The way down was narrow and steep, and the air grew darker and colder with each downward step. Shen Liuxue led the way, her hand brushing against the rough stone walls as she moved, each touch sending faint pulses from her newly awakened ability—Causal Echo.
Faint whispers.
Ghostly impressions of monks that walked these steps long ago.
Prayers in voices long since turned to dust.
Beside her, Xie Yining clutched the lantern with both hands, its small flame trembling with every shaky breath he took.
"Liuxue," he whispered, "this place is… older than the manuscripts suggested.
She continued striding. "Age doesn't matter. What is hidden does."
Finally, the stairway opened into a circular chamber carved from smooth obsidian stone. The air lay still, almost reverent. In the centre of the chamber lay a sarcophagus - massive, unornamented, carved from one block of pale stone veined with silver.
Yining inhaled sharply. "This… This must be it."
Liuxue stepped forward to study the sarcophagus. It had no inscriptions, no symbols. Just one faint impression of a crescent on the lid-so shallow it could have been mistaken for a crack.
But her seal burned in response.
Yining moved cautiously around the chamber. "The records called this place the Tomb of the Cycle Breaker. I thought the name was metaphorical."
Liuxue laid a hand on the stone lid.
"Not metaphorical," she said softly. "Literal."
The air grew thick. Something ancient stirred beneath her touch.
"Liuxue…" Yining's voice quivered. "Are you ready? Whatever is inside—"
"No," she said. "But waiting won't make me ready."
She pushed.
The lid slid open with a low, resonant groan-far heavier than stone should be, as if it resisted deliberately. A rush of stale air escaped, carrying the faint scent of incense and old storms.
Yining raised the lantern.
No body lay inside.
Instead, there was an object on a recess lined with velvet: a black metal scroll case etched with lines of geometry that pulsed faintly with light of silver.
Three chains of divine energy—thin as threads but brighter than starlight—wrapped around it.
Yining's breath caught. "A sealed artifact."
Liuxue reached out, but stopped when the sigil on her wrist pulsed sharply.
[Warning: Divine Restriction Detected.]
[Soul compatibility required for removal].
Yining hovered behind her. "Before you touch it, you should know-this isn't ordinary. If the Celestial Court locked it away, it's dangerous. Maybe too dangerous."
Liuxue didn't look at him. "Dangerous or not, it was left for me."
Her fingers moved towards the scroll case. The divine chains shimmered, reacting to her proximity.
Yining flinched. "The.the chains will strike any unqualified soul. They may erase your consciousness if—"
"If I'm unqualified," she finished.
He swallowed. "Yes."
Liuxue sighed.
She wasn't afraid, but she felt the weight of inevitability press against her chest.
Her past life had walked into the gods' wrath alone.
Her present was already steeped in forbidden power.
And yet she felt the faintest tremor of resistance deep inside her.
"I am not her," Liuxue whispered.
Yining blinked. "What?"
"I am not the woman in the memory. I don't want her battles. Her burdens. Her destiny."
Yining's face softened. "Then take control of your own."
His voice was soft yet firm.
Softer than a scholar should sound, braver than he felt.
And in the shortest of moments, Liuxue looked at him-really looked-and saw not fear but conviction.
A choice.
Her choice.
She wrapped her fingers around the scroll case.
And at once the divine chains acted.
Light exploded—not outwards, but inwards, spiraling around her hand like a vortex.
Yining shouted her name, but his voice was lost in the thunderous crackle of divine energy.
The seal on her wrist blazed, hot enough to sear through bones. Flames of golden-white light erupted across her skin, spiraling up her arm and wrapping around the scroll case.
The chains trembled.....
It resisted....
Then shattered in a shower of tiny star-like fragments.
The whole chamber shook.
Yining shielded himself with his sleeve. "Liuxue!"
Liuxue gritted her teeth, her breath sharp and uneven. A flood of foreign energy surged into her, forcing memories that were not memories through her veins-voices, visions, fractured echoes.
She was kneeling, clutching the scroll case tightly, when the light finally dimmed.
Her vision swam.
Yining hastened to her side. "Are you hurt?"
She shook her head slowly. "No. Just. overwhelmed."
The scroll case pulsed once in her hand, then grew still.
Yining breathed a sigh of relief. "Whatever it is, it accepted you."
Liuxue nodded but her thoughts were muddled. "The seal chose to unlock it. That means this artifact belonged to my past self."
Yining hesitated. "And what does that mean for you now?"
Liuxue stared at the scroll case, feeling that the metal was cold, almost too cold-as if the knowledge inside had been frozen, to keep it from bleeding into the world.
"It means she prepared for something," Liuxue murmured. "Perhaps for her return…or for her failure."
She got up slowly, steadying herself.
"Let's open it," Yining said softly.
"No," Liuxue said, surprising both of them.
He blinked. "Why?"
She closed her fingers around the scroll case, feeling its strange heartbeat-like pulse.
"Whatever's inside… it shouldn't be opened without a reason.
Not when Heaven's watching.
Not when I don't know for sure who I was."
He nodded begrudgingly.
At the staircase, Liuxue took one step up, and then froze.
Her breath caught.
Her new power surged-Causal Echo-flared violently.
Whispers.
Footsteps.
A presence.
Not from the past.
Just moments ago.
There was someone else in the shrine.
Yining's voice was faint. "Liuxue…?"
Her eyes narrowed.
"The Messenger."
She turned toward the sealed altar above them.
Light leaked through the cracks.
Heavy footsteps sounded.
A voice descended cold as fate itself.
"Shen Liuxue. You cannot run from us."
Yining paled. "They're right above us—what do we do?"
Liuxue raised her chin. The scroll case pressed cold against her palm.
"We don't run," she said quietly.
"We move deeper."
She turned toward the dark corridor on the far side of the tomb-one she hadn't noticed before, faintly glowing with her seal's light. And out of the darkness underneath it… A whisper answered her step.
"Welcome back… my heir." Liuxue's blood ran cold. Yining's lantern flickered close to going out. And the voice of the Messenger boomed above them like thunder—
"You will not escape." With a quiet gasp, Liuxue stepped forward into the deeper darkness.