CHAPTER 105 — The Abyss Marches, and the Price of Promises
The battlefield in Starfall Valley still steamed with the fading heat of Lin Xuan's solar-core techniques. The corrupted ash of the pseudo-general drifted on the wind like burnt snow, settling over shattered stone, torn banners, and broken earth.
But Lin Xuan did not linger.
He stared toward the distant horizon—the direction the abyssal army had come from—and felt a heavy truth settling in his chest.
> This was only their vanguard.
The true storm had not yet arrived.
Wen wiped his blades clean and sheathed them with a sharp click.
Mu sank to a knee, catching her breath as icy lotus petals slowly dissolved around her.
The human Bai leaned on his spear, lightning still dancing faintly down the shaft.
Dragon-Bai yawned like a small lion cub … even though the golden flame leaking from between his teeth could vaporize mountains.
Lin Xuan finally spoke.
"Gather yourselves. Patch wounds. We're moving."
Mu blinked. "Already? Lin, you've barely rested at all."
"I'll rest when we reach Cloudsky Sect." His eyes sharpened. "We're out of time."
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1. The Cost of a Promise
As the others began treating cuts and burns, Lin stepped away a short distance.
He took out the ring left to him by the void transformation senior—the man who had died protecting a child he would never see grow up.
The man he swore to repay.
He whispered into the ring's fading spiritual imprint.
"Your Starfall Alchemy Clan is safe. I kept my word."
A gentle pulse of remnant soul qi flickered in acknowledgment before fading like a dying ember.
Dragon-Bai leaned against his leg with a soft rumble.
Lin closed his eyes.
"If I hadn't come… if I had decided 'it's too far' or 'we're too tired'…" His jaw tightened. "The Starfall clan would be nothing but ashes."
His promise had saved hundreds.
But now the consequences of that promise… were beginning to materialize.
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2. The Abyss Doesn't Stop
A sudden quake shook the valley floor.
Wen spun around. "Another wave?"
"No." Lin frowned. "This is farther away."
A distant thunder, like thousands marching at once, echoed through the mountains.
Mu paled. "They're moving. Fast."
Lin nodded.
"The pseudo-general's death enraged their army. They'll hit other settlements on their path to Cloudsky Sect."
He pointed at the ravaged horizon.
"They're not retreating—they're accelerating."
Dragon-Bai hissed, sensing the spreading corruption.
Wen clicked his tongue. "Then we need to run faster."
Lin didn't disagree.
He turned to the others.
"We're not just fighting for ourselves now. If Cloudsky falls, every sect behind it collapses. The front line dies. The empire dies. Then the continent."
He tightened his grip around the divine artifact helmet at his side.
"And after that… my inner earth."
He didn't say more.
He didn't have to.
They all understood.
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3. Field Medicine by a Heaven-Grade Alchemist
Lin knelt and summoned the cauldron form of his divine artifact.
It appeared instantly, its presence heavy and dignified—even in its disguised state.
Mu unconsciously straightened, eyes wide and reverent.
Wen and Bai stopped talking immediately.
The Saint—watching from the inner earth—felt the shift even from worlds away.
Lin pulled out herbs of varying grades.
Some rare.
Some extinct.
Others from the Saint's pocket dimension itself.
He closed his eyes and his hands flowed through seals like streams of light.
The cauldron roared to life.
A pillar of radiance shot into the sky.
> BOOM — BOOM — BOOM
Three medicinal fragrances burst outward, each one richer than the last.
Mu gasped. "Those… those ingredients—he upgraded them again…!"
The pills formed in the air like drifting stars before dropping gently into Lin's hand.
He tossed one to each companion.
"These will heal your wounds faster and stabilize your foundations. We can't afford hidden injuries."
Mu swallowed hers with trembling hands.
Her entire body shivered as warm light cleansed her from inside out.
Wen inhaled sharply as the pill coursed through his meridians.
Bai groaned, curls of lightning crackling around him involuntarily.
Even Dragon-Bai's scales grew a shade brighter.
Lin swallowed his last.
Lightning, fire, and spatial law hummed inside him in perfect synchronization.
His strength surged—but he didn't revel in it.
He needed it.
---
4. The Temptation to Upgrade His Solar System
Lin opened his inner sight.
Within his sea of consciousness, the solar system model he had built shone like a galaxy trapped inside a teardrop.
The golden sun pulsed slowly, fed by the purified abyssal energy he had devoured.
The vine-heart sapling rooted into his earth pulsed with life, spreading faint runes of fertility and creation.
Aurora drifted as a spirit-light, nurturing the new-born world.
Saint Shengyuan cultivated in meditation under the shadow of a newly forming mountain range.
Lin felt the delicate balance of the world.
> One wrong change… and it could collapse.
One upgrade… and it could explode into something beyond comprehension.
He whispered to himself:
"I could upgrade it. Turn it from a solar system model into… something closer to a real cosmos."
His heart pounded.
The temptation was monstrous.
The power he would gain from such an upgrade—
> Unfathomable.
But so was the risk.
"Not yet." He forced himself to step back. "A world without stability shatters during growth. I won't kill everything inside because I was impatient."
Dragon-Bai nipped his shoulder approvingly.
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5. Return to the World — And a Grim Road Ahead
After an hour of recovering under Lin's pills, the group mounted up and headed out.
The roads were eerily empty.
Too empty.
Wen frowned. "Where did all the travelers go?"
Mu swallowed. "It's the abyss. Everyone is fleeing to the inner provinces."
They passed burned houses.
Abandoned carts.
Dead beasts—corrupted into blackened husks.
Lin stopped once to dig graves for a family of four.
He didn't say anything.
None of them did.
Only Dragon-Bai's soft whine filled the silence.
Then the attacks began.
First small groups of corrupted beasts.
Then corrupt cultivators.
Then an entire squadron of abyss-infused assassins.
They fought through all of them.
Lin devoured all the abyssal energy he could, feeding his world and growing stronger.
But even so—
There were too many enemies.
Too many signs of destruction.
Too many cries from distant villages begging for help they couldn't give.
Bai clenched his jaw.
"Lin… how much time do we have?"
Lin didn't answer.
Because the answer was:
> Not enough.
---
They reached the ridge overlooking Cloudsky Sect's territory—
And saw the sky itself turning black.
Mu whispered, horrified:
"That… that's the abyssal ancestor's aura."
Wen trembled.
Bai gripped his spear until his knuckles turned white.
Lin narrowed his eyes—
Solar law blazing in both pupils.
"So he's finally noticed me."
He lowered his spear, stepping forward as lightning crackled under his feet.
"Good."
His voice was calm.
Deadly.
> "I'm coming for him too."
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