The soul lamps flickered.
One by one.
As if a breath from something ancient and unwelcome passed through the halls.
In the lower chambers of Blackstone Sect, Mei Lin's tortured body had finally gone still. Her final scream hung in the air like a blade that refused to fall.
But beyond her cell… someone had already entered.
Unseen.
Unheard.
Unwelcome.
A shadow drifted across the stone floor, even though there was no source of light to cast it.
The wards around the prison flickered, then died. No alarm. No ripple of Qi.
Just silence.
---
### Above, in the Outer Disciples Quarters...
Zeravon opened his eyes.
He had not moved from meditation, yet his body was now coated in a cold sweat.
He wasn't scared.
He was… remembering.
He could feel the Void-Bleed.
A very specific trace of death — not born of natural Dao imbalance, but of something beyond death. Something that should not exist in this world.
He stood slowly.
Outside, the sect bells remained still. The elders were blind. Even Yurei hadn't sensed it yet.
But he had.
Because the one who had entered… did not belong to the living, the dead, or the spiritual.
He belonged to Nothing.
---
### At the Inner Temple
Yurei stood on the balcony of her quarters, gazing at the mountain forests. Her spirit sense was wide, calm, ever-alert. But suddenly, something *vanished*.
She gasped, turning sharply.
One of the energy strings she always kept tied to the lower sect — for surveillance — had just been *cut*.
Not broken.
Erased.
Her pupils narrowed.
And for the first time since coming to Blackstone Sect, she drew her sword.
---
### Beneath the Sect – Frost Chambers
The intruder stopped beside Mei Lin's corpse. The Curse Sigil still faintly glowed on her skin, but her soul had long been devoured.
He didn't care.
He reached down and tore something out of her chest — not her heart, not her core — but a small black shard. It pulsed in his hand like a heartbeat made of shadows.
"She was a fragment… a failed one," he whispered in a voice that sounded like a hundred voices stacked atop each other.
Then he turned.
"Now… the true shell must be tested."
---
### Zeravon Walks
Zeravon's footsteps were soft as falling dust.
He crossed the courtyard silently, heading down into the sealed chambers — the very ones ordinary disciples were forbidden to approach.
But the gates were already open.
That alone told him enough.
He passed through the hall, his presence barely a ripple. The deeper he walked, the colder it got — not physical cold, but existential.
Then, ahead… he saw it.
The intruder.
Dressed in bone-white robes stitched with soul-threads. His face covered in a mask made from someone else's face. Not illusion — real skin.
In his hands, the black shard still pulsed.
"You came faster than expected," the intruder rasped.
Zeravon didn't reply.
But his gaze slowly lowered… and the floor beneath him cracked, even without movement.
"I've walked through greater darkness than your master's shadow," Zeravon said softly. "You are nothing."
The masked figure chuckled. "Then let me prove I exist."
He raised his hand.
And the corpse of Mei Lin stood up, eyes black as night.
---
### Above Ground – Yurei Descends
Yurei shot through the sky like a silver streak, sword glowing in pale blue flame. Her presence hit the sealed chamber like a winter storm, and she crashed through the entrance wall—
Only to stop.
What she saw was not battle.
Not chaos.
But stillness.
Zeravon stood in the center of the room, completely untouched. The floor was scorched. The walls cracked. And the intruder knelt before him — blood pouring from his eyes.
Yurei's breath caught.
"What…?"
Zeravon didn't look at her. His eyes remained locked on the intruder.
"Tell your master," he said quietly. "This shell may be cracked… but it has not forgotten the silence."
The intruder screamed. Not in pain — in fear.
And then… his body folded in on itself, crushed by an invisible force.
Gone. Erased.
Only ash remained.
---
### A Long Silence
Yurei slowly stepped forward. "Who are you…?"
Zeravon turned.
The mask on his face had fallen slightly, revealing a single golden eye — burning like a dying star.
"…Just a mortal," he said.
He walked past her, not explaining.
And she let him go — because her hands were trembling.
---
### Somewhere in the Void…
A voice, ancient and vile, laughed.
"So… the shell has teeth. How delightful."
From the darkness, another whisper answered:
"Then we shall bring the blade."
---
## \[To Be Continued…]
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