The shadow's head continued to rise.
Lin Tianren didn't wait for it to reveal its face.
"Move!"
He pushed spiritual energy into his legs and lunged sideways. Gu Chen and Xia Qing reacted a fraction of a second later. The instant all three left their original positions, the ground where they'd been standing cracked open — not shattered, opened, a circle of black light spreading across the courtyard, perfectly smooth despite the rough stone beneath it.
Gu Chen's expression changed. "Formation!"
The word had barely left his mouth when the entire village trembled. The ancient pillar at the center of Moonfall lit up, the worn inscription carved into its surface glowing with dim, crimson radiance.
The same symbol he'd noticed earlier. The same one that had caused a reaction from his own bloodline.
**[Warning]**
**[Ancient Formation Detected]**
**[Formation Type: Unknown]**
**[Primary Function: Spatial Isolation]**
**[Secondary Function: Soul Detection]**
His expression hardened. "Soul detection?"
The system didn't answer immediately. Then another notification appeared.
**[Forty-Seven Spiritual Residues Confirmed]**
**[All Residues Are Connected To This Formation]**
His breathing stopped for half a second. "Forty-seven."
He looked toward the empty houses surrounding them — the abandoned meals, the untouched cultivation formations, the child's wooden toy, the drying herbs. None of it had been random. The village hadn't been abandoned. Its people had been taken.
The shadow finally stepped into the moonlight. A man, robes torn and stained with dried blood, dark veins spreading from his neck toward his jaw beneath the collar of his sect uniform.
Azure Dragon Immortal Sect. Lin Tianren recognized it immediately.
The man looked at them with exhausted eyes. "You should leave."
Gu Chen raised his sword. "You're one of our disciples."
The man gave a faint smile. "Was."
Xia Qing took a cautious step forward. "You were sent here before?"
"Three months ago."
Gu Chen's grip tightened. "Then why didn't you report back?"
The man laughed, no humor in it at all. "Because I never left."
Silence settled over the courtyard.
"You've been here for three months?" Lin Tianren asked.
"Not here." His eyes moved toward the pillar. "Below."
The ground trembled again. This time Lin Tianren felt something different — a pulse, coming from beneath the village. Once. Twice. Then again, like a heartbeat.
*Boom.*
"Did you feel that?" he asked.
Gu Chen nodded slowly. "Something beneath us."
"Now you understand," the wounded disciple said.
"What is beneath the village?"
"I don't know." His expression turned serious. "But I know what it does. It takes people."
Xia Qing's face paled. "The missing villagers—"
"Are alive." The answer came so fast none of them immediately reacted. "I've heard them. Every night."
"Where?" Lin Tianren pressed.
The man pointed at the ground. "Below us."
A low vibration passed through the village, and the formation brightened further. His expression changed. "It's starting again."
"What is?"
"The collection."
**[Warning]**
**[Soul Extraction Process Detected]**
"Everyone, get away from the formation!" Lin Tianren grabbed Xia Qing's shoulder and pulled her back. Gu Chen followed immediately.
The wounded disciple didn't move.
"You too!"
"I can't." He looked down at his own arms, black lines spreading beneath the skin. "I'm already connected."
Lin Tianren understood. The man wasn't simply injured. He was part of the formation.
The ground beneath him illuminated. A thin strand of crimson energy tore from his chest, his body jerking under it.
"Don't let it connect to you," he gritted out.
"How do we stop it?"
"You don't." He looked at Lin Tianren directly. "You survive it."
The crimson energy shot toward him without warning. The fox moved first, a flash of golden light crossing the courtyard, colliding with the strand in an invisible barrier.
*BOOM.*
The shockwave threw dust across the courtyard. Gu Chen stumbled. Xia Qing raised her artifact to shield her face. Lin Tianren stayed standing, eyes fixed on the fox.
For the briefest moment, its disguise slipped. Golden light surrounded its body, nine faint shadows flickering into view behind it — there for an instant, then gone.
Gu Chen stared. "What—"
Lin Tianren stepped in front of the fox immediately. "Defensive artifact."
"That was a defensive artifact?" Gu Chen's suspicion was plain.
"Yes." The answer came too fast, and he knew it. Xia Qing glanced between them but said nothing further.
The fox lowered its head, its true form staying hidden. For now.
The formation shifted, crimson light turning dark. The entire village went silent — even the insects stopped. Then a voice echoed from beneath the ground.
Not one voice. Dozens.
*Help us. Please. Someone. Please.*
Xia Qing covered her mouth. Gu Chen's face went pale. Lin Tianren stared at the ground, counting without meaning to.
Forty-seven voices. Exactly forty-seven.
**[Spiritual Residues Confirmed]**
**[Life Signs: Detected]**
His eyes widened. "They're alive."
"Yes," the wounded disciple confirmed.
"Then we're bringing them back."
The man looked at him like he'd said something impossible. "You don't understand. They aren't prisoners." A pause. "They're fuel."
The words settled heavily over the courtyard.
"What is the formation powering?" Lin Tianren asked, gaze returning to the pillar.
"I never reached the bottom."
"Why not?"
"Because the moment I entered the chamber below, something noticed me."
"What?"
Fear surfaced in the man's eyes for the first time. "I don't know. But it spoke."
"What did it say?"
His voice dropped to a whisper. "It called me... another offering."
The pieces settled into place all at once. Forty-seven villagers. Missing herb gatherers. An ancient formation. Sovereign-level energy. A disciple who'd vanished three months ago. Something beneath this village consuming spiritual energy on a schedule.
This wasn't a C-Rank investigation. It wasn't a normal mission at all.
Someone had classified it wrong on purpose.
*System.*
**[Awaiting Query]**
*Can you determine the formation's origin?*
A long pause followed.
**[Analysis in Progress]**
He waited. The system had never taken this long to answer something this simple.
**[Partial Identification Achieved]**
**[Formation Origin: Ancient Era]**
**[Classification: Sovereign-Level]**
**[Purpose: Unknown]**
"And the inscription?"
**[Matching Database Records...]**
**[No Complete Match]**
**[However, One Fragment Matches Host Bloodline Resonance]**
He froze, his heart tightening. The ancient symbol wasn't merely connected to the village. It was connected to him.
"DOWN!" the wounded disciple shouted.
Lin Tianren reacted instantly. A black spear of energy tore through the roof of the nearest house.
*BOOM.*
Wood exploded across the courtyard. Everyone scattered. Another spear struck the ground, then another. The formation was attacking them directly now.
Gu Chen swung his sword, cutting one projectile apart mid-flight. Xia Qing's artifact formed a translucent barrier around herself. Lin Tianren stepped forward as the fox vanished into the shadows.
"Where's it coming from?" Gu Chen shouted.
Lin Tianren closed his eyes, ignoring the destruction, the noise, the fear crawling up his own spine. He listened instead.
The energy wasn't coming from above. "Under the pillar."
"Then we destroy it," Gu Chen said.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because if we destroy the formation without understanding it first, we might kill everyone still connected to it."
Gu Chen stopped. Xia Qing's expression tightened. "Then what do we do?"
Lin Tianren looked at the pillar. "We go down."
The wounded disciple stared at him. "You'll die."
"Maybe." He started walking toward it anyway. "But staying here guarantees nothing at all."
The fox appeared silently beside him, golden eyes fixed on the ground, their bond resonating with something he recognized clearly. Fear — not for herself. For him.
He placed one hand gently against her head. "We're going together."
Her tails flickered beneath the disguise, once.
Gu Chen exhaled. "You're really planning to go in there?"
"That's what a mission is for."
"That's not how C-Rank missions usually work."
"Then whoever classified this one made a mistake." He placed his palm against the pillar.
The moment his skin touched the stone—
*BOOM.*
A surge of energy tore through his body. His sovereign dragon bloodline awakened fully, the ancient inscription igniting completely, the entire village shaking under the release. The crimson formation shifted into brilliant gold.
And beneath their feet, something enormous opened its eyes.
**[Critical Warning]**
**[Ancient Sovereign Presence Detected]**
**[Entity Classification: Unknown]**
**[Host Bloodline Resonance: 47.8%]**
"Forty-seven percent," he murmured.
The system didn't answer directly. Instead, one final message settled into place.
**[Warning]**
**[The Entity Beneath Moonfall Village Has Detected the Host]**
A deep voice echoed through the ground, audible to him alone.
*Dragon blood.*
He froze.
*After all these years... you finally returned.*
The pillar cracked beneath his palm.
**[Emergency Protocol Activated]**
**[Hidden Quest Unlocked]**
**[Quest: The Thing Beneath Moonfall]**
**[Objective: Discover the identity of the entity beneath the village]**
**[Failure Condition: Unknown]**
Lin Tianren slowly withdrew his hand from the pillar. For the first time since arriving in the Immortal Realm, he wasn't wondering whether he was strong enough to win a fight.
He was wondering something considerably more dangerous.
Why did something sleeping beneath a forgotten village already know who he was?
And beneath his feet, whatever had been waiting for centuries began, finally, to wake.