Chapter 30 – The Truth Beneath the Grave
The rain drizzled steadily over the cemetery, softening the crunch of Zhang Wei's footsteps as he approached his mother's grave. He hadn't been here in months. Not since the day he found out the truth—that she had been the first to sense the cult watching over him. That she had died not by illness, but by a curse cast through shadowed rituals.
Wei knelt, brushing away leaves from the headstone. His fingers trembled as they touched the inscription.
> "Liu Mei, Beloved Mother. A woman of peace, lost to silence."
But silence never told the truth.
A flash of memory surfaced—her final words.
> "They're watching you, Wei. They know who you are… what you can become."
His fists clenched. You knew. You always knew.
Behind him, the air shifted. A gust of wind that carried no scent, no sound—unnatural. He turned swiftly, instincts sharpened by days of battles and schemes. A man stood there cloaked in gray, with a jade pendant swinging lightly around his neck.
"You've grown," the man said, voice deep and calm.
"Who are you?" Wei asked, stepping back slightly. His third eye—the inner vision granted by the system—flickered open. No malice. No aura. Nothing.
But that was what made it more terrifying.
"I was your mother's brother. And your last remaining blood relative."
Wei's breath caught in his throat.
"My—my uncle?"
The man nodded. "She hid me because she knew the cult would come for me first. But now that you've reached this stage, they'll come for you next. You're the heir to something greater than a legacy. You're the key to finishing what your mother started."
The sky crackled. Thunder in the distance. The clouds hung low, like a curtain waiting to be pulled open.
"I don't care about cults. I just want the truth," Wei said bitterly. "Why did she die alone? Why was I left to rot in that house while the world mocked me?"
His uncle's gaze hardened. "Because that was the only way to hide you. The curse the cult placed on your name—it required you to be broken. They wanted your despair."
Wei looked down at his palms. Is that why they always hated me? Even my own family? Was it all planned…?
"You were sealed," his uncle continued. "Not just emotionally. Spiritually. But your mother left behind something. She entrusted it to me for the day you were strong enough to awaken."
He reached inside his robe and pulled out a golden scroll—ancient, bound with symbols that pulsed with warmth.
Wei reached out to touch it. The moment his fingers made contact, a searing light engulfed his vision.
---
[System Update: "Celestial Seal Breaker" Unlocked.]
[World Gate Access Expanded.]
[Memory Fragment: Liu Mei - Part I Available.]
---
Wei stumbled back, blinking rapidly as visions surged through his mind—his mother fighting in the shadows, her hands glowing with divine runes, sealing away a monstrous black mass with her bare soul.
He fell to his knees. She sacrificed everything… to give me a chance.
Tears spilled silently.
"I won't let it go to waste."
His uncle placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then we have no time. The cult is moving faster than we thought. There's a traitor in your school. One of your teachers."
Wei's heart froze.
"Who?"
"You'll know when you stop looking at their smiles and start listening to their silences."
---
That night, as Wei returned to the mansion, everything looked different. The air smelled the same. The halls echoed the same. But now, every glance, every cough, every polite smile from his in-laws felt like poison waiting to bloom.
He stood in front of the mirror in his room, eyes glowing faintly with his spiritual sight.
> "Stop waiting for them to change. Become the storm they can't survive."
For the first time, he smiled—not kindly. But like a man with a secret. And a plan.
---
[End of Chapter 30]