The echoes of battle faded into the dust-choked air. After the Watcher's defeat, a path quietly opened—its mouth a crooked archway of stone and bone, as if the ruin itself had taken a breath and sighed.
Ye Tian glanced at Yue Qing, still pale, blood dried along her lips. He didn't speak. He just caught her as she stumbled.
The door behind them sealed shut.
A Hidden Sanctuary
They walked in silence until the tunnel opened into something... impossible.
A cavern, vast and veiled in violet-blue light.
Stalagmites glowed with soft bioluminescence. At the center, a pool shimmered—not water, but a kind of spiritual liquid, like liquefied qi. Mist hovered gently above it. And carved above the arching walls, in ancient script:
"Only the cursed may enter. Only the broken may rest."
Yue Qing collapsed by the pool's edge.
Ye Tian sat beside her.
[System Notification: Host has entered Abyssal Sanctuary – "Cradle of Silence"]All debuffs paused. Passive HP/Spiritual Recovery x3 while resting. System Interference... Muted.]
He sighed. "It even muted the system."
Yue Qing chuckled weakly. "Then maybe… the gods are merciful."
She took off her gloves—revealing wrists wrapped in marks, black and violet chains burned into her skin. Cursed seals.
"Back then… I was a prodigy too, you know," she said, voice almost bitter. "Until my spirit beast turned on me. It wasn't natural. It was… infected. And I burned down half the sect trying to survive."
Ye Tian looked at her, his voice low. "They cast you out for surviving?"
She nodded. "I was thirteen."
He stared at the glowing pool. "I was sixteen when they threw me down here."
Their eyes met.
No words.
But proximity in pain does something. It unravels walls faster than time ever could.
Yue Qing reached for the water, but her hand trembled. Ye Tian caught her wrist.
"Don't. Not yet. Your veins are still unstable."
She stared at him—too long.
"…Why do you care?" she whispered.
Ye Tian didn't answer immediately. Then:
"Because we're the only ones down here who haven't tried to use each other."
She looked away, then leaned her head against his shoulder.
"Then don't die before me, Ye Tian."
"I wasn't planning on dying at all."
As they rested, Ye Tian's system stirred faintly.
[Hidden Affection Event Unlocked – Yue Qing's Favorability: 53 → 62](Trait Unlocked: Abyss-Bound – Gains a +5% resistance bonus when fighting alongside Yue Qing.)
Yue Qing's breathing slowed. Her head slipped lower, resting on his lap as she fell into sleep.
Ye Tian didn't move.
The ruins were still. The Abyss, for once, held its breath.
But in the shadows beyond the pool, faint golden eyes opened—
—and watched.