Chapter 9 – Whispers in Stone
🏞️ Early Morning – Outskirts of the Ruins
The world had grown still.
Ved walked downhill from the forgotten temple.
Birds didn't chirp. The breeze didn't sway.
Only footsteps on cracked earth marked the silence.
Then he saw it.
A stone tablet, half-buried in the ground.
Old. Faded.
But carved deeply into it:
> "The one who walks unknowingly, walks rightly."
"The path will not show itself… until it is behind you."
And beneath that, etched recently—
> "Keep going. You're not alone."
Ved crouched.
> "Who wrote this?" he whispered. "Who knows I'm coming?"
His fingers brushed the symbol just below the text:
> A half-wing.
Not Garud. Not yet.
But a fragment.
---
⛩️ Meanwhile — Eastern Peaks of Murim
A young warrior stood on the edge of a cliff.
He was barefoot. His gi torn. Skin marked with calligraphy scars.
But his eyes—unmoving.
He struck again.
Fifth Form – Flowing Crane Beheads the Sky.
The cliff cracked.
Water exploded from beneath the rock like a dragon's roar.
He smiled.
> "Still not right."
From behind a tree, his master whispered:
> "You're chasing ghosts. You were never meant to perfect it."
> "Then why does it come to me in dreams?"
The master fell silent.
The warrior looked west.
> "Someone else dreams the same thing. I can feel it."
---
🧠Back to Ved — A Hidden Path
The symbols led Ved through a narrow path choked in mist.
He didn't know where it went.
But every ten steps, another symbol appeared—lightly cut into bark or stone.
He followed.
And found a cave.
Inside, a skeleton.
Not old.
Not fresh.
Wrapped in a warrior's robe.
And clutched in its hand… was a scroll.
Not Murim.
Not Qi-based.
The writing was foreign. Circular.
Ancient characters from Aryavart.
Ved felt the pull again.
He opened it.
The first line:
> "This is not a technique to learn. It is a memory to remember."
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🔥 Vision (Brief, Fragmented)
A sword twirls in the hand of a child.
A man laughs.
Mountains of gold and ash. Warriors in white robes fighting alongside tiger-skinned monks.
And then—
Darkness. Screams. Betrayal.
> "Aryavart stood. Murim fled."
> "We sealed the last gate ourselves."
Ved's breath caught.
He dropped the scroll.
> "I'm… remembering someone else's death."
---
🏯 Meanwhile – Murim Council
A secret hall beneath the capital.
An old monk stared into a basin of water.
He had seen it.
The symbol. The sword. The visions.
He whispered:
> "He's walking the path. Just like the last one."
Another elder stepped in.
> "If he finds the Gurukul…"
> "We'll have to choose. Again."
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