The path to the Maw was lined with broken bones — not from battle, but from time. Oxen skulls, serpent ribs, scaled talons bigger than a man. All fossilized. All woven into the mountainside like the remains of some divine autopsy.
Xuanzang's system began to twitch before they even reached the temple gates.
[Warning: Fragment Resonance Field Detected]System Distortion: Moderate to Severe – Core Link Stability Affected]Karma Weight Sensitivity Increased (Party-Wide)]
Zhu Bajie groaned, grabbing his chest. "Feels like something's crawling under my skin."
"You've got more sin weight than anyone," Wukong said. "It's squeezing you first."
Sha Wujing murmured a chant beneath his breath and pressed a prayer bead against Bajie's back. The pain lessened — barely.
The gate loomed ahead: three jawbones welded together with rusted spirit iron, opening into a gaping mouth-shaped archway. No carvings, no scripture. Just silent, stone teeth.
Above them, weatherworn characters read:
"Where the Word Fails, the Beast Remembers."
Xuanzang stepped inside.
The moment he crossed the threshold, his system went silent.
[Connection Severed – Local Fragment Field Overriding Base System Functions]Spiritual Communication Disabled. Manual navigation required.]
The world inside the temple changed. Not dark — but off. Colors pulsed wrong. The walls weren't carved stone but ribbed, like the inner lining of something long dead. Every sound echoed too much… as if someone was whispering back.
Wukong narrowed his eyes. "This temple's not just built on a corpse."
"It is the corpse," Wujing said.
🌀 Deeper Within – The Voice Begins
As they moved inward, the whispers started. Not out loud. Not heard. Felt.
Words buried in thought.
"You know what they did to you…""You were loyal. They threw you down.""Eat. Take. It's your right."
Bajie staggered. "That's not my voice."
"No," Xuanzang said. "It's the fragment. It tests through temptation."
Wujing's fists clenched. "Then we'll be weighed by what we want most."
The room opened into a shrine chamber. In its center floated the second fragment, suspended in a ring of ghostly beast teeth. Not gold. Not glowing.
It looked like rotting scripture — pages written in dried blood, ink running like tears.
[Fragment Detected: Sutra of Hungers Denied – Line 2 of 36]Effect: Invokes Karmic Reflection – Exposes sin-born desire to suppress ego cultivators.]
Bajie stepped too close.
And the fragment grabbed him — not physically, but with memory.
✨ Bajie's Karmic Trial (Vision)
He was back in Heaven. In his old armor. Surrounded by divine wine, soft skin, laughter.
The Queen Mother smiled at him.
"You served well, Marshal."
She offered him a cup.
"Drink. Forget what came next."
He reached—
Then screamed.
Xuanzang caught him mid-fall.
Wukong slammed his staff into the ground, drawing a protective ring around them with force Qi. "This place eats guilt like incense."
Xuanzang closed his eyes.
The fragment whispered to him too, but differently.
"You were reborn to fix what you failed.""But you want to be forgiven. Not useful."
He exhaled.
And stepped forward into the teeth-ringed altar.
The fragment shuddered in the air.
He bowed.
"I don't deny my hunger for meaning.""But I will not trade mercy for obedience."
The fragment pulsed.
Then—
[Fragment Claimed: Sutra of Hungers Denied]Ability Unlocked: Karmic Mirror (Lv. 1) – Reflects Sin-Desire projections from system-corrupted entities.]
Karma: -8,638 → -8,388Fragment Progress: 2 / 36
The whispers stopped.
As they left the Maw, the system connection returned.
[System Link Restored]Party Status: Stable (Sin Weight Rebalanced)]
Bajie groaned. "I saw her again, you know."
Wujing handed him a prayer bead. "You always do."
Wukong turned to Xuanzang. "You didn't flinch."
"I almost did," he replied.
They walked into the forest again, the second fragment tucked inside Xuanzang's robe.
Behind them, the temple's corpse walls breathed one final sigh—and fell silent.