The night wind swept across the Wudang highlands like a prayer that had forgotten its way home. At the peak of the ancient tower, Mira stood alone or at least, that was what she believed.
The sky split like fabric sliced by an unseen blade. A fracture of light appeared, then vanished. Ever since the night of that loss, Mira hadn't slept without nightmares. She felt something watching not from outside the garden, but from within herself. As if she had opened a door unknowingly, and something slipped through behind her.
Meanwhile, far below the mountain, the orthodox sects stirred uneasily.
Wudang deployed spies.
Shaolin tightened their meditation within the golden-yellow hall.
Mount Hua and the Tang sect reopened ancient records about the Fruit of Immortality.
Then the message arrived.
A modern expedition team scientists, archaeologists, and mercenaries had disappeared in the forbidden zone of northern Tibet. Their last known coordinates? When projected onto the ancient Eden map, they landed exactly on the border of the Garden of Eden.
Hours after the report, an emergency meeting convened in the Wudang hall.
And then came the unexpected:
A representative from the global government World Heritage Security Division (WHSD) requested aid from the ancient sects. Modern technology had failed. Radar died. Satellites went blind. Drones exploded the moment they entered the mist.
Only spiritual energy could penetrate that boundary.
In the tense meeting, the Shaolin master stood with his hands folded behind him and said:
"If those coordinates are correct… then Eden is opening its eyes for the first time in thousands of years."
Silence fell.
Then the grandmaster of Wudang added softly:
"Or… something inside is trying to get out."
That same night, Mira entered her private meditation chamber.
She lit spiral-shaped candles and sat cross-legged. The soft yellow glow washed over her face. She took a long breath.
But when her eyes closed, something else opened.
She saw the garden.
Eden.
But not like legend this Eden was alive, wild, its blue flames curling like a nebula.
At the center… the Tree of Life pulsed gently like a colossal heart.
And Mira wasn't alone.
A figure draped in black stood beneath the tree. No face. No form. Only a silhouette layered with shifting shadows.
It turned toward her without eyes.
Then whispered straight into the shell of her mind:
"Your time draws near, little guardian… We are returning. And you… are the one who opens the gate."
Mira woke with a strangled gasp, sweat pouring as if she had survived a war.
Outside the chamber, someone waited, leaning against an old wooden pillar.
A new character.
A young man in a modern suit, carrying a high-tech metallic case its contents glowing blue.
"I'm looking for Mira of Wudang," he said calmly. "My name is Kael Arven from WHSD. The world needs you."
Mira eyed the metallic case.
Warm.
Throbbing.
Like Eden's energy.
"What is that?" she whispered.
Kael opened it.
A small fragment of the Tree of Life's root impossible in the modern world floated inside a gravity field.
"Someone cut it," Kael said quietly. "And the one who cut it… wasn't human."
Mira's breath caught.
The world had shifted again.
In this modern age, Eden's mystery was no longer just a legend; it was beginning to leak out.
And a new chapter had begun.