The ride northward was long, but Jayden Cross didn't feel the hours pass. After unlocking the Flame-Scripted Jade, his mind overflowed with fragments of martial history — runes, lost techniques, forgotten beast patterns. Some of them sparked clear images. Others were still buried under layers of sealed memory. But one thing was certain:
Master Orrin — the kind-eyed elder who had once helped Jayden's mother — was not who he claimed to be.
He was the one who had sealed Jayden's father away.
Now, Jayden had direction. But finding Orrin would mean crossing through one of the most dangerous territories in the Eastern Zone: the domain of the Sect of Hollow Eyes.
"They were rumored to be extinct," Lena said, her tone low as the two of them trekked through a dead forest. "But the records Master Yoru left behind say otherwise. They survive in the shadows — and they've traded their souls for power."
Jayden nodded. "They were part of the betrayal."
Lena glanced at him. "You're sure?"
Jayden's voice was quiet. "When I touched the jade… I saw one of them standing beside Orrin as they dragged my father into the void."
The two crested a ridge, and the air around them shifted.
Ahead lay Obsidian Valley — a sunless ravine of sharp rock, unnatural fog, and whispers that clawed at the mind. Carvings of faceless monks lined the entrance. Each one held its own severed eyes in its palms.
Lena frowned. "We're here."
Inside the valley, light grew faint. The mist was not just physical — it pressed on the soul, weighing down thought and blurring the edge between memory and hallucination.
Jayden's footsteps were steady, but in his mind, he could feel something pushing against him — trying to unmake his resolve. The Dragon Flame inside his dantian stirred, glowing hotter in defiance.
Suddenly, a whisper hissed from the fog:
"Your father begged…"
Jayden stopped. So did Lena.
Another voice. A different tone, this time feminine:
"He surrendered to save you. And we took everything."
Jayden clenched his fists. "Lies."
The mist answered with laughter.
A moment later, shadows began forming — four dark-cloaked cultivators emerged from the fog, each one bearing tattoos of hollow eyes across their foreheads.
One of them pointed at Jayden. "Blood of the Dragon Dynasty… You should not have come here."
Jayden raised his chin. "Then why are you so afraid?"
The one on the left surged forward without warning. His fists moved in staccato bursts, flickering like a broken lantern — a movement art from the Shadow-Blind School, long thought lost.
Jayden shifted, letting instinct guide him. The first palm missed. The second grazed his cheek.
But by the third strike, Jayden's body responded with muscle memory etched in fire.
"Dragon Form — Sixth Movement: Bone-Spiral Counter!"
His palm curved around the attacker's wrist, redirected it, then twisted up through the man's chin in a single fluid arc. There was a crunch — then silence as the attacker crumpled to the floor.
The second and third came together, moving in synchronized steps — their chi was cold, and their motions mirrored each other like reflections. Jayden focused. Their aura was fused… Twin Soul Technique.
He couldn't strike one without the other reinforcing the blow.
So he didn't aim for either.
He tapped into his god-tier flame, swirling it through his palm, then knelt and slammed the ground.
A burst of jade-blue fire erupted outward, forming a circle. The fire didn't burn flesh — it burned illusion and false chi.
The fusion between the twin cultivators broke instantly, and Jayden surged in like a lightning bolt. Two swift palm strikes — one to the chest, the other to the throat — and both fell.
Only the last stood, now breathing slowly.
"You've grown strong," the final guardian said. "But you still lack one thing."
Jayden narrowed his eyes. "What?"
"Understanding." The man pulled back his hood. His face was tattooed with black script. "We fight not because we hate your father. We fight because he threatened balance."
Jayden stepped forward. "What balance is there in betrayal?"
"The kind that keeps gods from ruling mortals."
And then the man attacked.
This one was different.
Jayden could feel it the moment their palms clashed. His opponent's body was a network of acupoints forcefully opened, held together by cursed runes. The man's chi didn't flow — it surged in bursts, wildly unstable but devastating.
Jayden launched a spinning kick, only to be caught mid-air and flung into a stone pillar. The impact rattled his bones.
The man's hands formed a seal.
"Forbidden Art — Hollow Heaven Spear!"
A construct of swirling black wind and screaming spirits formed behind him, shaping into a long, wicked spear.
Jayden didn't flinch.
He reached into his core… and released the second seal granted by the Flame-Scripted Jade.
His skin shimmered. Golden veins ran across his body. His eyes ignited with blue flame.
When the spear came down, Jayden met it with both palms.
BOOM!
The gorge split from the force. Lena was thrown backward as the entire valley shook.
When the dust cleared… Jayden stood, burned and bloody — but still alive.
The Hollow Eye cultivator staggered back, his own arm shattered. "Impossible…"
Jayden stepped forward.
"You tried to kill my bloodline," he said. "But we don't die easy."
With one last breath, he formed a dragon seal — and unleashed the Dragon Pulse Strike.
It punched through the man's core. His body dissolved into mist and scripture, falling silent forever.
Hours later, they found the ruins.
Deep inside the valley, behind a false wall revealed through dragon-sense, Jayden and Lena uncovered a hidden hall — its walls lined with scrolls, manuals, and sealed jade slips.
In the center was a raised platform, and on it…
…a scroll marked with the Dragon Emblem.
Jayden approached carefully. The scroll pulsed with chi. When he opened it, a vision played in his mind — one of his father, years younger, standing at the gates of this very valley, facing the elders of the Hollow Eye Sect.
"My son will come," his father had said. "He will correct what I could not."
Jayden closed the scroll, eyes shining.
He had no idea how many enemies still stood between him and his father's fate — but with each battle, he was learning.
He was rising.