The darkness swallowed sound first.
Then breath.
Then time.
Rael stepped through the Gate as if plunging into black water. The moment his foot crossed the threshold, the world changed. Not violently. Not with a crash or scream. Just… silence. The kind that felt like it didn't want to be disturbed.
Yue Qingshi followed just behind, her saber humming faintly in resistance. It was the only light source—her lunar Qi flickering like pale moonfire, casting long shadows that bent in unnatural angles.
They were not alone.
The Gate had accepted thirty-seven disciples. Outer and inner. No elders. No escape.
Behind them, the slit sealed. Seamless. Gone.
Rael turned and placed his palm against the wall.
Stone. Cold. Breathing.
This place is alive.
---
The corridor stretched forward like the inside of a great serpent—twisting, pulsing. The stone walls bore glyphs not seen in any sect's records. Not Daoist. Not demonic. Something older. Hungrier.
And the floor—bones.
Polished, bleached, and fused into the stone.
"Are those human?" someone whispered.
"No," Rael said, quietly.
Not entirely.
---
After what felt like an hour of cautious descent, they reached the first chamber.
A dome-like hall, vast as a small city, shaped like a spiral. The walls curved inward and downward, forming tiers of stone steps. At the very center stood a black altar made from fused blades, and above it hovered a fragment of something glowing—a shard of glass, suspended in perfect stillness.
As the group entered, the room responded.
A cold wind rose from nowhere. The walls began to glow—each glyph lighting in sequence. The light revealed murals etched into the stone:
War.
Devastation.
A beast—huge and many-eyed—bound by silver chains, surrounded by kneeling cultivators with missing faces.
Rael felt something press against his chest. Not force. Not Qi.
Memory.
---
The disciples spread out, warily. Several tried to approach the altar, but Rael grabbed Yue's wrist.
"Don't move."
"Why?"
Rael pointed. "There. Dust patterns. No one's walked within five meters of that altar in centuries."
Yue frowned. "But the altar's glowing."
"Exactly. Something's keeping it clean."
---
Moments later, a bold inner disciple stepped toward the platform.
Rael's eyes narrowed. "Wait—"
Too late.
The boy's foot landed on the fifth ring of etched stone.
The altar screamed.
A vertical wave of invisible force exploded outward. Not sound. Not spirit. Intent. The air warped. Blood sprayed from the disciple's ears as he dropped, twitching. His body convulsed once, then stopped.
He didn't breathe again.
---
Silence returned.
Everyone froze.
Rael stepped forward, slow and methodical. He knelt near the boundary ring and placed a single drop of blood from his finger onto the floor.
It was absorbed instantly.
Then the glyphs shifted.
[System Alert: Trial Chamber Activated – "Blood Oath Spiral"]
A challenge of strategy, sacrifice, and survival. Only one may claim the shard. Others may assist, but the Gate records the first to awaken the path.
Rael's gaze sharpened.
So that's what this was.
A test.
Not of strength.
But of will.
---
He turned to the others. "We have to go in one at a time. The altar will reject unworthy intent."
A few nodded. Most hesitated.
But Yue stepped forward.
"I'll go second," she said. "You go first."
Rael looked at her for a moment. "Why trust me?"
"Because you don't want the shard. You want to know what it unlocks."
She wasn't wrong.
---
Rael stepped into the ring.
His vision blurred.
Suddenly, the chamber was gone.
He stood alone in an endless void—floating bones, memories of screams, and a sky that bled ash. Before him stood a copy of himself. No weapon. No clothes. Just him.
And it spoke.
"What price are you willing to pay to be free?"
Rael didn't answer.
He walked forward—and struck.
But the copy didn't block.
It bled.
From his strike, Rael's own shoulder cracked with mirrored pain.
A test of pain? No. It was deeper.
He understood.
Freedom required self-harm. To kill his fears, he had to become them.
---
He endured twelve trials in that realm.
Some tore open old wounds.
Others opened new ones.
When he awoke, his robe was soaked in blood, but none of it was from cuts.
He had passed.
The altar was quiet now.
Hovering before him, the shard flickered once—and launched itself into his chest.
[Shard Imprint Acquired: Echo Memory I]
You now bear the first fragment of the Eye-Gate's legacy. Path unlocked: "Vein of Echoes."
Passive: You may sense spiritual echoes of significant past events at locations where blood has been spilled.
---
Yue caught him before he collapsed.
"I saw them," he said quietly. "The ones who built this place. They didn't open the Gate to keep something out."
Yue's eyes sharpened. "They sealed something in."
Rael nodded. "And it's watching us."
They both turned.
The others had begun to argue. Two disciples tried to force their way into the ring now that it was safe.
Neither made it halfway.
The altar responded again—once with fire, once with bone.
Both were reduced to ash.
---
By nightfall, the group understood:
Each shard was tied to a trial. Each trial allowed only one victor.
And there were more chambers.
More shards.
More choices.
Rael stood at the edge of the spiral room, eyes fixed on the glowing passage that had opened beneath the altar's base—leading deeper into the Gate.
He turned to Yue. "Still think this was just a sect expedition?"
Yue smiled thinly. "I was hoping it was."
They walked forward.
Together.
Into the heart of something older than cultivation itself.