The gateway to the inner realm hissed as it opened — not with light, but with a sucking silence, as though the world itself held its breath.
Lin Ho stepped through first, eyes scanning the terrain. The air was heavier here, and not just with Qi. Ancient pressure clung to the land like dust on a forgotten blade.
The team followed silently.
The inner realm was unlike the forested expanse they had previously explored. This place was barren and vast, its skies tinged with violet and rust. Cracked stone plains stretched endlessly, pockmarked by skeletal ruins and broken monoliths. Lightning flashed silently in the clouds above, casting warped shadows over the ground.
> "This doesn't feel like a natural place," Bai Qing murmured.
> "It's not," Lin Ho replied, crouching to touch the dirt. "The land remembers war."
Qi signatures were faint but strange — inconsistent, almost as if they flickered in and out of existence.
> "Keep your senses open," said one of the masked elders. "This realm is known to reflect one's inner demons. If you see something familiar… it may not be real."
---
A Few Hours In
They arrived at a fissure in the stone, where faint golden light leaked through. Below was a sunken palace — ancient, half-submerged in shadow and memory.
The team descended.
Inside, the halls bore carvings — immense murals showing titanic figures locked in battle. Celestial dragons clashed with horned giants. A single figure stood between them, neither beast nor god. Its body shimmered with the same golden-black Qi that Lin Ho knew so well.
He stopped and stared.
> "This… is the First?"
Yan Wu snorted. "You recognize this creature?"
> "No," Lin Ho said. "But it recognizes me."
The walls pulsed faintly as if responding to his presence. Doors ahead creaked open on their own.
> "It wants you to come," Bai Qing whispered.
---
The Inner Sanctum
At the heart of the palace lay the Core — a sphere of cracked obsidian, hovering above a circular altar etched with thousands of runes. Black lightning arced from it, hitting the air, stone, and floor, vanishing before it could cause damage.
But when Lin Ho stepped forward, the lightning bent away — curling around him like a tide respecting its master.
> "He's bonded to it…" one elder murmured.
Lin Ho reached out.
The moment his fingers touched the Core, visions tore into his mind — civilizations burning, gods bleeding, a chaos that gave birth to stars and swallowed them whole. And a whisper.
> "The Heir has awakened."
---
Outside the Realm
In the deep sea, the abyssal throne cracked.
The being of the deep stirred again.
> "He has touched the Core. The balance tips…"
---
End of Chapter 57