The Murim Alliance Arena wasn't just a battlefield.
It was a symbol.
A monument carved from ancient jade, infused with the residual will of fallen saints, suspended in a sacred valley where heaven and earth once kissed. The crowd roared above, but below—where mortals rarely stepped—something stirred beneath the arena's foundation.
A breath.
A hum.
A crack in silence.
1. The Black-Lotus Briefing
"Five names," grunted General Kwan, tossing a paper talisman onto the war table in the command chamber beneath the coliseum. The paper ignited instantly, the characters glowing crimson before vanishing in smoke.
"Only five?" Elder Cho raised an eyebrow. "I expected more pawns."
"They're not pawns. They're—"
"—Kings waiting to fall," cut in the Fifth King, Yun Jia. "Let them come."
The Murim Alliance had finally identified five cursed cultivators hidden among the tournament participants. These weren't simple infiltrators—they were sleepers, prodigies once thought lost or dead, now twisted with demonic Qi. Marked by void sigils.
The Five Kings argued. Paranoia danced across the council chamber like wildfire. Whispers of a deeper plot kept surfacing—assassination, corruption, resurrection.
"Has the leader spoken?" someone asked.
A cold hush.
"No."
2. The Nameless One's Mark
Far from the political storm, Lee Haneul sat on a cracked rooftop overlooking the coliseum. Moonlight touched his silver-threaded robes, casting ghostly halos around his closed eyes.
He'd felt it.
A pulse.
Beneath the arena—something familiar.
The signature wasn't loud. It wasn't overt. But to someone who had nearly perished syncing with the Everwake, who had walked through frozen time, it was obvious.
A fragment of the Nameless One's Qi signature.
No one else had noticed. Not yet. But something ancient had been buried beneath the arena… something tethered to the Origin Manual.
And it was beginning to wake up.
3. Names in the Firelight
Elsewhere, back in the private dorms allocated to high-level participants, names were drawn from enchanted scrolls.
A crowd of handpicked youth stared up at the floating inscriptions. Each name burned across the sky before slotting into its bracket.
"LEE HANEUL vs. LIANG BAO."
The crowd gasped.
Liang Bao—the Mad Phoenix of the West. A cursed cultivator hidden in plain sight, once presumed dead, now returned with strange marks across his neck and a twisted aura that hummed like a wasp nest.
A duel for the ages.
Haneul opened his eyes slowly. "How convenient," he muttered.
4. Secrets in the Walls
Down in the belly of the coliseum, Lee Haeun was not meditating.
He was searching.
Cloaked in Everwake mist, invisible to mortals, he walked through walls with ease. And in the seventh sealed chamber below the arena's foundation, he found it.
An altar. Cracked. Ancient. And bathed in silver fire.
Above it, a stone mural.
Three beings:
One meditating beneath a burning tree.
One cradling the Origin Manual.
One… masked, holding a broken sword and a crown made of bone.
And beneath that mural: a single line, etched in gold ink that shimmered even in the dark.
"When the Origin is split, the world shall fall thrice—Mind, Spirit, and Life."
"…what the hell does that mean?" Haeun whispered.
And then a voice replied—one he didn't expect.
"It means you're too late."
Haeun turned. No one was there.
But the shadows… laughed.
5. The Battle Begins
Up above, trumpets blared.
The crowd rose as the first match was called. Storm clouds loomed again, just like the day Haneul had awakened his second Dantian.
The arena floor shifted, revealing ancient engravings beneath each combatant. A dragon coiled beneath Haneul's feet. A twisted phoenix, rotted and dark, beneath Liang Bao's.
Liang smiled. "They say you're the quiet one. Let's see if silence bleeds."
Haneul said nothing.
He bowed.
Closed his eyes.
And let the Mind Dantian bloom like a lotus above his skull.
The entire arena dropped into silence.
Even the thunder held its breath.