CLACK. The jade seal snapped into its socket with a hollow finality. The ancient crypt murmured its approval—dust swirling like memory unshackled. The stone lid of the ancestral coffin, dormant through centuries, thrummed beneath Li Wei's palm as though stirred by awakened spirits.
Li Wei's eyes, dark and earnest, traced the flickering torchlight that danced along the carved sigils of the coffin. "There is language here," he murmured, voice subdued with reverence. "Script etched by one who drank deep of time."
Leng Yue crouched beside him, her gaze flicking between the lid's engraving and a brittle codex she had drawn from the arcane piles nearby. "It is an invocation," she confirmed. "Old tongue… from the days before the Celestial Empress unified the provinces."
Li Wei withdrew, brushing dust from his robes. "Let the dead rest. But let us glean what they preserved." He turned, drawing forth a sealed volume bound in dragonhide—a tome that pulsed faintly with residual qi.
He opened it with care.
FFFSSHH. A gust of memory surged forth—sandalwood and iron, blood and incense.
Li Wei read aloud, his voice deep with gravity: "The Chronicles of Era and Earth, unabridged and unsanitized." The words crackled on the air, ancient and defiant.
The Era of Five Heroes… Li Wei's brow furrowed. "Five souls, each wielding a different truth. Blade, brush, bell, beast, and breath." He turned a page. "They stood against the Tidelord Plague, the Sky-Fall Invasion, and the Withering Wind."
Leng Yue arched a brow. "Legends say they dissolved into the earth—one to each corner of the realm."
"Indeed." Li Wei's finger traced a curling inked sigil. "And one… sealed within the crypt of this very mountain."
BOOM. A low thrum echoed through the floor beneath them, as if the earth nodded in assent.
He continued, voice tightening. "The Age of the Warring Factions followed. Brotherhood shattered. Greed soaked the soil. Every faction became a blade pointed at another's throat." He turned another page, fingers stiff. "It was in this time the Shadowless Pavilion was birthed from betrayal."
"By the Nine Vows," Leng Yue whispered, eyes narrowed. "Even their assassins could not escape the rot."
Next: The Golden Age of the Immortals.
The pages gleamed faintly now, as though light poured through them. "Immortals once walked openly," Li Wei read. "Their palaces floated above clouds, their gardens bloomed beneath moonlight. They shared cultivation methods with mortals… and then vanished once more."
Leng Yue folded her arms, tone wry. "Perhaps their kindness bred war more than wisdom."
"Or their wisdom bred envy." Li Wei closed that page with a sigh.
The Shadow Realm Crisis.
The page was blackened. Words etched in silver.
Leng Yue flinched as the shadows nearby seemed to lean closer.
"By the Thirteen Flames…" she hissed. "I've heard whispers. But never truth."
Li Wei nodded grimly. "A sorcerer pierced the veil and bound legions of gloom to his will. The world bled. That tear has never fully closed." His voice dropped. "Some say even now, ghostfires flicker in the marshes of Nanshan."
He turned another page.
"The Era of the Celestial Empress," he said, tone shifting like the lift of dawn. "She quelled division not with conquest, but with command of spirit. They say her voice alone could halt an army. She ruled not above but among her people."
Leng Yue inclined her head. "Wiser than all emperors before her. The Wind Monks still speak her name with incense and reverence."
Next came The Era of Heavenly Blades. And with it, etched diagrams of swords—each one imbued with lore, each bearing the aura of divine fire.
"Swords not forged… but born," Leng Yue whispered. "This one—The Azure Howl—was said to echo the cries of the gods."
Li Wei's eyes gleamed. "And here… the Era of the Five Elemental Schools—where qi split and took form. Fire and water warred within the body. Earth made bones, air lifted minds, and spirit bound them all."
He swept the next volume open like a general unfurling banners.
The Celestial Empire. The Demonic Warlords. The Lost Treasures.
Every page pulsed with ambition, folly, hope, and hunger.
"There is no true peace," Li Wei said softly. "Only respite between trials."
"Then let our path be trial without end," Leng Yue replied, chin high. "So long as it carves us into what must be."
She unfurled a map at her side—its lines glowing faintly. "Look here. The Ten Provinces of the Wang Empire."
She pointed with deft precision: "Jiangnan—singers and scholars. Xuanzhou—clouds and clarity. Qianlong—steel and scar." Her finger moved like a breeze. "Fuzhou's pirates. Zhongzhou's intrigues. Mingzhou's whispers from forgotten tombs."
Li Wei's hand hovered over Huashan Province. "Here lies the Twin Serpent Sect. The fiercest warriors in the empire."
Leng Yue smirked. "I would test that truth myself."
Then her voice stilled.
She had found a page of alchemical rites, annotated by a master named Yun He, lost to time.
"Lingzhi," she read. "The mushroom of rebirth."
"Duanmu Grass," Li Wei countered. "Speed and fluidity—the grace of a falling leaf."
"Xuelian Flower," she whispered. "Even breathless warriors wake from its scent."
They read in tandem now, a sacred rhythm shared:
"Huangjing… vitality's roar."
"Snow Lotus… calm amidst war."
"Zhenyuan Grass… qi ascends."
"Dragon's Beard… poison's end."
"Ghost Root… spirits flee."
"Silver Leaf… sight set free."
"Dragon's Blood Vine… heart restored."
"Ironwood Bark," Li Wei finished. "Flesh like forged bronze."
Leng Yue inhaled sharply. "These are more than herbs. They are promises."
A silence followed.
Not the hush of still air—but one born of presence.
They turned as one.
The coffin's lid shifted. Not opened—but moved, as if in response.
Leng Yue knelt, tracing a rising glyph now aglow.
"This was no tomb," she murmured. "It was a gate."
Li Wei withdrew the jade tokens once more, this time setting both—dragon and phoenix—into twin sockets newly revealed beneath the dust.
CHIME.
A soft, celestial bell rang in the marrow of their bones.
From the coffin's surface, light unfurled—a map, etched in radiant silver, showing not only the lands—but their veins. Leylines. Spirit currents. Places where fate itself converged.
Leng Yue's breath caught. "This… this is why we were meant to come."
Li Wei stepped forward. His eyes flared with inner fire.
"From the mountain's teeth to the desert's breath. From shadowed forest to sunken city… every path… every realm… we must tread them all."