The village of Qinghe didn't feel like home anymore.
The air was stagnant, and the lively chatter of the marketplace had turned into a dull, mechanical murmur. People moved like shadows, buying herbs, eating at restaurants, browsing artifacts, but the spark was gone. The village was waiting for news that never came.
Inside a medicine shop, Doctor Lu Cheng handed over a bag of medicine.
"That will be one thousand seven hundred spirit stones," he said flatly.
He watched the customer pay and leave, then sighed. He sat on his chair, tucked the stones into his storage bag, and thought: Maybe I should go outside.
He stood up, stepped closer to the door, and pushed it open, hoping the fresh air would clear the fog in his mind. But as he looked at the quiet streets, his thoughts drifted back to one month and twenty-two days ago.
He remembered the desperation in his own voice.
"Old Lady Shen, are we really just going to sit here? It's been eight days! They're still in that abyss!"
Old Lady Shen hadn't answered at first. Her mind was a battlefield.
If I use the method from a hundred years ago… it won't just be chaos. It will cause trouble, a lot of trouble. And that beast… it will wake up. It will put everyone in danger. The village will burn.
"Old Lady Shen! Old Lady Shen!" Lu Cheng had shouted, snapping his fingers.
"Huh?" She blinked, looking at him. "Why are you shouting? I'm right here."
"I've been calling you for minutes!" Lu Cheng leaned in. "I'm sure you can save him, right? If you can, this is the time!"
"Shut up!" Old Lady Shen barked, loud enough to silence him, but quiet enough that the noise wouldn't reach the mountain where those experts were. She gave him a sharp knock on the head. "I can't! That method is a death sentence for everyone. Even those powerful Elders wouldn't be able to stop what's down there if it wakes up."
Lu Cheng rubbed his head. "What do you mean they can't stop it?"
Old Lady Shen's eyes grew distant.
"A hundred years ago, I was inside that abyss. I was at the peak of my power, about to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm. But as I was inside, my cultivation was sealed. Later,I broke the first chain, the second chain, with the help of a strange man, then I was about to break the third chain so that I can leave and step into the Nascent Soul Realm.I reached the core region, and Lu Cheng… the treasures were endless. I thought I was the luckiest woman alive."
She laughed, a bitter, dry sound.
"But then I felt it. A wave of power like a crushing ocean. Even a Nascent Soul cultivator would become a slave to greed looking at it. It was a circular core, part crystal, part divine metal. I thought: So powerful. I want it. The moment I took it, the world screamed. The earth shook."
Her voice dropped to a terrified whisper.
"But at that moment, I thought I could escape. But unfortunately, it was then I saw a Golden Scale Serpent. A Tier Five Beast. It was so large it blocked out the light. The first thing that came to mind was: What is a powerful beast doing here? I realized then that I wasn't supposed to be there. Because I entered that place, my cultivation was sealed. I've been stuck at Core Formation for a century, watching my life wither away."
She looked at the sky.
"By now, I should have ascended to the Second Layer World. But this is my karma." A thought came into her mind. Ahhh… Xinyi might have died with regret because I couldn't even bring her child to see her one last time.
Both of them fell silent.
Even Lu Cheng went cold. He finally understood the cost of her silence.
"Lu Cheng," she had said, her eyes like flint. "Iet go back. I will stay indoor And I will never come out again."
Present Day
Lu Cheng stood by his shop door and realized she truly meant it. She was going on a isolation suicide mission.
Huh.
Doctor Lu Cheng turned around.
"Watch the shop," he told his assistant. "I will be back."
Then he whispered to himself: "I need to go to her home."
Meanwhile.
Deep in the tunnels, the atmosphere was far from silent.
"There's nothing ahead," Ye Heimin said, his Spiritual Sense receding. "It's safe for now. Let's wait for the others to catch up."
"Alright," Wang Fang replied, sitting down and letting his guard drop for just a second as he focused on his internal Qi flow.
Ye Heimin stood up, turning to look toward their next path. But as he began to turn back, his eyes caught a flash of cold, murderous light in the shadows.
Su Qingmei was in the air.
His face was a mask of pure hatred. Now that his cultivation was back, his speed was terrifying. He was swinging his sword down in a lethal arc, aimed directly at Wang Fang's unprotected shoulder. Wang Fang, lost in thought, didn't even see the blade coming.
"WANG FANG!" Ye Heimin screamed, his heart leaping into his throat. He lunged forward, desperate to close the gap.
Wang Fang blinked, looking up in confusion. "Huh? What's up, Ye Heimin."
The sword whistled through the air, inches from contact.