The moon hung high over the Skycloud Pavilion, its pale light spilling over tiled rooftops and gleaming formations etched in silver spirit jade. Li Yi stood upon the east peak, his back to the world, his eyes cast toward the infinite night. The cold wind stirred his robes as if trying to whisper secrets carried from distant realms. But the voices he truly heard came from within.
The jade slip had changed everything.
His mother… a woman from the God Realm. A family with power so immense they could influence the fate of entire realms. And somewhere, buried beneath the mythical city of Thousand Pillars, lay a sealed gateway tied to both his mother's and father's bloodlines.
A gateway ancient enough to predate the split of the realms themselves.
The very notion sent shivers down his spine.
Behind him, light footsteps approached, the presence faint but unmistakable. It was Lan Qing'er.
"You didn't come to the training hall," she said gently, stepping to his side. "Master Yun said we're being given three days to prepare before the Abyss Patrol begins."
He nodded. "I needed time."
Her eyes flicked toward his sword, then back to his unreadable face. "Are you alright?"
"No," he said. "But I'm ready."
A silence settled between them. Down in the courtyard, disciples continued sparring under elder supervision. None of them knew the truth. That the war they feared wasn't on the horizon—it had already begun. Quietly. In shadows.
She looked toward the distant peaks. "I heard from Elder Mo… You faced a demon born of sacrifice. And you used a sealed technique. You're advancing too quickly, Li Yi. People are starting to talk."
"Let them."
She turned to him. "If you keep growing this fast, they won't just talk. They'll come for you."
He smiled faintly. "Then I'll cut them down too."
Her expression darkened, but before she could speak, a silver crane talisman flew toward them. Li Yi caught it mid-air and activated the message.
The voice was Mo Ruyan's.
> "Li Yi. Come to the Grand Archive. The Pavilion Master has something you need to see."
He turned to Qing'er. "Tell Elder Yun I'm coming."
"You're going alone?"
He nodded. "This isn't something I can share yet."
—
The Grand Archive of the Skycloud Pavilion was a towering spire of crystal and gold, buried into the side of the central mountain. It was said that the archive held thousands of years of cultivation secrets, ancient relics, scrolls, and forbidden texts retrieved from lost realms. Most disciples never stepped within its walls without elder supervision.
Li Yi entered through the inner gate, escorted by Elder Mo and greeted at the threshold by Yun Tianji himself.
"You've changed," the Pavilion Master said, studying Li Yi closely. "Even your Qi has become heavier. More refined. You've broken through again, haven't you?"
"Mid-stage Foundation Establishment," Li Yi replied.
"Too fast," Mo Ruyan muttered under her breath.
But Yun Tianji only nodded. "Come."
They descended through layers of wards and shifting spatial formations until they reached a chamber hidden beneath the archive's foundation. At its center lay a black monolith etched with runes that shimmered like blood in moonlight. Hovering above it was a sealed scroll—bound by nine crimson talismans.
"Do you know what this is?" the Pavilion Master asked.
Li Yi shook his head.
"This was given to me seventy years ago by a dying cultivator who escaped from the Abyss Battlefield in the God Realm. He had been sealed for centuries, surviving on little more than his divine will. Before he died, he said one thing: 'When the blood of starlight awakens in the lower realms, give him this scroll.'"
Li Yi stared at the talismans. "You think I'm the one he meant?"
"I no longer doubt it," Yun Tianji said. "Open it."
Li Yi stepped forward. As he reached for the scroll, Heavenbreaker pulsed at his side. The talismans resisted at first, but as his fingers brushed them, they crumbled away like dust. The scroll unrolled mid-air.
Words written in ancient script flowed across the air—an incantation, a map, and a name.
City of Thousand Pillars.
Li Yi's breath hitched.
Beneath the map were seven markers. Each marked the location of a sealed guardian. The scroll whispered of an oath between realms, forged to contain an entity that even the abyss feared—sealed beneath the city in a prison of mirrored time and starlight.
"Why give this to me now?" Li Yi asked.
"Because the city has resurfaced," Yun Tianji said. "Two days ago, the mist surrounding the Thousand Pillars faded. An ancient formation buried within it reactivated. The array that concealed the city from the heavens… is gone."
Mo Ruyan added, "The Heaven-Seers are panicking. The fate threads of the Xuan Realm are spinning wildly. Something buried within that city is stirring."
Li Yi nodded slowly. "Then that's where I'm going."
"You can't go alone," Yun Tianji said.
"I won't."
He turned to leave.
—
Two days later, just before dawn, Li Yi stood at the gates of Skycloud Pavilion. Beside him were three figures: Lan Qing'er, expression resolute; an armored youth named Zhao Feiyu, a Core Formation genius with sharp eyes and quiet rage; and Mo Ruyan, despite the Pavilion Master's protests.
The path to the Thousand Pillars lay through the Sandveil Wastes—a desert of shifting illusions, sandstorms that could strip bone from flesh, and beasts born from mirages.
They departed without ceremony, slipping past the horizon as the first rays of morning light touched the peaks.
—
The Sandveil Wastes were as treacherous as legend claimed. One moment they walked on solid rock; the next, the ground dissolved into dunes. Mirage serpents attacked by sound, illusions layered over reality, each step a test of will and focus.
Zhao Feiyu proved himself invaluable, his spiritual sense honed to an edge few could match. He guided them through false paths and deadly pits, carving a path with his obsidian glaive. Mo Ruyan kept barriers active, drawing runes mid-air to shield them from mental intrusion.
Li Yi led from the front, Heavenbreaker sensing truth where even the eye failed. The sword's second seal pulsed faintly, eager to be drawn—but he held back. It wasn't time yet.
On the third day, they reached the edge of the mirage.
The city rose before them.
Massive pillars stretched into the sky, glowing with dim starlight. The city's architecture was alien—too symmetrical, too ancient. Buildings of obsidian and crystal curved at impossible angles, and no birds flew overhead. At its center loomed a ziggurat-like structure that pulsed faintly with suppressed power.
Lan Qing'er swallowed. "It's beautiful… and terrifying."
Mo Ruyan narrowed her eyes. "There's a field around it. Time distortion."
"Inside that city, time flows differently," Li Yi said. "A day could be a week. A month. Or just a breath."
They stepped forward.
The instant they crossed the threshold, the world changed.
Gravity twisted. Color bled from the sky. Their cultivation cores pulsed wildly as if in protest. The spiritual Qi around them grew denser—almost suffocating. The city groaned, and the pillars echoed as if moaning in ancient tongue.
Within the city, the dead walked.
Not zombies. Not puppets.
But echoes—projected images of ancient cultivators repeating the last moments of their lives. Some wept. Some screamed. Others fought invisible enemies. All unaware of the newcomers.
Lan Qing'er grasped Li Yi's arm. "This isn't a city. It's a grave."
"No," he said. "It's a prison."
At the base of the ziggurat, a stairway spiraled downward. Runes glowed faintly on the stone—half-buried by time.
Li Yi felt it in his blood. A call.
"We go down."
—
Far above, in the Heavenly Divination Hall of the Li Clan's main domain, an old woman draped in phoenix-feather robes stared into a basin of stars.
She whispered.
"He's entered the city."
A dozen ancient cultivators knelt behind her, trembling.
"Shall we report it to the High Council, Matriarch?"
She shook her head.
"Not yet. If the seal beneath that city is broken… not even the abyss will be our greatest enemy. Let him walk the path."
Her gaze pierced through space itself.
"Let him prove… that he is worthy of the bloodline born of starlight and flame."
---