "Harry, who would've thought a broke student's body could be worth this much?"
Harry laughed again. "He is a poor kid, but he's a treasure trove. Not that there's much left now. Toss the corpse into the Returnos Abyss."
In the end, Salvatore slipped into darkness, his hollowed body flung without pity into the nearby abyss.
One month later, in the Northwest of Chixia, two snow peaks rose like white walls with a chasm carved between them, dropping thousands of meters. Sheer cliffs plunged into depths no one could see.
Locals called it Returnos Abyss-go in, never return. Many who entered fell to their deaths. Over centuries, countless souls were entombed in that pit.
A sharp-featured, clear-eyed young man was climbing up from the abyss floor. He moved with crisp precision, bounding from hold to hold. With a light press of his fingers on a jutting stone, he vaulted several meters. It was Salvatore Casson, the man whose organs had been stripped away.
A month ago, he had been thrown into Returnos Abyss. Heaven did not shut every door; someone saved him mid-fall.
The savior's name was Samuel Looske-the only person in a thousand years of Chixia to ascend. But he had been ambushed at the moment of ascension, failed to weather his Heavenly Tribulation, and fallen back to earth with little time left to live.
On the edge of death, he encountered Salvatore, a man born with an Immortal Bone. To pass on his legacy and fulfill what he had left undone, Samuel transplanted into Salvatore his own heart, liver, spleen, and kidneys, organs tempered by the Heavenly Tribulation. He then used peerless medical arts to haul Salvatore back from the grave.
With the last of his breath, Samuel used a crown infusion to pour all his Immortal Energy and a lifetime of wisdom and experience into Salvatore.
Grateful to his core, Salvatore bowed and took him as his master.
"My travels once brought me to four extraordinary talents," Samuel had said. "I taught them medicine, martial arts, formations, and seals. By now, each should have founded the top-tier families in Chixia. I made an agreement with them: every family must raise several outstanding, beautiful girls. If someone comes bearing the Longevity Token, they are to marry their finest daughter to the bearer and give half their assets as dowry. Take the Longevity Token to the four families and make them honor their pact."
"I have given you all I know, but you lack experience. Once you leave this place, train diligently. Do not let it rot."
"Twenty years ago, I had a romance with Lisa Thubron, and she carried my daughter. The girl should be nineteen now. Find them and look after mother and daughter for me. If my daughter takes a liking to you, marry her."
"I stood at the cusp of ascension, yet an enemy's treachery brought me low. His name is Everett Hayde, known as Azakiel. When your cultivation matures, kill him for me."
"I will leave you a wax pellet. You must swallow it. Inside is the King of Love Hex. The King has one male and seven Female Hexes. Whoever carries the male Hex can suppress those who carry the Female Hex. The seven Female Hexes lie dormant in seven women with special constitutions. They will be your intimate concubines. With their aid, you will achieve twice the result with half the effort."
Samuel Looske had carved out his own five organs to save Salvatore. His candle was spent. After he gave his last instructions, he sat and passed away.
For the next month, Salvatore soaked in medicinal broth to heal, training by the methods Samuel taught. His wounds closed swiftly, and the transplanted immortal organs adapted to his body. It helped that he was born with an Immortal Bone; otherwise, he could never have borne the Immortal Energy stored in those organs.
Once his body recovered, he knocked his head to the floor three times before Samuel's remains, swallowed the wax pellet, gathered his master's relics, and set off for home.
Strength surged through him, seemingly endless-the Immortal Energy Samuel had imbued doing its work.
He had climbed two-thirds of the way up when an angry female voice cracked down from above.
"Seth Good, if you do this, the Yale family will never let you go!"
Salvatore's heart gave a jump. He sped up. Skirting a rock that jutted two meters out from the cliff, he climbed a few more meters and saw a man and a woman on the ledge above.
The woman looked to be in her early twenties, with an oval face and a breathtaking charm. She had a killer figure; even a hiking suit could not hide those seductive curves.
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