Lin Chen reached the entrance and slid the gate open. The moment he saw who was standing outside, his brows furrowed. "You two?" Yan Luo stood at the front while Zhao Ming remained beside him. Both looked exhausted. Dust clung to the edges of their robes and sleeves.Zhao Ming's usually neat appearance was noticeably disordered, while Yan Luo's expression was so serious that it put Lin Chen on guard. Neither looked like they had come for a casual visit if anything, they looked troubled.
Lin Chen straightened.The teasing mood from breakfast vanished from his face. "What happened?" he asked but neither answered. His frown deepened. "Why are you two here this early?" Yan Luo's gaze moved past him toward the residence beyond the gate. His voice was low when he spoke. "Is Xu Yang awake?" The question only made Lin Chen more suspicious. "Why?" Zhao ming exchanged a brief glance with yan luo."What happened?" Lin Chen asked again, this time more firmly. "You both look terrible." Zhao Ming released a tired breath and rubbed the bridge of his nose. The exhaustion on his face became even more obvious. "I wish that was the biggest problem right now." The answer made Lin Chen's expression change immediately. Whatever they had discovered, it was serious enough that zhao ming couldn't even joke about it.
Before Lin Chen could press further, a familiar voice drifted from deeper inside the courtyard."Who is it?"All three men turned instinctively toward the sound.Yan Luo and Zhao Ming entered.Xu Yang stood beside the stone table beneath the flowering tree. Half of his breakfast remained untouched. Steam still rose faintly from the tea beside him.His eyes moved between the two visitors.The longer he looked, the more uneasy he became."You two?" He continued,"What happened?"
His gaze shifted toward Zhao Ming, then toward Yan Luo. "Did something happen?" Xu Yang asked. His voice remained calm, but something in his chest had already begun to tighten. Neither answered Xu yang already sensed something was wrong!Xu Yang slowly straightened from his seat. "You found something, didn't you?" Zhao Ming's eyes flickered away for the briefest moment."What did you find?He asked."
Without speaking, Yan Luo reached into his sleeve. The movement drew everyone's attention. Lin Chen's brows furrowed slightly. Xu Yang watched silently as yan luo withdrew a sealed document.It was ancient and bearing the unmistakable seal of heaven's Archive Pavilion.Yan Luo stepped forward and placed the document onto the stone table between them. The soft sound seemed unusually loud in the quiet courtyard. "Read it."Xu Yang frowned. "What is this?" Zhao Ming folded his arms and answered quietly, "An archive record." Xu Yang's gaze moved between them. "A record of what?" Yan Luo remained expressionless. "Read." The simple answer irritated him. "Since when did both of you become so mysterious?" Still no answer. Xu Yang released a slow breath and reached toward the document.For some reason his hand hesitated before touching it. As though instinct itself was warning him not to open it. Yet after a moment he broke the seal and unfolded the parchment.
Xu Yang lowered his gaze and began reading. At first, nothing changed then confusion slowly appeared across his face. His brows drew together as his eyes moved down the page. One line then another then another. Suddenly he froze."No." The word escaped before he realized he had spoken aloud. Lin Chen looked toward him at once. Xu Yang continued reading. The hand holding the parchment tightened visibly. His breathing became uneven and disbelief appeared first."No." This time his voice was louder.His gaze snapped upward. "This can't be right." Neither Yan Luo nor Zhao Ming reacted.Xu Yang stood abruptly.The chair behind him scraped harshly against the stone. He held up the archive report in disbelief. "There has to be a mistake." His voice had become strained. "This is impossible." Zhao Ming closed his eyes briefly before answering. "We thought the same thing." Xu Yang stared at him. Zhao Ming let out a tired laugh that carried no amusement whatsoever. "So we checked again." Silence settled over the courtyard. "And again." Another pause followed. "And a third time." Xu Yang's grip tightened around the parchment. "Three times?" Zhao Ming nodded slowly. "We verified every seal." His voice was heavy. "Every archive signature." "Every record reference." His expression darkened. "It didn't change."
Xu Yang slowly turned toward Yan Luo as though hoping the he would deny everything. Instead Yan Luo remained calm."The archive tried to conceal the file." Xu yang froze. "What?" Yan Luo folded his arms behind his back. "The record wasn't where it belonged." His gaze remained steady. "It had been relocated." A pause followed. "Sealed." He continued,"Buried beneath layers of erased records." His eyes narrowed slightly. "As though someone wanted to ensure nobody would ever find it."
Xu Yang slowly lowered his gaze toward the document. His hands tightened. The edges of the parchment crumpled beneath his fingers."Impossible." Lin Chen had remained silent until now, but watching xu yang's reaction was becoming increasingly unsettling. He stepped closer and looked between the three men. "What exactly is written in that thing?" Nobody answered. Lin Chen frowned."You're all acting like someone just ascended and fell in the same day." Xu Yang remained staring at the document. Yan Luo remained watching Xu Yang.
Lin Chen's concern deepened. "What did you find?" Still no direct answer. Instead Yan Luo stepped forward. His gaze settled entirely on Xu Yang. For several moments he simply studied him then he spoke. "Xu Yang." Xu Yang slowly lifted his head yan luo's expression remained calm."Everything began there.Xu yang's grip tightened slightly around the archive report.Yan Luo continued, his voice steady. "The dreams." A pause followed. "The missing records." Another pause. "The erased history.Every trail leads back to the shrine."
Then Yan Luo took a slow breath. "If we want answers..." His eyes met Xu Yang's directly. "We have to go there ourselves." Xu Yang lowered his gaze briefly. The burning shrine from his dreams flashed through his mind.Xu Yang slowly folded the archive report. When he looked up again, something had changed in hs eyes.He nodded once. "You're right." Zhao Ming looked toward him. "This has gone on long enough." His fingers tightened around the report. "The dreams." He lowered his gaze briefly. "The voices." Another pause. "The memories that don't feel like memories. " He slowly exhaled then a faint smile appeared on his face, though there was very little amusement in it. "It's time to finish this chapter."
Zhao Ming's expression darkened slightly. He understood exactly what Xu Yang meant. Yan Luo simply nodded but beside them, lin chen stared blankly. His entire face twisted into confusion. "Wait." Everyone looked toward him. Lin Chen pointed at xu yang then at yan luo then back at Xu Yang again. "What chapter?" Lin Chen looked even more confused. "What do you mean finish this chapter?" He spread both hands dramatically. "Who talks like that in real life?" Zhao Ming looked away to hide a smile. Lin Chen wasn't finished. "And what answers?" He pointed toward the archive report. "What missing history?" Another point. "And most importantly..." He looked directly at Xu Yang. "What exactly are we going to do there?" Xu Yang blinked. Zhao ming replied, " To find something!"
Yan Luo respond."This is not something you can treat as a normal investigation." he said calmly.Lin Chen frowned. "Then what is it?"Zhao Ming spoke, "Something that shouldn't have been uncovered again." "Again?" he repeated. "So this isn't the first time?" Lin Chen looked at Xu Yang. "And you're telling me you want to go there anyway?"Xu Yang didn't answer first his fingers tightened slightly around the archive report."I don't have a choice!" he said.Lin Chen's expression hardened. "Everyone has a choice."Xu Yang shook his head once. "Not this time."
Then Yan Luo spoke again, more direct this time. "If we stay here, nothing changes. The answers will remain buried, and the memory gaps will only grow worse."Lin Chen's gaze shifted sharply to him. "Memory gaps?"Zhao Ming looked away slightly, as if reluctant to explain further.Lin Chen stepped closer. "Start speaking clearly. All of you. What exactly is happening to him?"Xu Yang's eyes lowered for a moment, as if weighing something he had avoided saying out loud for too long.Then quietly, he said, "I keep remembering things I've never lived."
Lin Chen froze slightly.Xu Yang continued, voice steadier now. "And forgetting things I should have never lost."Lin Chen's tone dropped. "And you think this shrine is the source?" Yan Luo nodded once. "It is connected."Lin Chen let out a slow breath, frustration fading into something more serious. "Connected how?"Yan Luo didn't answer his gaze turned toward the distant mountains.Then he said,"In ways we don't fully understand yet." He continued,"But enough to know one thing."He looked back at them."It is where this distortion began."Zhao Ming's voice followed quietly. "And where it will end."Lin Chen stared at both of them for a long moment.
Meanwhile Qing li stood frozen for a moment, his chest tight with unanswered questions and an emotion he couldn't name. "He just…" he whispered, staring at the empty space where Ling Yuan had been. "He just disappeared like that?" Wang Xio's jaw tightened, but he didn't respond, his eyes lowered slightly as if resisting something inside his own memory. Hei Long exhaled slowly, his voice returning but it carried weight now, different from before. "We cannot interfere!" he said quietly. Qing Li turned sharply toward him. "What do you mean we can't interfere?" he demanded, frustration breaking through his confusion. "He was right there. We saw him. We spoke to him or at least something like that." Hei Long shook his head faintly. "This is Echo State!" he explained. "We are not inside the past as participants. We are inside what remains of it." Wang Xio spoke, "We can only observe!" he added. "Nothing more." Qing Li's expression tightened. "Observe what? People disappearing in front of us? Moments that don't even stay still long enough to understand?" Hei Long's gaze darkened slightly, but his voice stayed calm. "This is the moment before everything broke." he said. "If we interfere, even slightly, the entire reconstruction collapses."
Qing Li took a step forward, anger rising now. "So we're just supposed to watch?!" he snapped. Silence followed for a moment. Then Hei Long answered simply, "Yes."he added, "And remember what you avoided remembering." Wang Xio's eyes flickered slightly."Remembering isn't safe." he said. "But neither is forgetting anymore." Qing Li clenched his fists, breathing uneven. "Then what's the point of showing us all this?" he asked. Hei Long looked toward the empty courtyard where Ling Yuan had stood moments ago, his expression unreadable. "So you stop asking who he was." he said softly, "and start asking what you did after he was gone."
Qing Li's breathing was still uneven, his fists clenched tightly."That doesn't answer anything," Qing Li said sharply, voice still strained with frustration. "You keep talking like we're supposed to understand guilt before we even know the truth." Wang Xio's gaze stayed lowered for a moment before he spoke, "Because understanding comes after damage." he said. "Not before it." Qing Li turned toward him instantly. "That's not fair," he muttered. Wang Xio didn't look at him. "Neither is this place." he replied simply.
Hei Long remained still, his eyes still fixed on the empty space where Ling Yuan had vanished. "You're not being shown this to decide anything," he said slowly. "You're being shown this because it already happened." Qing Li's expression tightened. "Then why does it feel like we're being blamed for something we can't remember doing?" he asked. Hei Long turned his gaze back toward him and said,"Because memory doesn't care if you remember it." he said. "It only cares that it exists."
Then, without warning, the world around them began to change again. The shrine dissolved into fractured stone paths, and suddenly they were walking through a village that felt too still to be alive.Qing Li looked around cautiously. "This place again…" he murmured. Wang Xio's eyes narrowed slightly. "It's not the same," he said. "It's deeper." Hei Long didn't respond, only scanning the horizon with a faint tension in his posture.Then, suddenly the sky above cracked with thunder not natura but resonant.A wind surged through the village, shaking lanterns and breaking the silence into fragments. Qing Li staggered slightly, raising an arm. "What now?!" he shouted over the wind. Wang Xio's expression sharpened. "This isn't weather!" he said. "It's reaction." Hei Long's eyes lifted slowly toward the sky, his voice quiet but alert. "It's responding," he said. The wind intensified, and then words began forming across the sky, not written but carved into the air itself, glowing faintly like broken truth trying to surface.
The group froze as the message stabilized above them: *The Origin responds to truth.* Qing Li's breath caught. "Origin…?" he whispered. More words appeared beneath it, shifting like unstable reality trying to settle: *If you lie → distortion worsens.* *If you deny → memory loops.* *If you accept → deeper access.*
Wang Xio's jaw tightened slightly. "So it's a Heaven" he said quietly. "Not a place." Qing Li looked up at the sky, unsettled. "That doesn't make sense!" he muttered. Hei Long's voice came low, almost thoughtful now. "It doesn't need to," he said. "It only needs to decide what you are willing to become inside it." The wind roared again, stronger this time.
Meanwhile Xu Yang stood still for a moment, the archive report still held tightly in his hand. Yan luo's gaze remained steady, already looking past the courtyard toward the distant mountains.Lin Chen broke the silence first. "So that's it? We just go to a place none of you fully understand and hope we don't die on the way?"Xu Yang glanced at him. "That's not the plan.""Good! Because that sounded like a terrible plan." Lin chen said.
Yan Luo turned slightly. "We are not going blindly. We are following the traces left in the spiritual flow."Lin Chen pointed at him. "That still sounds like blindly, just with extra steps." Zhao Ming muttered, "He's not wrong." Yan luo ignored him. "The shrine responds to disturbance. The closer we get, the more the Threads will react." Xu Yang's fingers tightened slightly. "Then we move now!" he said quietly.Lin Chen blinked. "Just like that?"
Xu Yang met his eyes. "If we wait, we lose control of whatever is happening inside my memories." "...Fine!" Lin Chen said after a moment. "But I'm coming with you."Zhao ming gave him a sideways look. "You were already coming." "I like hearing it confirmed." Lin Chen replied.
Without wasting further time, the group left the residence and began their journey toward the northern mountain range where the shrine was.The path quickly shifted from maintained stone steps into rough mountain trails. Ancient trees rose around them like silent watchers, their branches tangled with faint spiritual mist that drifted unnaturally even without wind.The deeper they moved into the forest, the quieter everything became even the birds stopped chirping.Lin Chen looked around uneasily. "This feels like the kind of place where people disappear in stories." "That's because they usually do!" Zhao Ming replied flatly."Comforting!" Lin Chen muttered.
Xu Yang walked slightly ahead, his gaze fixed forward.Yan Luo walked beside him. "Do you feel it?" he asked quietly.Xu Yang didn't answer first then he looked toward shirne path and said, "Yes." Zhao Ming narrowed his eyes. "The shrine?" "No!" Xu Yang said after a pause. "Something reacting to it."For a brief second, the mist between them thickened unnaturally.And then voice suddenly cut through the forest. "Xu Yang?" Everyone stopped.
From between the trees, a figure stepped forward, partially obscured by drifting mist. Chen Yu emerged carrying a small spiritual compass in one hand, as though he had been tracking disturbances in the area. His expression changed instantly when he saw them. "Xu Yang?" he repeated, then looked around. "All of you? What are you doing this deep in the northern forest?" Lin Chen sighed. "Good question. I'm also curious."
Chen Yu frowned. "That's not an answer."
Xu Yang stepped forward slightly. "We need to confirm something." Chen Yu's eyes narrowed. "Confirm what?" His tone sharpened. "Don't tell me… you found something about the Threads?" Xu Yang hesitated, then answered honestly. "We don't know yet."
Xu Yang exhaled. "We're close to finding the truth behind the Threads."Chen Yu stiffened slightly. "What?"Zhao Ming stepped in. "It's complicated."Chen Yu let out a tired breath. "Whenever someone says that, it's never good." Lin Chen folded his arms. "He's not wrong either."Chen Yu looked between them again, expression darkening. "You're all going toward something dangerous, aren't you?" No one denied it.Chen Yu clicked his tongue. "Of course you are." Xu Yang met his gaze. "You shouldn't get involved."Chen Yu scoffed. "That's exactly why I'm getting involved."Lin Chen blinked. "That's not how logic works."Chen Yu pointed at him. "Neither is walking into unknown spiritual anomalies with half explanations."Yan Luo spoke calmly. "We didn't ask you to come." Chen Yu crossed his arms. "Didn't have to."He looked at all of them again, expression firm now.
"If something dangerous is happening, I'm not letting you idiots walk into it alone."
Lin Chen blinked once, then sighed. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said." Chen Yu pointed at him. "Don't make it weird."Lin Chen raised both hands slightly. "I'm not. I'm appreciating emotional growth." Chen Yu looked like he regretted joining them in the first place. "You are impossible." Before Lin Chen could reply, Xu Yang's expression changed.Yan Luo noticed it first. His gaze shifted past the trees. "We're close." Zhao Ming's hand moved slightly toward his weapon without fully drawing it. "No!" he said quietly. "We're already inside it."
Broken lanterns hung along collapsed wooden beams at the edge of the path, their metal frames rusted and twisted. Prayer banners fluttered weakly between dead branches, even though there was no wind strong enough to move them. Faded murals covered half-collapsed walls, depicting figures that no one spoke about anymore, their faces deliberately erased. Cracked stone statues stood at intervals along the shrine path, their expressions worn away as if someone had tried to remove their existence entirely.
Lin Chen slowed down. "Okay…" he muttered. "This already feels like a bad decision." Then saw threads spread all over shirne.They were not just in the distance anymore and there were stretching across the shrine like veins through a living body, wrapping around trees, pillars, rooftops, even sinking into the ground itself. They moved slowly, like something breathing beneath the surface of reality. The sight alone made Chen yu's grip tighten around his spiritual compass."This is… abnormal."he whispered.
Zhao Ming's expression darkened. "It's worse than abnormal."Lin Chen swallowed. "Define worse."Yan Luo didn't answer his eyes were fixed on the Threads.
Xu Yang stopped walking.His hand instinctively went to his chest, his breath catching sharply. Pain spread through him, sudden and deep, like something inside him had been pulled awake against his will. His vision blurred for a second. The same pain from his dreams.Lin Chen reached out. "Xu Yang?" "I'm fine!" Xu Yang said quickly, though his voice didn't sound convincing even to himself.Every black line in the shrine began to tremble, as if recognizing him. As if calling him. The entire structure groaned faintly beneath their feet. Stone cracked somewhere in the distance.Zhao Ming's voice dropped. "It's reacting to him."
Yan Luo's eyes narrowed. "Not reacting it's responding."Xu yang forced himself to take another step forward.The moment his foot touched the ground the entire shrine trembled.
Then someone noticed movement. Far ahead in deep within the shrine. There was figure standing between shattered pillars and ancient trees.Everyone froze. At first they could only make out a silhouette.The surrounding Threads seemed to avoid it, curving around its presence as though even they feared touching it. Lin Chen frowned. "What is that?" Nobody answered because the closer they looked, the less human the figure appeared. Dark scales covered portions of its body, not armor, scales. And ancient black horns curved backward from its head, long and jagged like blades carved from darkness itself. A heavy tail rested behind it. Sharp claws reflected faint light beneath the ruined shrine. Its entire silhouette resembled something pulled directly from an ancient nightmare or an old legend that should never have existed.
Even Chen Yu instinctively took a step backward. "What kind of monster..." The figure didn't move he just simply watched. The group slowly walked towards it.The closer they came, the more details emerged. Golden eyes glimmered beneath the shadows. Pale skin could be seen beneath the scales. Familiar features hidden beneath the demonic appearance. Xu yang's heartbeat suddenly skipped not because he recognized the dragon form. But because he recognized the face.
The moment they stepped close enough to see clearly, everyone froze. Complete shock spread across the group. Lin Chen's eyes widened. Zhao Ming's expression completely changed. Even Yan Luo visibly stiffened. Xu Yang stared. His voice barely emerged. "Hei Long?"