The corridor leading through the tomb beyond the sarcophagus was narrow and irregular, cut by some long-lost force pressing through the rock. The sound of Liuxue's footsteps echoed softly through the darkness, but the air was oppressive, too quiet, too full of listening.
Xie Yining trailed a half step behind her, the lantern shaking in his hands. The flame danced erratically, resisting some invisible wind.
"Liuxue, this route wasn't in the manuscripts,"
he whispered, "it isn't even the shape of an average shrine tunnel. Rather, it's."
"A fissure," she completed. "Or a scar."
"On what?"
While translating, he could
Xiuxue didn't say
The whisper that greeted her was still warm in her mind. A whisper that was familiar. Far too familiar. In the sensation, perhaps—just the edge of a thing she'd almost recalled once before, when it had slipped through her fingertips like water.
Her heart beat quickly.
She didn't know whether it was anticipation
or fear.
Footsteps boomed overhead—the hunters from the Messenger, hunting the upper shrine. Dust rained from the ceiling.
"They're close," Yining whispered
"I know."
The scrollcase was gripped tightly in Liuxue's hands. The power emanating from the scrollcase seemed to fluctuate in response to the impending danger. At times, its power was warm against her skin, and other times, it was freezing.
Yining noticed. "It's reacting to your emotions."
"All right
"No," Liuxue said softly. "Not mine
She raised her eyes to the darkness before her.
"It's reacting to something deeper,"
The corridor suddenly expanded into a cavern, lit up by a cold violet light emanating from veins of luminous stones lining the walls. The faint humming from the stones vibrated in her bones.
"Ah-ah! Your eyes! I see you've noticed the changes, too," said the
"No," Liuxue agreed.
Her seal began pulsating.
Next came the whisper.
Soft.
Measured.
As If whispering in her ear.
"You've come back".
Liuxue stopped
She looked quickly around, trying to isolate the source, but the voice was coming from all directions and, in a way, nowhere at all.
"Who's there?" Yining asked
The room grew darker, the shadows converging on a single spot on the ground. The light distorted, curving and then focusing until a figure formed—a tall, clothed figure in constantly shifting darkness, featureless except for the vague imprint of a crown.
Yining stumbled backward. "A—a residual soul?"
Liuxue stayed still.
The figure cocked its head, analyzing her.
"No," the thing whispered. "A remnant cannot think. CANNOT CHOOSE. CANNOT WAIT."
Its attention honed.
"I waited for you."
"Ah"
Liuxue's breathing was lodged in her throat.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The silhouette didn't respond. Instead, it began drifting closer, its outlines wobbling like those of smoke blown by the wind. When it spoke at last, the voice was filled with the authority of antiquity.
"I am the last Cycle Breaker."
"The one whose tomb you opened."
He stared in shock. "The Cycle Breaker, the one who dared defy the heaven itself?"
Liuxue was fixated on the figure. "You're not alive,"
"No," it replied. "But neither am I dead."
A cold shiver ran down her spine.
Memory snippets—that had momentally appeared when she touched the scroll box—suddenly clarified.
A female.
Silver eyes.
There was a light-drowned battle field in the celestial.
The collapse of a crown.
A hand reaching out—to her.
She clenched her fist.
"You knew me," Liuxue said, her voice low. "Before you where almost destroyed "
The figure's appearance flickered.
"I knew what you were meant to become."
Liuxue was
"Then tell me," she whispered. "Tell me who I was."
A long silence.
"If you hear the truth too early, you'll shatter."
Translation and Analysis
"Liuxue isn't fragile," Yining asserted, protective.
The figure didn't turn in his direction, but he was nudged back by its presence, pushed by an adult correcting a child.
'This truth is not about fragility. It is about readiness.'
Its attention reverted back on Liuxue.
"Your rebirth severed your fate from the holdings of Heaven. The Celestial Realm thinks you are a threat. And they are right."
Liuxue breathed slowly. "Why? What has my past life done?"
"She broke the cycle."
"And Now"
Silence came crisply.
"The cycle of reincarnation?"
Yining's voice was shaking
"No," the figure clarified, "the cycle of divine dominance."
A distant rumble echoed through the cavern. Dust began falling from the ceiling once again.
The voice of the Messenger echoed faintly in the tunnel behind them.
"Shen Liuxue" .
"They're almost here," said Yining, grasping the lantern.
Liuxue turned back to the figure.
"If you want to help me, then tell me how to escape," he said.
The silhouette raised a hand. A sphere of light, small and dark purple, appeared on its fingertips, swirling like thickening dusk.
"Take this. A fragment of my authority. With it, you may hide from the eyes of Heaven for a brief moment."
"An authority fragment? That's. That's god-level power," Yining widened her eyes.
Liuxue had that kind of power or at least still does
The last time she took in foreign power, her arm had almost ignited with the inside burning.
But the footsteps of the Messenger were already reverberating in the rift.
She offered her hand.
The fragment melted in a rush of cool energy, flowing beneath her skin. Her seal flickered wildly and then settled.
"Ah, thank God," breathed Yining in relief. "Good. Now let's leave"
The cavern shook vigorously.
From the tunnel behind them, the cold voice of the Messenger thundered:
"There's no way out, Child of Reversal."
Liuxue's pulse quick
The legend of the Cycle Breaker slowly disappeared.
"Now go"
"Look for where your fate first broke apart,"
"There, the truth awaits."
"What place?" Liuxue demanded
The room split, the crust cracking across the floor.
The Messenger was almost too close.
The voice in the figure echoed for the last time:"Your beginning…. was not your beginning."
"The shadows dispersed. The cave shook strongly. And Liuxue grabbed Yining's wrist. "Run Behind them,a light detonated in the tunnel—a harsh, heavenly blast.
And the scroll case in her hand…. was opened unfastening itself with a soft click.