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Chapter 25: The Sect Master's Eternal Night
The sun had long since dipped beyond the charcoal-stained horizon. Yet, inside the Rising Twilight Sect, the darkness felt unnatural—heavy, pressing, almost sentient. The Sect Master, Aditya, stood alone atop the Skyfire Balcony, overlooking the valley below. His robes fluttered like broken wings in the wind.
The disciples had all gone to sleep… all but one.
"Master," came a tired voice.
Aditya turned to find Riku, his ever-anxious second disciple, staring up at him with a forced smile and dark rings under his eyes. "Everyone's waiting for your signal. You said we'd have a night feast... to celebrate reaching thirty disciples."
Aditya stared at him for a moment too long, his gaze hollow. "Riku, have you ever felt… like the world moved on while you stood still?"
"Every time I try to flirt with Linya," Riku said without missing a beat. "Is this about the weird black flower growing from the Sect Gate again?"
Aditya didn't respond immediately. Instead, he turned his gaze back to the field below where the 'black flower'—a twisting, eerie vine—had grown overnight from the Sect Boundary Line. It pulsed slightly, like it had a heartbeat.
Something ancient had touched his domain.
Backtrack: One Day Earlier
The day had started with the usual chaos—Jun accidentally summoned a spiritual chicken that couldn't stop screaming "ENLIGHTENMENT!" every ten seconds, Linya had turned the bathhouse into a glacier during cultivation practice, and Riku had been trying to understand how to unlock his "useless" innate skill: Loyalty Vow, which made him cry whenever someone insulted Aditya.
But around noon, the sky had turned dark. Not cloudy—dark, as if the heavens themselves blinked. And from the edge of the Sect's spiritual boundary, something stirred.
The vine.
Its growth wasn't just unnatural. It defied logic. No seed, no soil, no water. It had emerged like it remembered being planted long ago.
When Aditya had approached it, a voice had whispered—not outside, but within his mind.
> "This is the price of tethered divinity."
That night, he didn't sleep. He sat in the Sect Library, surrounded by scrolls of demon-taming lore, forbidden scriptures, and ancient records. None of them mentioned the phrase. None of them mentioned a flower of night.
But one page, written in a child's scrawl with dried blood, read:
> "The black flower blooms when a guardian weeps."
And Aditya remembered.
He had lost his Guardian Soul—the one that had awakened for him in Chapter 14—during a reckless act in the outer region, trying to save a dying beast cub. It had fused with the cub to protect it and faded away.
The grief he swallowed for months… was now manifesting?
No.
This was not grief alone. This was summoning. The Sect was responding to him.
And that was terrifying.
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Back to Present
Aditya walked slowly back to the central courtyard. The laughter of disciples echoing in the distance was comforting, but he couldn't shake the sense of impending shift.
He opened the announcement scroll and used a tiny spark of qi to inscribe words into the air.
> "From today onward, the Sect Barrier has grown. A new region has been added: The Shade Vale."
A burst of golden light shot upward like a flare, catching the attention of every disciple.
From within the Sect's boundary, a massive black gate emerged where the vine had sprouted. It was made of obsidian, with silver cracks pulsing like veins. Upon its surface was etched the image of a lone scarecrow holding the sun in one hand and the moon in the other.
Linya whispered, "It looks like… you."
Riku muttered, "It looks cursed."
Jun said, "It looks like a bad idea."
But Aditya? He stepped forward.
"This is our chance," he said, voice resonant. "A new domain has awakened—because of our unity. Because of our bond. This is not just a place… it's an echo of what we are becoming."
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Inside the Shade Vale
Only ten steps beyond the gate, and reality bent.
Gravity changed direction.
Time slowed slightly.
Aditya could feel the air thick with forgotten qi—uncultivated, raw, ancient.
He turned to his disciples. "Stay within line of sight. This place—"
Something growled.
Not a beast.
Not a ghost.
It was… laughter.
Cold, bone-splintering, mocking laughter.
Aditya narrowed his eyes. "Form the Square of Nine."
The disciples gathered, forming the defensive square formation they'd practiced in Chapter 11 under Riku's guidance. (That time they accidentally summoned a frog instead of a barrier.)
This time, it worked.
A transparent dome shimmered around them.
From the shadows, a woman emerged—skin pale, hair like black silk, and eyes full of stars.
She bowed. "I am Lila, Guardian of the Lost Realm. You are the first to awaken me in a thousand years. Tell me… Sect Master, do your disciples bleed well?"
Before Aditya could answer, Jun leapt forward, drawing a talisman.
"You dare threaten—"
Lila blinked. Jun exploded into a puff of feathers.
Literally.
He turned into a chicken. Again.
"Is this a common occurrence here?" she asked.
Aditya sighed. "He once cultivated next to a phoenix egg. We don't talk about it."
Riku cried, "My loyalty demands violence!"
Lila tilted her head. "Fascinating."
She reached out—and was blocked by the dome.
She smiled. "I'll be watching. When this veil breaks… come find me."
With that, she vanished.
Jun turned back into a boy, naked, featherless, and embarrassed. Linya quickly summoned a robe of ice and threw it at him.
Aditya said nothing.
He only stared at the gate that was now pulsing.
One word had appeared on it:
> "Trial."
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Later That Night
The celebration resumed with a weird sense of tension. Jun wouldn't stop clucking. Riku kept crying every time someone said 'scarecrow'. Linya tried to lighten the mood by summoning snowflakes with faces that danced around people.
But Aditya?
He sat alone, drinking warm herbal tea, staring into the darkness.
A whisper brushed his ear.
> "You cannot escape the seed you've planted."
And for a brief moment… his hands turned to straw again.
The scarecrow within him was waking.
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End of Chapter 25
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