As the night settled heavily in Broken Fang Gorge, a greying mist hung like shrouds of unwept-over corpses. Fires still burnt dimly at the survivors' camp, but even flame itself did not care to leap too brightly now.
Lin Xuan paced their refuge, his spear tapping the ground. Every movement went its own way. He didn't behave like the other disciples—not nervously but serenely as though testing the gorge's own pulse.
He felt it again. That dim rumble below the bedrock.
Thump, thump.
A heavy, slow heartbeat, supreme in its antiquity than the bones of the mountain itself.
He rested his palm against the remote cliff face. The vibration intensified. For a brief moment, the stone seemed alive, like flesh too thinly spread over muscle.
[System Alert: Detecting a hidden chamber. Energy signature... Primordial.]
His gaze grew a trifle more severe, and beneath the peaceful facade of his mind, tiny ripples emerged. So my conjecture was right. This gorge contains something more than ores and wild creatures.
His handboat against the stone's surface shimmered with what appeared to be moonlight trying to leak out through imperceptible cracks. Lin Xuan closed his eyes as he breathed in deeply. Feeling his Qi pouring along Flowing Meridian Paths, he directed it. Energy burst from his hand collided with the wall. Stone cracked. A thin fissure like the cracks in a spider's web radiated sapphire blue for an instant before fading gray.
There was a scuffling of footsteps behind him. He turned fluently, his hand falling on the spear.
Wei Qing stepped out from among the cloud and mist, his back straight, slender bamboo spear resting across his shoulder. As always, his gaze remained steady as it searched the place where Lin Xuan had touched the wall.
"You felt it too."
Lin Xuan's gaze was not unlike a tranquil lake. It did not give in. "What?"
Wei Qing's lip curved. "You are cautious—very good. A lot of sisters and brothers in Classes 7 and 8 would have already pounded their heads against a wall of stone hoping to find treasure." His head tilted slightly. "But this place was not meant for the ordinary disciples. Lin Xuan, be careful." He turned back, leaving.
Lin Xuan watched him go, spear ready in hand. So it is not only I who feel it. He knows too. But how much does he know?
When quiet returned, he again leaned against the crack.
[Hidden Quest: Unlock Primordial Seal. Progress: 5%.]
The System's words pulsed through his head. Did progress only come from action? It seemed that merely being near the crevice gave the quest a small advancement.
Near midnight, when the others were lying awake, Lin Xuan was on the move again. With both palms stuck flat on the wall, he sank deep into its surface until his Qi flooded it.
The crack opened wide and split. Stones fell off it in strips like dried bark, revealing a narrow passage leading down into the gorge's deeps. Cold air came out: not the natural cold of night, but a colder cold that smelt carved into time.
With that, he went in.
The passage went down, and he had to move sideways at times. His spear gently scraped against stone, the sound echoing out in the silence and being amplified. The deeper he went, the louder that heartbeat became.
Thump. Thump…
It was no longer coming from underground: now it was inside his veins, echoing with his pulse.
Eventually, the passage opened up into a chamber.
It was huge, way—a pit carved not by pick or b… Retreaters, but volition. The walls quietly glittered faintly with runes inscribed in patterns miles older than any sect scripture Lin Xuan had ever seen.
A stone altar sat in the middle of the cave, cracked and aged, but still faintly glowing. Resting on it was a piece of crystal: this one black as night, yet laced with liquid gold. Every heartbeat of the chasm sent pulses through that crystal, as if it too were alive.
Lin Xuan sucked in a sharp breath. His body responded unconsciously, meridians constricting, the qi inside him stalling under that pressure. This time, the System even tried to weigh in.
[System Alert: Identified Object – Primordial Seal Fragment.]
[Age: 100,000+ years. Function: Unknown. Status: Dormant.]
Those numbers staggered him. Over one hundred thousand years? Not only was that older than dynasties, it even predated the sects, and may well have been old enough to exceed the very culture of cultivating Dao that ordinary mortals used now.
He walked with even more deliberate slowness. Each step made the air heavier. The mist in this place began to grow more and more solid, swirling like spirits that didn't want to depart.
Standing in front of the altar, once again he felt the pulse of the shard—and the System chimed out a clear beep.
[Hidden Quest Progress: 25%. Warning: Direct contact will spawn resonance.]
Lin Xuan's spear swayed down slightly. His head sharpened very much like a knife. Resonating was risky. But also brought the reward.
He extended a finger, gently brushing the surface of the fragment.
The world disappeared.
He was standing in a darkness that was both endless and void. Above him, no stars sparkled. Below him, no ground bore his weight. There was nothing in the abyss except the light of the fragment.
Then came the voice.
"Another child... reaching for power he does not understand."
It was neither male nor female, neither near nor far. It was the sound of mountains grinding, of rivers running backwards.
Lin Xuan straightened up. "Who are you?"
"Who am I?" It sounded amused. "The more important question is, who are you to touch what should have lain dormant for always?"
Light flashed: for just an instant, Lin Xuan saw a figure—tall, wearing flowing raiment that dimmed eyes like suns—an Emperor who once ruled Heaven and Earth.
Instead, everything was as black as could be.
A sudden stabbing pain shot through Lin Xuan's skull. Too much information rushed in. He had visions of runes, snatches of a battlefield, even creatures that could shake the heavens with their roar. His knees gave out then and nearly buckled under him; his nose started bleeding.
[System prompt: Host aura is unstable. Reduce absorption rate to 0.1%.]
At this rate, it dropped quickly from a torrent to a trickle—and he could take it.
A single rune branded itself on his brains. Not words, not language, but concept: it meant 'will that would not be broken,' 'standing alone against heaven.'
[New skill acquired: Rune Sense (Low Grade).]
Lin Xuan breathed heavily, his vision slowly at rest. His hand reclaimed the fragment.
The heartbeat in that heart gradually slowed, sinking back into the stone walls. The chamber faded and once again became silent.
However, the System notification remained in his sight.
[Task completion 50%. Requires more resonance.]
First came Lin Xuan, and then the night came in misty veil. The crevice sealed itself cleanly behind him, the weathering-steel plate of the massive stone flattening as if nothing had been disturbed at all. It was only the slight after-fragrance of ancient dust on his clothes.
The camp was quiet. Disciples lay in exhausted sleep. Wei Qing alone was awake, sitting up with carefully polishing the long spear in his hands.
His eyes took in Lin Xuan, their question unspoken.
Lin Xuan said nothing back to him, only got down by the fire. His eyes closed.
But inside, he was troubled. The college sends people to receive the advanced training, it is well known, but no one has yet explored the fact that below their feet is a Primordial Seal. Is it possible that those seniors deliberately ignore such facts? Or do they simply not perceive the danger? Standing up as long as it stays under lock and key, and they are keeping this fact from the younger generations?
And, as always, the System murmured in his ears.
[Warning: Unstable seal fragment found. Energy leak detected. Animals under the mountain may be attracted to it.]
His fist clenched around the head.
If so, then this nightmare was only just beginning.
The chasm abruptly recoiled slightly.
Lin Xuan's eyes shot open. Beneath the fog, his eyes searched the cliffs.
Thump.
…Thump.
Now the thrumming of its beating heart had become louder than before, no longer confined within the palace. It communicated itself to the full length of the gorge, like a throbbing in every stone.
Far away, something stirred. This noise was very different from that of an assault of howling wolves or hissing snakes, it came from much deeper within and was infinitely more inimical.
Lin Xuan slowly sat up, gripping his spear.
"Broken Fang Abyss..." His voice was like a well-oiled bit, steady and low. "Show me the truth you conceal."