Darkness. Cold. Silence.
Lin Xuanji(Mo Tianzun) floated in nothingness, as if his body had been swallowed whole by the void. There was notime here. Nopain. Nowarmth. Not even the System responded anymore.
Just silence.
How strange, he thought weakly, that death feels so much like peace.
But—
Peace had never been something the heavens allowed him.
Suddenly, a crack of sound—like splitting ice—ripped through the silence.
He gasped.
Air flooded his lungs like a tidal wave. His eyes snapped open.
Xuanji choked, coughed, rolled onto his side.
His vision was blurry, but the scent of wet stone and ancient dust filled his nose. He lay on a floor—no, a platform, carved with glowing veins of symbols pulsing faint blue, like breathing light.
The cold air was thick with spiritual energy—but it wasn't pure.
It was… twisted.
Heavy. Both Yin and Yang mixed unnaturally. As if something ancient and forbidden had seeped into the roots of this place.
Xuanji slowly sat up, trembling, his limbs bruised and barely working.
He looked around.
He was inside a cavern—no, a massive underground chamber. The walls were inlaid with cracked obsidian mirrors. Chains dangled from the ceiling like dead vines. And in the center, where he lay, was a circular altar etched with a formation he didn't recognize.
He blinked.
Where was he?
Where was Longxuan?
The last thing he remembered… was falling. Liu Shengjie's blade against his chest. Longxuan's voice shouting his name.
And then—darkness.
Now he was here.
Alive.
Or something close to it.
"...Xuanji."
A voice echoed.
Soft.
Familiar.
But not one he'd heard in a very long time.
He froze.
That voice—it belonged to someone from a life he'd buried long ago. Someone who should be dead.
His eyes darted to the far end of the cavern, where the mirrors rippled and a figure began to step forward—slowly, their face obscured by shadow and light.
No heartbeat.
No footsteps.
Just presence.
And that presence—
It chilled even Mo Tianzun's blood.
The figure whispered again.
"So you really did come back... my lord."
Xuanji's eyes widened.
The voice wasn't mocking.
It was respect.
And mad.
Before he could speak, before he could even breathe, the formation beneath him suddenly flared to life—symbols pulsing with ominous blood-red light.
The entire cavern groaned, as if awakening from a thousand-year slumber.
And in the mirrors around him… shadows began to move.
Watching.
Waiting.
The voice spoke again.
"I've been waiting for you for a very… verylong time."
Xuanji's fists clenched.
He was not safe.
He was not alone.
And whatever this place was—
It had not brought himhereto heal.
It had brought him here… to begin.
[End of Volume 1]