Part I: Echoes in Stone
They came to the Breathless Valley at dusk.
The wind didn't blow here. Not even a breeze.The trees were silent. The air was thick with the memory of something buried.
Elder Woon Gihyeon whispered, "This land hasn't breathed in a thousand years."
At the heart of the valley lay a plateau of slate-colored rock, smooth as glass. At its center, a perfect circle was carved—filled with seven dragon-shaped hollows.
Mujin knelt beside one of them.
It matched the Heaven's Seal on his wrist.
"This is a lock," he said.
Gihyeon nodded grimly. "And you are the key."
Part II: Descent
The seal flared. With a groan that sounded more like a breath than a mechanism, the rock trembled.
The circle cracked open, revealing stairs spiraling downward into pitch-black darkness.
The moment Mujin stepped inside, he felt it—
A pressure.
Like something watching. Waiting.
They lit no torches. The walls glowed faintly on their own, painted with murals of war, sacrifice, and a king cloaked in stormfire.
At the bottom was a chamber with no door. Only a mirror.
But when Mujin looked into it, he did not see himself.
He saw a man with the same eyes—but older, harder. Clad in black armor. Standing on mountains of bones.
The man turned.And smiled.
"Soon," he said. "I'll wear your name."
The mirror shattered.
Part III: The Voice in the Stone
From the broken shards, smoke rose—and took shape.
A voice echoed through the chamber, deep and terrible:
"He who carries the Seal…Must bleed for it."
A spectral warrior emerged—armor rusted, blade dragging behind it.
It attacked.
Mujin moved purely on instinct.He dodged. Parried. Struck.Skycut Fang rang like a bell of defiance.
Blow for blow, will against shadow.Until finally—he drove his blade into the warrior's chest.
It howled and dissolved into dust.
In its place: a small coffin.
Inside, a scroll.
Mujin opened it. The letters shifted before his eyes.
The Chronicle of the Skybone Emperor – Fragment I.
"Power without grief is hollow.Grief without power is death."
Part IV: Something Stirring
They left the tomb at dawn.
The sun had not yet risen—but the wind had returned.
Mujin looked down at his wrist.
A second sigil had appeared on the Heaven's Seal.
And far across the continent, in a land long thought cursed,a golden eye opened in a palace made of bone.
"The heir has touched the Chronicle," it whispered.
"Let the Revenants begin to stir."
End of Chapter 5.