Jin Nian woke up to the sound of terrified squawking.
His eyes snapped open, and for a moment he forgot he was a powerful sect master—well, sort of powerful, but only within a limited boundary. His room smelled like fermented spirit cabbage and hope.
"Zhang Mubo! Why is there a chicken in my bed again?!" he shouted, tossing aside a straw blanket that doubled as a spiritual suppression net.
From outside the broken window, Mubo's voice called, "It claimed divine insight, Sect Master! It refused to be eaten and said it saw the sky break last night!"
"...A sky-breaking chicken?" Jin Nian sat up. "Of course. Perfectly normal."
He rubbed his temples. The sect had grown. Not by much, but enough for him to now trip over two disciples instead of one. The territory had expanded slightly, enough to unlock one more bamboo forest, a pond filled with suspiciously glowing frogs, and an old stone slab they'd uncovered while digging an outhouse.
The slab didn't match any language in the realm. Not even Ancient Imperial or Forgotten Demon Script.
But the Observer had whispered something strange about it the night before:
"An echo of those who could not rest…"
Jin Nian had tried to ask more, but the Observer went quiet, muttering something about "error codes" and "insufficient disciple trust level."
---
Outside, Wu Ling was sharpening her blade against a rock and glaring at the chicken. "It's possessed. Burn it."
"It's a sign!" Mubo shouted, running in circles. "The sky cracked! I saw a flicker of silver behind the clouds! Maybe it's a portal! Or a realm fracture!"
"Or maybe it's your brain cracking," Wu Ling muttered.
Jin Nian stepped into the courtyard, hair still wild, robes mismatched. The chicken turned its head toward him. Its eyes... glowed for just a moment.
He froze.
For a split second, he felt a chill behind his spine—not cold wind, but something heavier. Like a memory that wasn't his.
> "When the sky cracks, we walk again."
A voice? A thought?
Jin Nian shook it off. Probably the fermented cabbage talking.
"Let's conduct a proper sect inspection!" he said, changing the subject. "Everyone to their peaks!"
---
On Wu Ling's Peak…
She stared into the sky.
Ever since joining the sect, she'd stopped having the nightmare where fire consumed a field and she couldn't move. But last night, it returned—with a twist.
A man stood in the fire, eyes bleeding light, holding a broken sword and whispering her name. She didn't know who he was, but she woke up crying.
She told no one.
---
In the Scroll Room…--
Zhang Mubo knocked over a dusty stack of cultivation manuals titled "How to Appear Profound in Front of Disciples." One scroll fell open. Its title?
> "Realm Cracks and Incomplete Souls: Theory or Truth?"
He stared at it. Then carefully kicked it under a cabinet and walked away.
---
Back to Jin Nian--
Jin Nian stood in front of the stone slab again. He hadn't told the others yet, but something strange had happened.
The slab had started glowing when Wu Ling got close yesterday. Just faintly. Just once.
And again this morning, when he woke from a dream. In it, a woman with no face had whispered, "You are not the first. But you may be the last."
He ran a hand along the stone.
A new line had appeared on it. Written in no language he knew. But he understood it:
> "We guard, until remembered."
He stared.
"...I'm going to pretend that's just really dramatic weather erosion."
---
That Evening--
The chicken escaped. Again.
Jin Nian stood on the roof of his shack, watching the clouds.
For the briefest moment, they shimmered like broken glass.
Then all returned to normal.
---
End of Chapter—
Author's Note Question for Readers:
If a ghost could offer you their final wish in exchange for protecting your life… would you say yes?
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