We followed the trail of scorched earth and broken bounty contracts deeper into the forest's southern vein. My jade core pulsed with each step, not in warning, but in recognition. Something below us was resonating.
Seris knelt and touched the earth, her eyes narrowing. "Blood in the soil. Old… ritual blood."
"From what?" I asked.
She stood slowly, pointing to a craggy cliff wall veined with black quartz. "Not what. Who."
A glimmer caught my eye, faint, but deliberate. A sigil, etched in the stone.
[Detected: Forbidden Emblem - Severed Vein Sect]
[Status: Underground Cult - Core Harvesters]
[Threat Level: High]
[Risk: Hostile to all System-bearers]
"I thought this sect was wiped out," Seris muttered.
"Guess they missed a vein."
We descended through a hidden crack in the rock. The air grew colder, thicker, steeped in stale Qi and smoke. Torches lined the walls below, but their flames flickered strangely, as if resisting being seen.
[Area Effect Detected: Veil of Silence]
[System Tracking: Disrupted - Combat Prediction Offline]
I clenched my jaw. "They don't just want to hide. They want us blind."
At the base of the tunnel, a carved stone door greeted us. Old blood crusted its base. Carvings showed figures kneeling before a pillar made of twisted spines. And at the center of that pillar… a face, my face.
Seris hissed. "Jin…"
I stepped closer. The depiction was stylized, but unmistakable: my hair, my mark, even the same jade hue in the embedded gem on the forehead. Below it, an inscription read:
"The First Rebellion Shall Be Culled. The Broken One Must Die."
My system buzzed back online for a moment.
[System Update: New World Doctrine Detected]
[Severed Vein Prophecy - Target: Jin Ranziel]
[Bonus Objective: Survive Ritual Hunt - Reward Multiplier Active]
"They built a religion around killing me," I muttered.
Seris touched my arm. "That means they fear you."
The door groaned open. We stepped into a chamber lit by violet flame. Rows of cloaked disciples knelt in a circle around a pit of black liquid. At the center stood a tall figure, silver-masked, arms outstretched. He spoke with a voice like gravel and wind:
"The Heavenmarked walks among us. Let the Hunt begin."
Dozens of heads turned in unison. I raised my blade.
[Enemies Detected: 32]
[Elite Hostile: 1 - Sect Highblade - Tier 4.0]
[Loot Matrix Access: Full]
[New Skill Thread Available: Phantom Parry + Voidstep = Mirage Feint]
Accepted.
The first wave surged forward, brandishing hooked weapons, spirit ropes, and red-tagged curse talismans. I blinked through three at once, leaving behind only afterimages. Mirage Feint activated. The illusions they struck burst with flashfire, disorienting them. Seris went low, two daggers sweeping the legs out from under one disciple, slashing another across the throat. I rammed my jade blade through a third, then twisted left to catch a blow aimed for her blind spot.
[Chain Kill Bonus - Damage Increased +7% for 10 seconds]
[Loot Extracted: Sect Binding Thread - Rare]
The pit began to churn. The Highblade stepped forward. His mask glowed as he summoned a blade made entirely of severed spirit chains.
"You wear rebellion like armor," he said, voice echoing unnaturally. "But rebellion ends in blood."
"I'm used to bleeding."
We clashed. His blade howled. Mine screamed. And the cavern shook. He was fast. Smarter than the rest. His strikes curved unnaturally, following spirit patterns instead of direct paths. Twice, he nearly broke my guard. But I let the pressure build, the tension rise, until the system buzzed again:
[Thread Fusion Suggestion: Spirit Pulse Blade + Phantom Parry = Vortex Guard]
➤ Creates a defensive cyclone that reflects 50% incoming force while slashing nearby enemies.
Accepted.
The moment his blade came down, my Vortex Guard flared, a spinning cyclone of jade light that threw him backward and shredded the three cultists nearest me. I dashed forward and drove my blade through his chest. His mask cracked.
"Why… do you walk this path?" he rasped.
"Because I make the rules now."
[Highblade Defeated - Loot Matrix Sync Complete]
[New Thread Claimed: Sect Suppression Token - Allows domain overwrite of Severed Vein territory]
[Faction Influence Gained: +2 Regions]
[Cult Doctrine Collapsing - Survivors fleeing]
I stood over his twitching body as the disciples scattered like insects. Seris wiped blood from her neck and smirked. "You're getting good at starting religions."
"Only the kind that end in fire."
As the flames spread across the chamber, the system unlocked the final bonus:
[Fate Sync Fragment Absorbed - 2/5 Collected]
[Bonus Activated: Jade Path Retaliation - For every ambush survived, increase loot yield and core experience by +12% for 12 hours.]
We emerged from the tunnels into nightfall. The stars above seemed… quieter. Or maybe I was just learning how to hear them. Either way, I knew one thing for sure: The world had already written my ending. I just hadn't read it yet. We'd barely made camp before the sky started bleeding. Not literally, but close enough. A streak of black lightning tore across the clouds, silent and pulsing with unnatural energy. The system didn't register it as weather. It registered it as hostile intent.
[Outer System Beacon Detected]
[Faction: Null Path - Rank: Forbidden]
[Status: Contact Imminent]
[Warning: Jade Path Resistance: Moderate]
I stood slowly, jade blade resting across my knees. Seris tilted her head toward the horizon. "You feel that too?"
"Yeah. Something unnatural is crossing the boundary."
The air rippled, then… they appeared, simply existing, as if the world had forgotten they weren't there before. Five figures. Tall, masked, draped in robes stitched from shadows and lined with silver runes. They carried no weapons. But their presence pressed against my skull like gravity turned hostile. The one in front spoke. A woman, I thought, though the mask distorted her voice like it was echoing through a canyon.
"Jin Ranziel. We've come to deliver your offer."
I didn't move. "I didn't ask for one."
She tilted her head.
"No. But the Outer System noticed you. The mirrors reported your divergence. You pierced a core wall before the weave allowed it. That's… interesting."
Her fingers twitched and a sigil appeared in the air, three interlocking triangles, rotating slowly in reverse. Seris stepped beside me, her blades drawn.
"Who are you people?"
"We are the hands behind the screens. The Ones Beyond Sequence. The Null Path."
"And what do you want with him?"
"To see if he belongs to us… or must be deleted."
I grinned.
"I've been called a lot of things. But never corrupted code."
The masked woman stepped closer.
"You walk the Jade Path. Alone. Unbounded. That makes you a candidate."
"For what?"
"Ascension. Outside the rules. Into the Wild Code."
The system pulsed:
[Branch Opportunity Detected: Outer System Path - Null Affinity]
[Warning: Choosing this path locks out Fate Sync rewards and normal Tier Breakthroughs]
[Perk: Reality Warp Traits + Forbidden Threadcrafting Unlocked]
[Drawback: Every existing faction becomes hostile]
Seris read my expression. "Don't you dare."
I chuckled. "Relax. I like enemies, but not the entire realm."
The woman sighed. "A shame."
She raised her hand. And the sky shattered. A jagged rend in space cracked above us, black threads of data spilling from it like blood from a wound.
[Emergency Protocol Activated: Jade Path Defense - Core Shield Engaged]
[Threat: Tier 5 Anomaly Spawn Incoming]
I grabbed Seris and leapt backward as something crawled through the rift. It wasn't a beast. It wasn't a spirit. It was… wrong. Twisted limbs, eyes where skin should be, a jaw that split open sideways. And it wore my face.
[Corrupted Echo Spawn - Identity Hijack Variant]
[Tier: 4.9]
[Immunity: Reflection, Illusion, Fear-type Effects]
[Weakness: Anchor Stability - Must be severed manually]
I launched forward, system flaring.
[Thread Fusion Activated: Voidflare Dive + Phantom Parry = Ghost Spiral]
➤ Teleport to target's anchor point and strike with temporal feedback
"Let's see what you're made of."
I vanished from where I stood. Reappeared beneath the Echo Spawn, blade already spinning in a cyclone. Ghost Spiral struck. The creature howled in six different pitches at once, its anchor core blinking red inside its chest.
[Critical Window Open - 6 Seconds]
I stabbed hard, straight through the fake me's heart. The creature exploded in a cloud of inverted light.
[Corrupted Echo Destroyed]
[Jade Path Purity Restored]
[Threadcrafting Unlocked: Echo Memory Shard]
[Skill Acquired: Echo Burn (Passive) - All doppelgänger-type foes take 20% extra damage]
The masked figures didn't flinch. But the leader tilted her head again.
"You've made your choice."
"Wasn't hard," I said.
She turned.
"We'll see if it holds… when your real Echo comes."
Then they were gone. Like, just… erased.
Seris sat heavily on a broken stump. "Outer System. Null Path. That's real?"
I nodded. "Too real."
"What now?"
I opened the system map.
[New Objective Unlocked: Vault of Stolen Realms]
[Location: Obsidian Dunes - 170 km southwest]
[Status: Contains Tier Break Catalyst + Worldshard Fragment]
"Now?" I said, standing slowly.
"We hunt something bigger."
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