A storm was coming.
The clouds hung so low they seemed about to scrape the cliff faces.
Bai Lin dragged his cracked, bleeding body forward along the mountain path,
breath ragged, steps unsteady,
but he dared not stop.
Because he could feel it—
That thing behind him was still watching.
It was not alive, not a beast, not even breathing.
Yet its presence clung to the inside of his skin like a shadow.
The moment he paused, it would cling tighter.
"…Hummm."
The heart in his chest vibrated again.
The sound was like a hammer shattering his spine,
or like something tugging him toward a certain direction.
Bai Lin couldn't help cursing: "What the hell do you want now…"
The Demon Emperor's voice drifted into his mind, faint, as if coming through a thousand layers of stone:
[Don't stop. The tear in the Boundary Layer hasn't closed yet.]
Bai Lin gritted his teeth: "Those black shadows… what exactly are they?"
[They are not life. They are the noise that leaks through from the other side.]
"The Boundary Layer…?"
[Think of it as a place where the world's skin has grown too thin.]
The Demon Emperor never spoke plainly.
Every sentence carried hidden meanings—answered, yet left deeper pits behind.
At the end of the mountain path lay a sheer cliff.
The instant Bai Lin drew near, the entire trail began to emit crack… crack… crack sounds,
as though something enormous were ripping the stone apart from the inside.
He looked back.
The once-solid rock walls rippled like flesh.
Then a long fissure tore open.
Inside was no light—
only a blackness so deep it could grind souls to dust.
Bai Lin's heart spasmed in agony.
"Again?!"
[…No. This is not "them."]
The Demon Emperor's voice dropped several degrees, rare tension threading through it.
[This is something deeper.]
The fissure stretched longer.
The cliff face began to curl like paper.
That black "maw" breathed in and out.
With every breath, Bai Lin felt his soul being swept over by unseen eyes.
He bit down hard enough to taste blood.
That gaze was more terrifying than the shadows—
as if his heartbeat were being peeled open,
and his name examined letter by letter.
Then—his heart reacted.
THUMP!
So violently it felt like a blow to the bones.
Blood seeped from the cracks in his skin.
Bai Lin dropped to one knee, pain blinding him.
"Losing control again…?!"
[Endure it.]
For once the Demon Emperor issued a cold, hard command without mockery:
[Do not let the other side hear your heartbeat.]
Ice flooded Bai Lin's veins.
"…What happens if they hear it?"
[You will be remembered.]
After half a second of silence, the Demon Emperor added a line that made Bai Lin's scalp explode:
[And once something is remembered, it is very hard to erase.]
The fissure suddenly exerted an invisible suction—
not physical, not wind,
only pure attention settling upon him.
Every hair on Bai Lin's body stood on end.
"Demon Emperor—"
His heart thrummed again, even more violently—
as though it were trying to grow out of his ribcage.
THUMP—!!!
Blood rushed to his throat; he nearly vomited.
At that exact moment,
the Demon Emperor's voice turned unnaturally calm:
[Lin… do you remember one of the faces you saw on the sacrifice platform?]
A flash in Bai Lin's mind—
for some reason, he recalled those "people without eyes" kneeling on the altar.
He answered instantly: "Of course! The whole crowd—"
[One of them… was looking at you.]
Bai Lin's breath stopped.
"…What did you say?"
[Their eyes were gouged out only because the other side has no need of eyes.]
[But they still saw you.]
From the depths of the fissure…
something far more immense began to draw near.
The Demon Emperor whispered:
[They remembered you.]
[And now… you have exposed far too much in front of them.]
Bai Lin's throat turned to sand.
The mountain path trembled harder.
A third kind of sound came from within the crack—
neither the giant hand nor the shadows,
but countless voices giggling inside the bones of his ears.
Bai Lin clutched his chest, shaking from pain.
His heart began to run wild,
pounding so hard it felt ready to burst through his collarbone.
He was reaching his limit.
Yet the Demon Emperor said:
[Lin, listen to me.]
Bai Lin snarled through clenched teeth: "Talk!"
The Demon Emperor's voice sounded as though he were suppressing something unspeakable:
[Your heart is reacting because "they" recognize you.]
[And your heart… remembers them.]
Bai Lin's mind roared with static.
The fissure began to contract—
not closing, but folding inward toward him,
as if space itself wanted to swallow him.
The Demon Emperor said coldly:
[Lin, hold it back. Do not let your heart run wild again.]
Bai Lin could barely breathe:
"I… can't… hold it…"
His heart suddenly—
BOOM!!!!
His entire chest seemed to explode outward.
Bai Lin collapsed, vision flashing white.
The next instant—
Heaven and earth shattered as though crushed in a giant fist.
Clouds tore into fragments.
The mountain path twisted sideways.
All sound became a low-frequency scream.
The gaze watching him from inside the fissure magnified a hundredfold.
Bai Lin couldn't help roaring: "SCREW THIS—!!!"
Just as the crack was about to swallow him whole—
The Demon Emperor's low shout cut through:
[Look up.]
Bai Lin bit down and raised his face.
The Demon Emperor's voice rose from the deepest coffin in existence:
[Remember—you were never "chosen."]
[You were the one sacrificed.]
BOOM!!!!
The fissure was suddenly forcibly slammed shut by some unseen power.
The entire mountain path screamed like ripping silk.
In that moment, all tremors ceased—
not gone, but paused.
Bai Lin knelt on the ground, gasping like a drowning man.
The fissure slowly sealed.
Silence returned to the path.
But Bai Lin's eyes were wide.
In the final heartbeat before it closed,
he saw something staring at him from the inside.
Not a body.
Not a person.
Not a beast.
Just a face whose features had been erased—
only the outline remained,
pressed against the inner surface of the crack,
gazing at him.
Like looking through glass,
memorising him.
Mountain wind howled past.
Bai Lin felt cold enough to be submerged in ice water.
The Demon Emperor spoke softly:
[Lin, from today onward,
you can never again let your heart beat out of control so carelessly.]
Bai Lin's voice trembled: "…Just now… I was almost dragged… over there?"
The Demon Emperor was silent for a long, long time.
[Not dragged away.]
[Dragged "back."]
Bai Lin's pupils shrank.
"Back…?"
The Demon Emperor's voice grew low, blurred, as though suppressing something that must never be spoken:
[Lin… this was not the first time
you died on that sacrifice platform.]
Bai Lin froze solid.
His heart, once again,
began to beat wrong.