The halls of the Shadow Sect were still and quiet—too quiet.
Liu Shen stood in the heart of the Ravine's flame-forged sanctum, his hand pressed against the old envoy seal.
It was still warm.
Someone had touched it.
> "Whoever broke this," he said, "knows exactly what it was meant to contain."
Lei Qing stepped forward, eyes narrowed.
> "We sealed that chamber with sovereign-grade inscription. Only someone inside the Sect could have undone it."
Liu Shen said nothing—but flame curled along his fingertips.
---
Gathering the Shadows
By nightfall, every new member stood in the ravine's lower courtyard.
Thirty-five outcasts.
Thirty-five survivors.
> "One of you broke a vow you haven't even sworn," Liu Shen said, his voice cold.
> "One of you sent a message to the heavens."
Silence.
Yu Meixing stepped forward, raising a thread of qi. It shimmered into a floating sigil—a rune traced by the Heaven's Mirror Network. Traced magic. Divine contact.
They all saw it.
> "We are hunted," she said, "because someone among us thinks the heavens will offer mercy."
Liu Shen's voice rang out again.
> "The first trial of this sect is not cultivation."
> "It is loyalty."
---
The Shadow Stone
He summoned a shard of black crystal—a Shadow Stone, relic of the Abyss Trials. Its surface pulsed with soul energy.
> "Place your hand upon it. If your intent toward the Sect is pure, it will remain cold."
> "If not… it will show you what you fear most."
The trial began.
One by one, each disciple stepped forward. Most passed. Some trembled, but the stone stayed cold.
Until the twenty-ninth.
A lean youth with serpent tattoos and an arrogant grin. He touched the stone—
And screamed.
The air filled with the scent of burning spirit.
The vision of his fear — being exposed, hunted, torn apart by celestial hounds — shone for all to see.
Liu Shen stepped forward.
> "You made your choice."
> "Now I'll make mine."
---
Mercy? No. Message.
The youth knelt, pleading. "Please—Heaven promised they'd spare me if I told them where you were."
Liu Shen crouched before him.
> "And did they?"
He turned his palm up.
A flame no larger than a fingernail appeared.
He placed it on the boy's heart.
> fwoosh.
No scream.
Only silence as the body burned into blackened ash—absorbed into the ravine's roots.
> "Let this be your first lesson," Liu Shen said to the Sect.
> "Mercy is a luxury of the strong."
> "We are not strong yet."
---
Eyes from Afar
Far above, hidden in a shattered sky realm, Jian Xu opened his eyes.
> "So… he's begun gathering them."
Beside him, the Envoy of Silence knelt, her skin wrapped in silver curses.
> "Shall I intervene?"
> "No," Jian Xu said, smiling coldly.
> "Let him gather his little shadows."
> "The deeper the roots, the greater the fire when we burn them."