The mist had not yet lifted when Li Feng emerged from the forest's edge.
Dew clung to his torn sleeves, reflecting the faint silver of dawn. Every breath left trails of frost — remnants of the night's shadow energy still coiling around him.
He moved without sound, deeper into the ravine behind the sect. Few disciples dared to enter this place; the air was thick with the remnants of failed formations and forbidden seals. But for Li Feng, it was perfect.
The shadows whispered as he walked.
> [Status Update]
Vitality: 89%
Shadow Contamination: 15%
Core Stability: 82%
Warning: Instability threshold approaching.
He exhaled slowly.
"The contamination rises faster each time," he murmured. "At this rate, even my consciousness may fracture."
> [Recommendation: Initiate Controlled Assimilation Protocol.]
[Objective: Establish equilibrium between host and Hunter essence.]
[Success Probability: 42%. Failure Consequence: Complete Core Collapse.]
Li Feng's eyes flickered silver. "Forty-two percent... good enough."
He reached a clearing where the old spirit spring once flowed — now long dried, reduced to a cracked basin of blackened stone.
He sat cross-legged in the center, his aura slowly spreading outward.
The shadow beneath him expanded, silent and liquid, swallowing the cracks, the stones, the faint morning light.
> [Skill Activated: Shadow Domain — Full Resonance Mode.]
[Effect: Boundary between host and external void thinned.]
[Risk: Psychological Corruption — High.]
The world melted into darkness.
He floated in a space of shifting whispers, surrounded by fragments of memory — faces, screams, shards of broken sect sigils.
In the distance, a pair of silver eyes opened.
A voice followed — his own, but deeper, distorted by layers of abyssal echo.
"You keep running from what you are."
Li Feng clenched his fists. "You're the Hunter core speaking?"
"I am what remains of it. The part that survived assimilation. The will that devours."
The darkness pulsed. A thousand fragments of himself flickered — each one dying, consumed, reborn.
"You think you can contain us, little vessel? You are already the shadow."
He took a breath, steady but sharp. "No. I am the collector. You are the collected."
He raised his hand — energy threads of pure starlight flickered within his veins.
He willed the System awake.
[Emergency Protocol: Attribute Collector — Override Sequence]
[Source: Shadowborne Essence]
[Target: Abyssal Fragment — Hunter Will]
[Initiating Absorption…]
A scream tore through the void.
The darkness surged upward, trying to swallow him whole, but Li Feng stood unmoving, eyes blazing with twin lights — silver and pale blue, heaven and shadow intertwined.
> [Assimilation Progress: 12%... 29%... 47%...]
[Warning: Emotional collapse detected.]
[Countermeasure: Memory Lock Engaged.]
His memories flickered — Yu Qingxue's face, the sect, the day they called him "defective."
All of it blurred.
For a moment, he was nothing but instinct — the predator within the dark.
Then, silence.
When his eyes opened again, the basin was gone. The mist hung motionless. The world itself seemed afraid to breathe.
> [Assimilation Complete — 61%.]
[Status: Stabilized.]
[New Skill Acquired: Abyssal Recall.]
[Effect: Manifest memory echoes of consumed entities within Shadow Domain.]
Li Feng rose slowly. The shadows beneath him no longer resisted — they obeyed.
He clenched his fist, and the ground rippled as spectral silhouettes formed: shapes of cultivators, long dead, eyes hollow but kneeling before him.
"Fragments of the Maze..." he whispered. "Now mine to command."
But even as power surged through him, a faint tremor crossed his expression. Somewhere deep inside, a whisper persisted — the same voice, fainter now, but still alive.
"You think you've won. But every shadow cast... belongs to the light that birthed it."
Li Feng's gaze darkened. "Then I'll extinguish the light as well."
He turned, the spectral echoes fading behind him.
Far away, bells tolled again — not for the dead this time, but for a summons.
[System Alert: High Council Convenes — Subject of interest: 'Anomaly from the Maze.']
[Prediction: Exposure Risk — Moderate.]
[Suggestion: Infiltrate council gathering under concealment protocol.]
Li Feng smiled faintly.
"Time to see what the elders fear most."
The shadow beneath his feet rippled like ink.
He vanished.
Meanwhile — Inner Court, Council Chamber
Supreme Elder Tian sat at the head of the stone dais. Around him, twelve elders formed a circle, their faces tense.
"The spiritual readings last night were clear," Elder Wu said. "A surge of abyssal energy near the southern ravine — identical to the Maze signature."
"Then he lives," Tian said softly.
Another elder scowled. "If the Shadowborne survived, we must seal the sect before the corruption spreads!"
But Tian merely smiled, eyes pale as frost.
"Seal the sect? Against what, exactly? Our own creation?"
The others fell silent.
"He will return," the Supreme Elder continued. "Not as an enemy. Not yet. Let him climb higher. Let him believe he's free."
His gaze drifted toward the mist-shrouded mountains.
"When the time comes, Heaven itself will kneel before the one we forged."
Back at the Ravine
Li Feng stood on the cliff's edge, the morning wind tugging at his robes.
He looked down at his hands — human skin fading in and out of translucent shadow.
[Shadow Contamination: Stabilized at 17%.]
[Energy Core: Dual-Type — Heavenly & Abyssal attributes harmonized.]
[Evolution Path Updated: "Collector of Dual Realms."]
He smiled, faint but resolute.
"The sect forged monsters to reach heaven. I'll show them what happens when heaven falls into shadow."
He stepped forward — and vanished once more.
The dawn broke, but the light felt colder than before.