By the time the sun reached its zenith, the Gale Mountains had swallowed the world. Peaks like jagged teeth cut into the clouds, and the air grew thin enough that every breath tasted of frost and dust.
Lin Dong and Li Yan climbed in silence. The trail was gone now — only shards of stone and sheer cliffs remained. Below them, mist swirled like a sea.
"We've been walking for hours," Li Yan muttered, pulling her cloak tighter. "Are you sure this cavern even exists?"
Lin Dong didn't answer immediately. He pulled the jade shard from his belt — the one given to him by the old stranger — and held it up to the light. The crack across its surface glowed faintly, pulsing like a heartbeat.
"It's guiding us," he said softly.
The shard's light shimmered toward a distant cliff face, half-hidden by a waterfall that cascaded into nothingness. The sound of it filled the air — deep, endless, ancient.
As they drew closer, Li Yan's eyes widened.
"There's… something behind the falls."
Through the shimmering curtain of water, faint carvings were visible — dragons, their scales etched in curling spirals that glowed faintly beneath the spray.
Lin Dong approached, the jade in his hand thrumming harder now. The air changed — thicker, heavier, charged with spirit energy that made his skin prickle.
"This is it," he whispered. "The Stone Dragon Cavern."
He stepped through the waterfall. The cold hit him like a shock, but beyond it was a vast chamber that swallowed all sound. The walls glimmered with veins of crystal, and at the center stood a massive stone dragon, coiled around a pedestal that rose from the ground like a heart of earth.
Its eyes were shut, its expression serene — but even carved from rock, it radiated life.
Li Yan stepped in behind him, awestruck. "This… isn't manmade."
"No," Lin Dong said. "This is older than any sect."
The jade shard in his hand began to vibrate violently. He set it onto the pedestal — and the reaction was immediate.
The dragon's eyes opened.
A deep, rumbling growl rolled through the cavern, not from its throat but from the world itself. The walls trembled. Dust rained from above. The carvings along the dragon's body lit up in lines of molten gold, tracing ancient sigils that wound toward the floor.
Li Yan stumbled back, shouting over the noise.
"What's happening?!"
"It's reacting to the rune!" Lin Dong shouted back.
The mark on his chest began to burn — searing, alive. Light poured from beneath his skin, matching the rhythm of the dragon's glow.
Then came the voice.
Not spoken — resonating. A sound that filled the mind rather than the ears.
"Bearer of the Seal… why do you wake the slumbering gate?"
Lin Dong froze. The sound was everywhere — in the stones, in the water dripping from the ceiling, in his bones.
"Who… are you?" he managed.
"The guardian left behind when the world was young," the voice said. "I am the memory of the Dragon Ancients, bound to test those who would wield their power."
The dragon's stone claws flexed, grinding against the pedestal. Its eyes, glowing like molten suns, fixed on Lin Dong.
"You carry the mark of the Heavenly Talisman Seal. Its light has not shone for a thousand years. Tell me — are you its heir… or its doom?"
Li Yan's bow was half-raised, but Lin Dong lifted a hand. "I don't know what I am. But this mark chose me. If it's power you're guarding, I need it — to protect those I love, and to stop what's coming."
The dragon's gaze deepened, ancient and unfathomable.
"Protection. Always the excuse of the untested. Power hungers, boy. And it always feeds first on those who think themselves righteous."
Its massive head lowered, the cavern shaking as the creature's stone breath rolled over him.
"Prove your will. Prove you can bear the weight."
The pedestal split open, revealing a circular pool of still water — perfectly reflective, like a mirror of glass. The dragon's voice rumbled again:
"Step into the heart of memory. If your soul falters, the Talisman will consume you."
Lin Dong hesitated, glancing at Li Yan.
"Don't," she said immediately. "You barely survived the last surge. You don't even know what's in there."
"That's why I have to go," he said quietly. "If I can't face this, I'll never control it."
She looked at him for a long moment — saw the determination, the stubborn spark that nothing could shake — and finally lowered her bow.
"Then come back alive, idiot."
He managed a faint smile. "I'll try."
And then he stepped forward — into the water.
The surface rippled once, swallowing him whole.
The world inverted.
Darkness rushed in from every direction, folding reality into shadow and light. When it cleared, Lin Dong was standing in a vast void — an endless expanse of floating stone fragments, each one carved with shifting runes.
Above him, the stone dragon was gone — replaced by a swirling vortex of energy, golden and black, constantly shifting between creation and destruction.
From the fragments around him, shadows began to rise.
Each one wore his face.
Each one carried his sword.
Each one whispered with his voice:
"You seek control. But you can't even control yourself."
The air filled with echoes, growing louder — hundreds of him, laughing, accusing, taunting.
"You say it's for protection. You crave power. You want to be seen. To prove you're more than a forgotten son."
Lin Dong gritted his teeth. "That's not true."
"Isn't it?"
The shadows drew their blades in unison, their eyes glowing with the same mark that burned on his chest.
"Face yourself, bearer of the Seal. Only one Lin Dong leaves this place alive."
And then they attacked — a storm of motion and light.
The battle had begun.