Whoever tastes death twice will never be the same again…
Instead, they carry within them something that breaks all balances.
The air in the room was heavy, as if the very world was breathing down his chest.
Ji Xuan sat on the ground, staring at his twisted palms.
The faint blood dripping from his mouth mixed with the dust of time on the wooden floor.
But something strange was happening deep inside him…
Images began to explode inside his mind memories that weren't his, yet they had become his now.
"You are not my wife's son… do not call me father."
"A bastard like you has no right to inherit the arts of the shadows."
"Be a servant to the inner hall disciples, for that is your fate."
The voices were as sharp as knives.
In his mind, he saw the image of a small boy… Shin Mo, trembling under the rain, staring at the doors of the training hall, closed in his face.
He remembered the faces…
The scorn.
The insults.
The cane that was broken across his back.
His father… the leader of the Three Shadows Sect, who never acknowledged him because he was born from a secret affair with a maid.
"An illegitimate son?"
Ji Xuan muttered in a trembling voice, a quiet fire burning in his eyes.
"I have tasted the bitterness of betrayal from the closest people… and it seems this body has tasted it too."
He stood up slowly, his crippled body groaning with every movement.
He looked toward the corner, where a simple wooden cane lay—broken at the top and bound with a black rag.
He reached for it…
In that moment, he felt something strange… as if the cane bore an invisible weight.
Yet it settled firmly in his hand, as if it knew him.
"Let's go…"
he whispered, dragging his crumbling body toward the room's door.
But before his foot reached the threshold… the air froze.
The room's temperature surged suddenly.
The very ground trembled… then the void split open before him.
His body was pushed backward, but he did not hit a wall… rather, he fell into the void.
He awoke on a black ground like the night, shrouded by thick spiritual mists.
The sky of this place was burning fire, and the earth pulsated as if it were a living being.
In the middle of all this… stood a being.
A beast resembling a colossal shadow, with four horns curling like spears, and eyes like scorched agate.
Yet despite the terror… Ji Xuan felt no fear.
"You… are not of this world,"
the voice came from all directions.
"Nor are you."
Ji Xuan replied, rising with his cane, steady despite the pain.
"I… have been sleeping for thousands of years,"
the beast said as it approached, its clawed footsteps stirring whirlwinds in the air.
"But your soul… awakened me. You are different from all who carried this body before you."
The beast paused, then continued:
"I am not a creature of this world, but from the Seal Dimension, where cursed souls dwell. And I have chosen you… because your body is the last capable of containing me."
Ji Xuan stared silently, then asked:
"What do you want?"
"A pact. I will give you the power buried in this body… the power of the Great Seal and Spiritual Alchemy… in exchange for one thing."
The beast approached until there was nothing between them but breath.
"I want your right eye."
Ji Xuan was silent, then raised his finger to the burns covering his right side of the face.
"A dead eye…? You take something dead and give me eternal energy?"
The beast laughed, a sound like infernal machines grinding.
"It is not completely dead… it is a gateway. And if you give it to me, I will open it for you, and you will see things no human world can imagine."
A moment of silence.
Then Ji Xuan smiled.
"Take it."
In an instant, the beast's claws plunged into his skull.
He screamed—not from pain, but from transformation.
His right eye burned, then vanished.
In its place appeared a black spiral seal, pulsating with alchemical energy, like the heart of an entire world.
[Activated: "The Eternal Seal Eye"]
[The legacy of Spiritual Alchemy began merging…]
He felt an explosion in his consciousness.
Formulas, circles, talismans, energy symbols… all flooded his mind like a torrent of forbidden knowledge.
The beast said:
"From now on… you are neither Ji Xuan… nor Shin Mo… but a third being.
You are my Seal Bearer, the heir of Black Alchemy."
Then the world around him vanished.
He awoke again, gripping his cane.
But something had changed.
The black seal glowed on his face.
His dead eye was gone… and those who looked at him would not know if he was human… or something else.
He smiled faintly and said:
"I have returned…
But this time… I will reshape this world."