Rael's fingers touched the coffin's surface.
For a brief moment, the entire vault fell silent.
Then the glass dissolved like mist.
The figure within did not fall or stumble. It simply opened its eyes—pale, cloudy, unfocused—and stepped out with the grace of a warrior who had never truly stopped walking.
He was gaunt. His robes were tattered. His hair, once jet-black, had faded to a lifeless gray. But there was something in his presence—an ancient calm, like a forgotten general returning from exile.
The stasis field dissolved entirely.
[System Alert: Trait Assimilation Initiated]
Echo of the Lost Path (Dormant – Fragmented):
Origin: Strategist Lin Ranyu, 3rd Cycle Ascendant.
Memory Fragments Transferring…
Caution: Temporary destabilization of user's identity core possible.
Mental fortitude required to endure resonance.
Rael gritted his teeth.
His mind flared—memories not his own flooded his vision.
A battlefield of shattered stars.
A war council in a temple above clouds.
Betrayal.
A sword through the back.
A woman's laughter, warm and cruel.
And the scent of burned plum blossoms drifting through snow.
Rael staggered, eyes wide.
Yue Qingshi caught him before he fell. "What did you do?"
His lips curled into a sharp grin. "Borrowed a ghost's map."
---
The ancient cultivator looked at him now. But there was no hostility—only weary recognition.
"You are not one of mine," he said slowly, voice dry as old parchment.
"No," Rael replied, "but your war never ended."
The corpse's head tilted.
Then he raised a hand—and pointed at the next coffin.
"They will awaken. One by one. The stars demand it."
Rael blinked. "And what happens then?"
The corpse gave no answer.
Instead, his body slowly collapsed, crumbling into ash.
But from the ashes rose a single object—a jade talisman, shaped like a compass.
Rael picked it up.
[Item Acquired: Warden's Compass]
Function: Reveals the direction of forgotten relics sealed beneath Heaven-bound Lines.
Requires: High cognitive resonance, blood-bound unlock.
*[Optional Activation: Bond item to Soul Thread?]
Rael accepted the bond without hesitation.
The talisman burned against his skin, and then—settled.
---
Yue remained silent as he straightened.
"You absorbed something," she finally said. "Something that wasn't meant to return."
"I didn't have a choice," he said, voice low. "And neither do we."
He turned toward the last hallway that had opened beyond the vault—a narrow stair that sloped upward, back toward the surface. He didn't rush. Every step was deliberate.
Yue walked beside him, her fan held close, unreadable.
"You could've been possessed."
"I still might be."
"And you did it anyway."
Rael glanced at her. "We came here for answers. This is the only one we found that didn't try to kill us."
She didn't smile. But she didn't argue either.
---
They emerged back into open air—not in the same forest clearing they entered, but atop a jagged hill overlooking an unfamiliar terrain.
The moon hung low in the sky. But it was wrong.
Too big. Too crimson.
And the air smelled faintly of metal and lightning.
Yue's face turned grim. "We're not in the same region anymore."
Rael checked the compass.
The needle spun once, then fixed toward the northwest.
Beneath the mountains.
[System Update: Hidden Realm Zone Identified]
Location: Star-Drained Valley
Estimated Difficulty: Extreme
Recommended Preparation: Tier-Three Combat Arts or Group Formation.
Warning: Realm shift occurred during vault traversal. Time displacement probable.
Rael narrowed his eyes.
They hadn't just traveled underground.
They had shifted between realms.
"Displacement… how long?" he asked aloud.
[System Response: 16 days, 7 hours elapsed since last external contact.]
Yue hissed under her breath. "We've missed the sect summoning."
Rael's eyes sharpened.
And then he sighed.
"Then we find another way in."
---
They traveled by night.
The land was strange. Trees with silver leaves. Rivers that flowed backward. Small creatures that watched from the dark but never attacked.
They avoided attention. Even Yue's presence dimmed as they moved—a skill Rael was beginning to pick up, piece by piece.
After two days, they reached a ridge where crumbled temple stones were half-buried in moss.
There, they made camp.
As the fire crackled, Yue finally asked, "Who was he?"
Rael poked the fire absently. "A strategist. A prisoner. Maybe the last survivor of a war no one remembers."
"And now?"
Rael looked up. "Now he's part of me."
---
He didn't sleep that night.
He sat beneath the moon, letting its cold light filter over him. His mind was full of images—old maps, battle plans, the sound of horns echoing across mountains.
But beneath it all, a new sense was growing.
Not power.
But pattern.
He could feel the flow of terrain. The way valleys would shape troops. How forest lines hid threats. How even the stars above dictated moments of action.
It wasn't instinct.
It was training—echoes of a mind that had once moved armies like pieces on a board.
Rael didn't reject it.
He embraced it.
---
In the morning, the compass pointed true again.
Toward a dark mountain split in half like a cracked egg.
Rael stood and tightened his robes.
"We move."
Yue raised an eyebrow. "No plan?"
"There's always a plan," he said with a slight smile. "But sometimes… even the stars have to blink."
They walked down the slope—into a new territory marked on no map.
Where hidden sects gathered.
Where beast-kin roamed.
Where secrets older than empires still bled through cracked stone.
Rael was no longer just a survivor.
He was becoming something else.