The air was still.
Where light had once burned, only ash remained. Bones, armor, and fragments of radiant steel were scattered like offerings to the dead. The Burial Grounds had fallen silent again, save for the faint whisper of resentful qi drifting through the wind.
Fei Tan sat at the edge of a ruined altar, his breath shallow, his veins pulsing with black light. Every heartbeat made his vision blur between red and gray.
Bai Qing'er knelt beside him, her hands trembling as she pressed herbs onto his wounds. "You need to rest," she whispered.
He laughed weakly. "Rest? I just killed a Core Formation cultivator. That was… exhilarating."
"Exhilarating?" Her voice cracked. "You nearly lost yourself!"
Fei Tan turned his gaze to her — eyes gleaming faintly crimson. "I didn't lose myself. I found it."
Bai Qing'er fell silent. The air between them was thick — heavy with fear, but also something else.
He stared down at his hands. The veins beneath his skin glowed faintly, black and red intertwining like snakes. When he flexed his fingers, the blood around his palm trembled — drawn toward him like metal to a magnet.
"This power…" he murmured, "…it's not from me alone."
He closed his eyes — and the darkness responded.
"Fei Tan…"
The voice was soft. Feminine. Echoing not in his ears but in his soul.
He found himself standing once more in the endless black void — where chains coiled like serpents around a floating figure.
The girl in chains smiled. Her eyes glowed with faint violet light.
"You've grown stronger," she said. "Almost enough to unseal the first lock."
Fei Tan clenched his fists. "Who are you really?"
The girl tilted her head. "You've already felt it, haven't you? Every time you bleed, every time you refuse to die — that's me whispering through your veins."
"You're not human," he said.
"Neither are you anymore."
Her chains rattled softly as she floated closer. "I was once called the Queen of Shadows. The world tried to erase me. The heavens sealed me here. And now, your blood sings the same song mine once did."
Fei Tan's heart pounded. "Why help me?"
"Because you're the only one foolish enough to challenge heaven with nothing but rage." She smiled, sharp and beautiful. "And because when you rise… I rise too."
The darkness surged around her, like the ocean welcoming a storm.
"Take what's left of my curse," she whispered. "It will keep you alive — but every time you use it, the chains weaken. And one day… when they finally break…"
She leaned closer, her lips almost brushing his ear.
"…you'll have to decide if you want to save the world — or watch it burn with me."
Fei Tan's eyes snapped open.
He was back in the Burial Grounds, drenched in sweat. The ground beneath him cracked — his aura surging uncontrollably.
Bai Qing'er gasped. "Fei Tan!"
Black energy coiled around him, thick and alive. The ground pulsed like a beating heart.
Then — silence.
The aura sank into him, disappearing completely. His breathing steadied, and the glow in his eyes dimmed.
When he finally looked up, the air itself seemed to bend around him — heavy, oppressive.
Bai Qing'er stepped back, trembling. "You… changed again."
Fei Tan wiped the blood from his mouth. "No. I just remembered who I am."
Far above the Burial Grounds, on a mountain cloaked in mist — several figures stood before a glowing mirror of light.
Within the mirror, they saw it all — the collapse of the Radiant Sword Sect's expedition, the rise of the black mist, and the young man standing amid corpses.
A gray-robed elder spoke. "That place should've been sealed centuries ago. How did someone survive there?"
Another figure, cloaked entirely in shadow, chuckled. "Fate always favors monsters."
The elder's gaze hardened. "Prepare a notice. The sects will not ignore this. A dark cultivator has emerged from the Burial Grounds."
"And his name?"
The shadow smiled faintly. "Fei Tan."
Back in the ruins, Fei Tan stood over the shattered altar. His reflection shimmered faintly in a pool of dark blood.
He whispered, "If heaven calls me a monster…"
He gripped his broken blade tighter.
"…then I'll become the god of monsters."
Bai Qing'er looked at him — her eyes filled with fear and something that felt dangerously like devotion.
End of Chapter 12