The air crackled with unspoken tension as Wang Lin, Lian Hua, and Jin Tao stood at the mouth of the underground chamber. Behind them, the statue's third eye had closed once more, but the unease it left behind still coiled in their veins like smoke.
Outside, the world had shifted. The clouds above the ruined sect moved with unnatural speed. Somewhere beyond the treeline, a hawk cried—and then fell silent.
"Something followed us out," Jin Tao said, his hand brushing the hilt of his short blade. "Or something was awoken."
Lian Hua knelt before the seal-stone they had retrieved from the chamber below. It pulsed faintly with blood-red light. The energy that came from it wasn't just ancient—it was angry.
"This is a legacy fragment," she whispered. "But it doesn't belong to our sect founder. This came from someone else… something else."
Wang Lin's eyes sharpened. His Abduction Path stirred, reacting more violently than ever before, and for a moment he saw something beyond the veil—chains of blood binding a sky-walker, torn wings stretched across a battlefield of ash.
A memory not his own.
A life stolen.
He staggered back. The power that once whispered now screamed.
> "Claim or be claimed."
That voice again.
Wang Lin clenched his fists. "No," he growled. "I won't become what they want me to be."
Lian Hua stood, blade at the ready. "Then we fight back. Together."
Jin Tao clicked his tongue. "You both are way too noble. But fine. I'm not dying in some cursed ruin. What's the plan?"
Wang Lin drew his blade and sliced a shallow cut across his palm. Blood dripped onto the broken ground, sizzling as it touched the earth laced with ancient power.
"We make a pact," he said. "A Blood-Sworn Pact. No matter what comes—Temple, beasts, cursed legacies—we don't break, and we don't run."
Lian Hua nodded, and without hesitation, mirrored his action. Her blood joined his.
Jin Tao sighed dramatically but stepped forward anyway. "You two better not get me killed." He cut his palm, adding his blood to theirs.
The ground trembled.
The seal-stone flashed with crimson light, and for a heartbeat, the three of them felt something watching. Not malevolent. But waiting.
Testing.
Then… silence.
The pact was forged.
From the ashes of a fallen sect, three lives became entwined. And deep beneath the surface, the thing that stirred opened a single ancient eye—curious now, for the first time in eons.