The Void Dynasty's fortress didn't exist in three dimensions.
It flickered at the edge of perception—a labyrinth of shifting obsidian corridors and stairways that spiraled into the void. The air tasted like static and forgotten names, and the walls breathed, their surfaces etched with the screams of those who'd failed to infiltrate before.
Luo Feng pressed his claw-marked hand against the outer gate, feeling the Nine-Tails' power resonate with the fortress's dark energy.
"This is suicide," Varkus muttered, his lightning subdued to avoid detection.
The Death Queen, draped in her usual funeral silks, smirked. "That's why it's fun."
[System Alert: High-Risk Check-In Detected]
[Mission: Retrieve the Void Emperor's Archives]
[Reward: Locations of the Remaining God-Sealing Nails]
[Failure Penalty: Becoming Part of the Fortress's Walls]
Luo Feng exhaled. "Let's move."
[The Infiltration: A Dance in Shadows]
Phase 1: The Distraction
The Death Queen sauntered up to the main gate and knocked.
When the guards appeared, she sighed dramatically. "Darling, I'm here to complain about my wedding gift."
The guards hesitated—just long enough for Varkus to fry their nerves with a precision lightning strike.
Phase 2: The Maze
Inside, the fortress defied logic. Hallways twisted into themselves. Doors led to the same room they'd just left. The walls whispered in the Void Emperor's voice.
Luo Feng's claw-mark burned, reacting to something deeper within.
"This way."
Phase 3: The Archives
The vault door was a slab of black stone inscribed with a single command:
"ONLY THE TRUTH MAY ENTER."
The Death Queen rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Pretentious."
Luo Feng stepped forward—and the door spoke.
"WHO ARE YOU?"
The Nine-Tails' power surged through him. "The one they tried to erase."
The door screamed open.
[The Revelation: The Emperor's Secret]
The archives weren't scrolls.
They were corpses.
Floating in stasis, each preserved body held a single memory—a living record of the Void Emperor's secrets.
And at the center, encased in ice, was the Wife of Ashes.
Her eyes snapped open.
"You're late."
Then—
The fortress shuddered. Alerts blared. The Void Emperor's presence descended.
Varkus cursed. "We've got thirty seconds."
Luo Feng grabbed the closest corpse's wrist—
—and the world dissolved into memory.
[The Truth: Why the Nails Were Hidden]
The vision was razor-sharp:
The First Horror, a being of gnashing teeth and fractured time, pressing against reality's seams.
The Void Emperor, not as a tyrant, but as a desperate warden, sealing it away.
The Nine-Tails, not as a victim, but as the Horror's herald.
The Wife of Ashes' voice cut through:
"The nails don't just anchor reality. They chain the Horror. But the Fox Spirit is trying to free it."
The claw-mark on Luo Feng's chest seethed.
"Lies."
The fortress's alarms reached a crescendo.
The Void Emperor was here.
[Check-In Complete (Barely)]
[Reward: Nail Locations Unlocked]
[Penalty: Void Emperor's Wrath Engaged]
They fled through a collapsing corridor, the Death Queen lobbing poisoned smoke bombs behind them.
Varkus clutched a stolen memory-crystal. "We got it. But—"
Luo Feng's claw-mark pulsed. The Nine-Tails' laughter echoed in his skull.
"She already knows where we're going."
END OF THE CHAPTER39