The night sky wept crimson.
The second shard of the Eternal Lotus Seal hummed softly in Jin Mu-Won's palm as the wind blew sharply across the cliffs of the Iron Sage Monastery. Behind him, the others stood still, gazing silently at the trembling horizon, where dark clouds gathered like an army preparing to march.
No one spoke. Not even Bai Yiran, who usually broke tension with sarcasm. Yu Fei stared upward with a worried expression. Lin Xue clutched her scrolls tightly. And Hye Rin, the resurrected guardian of the Nine Tomb Sect, knelt beside a runic stone that had just begun to glow violently red.
Jin's gaze didn't waver. His senses told him the same thing the stone now revealed: the Red Moon Cult was no longer hiding.
They were coming.
---
"Seal it," Hye Rin commanded calmly. "The shard must be bonded to you fully before it destabilizes."
Jin nodded. The second shard responded to the first one embedded in his soul. As he pressed it to his chest, the Lotus Seal pulsed, and his entire body locked in place. A cold wind swept through his meridians, followed by a blazing fire that surged through his core.
Visions flashed before his eyes — a battlefield where time stood still, an old monk smiling gently in front of a crumbling gate, and a woman cloaked in moonlight weeping at the edge of a fractured sky.
Then silence.
He gasped as the second shard vanished into his body. The Seal reformed and grew more intricate. It didn't just sit in his soul anymore. It radiated outward, forming faint spiritual petals that hovered behind him like an unseen crown.
"You've stepped beyond the realm of mere martial artists," Jun Seo said, appearing at his side. "The path you walk now… is something far older."
"I know," Jin murmured. "I can feel the heavens watching."
---
Back at their temporary camp beneath the cliffs, the mood had turned grim.
A large map had been laid out on a wooden table. Ancient sect symbols were marked across it — many of them faded, forgotten, or officially 'extinct.' Lin Xue circled two in red.
"The Red Moon Cult has moved faster than we expected," she said. "Our spies report cult movements in three locations simultaneously — the Burning Cliff Temple in the west, the Azure Tranquility Lake in the east, and the Hollow Moon Cavern up north."
"They're searching for the third shard," Yu Fei muttered.
"Or trying to draw us out," Hye Rin added. "We don't have the manpower to split up."
Bai Yiran leaned against a tree. "Then we do what we always do. Pick the most dangerous one and go there."
"I agree," Jin said. "We head north."
Lin Xue raised an eyebrow. "Why Hollow Moon Cavern?"
Jin didn't look up from the map. "Because there's something there that shouldn't exist anymore."
He tapped a faded symbol near the cavern.
"The Sect of Broken Fate."
Everyone froze.
"That's impossible," Hye Rin said slowly. "They were wiped out five hundred years ago. They dabbled in—"
"—dimensional manipulation," Jin finished. "And their techniques are the only ones capable of accelerating shard corruption."
Yu Fei shuddered. "Then if the cult found them…"
"They might be trying to force a shard into material form before it's ready," Jin said grimly. "If they succeed, even without claiming it, they'll fracture time in that region permanently."
---
The journey to the Hollow Moon Cavern took a day and a half through shadowed forests and abandoned battlefields. The group traveled silently, urgency pressed into every step. Jin could feel the world tugging at him — time, fate, even causality, all growing thinner as they approached the cavern.
On the second night, they camped at the base of an ancient shrine, surrounded by withered cherry blossoms that still refused to fall from their branches. The trees were quiet. Too quiet.
Yu Fei sat beside Jin while the others rested.
"You've been different since absorbing the second shard," she said.
"How so?" he asked.
"More distant," she said. "It's like… you're listening to something we can't hear."
Jin didn't answer immediately.
"It's the Lotus," he finally said. "It doesn't speak in words, but in echoes. I feel past lives, old choices, battles fought by others. Sometimes I see them. Sometimes… I feel their regrets."
Yu Fei rested her hand on his. "Then remember this — your choices now are yours. Not theirs."
Jin turned to her, and for a moment, her soft gaze unraveled something inside him. He leaned forward slightly — and she didn't pull away.
A faint blush dusted her cheeks, but she smiled. "I'll follow you. Even through broken time."
---
At dawn, the Hollow Moon Cavern finally came into view — a gaping wound in the side of a black mountain, veiled in shimmering mist. Strange sounds echoed from within — whispers, laughter, and occasionally, something screaming.
A pair of masked Red Moon cultists guarded the entrance.
"Discreet or loud?" Bai Yiran asked.
"Loud," Jin said.
And like a storm breaking across a quiet sea, they struck.
Bai Yiran dashed forward, blades flashing in the early light. Yu Fei channeled healing barriers and spiritual disruption sigils. Lin Xue unleashed scroll-bound beasts that roared and pounced. Hye Rin summoned a chain of spectral nails, binding the cultists' movements. Jin struck last — like thunder, his spear shattered the final barrier and split the mountain mist.
The cultists fell.
But they had already triggered the alarm.
From within the cavern, a distorted voice howled.
"INTRUDERS! PROTECT THE SHARD!"
Jin charged forward without hesitation.
---
Inside, the Hollow Moon Cavern wasn't a natural cave. It was a dimensionally warped space — stairs led sideways, platforms floated in midair, and doors opened into empty sky.
"Gravity's fragmented here," Jun Seo muttered. "Classic Broken Fate architecture."
Jin led the way. Cultists emerged from all directions — some human, others twisted by shard energy. Their bodies were marked by glowing runes, their eyes hollow.
But Jin was faster now. Stronger. The Lotus Seal's second shard had enhanced more than his speed. It gave him clarity.
He moved like a phantom, each strike precise, each motion predicting the enemy's next move.
Behind him, his companions fought just as fiercely. Yu Fei's healing aura pulsed like a song. Bai Yiran danced through blood and shadow. Lin Xue's beasts tore through warped guards, and Hye Rin fought like a specter from a forgotten age.
They reached the heart chamber in less than ten minutes.
There, floating above a pool of molten gold, was the third shard.
But it was tethered.
Chains of blood and shadow bound it, while six cult elders surrounded it in a ritual circle. At the center stood a figure cloaked in torn robes, their face masked in silver.
"You're too late," the figure hissed. "The shard awakens now. It will choose no master. It will tear this timeline apart."
Jin stepped forward. "Then I'll stop it myself."
The figure laughed. "You'll die like you did last time."
Jin froze.
"…what did you say?"
The silver-masked figure lifted his head. Glowing red eyes burned behind the mask.
"I was there when you fell, Jin Mu-Won. I was there when the old you made your last mistake."
Jin's grip on his spear tightened. "Who are you?"
The figure raised a hand — and the shard pulsed violently.
Reality rippled.
The others staggered as the cavern began to break apart, chunks of stone floating and shattering mid-air.
"I am Wei Zhen, disciple of the Broken Fate Sect. I saw time fall. I saw your arrogance. And now, I'll finish what we started."
---
The Final Clash Within the Cavern Begins.
Jin charged. Wei Zhen met him with a staff wreathed in temporal energy. Each strike distorted sound and light. Jin's spear clashed against it, creating shockwaves that sent cultists flying.
Around them, the ritual circle cracked, releasing waves of corrupted energy. Yu Fei and Lin Xue worked together to form a containment seal, while Bai Yiran and Hye Rin kept the remaining cult elders at bay.
Wei Zhen fought like a ghost — always where he shouldn't be, always just out of reach. But Jin adapted. He slowed his breath, synced with the Lotus Seal's rhythm, and found the flaws in the pattern.
With a roar, he broke Wei Zhen's staff and impaled him through the shoulder.
But the shard behind them surged — now unstable, awakened too early, it lashed out with chaotic energy.
Jin turned.
He had seconds.
He threw his spear.
It pierced the core of the shard's energy field — anchoring it for just a moment.
Yu Fei finished the seal.
The cavern exploded in light.
---
When it cleared, the shard hovered quietly, cleansed.
Jin picked it up.
It was warm. He felt no pain this time. Only purpose.
As it merged with the others inside him, the Lotus Seal bloomed again — now three-petaled, each glowing with its own song.
The cavern began collapsing.
"Time to leave!" Bai Yiran shouted.
---
They emerged into daylight just as the mountain cracked apart behind them.
Wei Zhen's broken body lay at the edge of the cliff. Jin stood over him.
"I don't understand," Wei Zhen whispered. "How are you still strong?"
Jin knelt. "Because this time… I'm not alone."
Wei Zhen coughed. "They'll still win. You're too late."
"Maybe," Jin said. "But I've rewritten fate once already."
He stood.
The mountain roared one last time — and the Hollow Moon Cavern vanished forever.
---
That night, they rested by a calm lake.
Yu Fei leaned against Jin's shoulder. "Three shards. Four to go."
"We're halfway there," Lin Xue said, though she looked worried. "But the cult is accelerating. They'll strike again soon."
"They know they're losing ground," Hye Rin murmured. "Desperate dogs bite hardest."
Bai Yiran grinned. "Let them bite. I'll cut their jaws off."
Jin looked up at the moon. It was no longer red. The Crimson Eclipse had passed — for now.
But above them, high in the sky, a new constellation had formed. One no record had ever shown.
A lotus.
It pulsed once.
Jin smiled faintly.
He was rewriting destiny.
One petal at a time.