Spirit Dust Realm · Eastern Frontier
Dusk bled into the horizon like spilled ink as the last light vanished behind jagged mountain ridges.
Along the weed-choked path, scattered villagers kowtowed toward the distant peaks, murmuring prayers. When incense sticks burned to ash, they scrambled away—dragging children and wives—as if lingering might awaken what slumbered within those hills.
—This place was called Burial Immortals Ridge. For a hundred thousand years, none dared tread its summit.
Whoosh
A gelid wind howled, whipping through withered grass.
Clouds parted. Pallid moonlight cascaded down, illuminating a forest of stone monoliths atop the ridge—no, not monoliths, but endless ancient graves!
Each tomb stood pristine, fresh fruits and flowers laid before them as though tended by unseen hands.
Crack!
Amidst the silence, a solitary grave splintered open!
Rocks tumbled as a bone-white hand *burst* from the earth, fingers clawing the broken edge!
A figure in azure robes rose slowly from the soil, ink-black hair spilling over shoulders, garments untouched by grime. He stood motionless at the heart of the graveyard, his eyes fixed on the tombstone before him—blank, nameless.
"To bury me here… how thoughtful."
Lin Tianfang traced the fissures on the grave, fingertips cold.
Stranger still—every surrounding tomb bore no inscription.
KABOOM!
Thunder tore the sky.
Lin Tianfang's head snapped up, sleeves swirling without wind.
The shattered grave disintegrated into flying ashes. The earth smoothed seamless.
At that instant, two streaks of light crashed into the burial ground!
Lin Tianfang paid no heed, walking calmly onward.
A white-bearded elder stepped from moonlight, immortal aura clinging like mist. Behind him trembled a youth in splendid silks.
"M-Master…" The boy's voice shook. "That man—he crawled from a grave! I saw—"
"Silence!" Gu Helin's roar cut the air, his gaze sharp as blades sweeping where Lin Tianfang had stood.
—The grave was gone.
Not collapsed. Not buried. Erased as if unwritten by cosmic law.
"Fellow Daoist, stay!" Gu Helin stepped forward, fingers coiled in a hidden seal. "This venerable Gu Helin asks—that solitary grave just now…"
"You saw wrong."
Lin Tianfang's back remained turned, voice colder than glacial ice.
Moonlight stretched his shadow over the tombstones—a leviathan's silhouette poised to strike.
Gu Helin's throat bobbed. He yielded the path.
Only when azure robes melted into night did the youth hiss, "Master! That grave was—"
For a hundred thousand years, no one has risen from Burial Immortals Ridge.*" Gu Helin stared at the boy, eyes bloodshot. "If he truly came from a grave… he can only be what sleeps here—"
"A Celestial Fiend."
Beyond the ridge, questions stormed Lin Tianfang's mind:
Who entombed me here?
What calamity unfolded?
...