The morning after the Harmonization test dawned quietly, with a soft veil of mist clinging to the stone tiles outside the inn. Magnolia leaves rustled gently as if whispering secrets through the branches. Yet inside the suite where the Shrek team 2 had taken residence, the air had a different weight—quiet, but not peaceful.
Zhu Zhuqing sat cross-legged on the floor, her back straight, hair cascading down like ink across her shoulders. In front of her, the Harmonization Crystal—now dull and glassy—rested atop a silk cushion. It looked mundane. Innocent, even. But she could still feel its resonance humming faintly in her core.
Every time she breathed, her spirit stirred not alone—but in duet. An echo that wasn't her voice. A second heartbeat. Not Li Wei, exactly. But not entirely apart from him, either.
The memory of their synchronization still played fresh in her mind: how her shadow claws had extended farther, darker, more alive; how his gun had flickered with spectral gold as if drawing from something ancient within her. It was more than power—it had been alignment.
She opened her eyes.
Across the room, Li Wei stood looking outside before the open window, the morning breeze tugging gently at his white coat. His breath came steady, but his eyes held a faraway glint. He came to see Zhuqing, seeing that she was still in the middle of meditation in the lobby of their suit, he decide to wait while looking at the traffic outside.
"Your pulse changed again," Zhu Zhuqing said softly.
Li Wei nodded without turning. "Twice since sunrise."
"Same for me." She looked down at her hands. "It's like… our spirit roots are still brushing against each other."
He turned. "Residual harmonization. The crystal wasn't designed for people with awakened external techniques and bloodline amplifications. We pushed it past its safe resonance window."
Zhu Zhuqing frowned. "Do you regret it?"
Li Wei stepped closer. "No."
There was silence between them for a moment, the kind that held weight—not hesitation, but thoughtfulness.
Then Zhu Zhuqing said, "There's something else."
She stood and walked toward the bed, where a folded sheet of paper sat beside her blade. She handed it to Li Wei. On the page, drawn with careful ink strokes, was a diagram—her attempt to transcribe a moment she couldn't explain.
"A dream?" he asked.
"A voice," she said. "Last night. Just before I woke up."
Li Wei eyes scanned the symbols. They were jagged and circular, not quite language that he was familiar. But they tugged at something old in him. Something he had buried deep.
"It called itself the Axis."
His heart slowed. "Did it speak clearly?"
"No words. Just a feeling. A warning. Like something ancient looking down on us… it felt like the being curious."
At that moment, one of the door slid open with a quiet scrape of wood.
Xiao Wu stepped in, her expression uncharacteristically grim. "Li Wei. Rongrong pulse is off."
Zhu Zhuqing head turned. "Residual harmonization?"
"No," Xiao Wu said, brows knit. "Something else. She seem to be hearing things."
_____________
Ning Rongrong was seated on the edge of the bathtub, a cool towel pressed to her forehead, her usual elegance dulled by exhaustion. Her spirit aura wavered visibly—like an unstable flame flickering at odd intervals.
Li Wei knelt beside her. "When did it start?"
"An hour ago," she murmured. "I was cycling spirit power, nothing unusual, then… something tapped into me."
She looked up, eyes wide with confusion. "It called me by name. But it didn't speak with a mouth."
Li Wei didn't reply right away. Instead, he closed his eyes and reached out—not with his hand, but his soul. Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu stood behind him in tense silence.
Then he felt it.
A ripple.
Not from Rongrong, but from beyond her. Like threads that moved not only through spirit power, but time. Distance. Intention.
It didn't belong to any of them.
He pulled back and exhaled. "The Axis again."
Meng Yiran entered just then, tightening her coat with one hand, Eight Spider Lances flexing slightly from her back before retracting toward her back. "So it wasn't just me."
Everyone turned toward her.
Meng Yiran raised a hand and showed them her palm. Scrawled across it were three red glyphs—not written, but burned beneath the skin. The lines pulsed faintly with spirit energy.
"I woke up with this," she said.
Zhu Zhuqing eyes narrowed. "You weren't part of the harmonization."
"I know," Meng Yiran replied. "But I felt it. Like the echo passed through the walls."
Li Wei stood slowly. "This… isn't residual energy. This is something older."
Ning Rongrong voice trembled. "What did we wake up?"
_____________
Later that day, they met in the underground chamber below the alchemy guild—a quiet place lined with jade silencing stones and ancient seals. Spirit energy here did not echo. And still, the crystal in Zhu Zhuqing hand pulsed with faint inner light.
"Let's think in steps," Li Wei said, pacing before them. "The harmonization process succeeded, but it didn't stop when the test ended. Zhuqing and I remained tethered longer than expected. Then voices started. First hers. Then Rongrong. Then Yiran."
Xiao Wu added, "It wasn't just voices. I felt something too. Like my teleportation became sharper. But not mine."
Meng Yiran looked toward Li Wei. "That thing you said exist in the Rift. About layers of reality. About spirit roots connecting to things deeper than elements. You think this is it?"
Li Wei nodded slowly. "The Axis may not be a being. It might be a network. A will that exists where souls converge… or clash."
Zhu Zhuqing voice came quiet. "Then what does it want?"
No one answered.
Then a sudden knock echoed at the iron-reinforced door.
Li Wei hand snapped to his weapon as the others drew blades and spirit focuses. The door opened only an inch—and a thin note was slid through the gap before the presence vanished.
Xiao Wu picked it up while Li Wei open toward the outside of Ning Rongrong room to find the messenger. "It seems like whoever message do not want us to know them."
It was sealed with black wax, bearing no insignia. She opened it and read aloud:
[You are not the first to reach the Axis. But you may be the first to survive its song.
The Serpent-Eyed await your choice.
Do not delay.
— V]
The room chilled instantly.
"Serpent-Eyed…" Zhu Zhuqing whispered.
"They were the person at the plaza before," Li Wei said grimly. "It seems like they are watching us now."
Meng Yiran growled. "So they want the crystal."
"No," Li Wei said. "They want something bigger. The crystal was only a key. We already opened the door."
Rongrong voice broke in, low and certain: "Then we have to choose whether to step through it… or close it."
Xiao Wu placed her hand over her heart. "Li Wei. If we keep going, this isn't just Spirit Hall anymore. We're stepping into something ancient. Maybe god-level."
Li Wei looked around at each of them.
Zhu Zhuqing expression was resolute. Meng Yiran eyes shone with cold fire. Rongrong nodded, breath steady. Xiao Wu grinned, though her fingers trembled slightly.
"We step forward, if this more than we can handle we will request the help of others. We have the successors from spirit hall and Seven Treasure Glazed Tile clan." he said.
The decision wasn't just his—but in that moment, the threads between them all tugged in unison. No fear. No doubt. Only motion.
And far above them, in a place not bound by sky or earth, a voice whispered again—not loud, not urgent.
But present.
[—And so the fifth convergence begins.
Let us see what threads they weave.]
Golden motes danced across the old Harmonization Crystal.
The Axis had noticed.
And it was watching.