Cold. Darkness. Silence.
A faint pulse stirred beneath layers of dust and broken stone.
Xie Kairo's eyes snapped open, pupils flickering with shadow and fire. His body ached — every bone bruised, every muscle stiff from the weight of death and time. Yet his spirit blazed brighter than ever.
Beside him lay the Twinblight, its rusted chain coiled like a serpent, twin sickle blades gleaming faintly despite the years underground. The weapon hummed softly, as if alive, resonating with an energy that seeped into Kairo's very bones.
Next to the weapon, an ancient bone flute lay cracked but intact, runes etched deep into its surface glowing faintly with forbidden energy.
As Kairo's fingers closed around the Twinblight's cold metal, a surge of dark power pulsed through him — raw, ancient, and alive.
The Abyssal Nerve Codex, the cultivation path forged by the sect's masters who vanished into myth, was sealed within this very weapon. A forbidden technique whispered in shadows and blood, hidden for centuries — a legacy carried only by the Twinblight.
Memories clawed at his mind: flames consuming the Veilwither Sect, the final breath of the Hollow Fiend's haunting melody, the betrayal, the silence.
His soul coil — a dark, forbidden power birthed by the Codex — writhed inside, awakening and hungry.
He forced himself to rise, the weight of death pressing down but refusing to claim him.
In this desolation, beneath the ruins of a forgotten sect, Kairo was reborn.
The world believed the Veilwither Sect dead.
But shadows are never truly gone.
They wait.
They hunger.
And so did Kairo.