The moment Ningyan stepped into the heart of the volcano, heat swallowed him whole.
Molten rivers glowed beneath jagged stone, their crimson light painting the cavern walls like blood. The air was heavy with ash, sulfur, and ancient demonic residue.
This was the place.
The place where he had awakened. The place where he remembered being bound.
Ningyan stood still, staring at the scorched ground beneath his feet.
But it was different now. It was... Cleaner. Emptier.
The chains that had once held him there were gone.
The broken remnants of his imprisonment had vanished as though they had never existed.
For a foolish moment, he had expected a flood of memories. Fragments tearing through his mind.
But nothing came.
Nothing.
Only silence.
Ningyan walked through the rocky paths, fingers brushing over rough volcanic stone, his boots crunching over cooled ash.
And still... nothing.
His jaw tightened.
Frustration rushed through his veins.
