The wind howled through the ruins of Redmoor Province.
A cursed land where rain never fell straight and the ground cracked open like wounded skin. Once a thriving frontier of cultivation and spirit forging, now it stood abandoned—its people dead, fled, or lost to madness.
Lin Feng stepped past a toppled stele inscribed with the old name: Sorrow's End.
Irony, as the scent of blood still clung to the broken stone.
Ruoxi walked beside him, face veiled against the ash carried by the wind. "There's no pulse here. No cultivators. Not even bandits."
"That's because the Fifth Gate isn't just sealed," Lin Feng murmured. "It's buried beneath consequence."
She looked at him.
"You've been here before?"
He nodded. "In my past life. I tried to close the Fifth once. I failed."
A silence followed them.
They reached a cracked cliffside, black stone veined with pulsing red light. A shattered temple rose from its face, chained to the mountain by spiritual bindings long worn thin.
At its center, a sealed circle of glyphs still glowed faintly.
The entrance to the Gate of Choice.
Ruoxi's voice was quiet. "You said it's not guarded by a beast?"
"No. It's guarded by a choice."
He stepped forward, placing his palm on the glyph.
The seal hissed, turning black.
The world twisted.
They were inside.
A field of red grass stretched in every direction, skyless and horizonless. In the center, two doors stood—one gold, one bone-white.
A voice echoed:
"You may seal the gate by sacrifice. But you must choose—save a city, or claim the key."
Ruoxi looked at him. "What city?"
"Look."
The doors shimmered. The gold door revealed a vision:
A mountain city—Yinveil—still standing, but under siege. Cultivators screamed as shadow beasts flooded the streets. Children cried. Fire rained.
Then the bone-white door:
A solitary spire. The Key of Calamity floating inside. Silent. Unguarded. But the city gone—no survivors.
Ruoxi clenched her fists. "So this is the price?"
"The gate demands it. One life for another. A balance."
Lin Feng said nothing.
"Which one?" she asked finally.
He stared at both doors.
"I don't know."
"What would the old you have chosen?"
"The Key," he said. "Without hesitation."
"And now?"
"…Still the key. But with hesitation."
Ruoxi whispered, "So you've changed."
He looked at her.
"Have I?"
"Yes."
He reached for the gold door.
And the ground split.
A massive creature erupted from beneath the red grass—a chimera of bone and void flame, its eyes filled with anguish.
The gate lied.
It was not a choice.
It was a test.
Lin Feng raised his hand.
"Void Severance!"
The air fractured. The beast roared.
Ruoxi leapt into the air, blades of light dancing around her.
For ten minutes they fought.
And then the chimera died—dispersing into smoke and ash.
The doors vanished.
A single flame floated where they stood.
Lin Feng touched it.
The Key pulsed.
And his palm burned again:
"KEY FIVE: RECLAIMED."
He collapsed to one knee.
Ruoxi caught him. "You passed."
"No," he said.
He looked around.
"The real trial begins now."
The mountain outside had changed.
Hundreds of torches lined the path.
Cultivators in black armor waited below.
Each bore a mask of bone.
And at their front, a man stood smiling.
"Welcome back," he said. "Void Monarch. You saved the city. But now, you've doomed yourself."
Lin Feng rose.
"I don't recall inviting you to my ascension."
The man drew a jagged sword.
"I am the Inheritor of the Sixth Gate."
"And I," Lin Feng said, summoning the void blade, "am your mistake."
To be continue...