The first came from the left, blade arcing downward toward my ribs.
I didn't move.
At the last second, I stepped sideways—a fluid motion—grabbing his wrist mid-swing and twisting sharply. The bone snapped.
He howled, dropping his sword.
Before the second could react, I spun, planting my palm against his chest. A blast of compressed qi surged through my fingers.
He was launched backwards into a tree, the bark shattering on impact.
Both dropped like stones.
Zhou's blade was still in his hand, but now it trembled.
"What…?"
I took a slow step toward him.
"You were saying something about killing me?"
He gritted his teeth and rushed forward with a sharp roar.
"Die!"
His sword flickered with flame qi, slicing horizontally.
I caught the blade with my bare hand.
His eyes widened. "Wh—?!"
I squeezed.
The flame qi shattered. The steel cracked with a sound like breaking ice.
Then I tore it from his grasp and flung it aside.
He stumbled back, panic blooming across his face.
"Y-You… you're just an unknown disciple! You're a cripple!"
I stepped forward again, expression cold.
"A cripple, was it?"
His voice cracked. "You—You, you—!"
"Let me correct you," I said softly, standing inches from him now.
The mist around us trembled.
Zhou Shan fell backward, tripping over a root, scrambling on the ground like a beast caught in its own trap.
"What… are you?!"
I leaned down, voice low.
"I'm the one you should've never irritated."
Then I slammed my foot down on his chest, I didn't apply enough pressure to kill, but enough to leave him gasping for air, face pale with fear.
He coughed blood, too shocked to speak.
I turned away.
The pull of the fragment was growing stronger now—closer than ever.
I spared him one last glance.
"Next time," I said, voice steady, "use a stronger blade."
Then I vanished into the mist leaving Zhou Shan broken and breathless, his pride must've shattered more than his bones.
The ravine grew quieter as I pressed deeper, each step accompanied by a chill that had nothing to do with the wind.
Something ancient stirred beneath the soil, under the stone. The pull of the fragment had grown heavy, almost alive like invisible threads wrapped around my limbs, drawing me forward.
Finally, I reached it.
A cave hidden beneath a jagged overhang, half-swallowed by roots. I entered without hesitation.
The inside of the cave was quite dark, yet I saw everything. The walls pulsed with veins of moonlit ore. Strange runes circled the floor. And far ahead, at the center of a wide stone chamber, stood a lone figure.
Cloaked in ancient robes. Its face was hidden beneath a mask of bone and crystal.
A guardian?
The fragment hovered silently behind it, the brilliant silver fire, spinning gently in the air above a rune-etched pedestal.
The moment I stepped forward, the guardian raised its hand.
"You seek the fragment," it said, voice like echoes in a temple.
I nodded once.
"Then answer, child of ash and ruin. If you fail, the chamber will collapse, and your bones will be sealed."
A pause.
Then it spoke the riddle:
"I am taken before I am given,
I am broken before I am made whole.
I am the mark of kings and fools alike.
What am I?"
Taken before given… broken before whole… the mark of kings and fools…
A weapon?
A name?
A throne?
No.
A single answer rang in my mind.
I raised my eyes.
"A vow," I said.
The guardian did not move.
Then it stepped aside.
"You may pass."
The pedestal stood before me now, the fragment pulsing like a second sun, pure silver, laced with threads of blue fire and shadow. It burned without heat. It moved without wind. My moonfang core.
It was beautiful and very terrifying.
I reached out.
The moment my fingers touched the edge of its light, it surged forward, entering into my chest like a spear of molten iron.
I dropped to my knees with a strangled gasp.
Agony.
It was as if poisoned ants were swarming through my blood, biting, clawing, screaming. My veins felt like they were burning from the inside out. Every scar across my skin reopened. My soul strained against the pressure.
I wanted to scream but I kept my mouth shut.
My body trembled, shaking violently on the stone floor.
It was a trial.
A war between what I was and what I used to be.
Then—
BOOM.
A blast of silver light exploded from my body, sending cracks across the chamber floor. The runes flared, then dimmed.
The pain stopped. And my scars healed back.
I lay there, panting, my palms trembling against the rock.
And slowly… I rose.
A fraction of my cultivation had returned. Part of my qi lines were partially healed, my senses sharper, the ancient fire in my core flickering once more.
I had barely taken a step toward the cave's exit when the world disappeared around me again.
And I was pulled violently, suddenly back into the void.
The great spirit wolf looked up, its body still scarred and bound, but it's injuries seemed to be a bit healed.
"You've returned," it rumbled.
I stepped closer. "Why couldn't I reach you before? I tried everything."
The wolf's eyes flickered. "I was too weak. But absorbing the first fragment… It has given me a little bit of strength.
I nodded slowly. "Then we move forward."
Moonfang growled lowly.
"Don't be so quick, Kaien. That was the first of seven. Its power was small. You are not yet restored. And the second fragment… is not in this world."
"Then where?"
Moonfang turned its massive head.
"Lianjie Realm."
连界 (Liánjiè)—The Bound Realms.
A world where qi flowed thicker, beasts were more vicious, and cultivators climbed their path through blood and spirit fire.
"To reach Lianjie," Moonfang said, "you must pass the Tribulation of Heaven's Lightning, the gate between realms. " My fists clenched slightly.
"That means I have to ascend."
"Yes," Moonfang replied. "But your body is still fractured. Your soul is incomplete. Facing the lightning tribulation now… it could destroy you."
I didn't hesitate.
"I'm willing to go through that risk."