1. The Smiling Ashes
Somewhere far from the Murim Alliance, in a realm not charted on any map, a fire pit crackled.
The flames didn't burn wood—they devoured names.
A long stone table sat in front of it. Around it, seven chairs. Only six were filled now.
One chair remained empty.
Ash drifted into a bowl at the center, where the name "Lee Haneul" flickered like a dying star.
"Six assassins lost," muttered the tattooed man, dragging an obsidian blade across his palm. "Void-born. Spirit-cut. Trained in silence. All gone."
A woman with no eyes leaned forward.
"That makes it official. He's touched the Crown. He's walking the Origin Path."
A hooded elder nodded slowly, fingers tapping a cracked relic—an old Murim badge with a diagonal line drawn through it.
"We were too cautious."
"He won't give us another window."
2. The False God Ritual
The remaining six stood.
Behind them, a colossal wall opened—a gate carved into the side of a forgotten cliff, rimmed with old divine scripts crossed out in red paint.
They stepped into a dark temple, where hundreds of chained figures knelt in rows—cultivators, cursed beings, spirit beasts. All subdued. All still alive.
And at the center?
A monumental husk of a humanoid god, fossilized and hollow, sitting on a broken throne.
"Begin the awakening," the tattooed man said.
An acolyte screamed as they were tossed into the hollow god's chest cavity. The body jerked once. Twice. Then fell still.
"Three more will do," said the eyeless woman. "One for each Dantian."
As the ritual began, a storm formed above them—not water, not thunder, but spiritual static, like the realm itself was rejecting what they were trying to bring back.
"We're not recreating the Nameless One," she whispered.
"We're building something worse."
3. The Target List
Back at the table, names were carved into a metal slate—targets deemed too dangerous to exist if the Godless Banner was to reclaim control.
Lee Haneul (Confirmed Quiet Crown)
Lee Haeun (Synced anomaly / Mirror interference)
Yeom Sojin (Now a rogue)
The Murim Leader (Delay until after Crown is broken)
The Five Kings (Unknown loyalties)
The final name etched was not a person—but a place.
The Realm of Life.
"It's waking up," the tattooed man said. "We must reach it first. The moment he enters, the sync completes."
"Then he becomes untouchable."
The hooded elder looked up.
"And if he reaches the Nameless Flame?"
Everyone at the table fell silent.
Then the eyeless woman whispered:
"Then we all die."
4. The Proxy Sent
They couldn't kill Lee Haneul with assassins anymore.
So they sent someone different.
A Proxy.
Forged in secret from the remains of failed gods and the regrets of dying sect masters, the Proxy was not alive—but it was not dead either.
It had no Dantians. It didn't need them.
It fed on those who did.
Bound in six seals and carrying the name "Ash-of-the-First-Realm," the Proxy walked out of the ritual chamber, leaving behind a trail of cracked stone and flickering reality.
5. Final Words Before War
The tattooed man turned to the others.
"Let the tournament continue."
"Let the crowds cheer. Let the elders posture."
He clenched his bleeding fist.
"And when the Realm of Life opens… he'll walk in thinking it's an opportunity."
"But we'll be waiting inside."