The deeper they walked into Ghost Weep Pass, the colder it became. The mist here was thick and unnatural, swirling like gray soup. It dampened their clothes and seeped into their bones.
"My toes... I can't feel my toes!" Bo whined, hugging himself. His colorful robes were now stained with mud, and his face was blue with cold. "Boss, are we there yet? If I freeze to death, who will guide you? Who will tell the world of your greatness?"
Kaelen walked ahead, unbothered. The Dragon Spirit Ocean inside him generated a constant low heat, keeping him warm. Rai, the little hawk, was tucked safely inside Kaelen's collar, peeking out with one golden eye.
"We stop when we find shelter," Kaelen said, his voice cutting through the wind. "The night wind in this pass carries Yin Poison. If we sleep in the open, we won't wake up."
"Yin Poison?" Bo's teeth chattered. "You know a lot of scary things for a country boy."
Kaelen didn't answer. He was scanning the cliff walls. In his past life, he had studied the geography of the Mortal Realms. He knew that ancient sects often built outposts in places like this—hidden sanctuaries for training.
"There," Kaelen pointed.
About fifty feet up the cliff face, half-hidden by dead vines, was a dark opening. It wasn't a natural cave. The edges were too straight.
"Climb," Kaelen ordered.
"Climb? Me?" Bo slapped his belly. "Boss, look at this physique! I am built for rolling, not climbing!"
Kaelen sighed. He grabbed Bo by the back of his collar.
Whoosh!
Kaelen leaped. With a single burst of Qi, he defied gravity, running up the vertical wall while dragging the screaming fat man.
They landed on the ledge.
The entrance was flanked by two statues. They were headless stone monks, holding bowls in their hands.
"Creepy," Bo shivered, hiding behind Kaelen. "This place smells like ghosts."
"It smells like history," Kaelen corrected.
He walked inside.
...
The Interior.
The cave opened up into a large, circular hall carved directly into the mountain. The ceiling was high, covered in glowing moss that provided a dim, green light. In the center of the hall stood a massive stone altar.
But what caught Kaelen's eye was the Door behind the altar.
It was a massive slab of black metal, covered in shifting, glowing runes. There was no keyhole.
"A Spirit Lock," Kaelen analyzed. "This was a meditation chamber for a high-level cultivator from the Ancient Era."
Bo forgot his fear instantly. His eyes turned into gold coins.
"Ancient Era?" Bo drooled. "That means treasure! Ancient pills! Weapons! Boss, open it! Smash it!"
Bo ran to the door and kicked it.
Thud.
"Ow!" Bo hopped on one foot, clutching his toes. "It's hard!"
"It is Star-Metal," Kaelen said, walking to the door. He ran his hand over the glowing runes. "Brute force will trigger a self-destruct mechanism. It requires a key. A mental key."
The runes were a puzzle. They depicted the phases of the moon and the flow of rivers. To a normal person, it was nonsense. But to Kaelen, who had helped design similar arrays in the Divine Realm, it was child's play.
'The river flows east, the moon waxes west.'
Kaelen pressed three specific runes in a rapid sequence.
Click. Whirrr. Clack.
The heavy metal door groaned. Dust fell from the ceiling. Slowly, agonizingly, the door slid open.
Bo's jaw dropped. "How... how did you guess that?"
"I didn't guess," Kaelen walked inside. "I listened."
...
The Secret Chamber.
The room inside was small and modest. There was no mountain of gold. There was only a skeleton sitting in the lotus position on a straw mat.
The skeleton held a wooden box in its lap.
"No gold?" Bo looked devastated. "Just a bag of bones? What a rip-off!"
Kaelen bowed respectfully to the skeleton. "Rest in peace, Senior."
He gently took the wooden box. Inside was a single, dried-up seed. It looked dead.
"A dead seed?" Bo cried. "That's it?"
"This is a Dragon-Blood Tree Seed," Kaelen whispered, his heart beating faster. "If planted and watered with spirit liquid, it grows fruit that can rebuild flesh and bone. It is priceless."
He tucked the seed away. This would be useful for his mother.
"Let's rest here," Kaelen said. "The door will protect us from the wind."
They started a small fire using dried moss. The warmth filled the small stone room. Rai hopped out and started eating a piece of dried meat Kaelen offered.
Kaelen sat by the fire, the orange light dancing on his face. He looked at Bo.
"Now," Kaelen said, his voice calm but firm. "Show me what you stole."
Bo froze. He was chewing on a piece of bread. He looked at Kaelen, then at the dark entrance, realizing there was nowhere to run.
"You really want to know?" Bo asked, his voice losing its usual joking tone. "Once you see it... you become a target. The City Lord will hunt you to the ends of the earth."
"I am already a target," Kaelen replied.
Bo sighed. He reached into his dirty boot—a hiding place no one would check—and pulled out a small, black ledger.
It wasn't a magical item. It was just a book.
Bo handed it to Kaelen.
"I was robbing the City Lord's private study," Bo explained quietly. "I was looking for gems. But I found this hidden in a safe wall. I thought it was a bank book. But when I read it..."
Kaelen opened the ledger.
It was a list.
A list of names, dates, and prices.
Entry 402: Female, Age 16, Fire Affinity. Sold to the Western Mines. Price: 500 Stones.
Entry 403: Male, Age 10, Strong Bone Structure. Sold to the Blood Arena. Price: 300 Stones.
Kaelen's hands began to shake.
This wasn't just corruption. This was Human Trafficking. The City Lord of Mist City was capturing citizens—people with special talents or bloodlines—and selling them like cattle.
And the buyer?
Every page was stamped with a red symbol.
A black sun partially covered by a moon.
The Eclipse.
"They are harvesting people," Bo whispered, staring into the fire. "They take orphans, wanderers, people no one will miss. And they send them to the Endless Sea."
Kaelen flipped the pages furiously. He was looking for a date. Ten years ago.
He stopped.
Entry 105: Female, Age 30. Unknown High-Level Bloodline. Captured near Silver-Iron Estate.
Destination: The Black Whirlpool - Laboratory 4.
Status: Priority Subject.
Kaelen stopped breathing.
It was her. His mother.
She wasn't dead. She wasn't just a prisoner. She was a "Subject" in a laboratory.
CRACK!
The heavy leather book in Kaelen's hand crinkled under his grip. The temperature in the room plummeted. The fire flickered and turned blue.
Bo scrambled back against the wall, terrified. "Boss? You... your eyes..."
Kaelen's eyes were no longer human. They were glowing vertical slits of pure, abyssal rage. A black aura, thick like tar, began to leak from his body. It was the Killing Intent of a God Emperor who had just found the people who hurt his family.
Rai screeched in alarm, flapping his wings.
"Laboratory 4..." Kaelen's voice sounded like grinding metal. "They turned my mother... into a lab rat."
He stood up. The stone floor beneath his feet cracked.
"Boss, calm down!" Bo shouted. "You'll bring the cave down on us!"
Kaelen closed his eyes. He took a deep, shuddering breath. He forced the monster back into the cage.
When he opened his eyes again, they were tired, sad, but human.
"Bo," Kaelen said softly.
"Y-Yes?"
"You did a good thing stealing this. You didn't just steal money. You stole the truth."
Kaelen placed the ledger into his chest pocket, right next to his heart.
"The City Lord... The Eclipse... they think people are commodities. They think the weak are food."
Kaelen walked to the entrance of the cave and looked out at the storm raging in the pass.
"I will burn their laboratories," Kaelen vowed to the darkness. "I will shatter their chains. And I will make them regret the day they learned to write these names."
Suddenly, a strange sound came from the back of the cave, near the skeleton.
Hummmm.
The skeleton's finger bone moved.
Bo screamed like a little girl. "The ghost! The ghost is awake!"
Kaelen turned. He didn't draw his sword. He sensed no malice.
A faint, blue projection—a Remnant Soul—floated up from the skeleton. It was an old man, translucent and fading.
The ghost looked at Kaelen. It didn't look at Bo.
"You..." the ghost's voice echoed in their minds. "You practice the Abyssal Dragon Scripture?"
Kaelen stiffened. This was his biggest secret.
"Who asks?" Kaelen replied.
"I am the guardian of this pass," the ghost sighed. "I died waiting for a successor. Boy... the path you walk is cursed. The Abyssal Dragon consumes the world, but eventually... it consumes the user."
The ghost pointed a spectral finger at Kaelen's heart.
"Beware the Fourth Seal. If you open it without a heart of light... you will become the very monster you seek to destroy."
The ghost flickered.
"Take the seed. Heal the world. Do not eat it."
With those final words, the ghost dissolved into motes of light, which drifted into Kaelen's forehead.
Flash.
Information flooded Kaelen's mind. It wasn't a technique. It was a Map of the Pass, showing a hidden shortcut that bypassed all the beasts and traps.
Kaelen stood silent for a moment, absorbing the warning.
"He said you will become a monster," Bo whispered, looking at Kaelen with fear. "Is it true?"
Kaelen looked at the fat thief. He looked at the hawk. He felt the ledger against his chest.
"Maybe," Kaelen said, sitting back down by the fire. "But as long as I have friends to pull me back... I will just be Kaelen."
He poked the fire with a stick.
"Sleep, Bo. Tomorrow, we take the shortcut. We have a City Lord to visit before we leave for the sea."
"Visit?" Bo asked, his eyes wide. "You want to go back to the City Lord?"
"We aren't going to have tea," Kaelen smiled, a smile that promised violence. "We are going to rob him."
Bo's fear vanished instantly. "Rob him? Oh! Now you're speaking my language! How much gold does he have?"
"Enough to buy a ship," Kaelen said.
The night deepened. Outside, the wind howled. Inside, a Dragon, a Thief, and a Hawk planned a heist that would shake the foundations of Mist City.