"Hey, you little brat. What did you do this time?"
I blinked, still trying to clear the lingering haze from my mind.
"...What?"
"Don't play dumb." The blue flames inside the skull's hollow eye sockets flickered impatiently. "A hatchling that doesn't even understand proper cultivation suddenly breaks through again? Without a foundation? Without guidance? Do you seriously expect me to believe that's normal?"
I opened my mouth to answer...
Then quietly closed it again.
Honestly, what was I supposed to say?
As ridiculous as it sounded, I didn't think I'd done anything at all. The Qi had begun moving on its own, the breakthrough had happened on its own, and before I could even understand what was happening, I'd been thrown back into hibernation.
At this point, I was beginning to wonder if someone else was secretly cultivating with my body while I simply watched from the sidelines.
I almost said that out loud.
Then thought better of it.
No...
That explanation sounded insane even inside my own head.
The problem wasn't that I was lying.
The problem was that the truth sounded far more unbelievable than any lie I could come up with.
The skull continued staring at me, clearly waiting for an answer.
"Well?" it pressed. "What exactly did you do?"
I met those burning blue flames for a long moment before slowly raising a claw.
"...It was your fault."
The blue flames flickered.
"...What?"
"You heard me."
The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became.
"You're the one who told me to look inside my body. You told me to observe my Qi,understand its circulation, and stop cultivating blindly."
I spread my claws helplessly.
"So I did exactly what you said."
The skull didn't interrupt.
Encouraged by the silence, I continued.
"At first, everything seemed fine. Then the Qi suddenly went completely insane. It started rushing through my body on its own, something changed inside me, and before I could figure out what was happening..."
I shrugged.
"I blacked out."
I narrowed my eyes at him.
"And now you're acting like I somehow planned all of this."
For the first time since I'd met the old skull, he didn't answer immediately.
The blue flames flickered once.
Then twice.
"...Ahem."
An awkward cough escaped him.
I blinked.
The skull coughed again before regaining his composure.
"That is... beside the point."
I tilted my head.
"No, I'm pretty sure that's exactly the point."
"It is not."
"It is."
"It is not."
"It is."
The cave fell silent.
The skull stared at me.
I stared right back.
Neither of us showed the slightest intention of backing down.
Several long seconds passed before the old skull finally gave an exasperated sigh.
"...I am choosing to ignore that."
A small sense of victory immediately welled up inside me.
Not because I'd figured out what had happened.
I still had absolutely no clue.
But for once, the old skull couldn't simply dump all the blame onto me.
"Hm..."
The blue flames flickered thoughtfully as he continued studying me. This time, however, his gaze was different.
It wasn't suspicion anymore.
It was curiosity.
"Hm... so that's how it is."
I frowned.
"...How what is?"
Instead of answering, he continued observing me as though comparing me to some distant memory.
Finally, he spoke.
"You're not a normal beast."
I blinked.
"...What?"
"Normal beasts cannot absorb that much chaotic Qi and remain themselves."
My thoughts paused.
Chaotic Qi?
The skull continued before I could speak, its voice growing noticeably heavier.
"The energy within that chamber wasn't pure Qi. Over countless years, it accumulated remnants left behind by everything that entered this place—different types of Qi, lingering emotions, instinctual impulses, even fragments of shattered wills. What you absorbed wasn't ordinary spiritual energy."
A faint chill ran down my spine as I listened.
The more he explained, the worse it sounded. That chamber had been less like a cultivation ground and more like a graveyard where countless energies had mixed together into something no sane beast should ever consume.
"A normal beast that swallowed so much chaotic Qi would have met one of only two ends." The blue flames inside his eye sockets flickered faintly. "Its mind would collapse... or its body would destroy itself from within."
Silence settled over the cave.
"...So you're saying I'm special?"
The question escaped before I could stop it.
The skull stared at me without saying a word.
I stared back just as confidently, and before I knew it, a smile had crept onto my face. It wasn't an arrogant grin—just the quiet satisfaction of someone whose suspicions had finally been confirmed.
Maybe I really was some kind of beast genius.
The blue flames twitched.
"...Why are you smiling?"
"What?"
"That ridiculous expression. No sane creature hears 'you should have died' and starts looking pleased with itself."
I couldn't help it.
"...You're just jealous."
"Jealous?" The old skull sounded genuinely offended. "Brat, if anything, this only proves how monstrously abnormal you are."
My smile vanished almost instantly.
"...Huh?"
"You absorbed the chamber's energy far too quickly," he replied flatly, studying me from head to claw. "Yet despite all that energy, your cultivation speed is embarrassingly slow."
I frowned.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
The skull gave a dry snort.
"How else do you explain absorbing enough energy to shake an entire chamber... only to spend another five years in hibernation?"
The words struck me like a hammer.
For several long seconds, I simply stared at him.
Another...
Five years.
My excitement disappeared without a trace.
Unlike before, I didn't question whether he was telling the truth. I'd already experienced this once. The last time I overloaded my body with Qi, years had vanished while I slept.
Somehow...
It had happened again, and now it didn't even surprise me anymore.
Because I already knew.
That damn system was behind it.
I slowly lowered my gaze toward my shell.
Everything felt normal.
There was no stiffness, no weakness, no sensation that years had passed. My memories ended the moment I lost consciousness, then resumed the instant I opened my eyes. To me, it had been nothing more than a brief nap.
But as I focused inward—
I finally noticed it.
My body was different.
Subtly at first, then more clearly as my awareness sharpened.
My limbs felt denser. Heavier, but not sluggish—more like they were packed with far more strength than before. The shell covering my body carried a deeper, more refined pressure, as if it had grown not just in size but in quality.
Even the flow of energy inside me felt altered.
Smoother. Vastly more stable than before.
It wasn't just growth.
It was accumulation.
Which made one question impossible to ignore.
If I hadn't been sleeping...
Then what exactly had my body been doing for those five missing years?
Ever since I awakened it, strange things kept happening whenever I absorbed too much energy. The first time, I had assumed the prolonged hibernation was merely a side effect. Now, after losing another five years under almost identical circumstances, it was becoming harder to dismiss as coincidence.
The answer came to mind almost immediately.
That damn system activated something on its own—like a car with automatic drive just taking control.
That useless thing put me into sleep for exactly five years without even a warning.
And now this old man is standing there interrogating me like a prosecutor after I already did exactly what he told me to do—followed his instructions step by step—and now he's acting shocked like I committed some crime, asking me how I did it.
Wow.
Seriously?
Both of them are full of crap.
Before I could start cursing any further, a familiar blue screen materialized in front of my eyes.
[Ding]
[Host Trait Analysis Complete]
[Trait Identified: Primal Repose]
[Primal Repose Completed]
[Breakthrough Confirmed]
[Skill Proficiency Increased]
[Status Updated]
My eyes narrowed.
"...Primal Repose?"
The unfamiliar name caught my attention for a moment.
The old skull continued speaking, but his words faded into little more than background noise. My attention was completely fixed on the glowing screen hovering before me, searching for the explanation hidden behind those simple notifications.
"Status."
The command left my mouth almost instinctively.
The blue light rippled across the air as the system responded, expanding into a larger window filled with familiar lines of text.
I stared at it in silence.