"Beyond the thrones, beyond the vaults, beyond even flame—there coils that which watches all who dare reach too high. Not gods. Not stars. A witness."
— Whispers carved into sky-facing stones by monks who never looked up again
🌌 Edge of the Hollow Realm – Skyless Plateau, Forbidden Altitude
Past the last shrine of remembrance and shattered seat, Jin Mu-Won and his companions ascended into the Skyless Plateau—a height so distant from the world below that clouds coiled downward instead of up.
The path narrowed. The wind screamed with voices long disused.
Here, the sky was not blue.
It was blank.
No sun. No stars. Just a yawning white nothing.
"The ancestors called it the Unnamed Sky," Su Ren murmured.
"A realm so high it forgets the world."
"Then why is it guarded?" Ash-Eye asked.
Because something moved above them.
Not a bird. Not a dragon.
Something longer. Slower. Older.
A serpent of silence.
🐍 The Skybound Serpent – "Azkharon of the Nine Coil Gazes"
Wound between floating plateaus, wrapped across the sky like a lazy painter's stroke, the Skybound Serpent Azkharon did not fly.
It hung.
Its body was made not of flesh, but lightless stars, its eyes orbiting its own face like moons.
And it spoke into Jin's mind, not in language—but in questions.
"Who gave you leave to ascend?"
"What makes you believe the sky is yours to climb?"
"Who remembers the ones who fell upward?"
Jin responded not with defiance… but with breath.
He exhaled the Second Hollow Form—a controlled ripple of soul-space that let his memories rise like sparks.
Among them:
His death in the snow
His rebirth in silence
The Sect that devoured its elders
The Court of Broken Thrones
The choice not to rule
And now… the sky that dares him to vanish
⚔️ Trial of the Serpent – Gaze of Nine Coils
The serpent uncoiled slightly—enough to form a spiral arena across the floating cliffs. Each coil bore a different law, a different punishment.
The Gaze of Weight – tried to crush his memories into dust
The Gaze of Stillness – froze time around his pulse
The Gaze of Inversion – turned all technique backward
The Gaze of Mockery – whispered every doubt he ever buried
5–9. Untold – because they had yet to be faced
Jin fought—not to win, but to remain whole.
Every step, his breath had to match the storm of thoughtless gravity.
Every technique, hollowed to its cleanest form.
No anger. No fear.
Only will without embellishment.
🧠 Hollow Crown Surge – Sky Recognition Achieved
You have faced the gaze of that which does not blink.
You did not flinch.
Trait Gained: "Void-Bound Endurance" – immune to all mental, soul, and perception-based techniques for 6 breaths per battle
New Technique: "Serpent Step Reversal" – Reflects the next attempted perception-type suppression back to the caster
Mourner's Crown Awakening: 91%
Jin knelt before the floating coils and placed his palm to the sky's floor—a motion of humility, not submission.
The serpent's body stilled.
And then Azkharon blinked for the first time in 100,000 years.
"You do not seek to own the sky. Only to pass through it… without leaving blood behind."
It gave him a gift.
A single scale—black, weightless, filled with silence.
📜 Echo Gained – Scale of the Silent Ascension
You have gained: Sky-Serpent Scale (Bound to Will, Not Qi)
Enables aerial traversal across void or anti-gravity terrain for one user and chosen companions for up to 1 li in radius
Reveals: hidden sky paths leading to ancient sects and sealed dragon lairs
Unlocks Lore: The Lost Heavens of the Pre-Flame Era
New World Layer Revealed: "The Lattice of Forgotten Skies"
🌍 World Response
A sect in the Southern Heavens feels its floating monastery tremble—and finds a scale pressed against their altar.
In the East, a blind astrologer weeps:
"Something has looked back."
A hatchling dragon, buried in an unhatched egg for three centuries, suddenly stirs.
And far below, an archivist at the Murim Council finds a scroll in a language that should not exist.
It reads:
"He walks with nothing. But silence follows him."
As the Hollow-Bound Four moved forward, a thin walkway of floating scale-light formed beneath their feet, leading to the next sky isle—where echoes of dragons, sealed heavens, and forgotten wars awaited.
They did not know it yet…
But they had stepped onto the Dragon Gathering Path.