A scream echoed through the entire chamber....like a sudden lightning bolt striking the ground during a heavy downpour.
"This cannot be...
How... how is this possible?
No... no... this isn't true…
It cannot be true!
Mo Yan has returned…
No, no, no, no....
This is impossible!
I performed countless rituals… I tried everything…
And yet the prophecy has come to pass?
How can this be happening?"
Master Kinji Yo had lost all composure.
The thought that Mo Yan had returned sent him spiraling. Years...decades....of meticulous scheming were on the verge of crumbling to dust. His eyes blazed red with fury, no longer the serene, disciplined gaze he presented to the world.
The mask of restraint and order he always wore...shattered.
He now looked like a venomous bloom: beautiful from afar, but a predator when seen up close.
His clenched fists trembled, speaking louder than any words.....he was not pleased by Mo Yan's return.
Behind him, the chamber lay in utter ruin. Broken objects scattered across the floor. A figure stepped silently into the room, walking over the debris without hesitation.
Clad in pitch-black robes, the stranger seemed born from devil.
Kinji Yo turned...and upon seeing the man's face, his expression bloomed with sinister joy, as if he'd been waiting for this very person all along.
Who was he?
Only Kinji Yo knew.
The man spoke with a calm, deep voice...one that cut like a saw slowly slicing through a tree trunk:
"Master… do not trouble yourself.
As long as I exist…
Nobody can spoil anything ."
His smile was terrifying.....like the devil himself had chosen to wear human skin.
Hands folded behind his back, he stood with ease, as if he were entirely at peace in this dark, crumbling chamber.
With just those few words, the man turned and walked out...humming a haunting tune, as though he couldn't care less about the storm inside.
But Master Kinji Yo stood trembling.
His body betrayed him...shaking, cold… afraid.
---
Meanwhile, far from the chaos, Mo Yan and the others had reached the sacred grounds nestled within the Seven Mountains.....guided without pause by the path of the ever-drifting blue butterfly…