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House of Blood

Chapter 4: The Collapse of the Crucible · Nov 15, 2026

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Chapter List (183)

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1 Chapter 1: The Guillotine Falls 2026-11-15
2 Chapter 2: The Snake in the Shadow 2026-11-15
3 Chapter 3: The Blood Crucible 2026-11-15
4 Chapter 4: The Collapse of the Crucible 2026-11-15
5 Chapter 5: The Night Hound Unleashed 2026-11-15
6 Chapter 6: Shadows and Silver Runes 2026-11-15
7 Chapter 7: The Royal Visit and the Golden Sun 2026-11-15
8 Chapter 8: The Price of Blood 2026-11-15
9 Chapter 9: Fractured Marrow 2026-11-15
10 Chapter 10: Blood on the Snow 2026-11-15
11 Chapter 11: The Crevasse Encounter 2026-11-15
12 Chapter 12: Broken Bones and Ignited Veins 2026-11-15
13 Chapter 13: Left in the Ash 2026-11-15
14 Chapter 14: Bone, Iron, and Ash 2026-11-15
15 Chapter 15: The Art of the Scheme 2026-11-15
16 Chapter 16: The Flaw in the Candle Wax 2026-11-15
17 Chapter 17: Imperial Game of Ghosts 2026-11-15
18 Chapter 18: Shadows in the Frost 2026-11-15
19 Chapter 19: The Fanatics of Terza 2026-11-15
20 Chapter 20: Mathematics and Madness 2026-11-15
21 Chapter 21: The Faceless Mask 2026-11-15
22 Chapter 22: Unseen Threads 2026-11-15
23 Chapter 23: The Sovereign’s Gambit 2026-11-15
24 Chapter 24: Meeting in the Dark 2026-11-15
25 Chapter 25: Ledger 2026-11-15
26 Chapter 26: The Fang of the Dragon 2026-11-15
27 Chapter 27: Blood and Ashes 2026-11-15
28 Chapter 28: The Gathering of the Bloodline 2026-11-15
29 Chapter 29: Shadows in the Eastern Wind 2026-11-15
30 Chapter 30: Crucible of the Pass 2026-11-15
31 Chapter 31: Blood Swarm 2026-11-15
32 Chapter 32: The Meat Grinder of the Canyon 2026-11-15
33 Chapter 33: The Sovereign’s Descent 2026-11-15
34 Chapter 34: The Prince of Ashes 2026-11-15
35 Chapter 35: The Seven Scions 2026-11-15
36 Chapter 36: The Weight of the Crown 2026-11-15
37 Chapter 37: The Architect of Shadows 2026-11-15
38 Chapter 38: The First Anchor of Blood 2026-11-15
39 Chapter 39: The Shattered Veil 2026-11-15
40 Chapter 40: The Bone Throne of the Patriarch 2026-11-15
41 Chapter 41: The Primordial Wellspring 2026-11-15
42 Chapter 42: Shadows, Scars, and Sweet Insanity 2026-11-15
43 Chapter 43: The Inherited Rot 2026-11-15
44 Chapter 44: The Ledger of Blood 2026-11-15
45 Chapter 45: The Trojan’s Feast 2026-11-15
46 Chapter 46: The Devil’s Confessional 2026-11-15
47 Chapter 47: Desecrated Light 2026-11-15
48 Chapter 48: The Edge of Absolution 2026-11-15
49 Chapter 49: The Theology of Rotten Fruit 2026-11-15
50 Chapter 50: Shadows Over the Northern Frost 2026-11-15

”Ten seconds?!”

Vespera didn’t hesitate.

She didn’t waste time asking how a ten-year-old knew about a rigged structural pillar.

The moment the words left my lips, her Death Aura detonated in a blinding dome of crimson force.

”EVACUATE!”

Her voice boomed, shattering the stalactites above.

Before the first echo even faded, a massive hand grabbed the collar of my tunic, snatching me into the air like a kitten.

”Got you, kid!”

It was Caelum, my second eldest brother.

He pulled me against his massive chestplate, his legs flexing before he launched himself toward the cavern exit like a cannonball.

Behind us, three distinct shadows blurred past in synchronized perfection.

My third eldest sister, The Executioner, moved so fast she left afterimages in the mist, her twin daggers already drawn.

Flanking her were my fifth and sixth brothers—the twin enforcers—their brutal heavy shields raised to deflect the falling debris.

At the rear was my fourth eldest brother, The Strategist.

He sprinted with calm, calculated precision, casting defensive blood-runes behind him to slow the crumbling ceiling.

BOOM!

The main obsidian pillar ruptured.

A shockwave of blue soul-carved mana ripped through the underground chamber, causing the entire mountain to groan as millions of tons of solid rock caved in.

Caelum burst through the cavern entrance just as the tunnel behind us was completely sealed beneath a mountain of crushed stone and rising dust.

Cough! Cough!

Caelum dropped to one knee, coughing up grey dust, but his arms remained locked around me like a steel cage.

”Everyone alive?!” he bellowed through the cloud.

”Barely,” a cold, smooth voice replied.

My fourth brother, Alexis, stepped out of the dust, casually brushing ash from his pristine black robes.

His sharp, analytical red eyes locked onto the sealed tunnel behind us.

”That was high-tier Medeis soul-mana,” Alexis said softly, adjusting his spectacles.

”A delayed structural collapse spell. It was placed there long before today.”

”GARREN!”

Caelum roared, his aura flaring so violently the surrounding trees trembled.

”THAT SNAKE RIGGED THE CRUCIBLE!”

”Silence, Caelum.”

Vespera’s voice cut through the air like a razor.

She walked out from the clearing, her battle scythe resting casually over her shoulder.

Though her expression was a mask of absolute frost, I could see her hands trembling slightly as she looked down at me in Caelum’s arms.

”We do not make noise without proof,” Vespera said coldly, though her eyes burned with promise.

”If we strike now without evidence, the Sec elders will hide behind the clan laws.”

”We wait.”

”We watch.”

She stepped forward, taking me gently from Caelum’s grip and placing my feet on the ground.

Standing beside the carriage waiting at the mountain base were two figures who had remained on guard outside during the collapse.

My personal warrior maid, Aura.

And the Prim family’s head butler, Rook.

Aura rushed forward instantly, her dark leather armor tight against her athletic frame.

Her hand rested on the hilt of her shortsword, her golden-amber eyes frantic with concern.

”Young Master!”

Aura dropped to one knee before me, her breathing ragged.

”Are you unhurt? I felt the shockwave from the ridge—”

”I’m fine, Aura,” I said, offering her a calm smile beneath my silk blindfold.

Aura was my personal guard—an orphaned war prodigy taken in by the Prim family.

In my past life, when the Sec elders framed me, she was the only person in the estate who tried to fight off the guards dragging me to the dungeon, earning herself a brutal exile.

Her loyalty bordered on obsession.

Beside her, Rook—the elderly, silver-haired head butler—stood as straight as a spear.

He adjusted his white gloves, his expression impassive, though the dark, heavy aura rolling off his frail-looking body proved he was anything but an ordinary servant.

Rook was a retired executioner of the main family.

A man who had served three generations of the Prim bloodline.

”The carriage is prepared, Young Master Valerian,” Rook said, bowing deeply.

”And... congratulations on surviving the Crucible.”

His sharp old eyes flickered toward my chest, subtly sensing the dense heat radiating from my newly ignited bloodline.

He didn’t ask about the blindfold.

A true head butler knew when to keep his mouth shut.

’Ooh, I like the old man,’ Wren chimed quietly in my head.

’He has killed a lot of people.’

I stepped into the carriage, surrounded by my six protective siblings, my warrior maid, and my silent butler.

We were returning to the main estate.

But everything had changed.

I wasn’t the dud anymore.

I had unlocked the first stage of the Blood Weapon Art.

My dragon core was finally burning bright.

’So, kid,’ Wren purred as the carriage wheels began to roll.

’What’s the move? Are we going to flaunt this newly ignited core of yours, or are we playing it smart?’

I leaned back against the plush velvet seat, resting my chin on my small hand.

Rushing to reveal my full strength to the world right now was amateurish.

A true hound hides its fangs until its jaws are already around the prey’s throat.

I would stay hidden behind this silk cloth.

Play the fragile, blind seventh child on the surface.

Build my strength in the shadows.

I looked out the carriage window toward the distant eastern border—

toward the territory of the Medeis family.

”On the surface, I remain the weakling who barely survived the Crucible,” I thought back to Wren, a dark smile spreading across my lips.

”But when night falls...”

”I hunt.”

Suddenly—

The carriage ground to a violent halt.

The horses whinnied in sheer terror as a heavy, suffocating pressure slammed down onto the roof of our transport from above.

” ALERT: ENEMY PRESENCE DETECTED ”

” ENTITY: MEDEIS SOUL-CARVED ASSASSIN SQUAD ”

” LOCATION: SURROUNDING FOREST ”

A cold, mocking voice echoed from the trees outside.

”How unfortunate.”

”So the Blood Dragon’s cripple escaped the mountain.”

”But you won’t survive the road home.”

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