Xian Ye couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching him.
Even as he returned to the Outer Sect Training Grounds, the words of the silver-eyed disciple echoed in his mind.
"I wonder how much longer you can pretend."
What did he mean?
Why did he speak as if he knew something Xian Ye didn't?
More importantly—what was he pretending to be?
He exhaled slowly, stepping into his assigned training quarters—a simple stone chamber barely big enough for meditation. There was nothing luxurious about life in the Outer Sect. Only the strongest, the most ruthless, would ever reach the Inner Sect.
And right now, Xian Ye was at the bottom of the hierarchy.
If anyone discovered what had happened last night—that he had recovered a power beyond Qi cultivation—his life would not be his own anymore.
He needed control.
The Sigil's Awakening
Xian Ye sat cross-legged, focusing on the strange energy now coursing through his veins.
It wasn't Qi.
It wasn't spiritual energy.
It was something older, something that didn't belong in this world.
He placed a hand over his chest.
The sigil—that glowing mark the Gate had given him—remained invisible, hidden beneath his skin. But when he focused on it, he could feel it throbbing, like a second heartbeat.
He willed it to respond.
Nothing happened.
Xian Ye frowned.
"Then what triggered it last time?"
It had awakened in battle, when his life was in danger. The Unseen Step, the precise movements—those abilities had surfaced without effort.
Did that mean… he had to be in danger to use it?
He clenched his fists. That was too unreliable. He needed to understand his power before someone forced him to fight again.
Just as he was about to try again—
A voice whispered through the wind.
"You are not alone."
His eyes snapped open.
The chamber was empty. The door was shut.
But that voice—it had come from inside the room.
Xian Ye stood slowly, his senses sharpening.
His instincts screamed something was here.
But there was nothing to see.
Until—
A ripple passed through the air.
The candlelight flickered, its flames bending unnaturally. And then, a shadow took form in the corner of the room.
A figure, cloaked in darkness. Featureless. Silent. Watching.
Xian Ye didn't move.
"Who are you?"
The shadow shifted, as if amused by the question.
"I should be asking you the same."
The voice was calm, yet filled with something ancient, something that made Xian Ye's bones ache just by hearing it.
Whoever—or whatever—this being was, it was not human.
Xian Ye's muscles tensed. He was trapped in a stone room with a being that had appeared from nowhere.
His mind raced. Could he escape? Should he fight?
The shadow figure tilted its head.
"No need to be so tense. If I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead."
Not comforting.
"Then why are you here?" Xian Ye asked, his voice steady despite the unease growing in his gut.
The shadow was silent for a moment. Then, it spoke.
"To see if you are truly worthy."
The Test of Shadows
Before Xian Ye could react, the shadow moved.
It didn't attack.
It didn't threaten.
It simply disappeared.
And the room changed.
The stone walls around him melted into an endless void, stretching infinitely in all directions. The air became heavy, thick with an unseen pressure.
Xian Ye stood in the center of nothingness, surrounded only by the flickering echoes of something just outside his perception.
Then—a whisper.
"You claim to seek the truth of your past."
The voice came from everywhere. From nowhere.
"But do you have the strength to face what you once were?"
A sudden force slammed into him.
Xian Ye barely had time to react before an invisible power crashed against his mind, shoving memories to the surface.
Not new memories.
Old ones.
Flashes of battle.
A throne, crumbling beneath a sky of dying stars.
Voices screaming his name—
Not Xian Ye.
A different name.
A name he had forgotten.
Pain lanced through his skull. He fell to his knees, gripping his head as the echoes of a past he didn't understand threatened to consume him.
"Do not resist."
The voice was softer now. Almost… gentle.
"The past will return in fragments. But you must be willing to see."
Xian Ye gritted his teeth.
The shadows around him began to shift, forming the shape of a figure—one identical to him.
His own face.
But the eyes…
They were filled with infinity.
"Remember."
Xian Ye reached forward.
The moment his fingers touched the shadow—