Chapter 98
The ruins did not release them easily.
Even after the false Shenping collapsed into nothingness, the valley remained tense, stone grinding softly against stone as if reluctant to accept the absence. Dust hung in the air longer than it should have, motes refusing to settle, suspended by residual distortions that bent light and sound alike.
Mu Chen was the first to move.
"Do not linger," he said. "Imitation never comes alone."
Lin Yue tightened her grip around Shenping's arm. "You're bleeding."
"I've had worse," Shenping replied, though his head throbbed and the pull still hummed sharply in his chest.
Wei Han kicked at a loose stone, watching it skip unnaturally far before vanishing into a shimmer. "This place is a nightmare. Even my instruments don't agree on which direction is forward."
"That's because forward died here," Mu Chen said. "Follow my steps exactly."
They moved.
Every footfall felt deliberate, as though the ground might reject them if they misplaced their weight. In some areas, the ruins seemed to slide subtly, streets stretching or compressing by imperceptible amounts. Shenping felt the pull react each time they crossed an invisible boundary, tightening briefly before relaxing again.
As they passed between two collapsed towers, Lin Yue slowed. "Someone lived here."
"Millions," Mu Chen replied.
Wei Han frowned. "Past tense?"
Mu Chen nodded. "Erased. Their descendants never happened."
Shenping stopped.
The pull spiked violently, a sharp lance of pressure driving into his sternum. His breath caught, vision blurring as overlapping images flooded his sight.
A city whole and alive.
Crowded streets, voices layered over one another, banners snapping in the wind. Cultivators standing atop towers, forcing the sky itself to bend.
Then—
Silence.
A sudden, catastrophic absence.
Shenping dropped to one knee, hands braced against the stone. Lin Yue knelt beside him instantly.
"What did you see?" she asked.
Mu Chen's gaze sharpened. "The echo surfaced."
Shenping swallowed hard. "They tried to stack time."
"Yes," Mu Chen said. "And time collapsed under the weight."
Wei Han shuddered. "Note to self: never stack time."
The ground trembled faintly.
Not like an earthquake.
Like something shifting its attention.
Mu Chen straightened. "We are not alone."
From the far end of the ruined avenue, figures began to emerge.
They did not step from distortions.
They simply appeared, as if the ruins themselves had decided to remember them.
Five figures.
Human in shape, but wrong in detail—movements too synchronized, heads tilting at identical angles, eyes reflecting the same dull sheen.
Different shells this time.
Older.
More refined.
Wei Han's voice dropped. "Upgraded units."
The central figure raised a hand. The air rippled outward in a controlled wave, pressing against the group like a physical force.
Lin Yue planted her feet, blade half-drawn. "They're pinning the space."
Mu Chen's expression darkened. "They've learned."
The figure spoke, voice layered, multiple tones harmonizing unnaturally. "Shenping. You continue to exceed projected variance."
Shenping forced himself upright. "You're persistent."
"Correction," the figure replied. "We are adaptive."
The pull surged in response, reacting to the overlapping voices and forced alignment of probability. Shenping felt pain flare along his meridians, blood roaring in his ears.
Mu Chen stepped forward. "This place rejects you."
The figure's gaze shifted to him. "You are an unresolved anomaly from a deprecated system."
Mu Chen smiled coldly. "And yet you keep stepping where you don't belong."
The figure's hand clenched.
The ruins screamed.
Stone tore free from the ground, lifting into the air as gravity buckled. Broken pillars twisted, overlapping with their own shadows, forming jagged constructs that hovered menacingly.
Wei Han swore loudly. "They're weaponizing the environment!"
Lin Yue lunged.
Her blade flashed, cutting through the air toward the nearest construct. The strike landed true, steel biting into stone—but the moment it did, the construct split, duplicating itself mid-impact.
Lin Yue was forced back as two blades of stone crashed down where one had been.
Mu Chen struck the ground with his staff.
The land resisted.
The response was sluggish, delayed, as if the valley hesitated to choose a side.
"They've contaminated the fault," Mu Chen muttered.
The figures advanced in unison.
Each step they took left overlapping footprints, impressions that flickered between positions before settling. The pressure increased, compressing the space around Shenping until breathing became difficult.
The pull screamed.
Shenping gritted his teeth, forcing himself to focus. He felt it clearly now—the way their presence tried to force him into a fixed outcome, a resolved state that could be measured and predicted.
He refused.
The pressure buckled.
The nearest figure faltered, its step stuttering as its projected path destabilized. Wei Han seized the moment, hurling a compact device that detonated in a burst of spatial noise.
The figure's shell cracked, fragments shearing away as internal systems struggled to compensate.
Mu Chen moved instantly, staff sweeping through the fractured space. This time, the blow landed.
The figure collapsed, its form unraveling into inert debris.
The others adjusted immediately, spreading out, angles shifting to surround them.
Lin Yue spun, intercepting an attack aimed at Shenping's blind side. Steel rang against condensed energy, sparks spraying as she held her ground.
"Too many!" Wei Han shouted.
Mu Chen's voice cut through the chaos. "Shenping!"
Shenping understood.
He stepped forward into the tightening pressure, every instinct screaming at him to retreat. The pull surged violently, pain ripping through his body as he let it rise—not as power, not as dominance, but as contradiction.
The valley answered.
Space warped outward from Shenping, the pressure reversing sharply. The attacking figures staggered as their forced alignment unraveled, paths diverging uncontrollably.
One figure screamed as its shell split apart, unable to reconcile the conflicting outcomes.
Another attempted to retreat—
And vanished as the ground folded inward beneath it, swallowing the distortion whole.
The central figure remained.
Its form flickered violently, layers peeling back to reveal something darker beneath the human shell. "You destabilize projection," it said, voice distorted.
Shenping met its gaze. "Good."
He took another step.
The pull collapsed inward, a vacuum of denied resolution. The figure convulsed, shell cracking from the inside out as its future paths canceled one another.
Mu Chen struck.
The staff pierced through the collapsing shell, shattering the core.
The figure dissolved, its remnants sinking into the stone like ash into water.
Silence fell heavily.
The ruins groaned as the land slowly settled, distortions smoothing out with visible reluctance. Shenping staggered, knees buckling as the backlash hit.
Lin Yue caught him, arms tight around his shoulders. "You're pushing too far."
Mu Chen watched the ruins carefully. "He doesn't have a choice."
Wei Han leaned against a broken wall, breathing hard. "Please tell me that was the last of them."
Mu Chen shook his head. "No. But they won't return here."
"Why not?" Lin Yue asked.
Mu Chen's gaze swept the valley. "Because this place has made a decision."
The ground trembled faintly, deeper than before, as if acknowledging the statement.
Shenping looked out over the ruins, the pull finally easing into a low, constant hum.
"They're adapting to me," he said quietly.
"Yes," Mu Chen replied. "And you are adapting faster."
Wei Han forced a weak grin. "That's… comforting. In a terrifying way."
Mu Chen turned toward the eastern horizon. "We leave now. Others will feel what happened here."
Lin Yue helped Shenping to his feet. "Where do we go?"
Mu Chen's expression was grave. "Somewhere they cannot imitate."
The valley rumbled once more, then fell silent.
Behind them, the ruins began to sink, stone dissolving into earth as the land slowly erased the last evidence of what had once tried to defy time.
Ahead, the path twisted into uncertainty.
And Shenping walked it, the pull steady in his chest, knowing the future was no longer chasing him quietly.