Chapter 49 – Encounter with the predecessor
The ruin was screaming.
Jin and Lyra darted through crumbling corridors as veins of crimson essence surged through the stone walls, pulsing like a beating heart. Every flicker of light distorted the air. The floor twisted underfoot, reality warping as the ruin awakened in full.
"They triggered it too early," Lyra gasped, her robes torn at the hem as she raced beside Jin. "The formation wasn't broken yet—the ruin's rejecting them!"
"No," Jin said grimly, "it's waking up because of me."
The dark orb inside him thrummed in response to the ruin's rage. It wasn't malevolent… but it remembered. Something deep within this place recognized its presence—and it wasn't happy.
Another scream echoed behind them, high-pitched and bubbling with pain. One of the Blazing Phoenix disciples, Jin guessed. Probably consumed by the formation backlash.
Up ahead, the corridor forked. One path led deeper underground, the other angled upward toward a chamber Jin had briefly glimpsed during his scouting.
"The inheritance chamber is below," Lyra said, pointing. "But so is Reivan."
Jin hesitated. "Then we go up."
Lyra blinked. "But—"
"If Reivan senses this orb again, he'll chase us like a starving dog. I want the ruin to keep confusing them. We take the long way around."
She nodded reluctantly, and together they sprinted up the ramp.
The ceiling groaned.
Chunks of ancient stone crashed behind them as spectral flames lit the hallway—blue fire that burned without heat, illuminating murals on the wall. Jin's eyes caught a glimpse of one: a warrior cloaked in shadow, holding a sphere of light and dark in his hands.
The orb.
No doubt.
But before he could process it, Lyra yanked him aside.
"Trap!"
A glowing formation lit under his feet—runes in the shape of a spiraling lotus. Jin leapt back just as tendrils of ice erupted from the floor, freezing the air into sharp spears.
"Thanks," he muttered.
"That would've skewered you," Lyra said, already scanning ahead.
They advanced more cautiously now. The ruin's internal defenses had fully activated. Jin could feel the will of the ruin watching him—like a slumbering creature stirred from eons of rest.
Suddenly, footsteps echoed from behind.
"Too slow," Jin hissed. "Someone's following."
They ducked into a side chamber, crouching behind a half-collapsed pillar. Moments later, a tall figure strode past the corridor they'd just left.
Reivan.
The poison aura oozed from his form like oil, his eyes scanning with inhuman sharpness.
But he didn't see them.
He stopped in front of the warrior mural Jin had spotted and touched it. A low hum echoed.
"It's reacting again," Reivan murmured. "That presence… it knows."
Then he turned and walked away.
Jin's heart pounded. Lyra's hand was gripping his wrist tight, her knuckles pale.
"He's getting closer to figuring it out," she whispered.
"We need to reach the altar chamber," Jin said. "That orb in the mural—it's the key."
"Altar's two levels down. But the path is blocked by an elemental seal. Takes at least mid-stage Adept essence purity to break."
Jin cracked his neck. "Good thing I've been training."
---
The lower levels of the ruin were alive with chaos.
Factions clashed as the ruin punished the invaders. Screams rang out, talismans detonated, and techniques carved into the air like blades. The rogue cultivator Jin had seen earlier was impaled on an obsidian spike. A Howling Storm disciple writhed in spectral fire.
The ruin wasn't a trial.
It was a war zone.
Jin and Lyra bypassed most of it, slipping through cracked passages and forgotten servant tunnels that Lyra had memorized during her forced stay.
They reached the elemental seal—an arched doorway pulsing with condensed fire, water, wind, and earth. Symbols danced across it in a complex, shifting formation.
Jin stepped forward and extended his hand.
The orb within him pulsed.
The seal shuddered.
"Wait—" Lyra started.
Too late.
The runes surged toward him, latching onto his palm. Light exploded outward, the elements screaming in protest—then yielding.
The seal unraveled with a keening wail and collapsed into dust.
Lyra stared at him. "That… that wasn't supposed to happen."
Jin stepped past the archway. "Let's just say the ruin and I have unfinished business."
---
The altar chamber was vast.
A dome of pale stone, lined with statues of forgotten warriors. At the center, a circular altar rose from the floor, and floating above it was a crystal sphere—half white, half black. Just like the orb inside Jin's soul.
Jin stepped forward, heart racing.
Lyra grabbed his arm. "This is it. Whatever's been calling you… it's here."
The orb began to hum violently now. The same resonance that filled his soul surged outward, and the floating sphere pulsed in response.
Jin reached out.
The moment his fingers brushed it—everything froze.
Time stopped.
Space bent.
And his mind was pulled inward.
---
He floated in a black void lit only by stars.
A man stood before him, cloaked in tattered robes of dusk and dawn, a sword stabbed into the void behind him.
Jin's mouth opened—but the figure spoke first.
"You are not ready."
Jin flinched. "Who are you?"
"One who failed."
The man's voice was ancient, but hollow. Weary.
"This ruin was not built to test the worthy. It was built to warn them."
Jin's thoughts surged. "You're the owner of this power, aren't you?"
"No. I was merely its last vessel."
Jin couldn't help but be curious about how he coincidentally found the last vessel in the grand ascension tournament. So he asked, "How come I met you, it seems to coincidental that you're here"
The man answered and said "It's called fate threads, all those who inherit the orb are connected by fate, it's something above your understanding and the scope of your backwater planet."
This is the second time Jin has heard the word planet and it seems like there's more to the world, than his already vast and large planet. But he couldn't ponder for long.
The man raised a hand. The orb floated above it, identical to the one in Jin's soul.
"It will awaken in time. But heed this—what sleeps within you is not a gift. It is a burden. And the more you use it, the more it will change you."
"Control it… or be devoured."
The figure began to fade.
"Others will come. They will sense you. And when they do… run, or become the storm."
The vision ended.
---
Jin staggered back into reality, gasping. Lyra caught him.
"What happened?!"
He looked up at the crystal orb. It had shattered—its essence absorbed into him.
"I saw… the last vessel."
He clenched his fists. The dark orb within him now pulsed with more clarity. It was stronger. Hungrier.
But still asleep.
Lyra looked around nervously. "We have to go. They'll feel the shift."
Jin nodded. But thought in his mind "I'll devour the orb, I've escaped death once and I'm not ready to become a puppet or someone's toy thing again, I'll grow strong enough to control my own destiny."
But just as they turned to leave—Reivan appeared in the doorway, eyes glowing with fury and curiosity.
"You," he snarled. "It was you."
Jin's lips curled into a smirk. "Took you long enough."