For a while, neither of them spoke.
Not because there was nothing to say.
Because there was too much.
---
The sky above Qingyun Sect had begun stabilizing.
Not healing.
Never that.
---
The fracture remained.
Thin black cracks still stretched across the heavens above the ancestral summit, spreading through the clouds like scars left behind after a wound closed incorrectly.
The hand beyond reality had vanished.
The eye was gone.
The pressure crushing the mountain had weakened.
---
But Qingyun Sect was finished.
---
Shen Luo looked across the collapsing peaks in silence.
Ancient halls burned beneath drifting ash.
Mountain roads had disappeared entirely. Formation towers that stood for centuries had broken apart and fallen into widening voids.
Countless disciples were gone.
Some dead.
Some missing.
Some perhaps far worse.
---
Not long ago this place had felt eternal.
Cultivation sects always did.
---
Now it looked fragile.
---
Wei Jun sat heavily against a shattered stone pillar nearby.
Blood still stained his robes.
His sword rested beside him.
For the first time since Shen Luo met him—
he looked tired.
Not physically.
Humanly.
---
"...So."
Silence.
---
"...Is this usually how your days go?"
---
Shen Luo looked at him.
Then unexpectedly—
a short breath escaped him.
Not laughter.
Close.
---
Wei Jun stared.
"...You almost smiled."
---
Shen Luo immediately looked away.
"...You imagined it."
---
"...No."
Wei Jun narrowed his eyes.
"I definitely saw something."
---
For a brief moment—
despite the ruined mountain, despite the dead, despite the sky itself having cracked open—
something felt strangely normal.
---
Then the mountain shook again.
Hard.
---
Both men stood instantly.
Instinct.
---
A distant explosion echoed from the direction of the ancestral summit.
Not convergence this time.
Cultivators.
---
Wei Jun's expression changed immediately.
"Elder Han."
---
Shen Luo looked upward.
High above the shattered central peak, violent streams of spiritual light still collided across the sky.
The Sect Master.
The remaining elders.
Something was still happening.
---
Then—
a figure fell.
---
Not descended.
Fell.
---
Fast.
---
The body tore through layers of cloud and smashed through a distant mountain ridge hard enough to split stone apart.
Silence followed.
Then Wei Jun's face lost color.
---
"...No."
---
Without another word, he rushed forward.
Toward the impact point.
---
Shen Luo followed.
---
The path had nearly collapsed entirely now.
Huge cracks divided the mountainside, forcing both of them through shattered terraces and drifting sections of broken land suspended unnaturally in distorted space.
---
By the time they arrived—
the mountain ridge had become a crater.
---
Smoke rose slowly from the impact site.
Broken stone covered everything.
---
And at the center—
someone stood.
---
Not Elder Han.
---
Shen Luo stopped instantly.
Something felt wrong.
---
The figure wore Qingyun robes.
Elder robes.
But half the body had become covered in dark convergence fractures.
One arm looked normal.
The other looked distorted, almost transparent in places.
As if parts of it no longer existed in the same reality.
---
Then the figure lifted its head.
---
Elder Han.
---
Wei Jun moved instantly.
"Elder!"
---
"STOP."
---
The voice exploded across the crater.
Not loudly.
Powerfully.
---
Wei Jun froze.
---
Elder Han stood motionless.
Blood ran down one side of his face.
His breathing looked unstable.
---
But his eyes—
his eyes looked clear.
---
For now.
---
Slowly, very slowly—
his gaze shifted.
Past Wei Jun.
Toward Shen Luo.
---
Silence.
---
Then Elder Han laughed.
Once.
Dryly.
---
"...Of course."
---
Wei Jun frowned.
"Elder?"
Elder Han kept staring at Shen Luo.
Long enough that unease spread through the crater.
---
Then quietly:
"...So it chose you."
---
Shen Luo's expression changed.
Only slightly.
---
"...What chose me?"
---
Elder Han looked toward the sky.
Toward the fading fracture.
---
"...Not now."
A pause.
Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
---
"...You don't have enough pieces yet."
---
Then his body suddenly shook violently.
---
The fractures spreading across his arm deepened.
Darkness moved beneath his skin.
---
Wei Jun's face changed instantly.
"Elder—"
---
"Don't come closer."
---
This time the voice sounded weaker.
---
Elder Han looked at Shen Luo one last time.
And for the first time—
fear appeared in his expression.
---
Real fear.
---
"...Leave Qingyun."
---
Silence.
---
"...Find the Spirit Realm."
---
Another pause.
---
"...And whatever happens..."
Elder Han's eyes locked onto Shen Luo.
---
"...never let them know you remember."
---
Shen Luo's heart suddenly sank.
Remember?
Remember what?
---
Before he could speak—
Elder Han's body froze.
Completely.
---
The convergence fractures spread upward instantly.
Across his neck.
Across his face.
Across his eyes.
---
Wei Jun shouted:
"Elder Han!"
---
Too late.
---
The old man slowly lifted his head.
And smiled.
---
Not like Elder Han.
---
Wrong.
---
Behind him—
the sky cracked again.
---
Very softly—
as though something had heard his name.
---
### End of Chapter 46