Mount Ruomu – Lower Slopes
The red mist had reached the treeline.
Shenhai stood at its edge, watching it drift across the snow like blood blooming in water. Birds no longer sang. No footprints remained—only sigil-etched ash where wandering beasts had once passed.
He held Wuji in one hand, and a memory in the other.
His father's scroll had opened when the third mark appeared.
Within it: a map.
Not of the world—but of a soul.
His soul.
It ended in fire.
It ended at a broken temple, long swallowed by the Veil.
A place called "The Mouth of the Forgotten."
Yun'er approached. "We should go back to the sect," she said. "You need healing."
Shenhai shook his head.
"No. I need answers."
"Even if they cost you your soul?"
"Especially if they do."
Southwestern Ruins – Temple of the Shattered Bell
Xiao Lan stepped through collapsed archways, the scroll of the Oracle burning faintly in her satchel. The deeper she went, the more the world seemed to listen.
"You seek truth?"
The voice came not through her ears—but her spine.
She turned—expecting ghosts. But it was a mirror—cracked, covered in dust. Yet her reflection was smiling, even when she wasn't.
"You fear becoming her," it said.
"But what if she was once you?"
Xiao Lan reached into the dust, brushing away old carvings:
Eyes weeping stars.
A woman standing between gods and men.
A sword split in two. One half red, one white.
The Bloodmother had not begun as an enemy.
She had once stood between two empires—and paid in blood to protect both.
"She tried to save everyone," Xiao Lan whispered.
The mirror shattered.
"And they made her a monster for it."
Feiyan – Outskirts of Nou Forest
Feiyan hadn't slept in two nights.
She didn't need to anymore.
The black veins on her arm no longer hurt—they moved. They whispered. And they knew.
She had become a living wardstone—half spirit, half woman. And her dreams had changed.
In sleep, she no longer saw herself.
She saw Shenhai.
She saw Xiao Lan.
She saw the Bloodmother, weeping silently in a cage of light.
And she saw herself… holding the key.
When she awoke, her hand was closed around a sigil drawn in ash.
Not hers.
Shenhai's.
"I think… I'm being summoned."
Azure Cloud Sect – Night
The sky was red.
Disciples slept fitfully. Some whispered the Bloodmother's name in their dreams. Others wept without knowing why. A few had vanished entirely—leaving behind folded robes and sigil-burned floors.
In the Grand Hall, Elder Lei, now a fugitive, returned in secret.
He left a message only Shenhai would understand—etched into the stone with lightning essence:
"You are not cursed. You are unfinished."
Then he vanished again—heading east toward the Mouth of the Forgotten.