Sheltered by the primordial-worshipping cult within the labyrinthine sewers of Jadeheart, Elias and Mei Lin found a brief, uneasy respite from the relentless hunt. The cultists, their faces serene despite the looming chaos, offered them meager sustenance and an unexpected perspective.
Their doctrine was simple, yet profound: the Ledger was a false god, an artificial construct, a perversion of the true, natural flow of karma. They believed that Arthan's manipulation had stolen the inherent power of individuals, centralizing it within a corrupted system. The cult saw the current chaos, the fracturing ley lines, the impending collapse of cultivation, not as a disaster, but as a cleansing. A necessary "death" that would return power to mortals, restoring the primordial balance. They awaited the "great reset," the moment when the artificial Ledger would crumble and true karma would flow unhindered.
Their belief, however radical, offered Elias a chilling insight into Arthan's ultimate goal, and perhaps, his fear. Arthan was not trying to save the Ledger; he was trying to control its collapse, to reshape it into his own vision of a "pure" system before the primordial forces consumed it entirely.
As a gesture of trust, or perhaps as a test, the cult leader presented Elias with a shimmering, iridescent object. It was small, no larger than his thumb, and pulsed with a faint, otherworldly light. "This," the cult leader whispered, "is a karmic shard. A piece of a primordial, from the time before the Ledger. It can mend what is broken, or shatter what is whole. Its power is localized reality edits. A glimpse of true, unchained karma."
Elias took the shard. It felt cold, ancient, humming with immense, silent power. He recognized its resonance – it was a concentrated form of the "primal karmic laws" he had read about in Arthan's archive. A true fragment of original karma.
The cult leader's eyes, however, held a grave warning. "But know this, wanderer: using it draws attention. The more you use it, the larger the alteration, the closer you come to the primordials' gaze. They are awakening. And they will observe."
Elias understood. This wasn't a magic wand; it was a beacon, a signal to cosmic entities whose true nature remained unknown, but whose immense power was undeniable. It was a tool of ultimate consequence, one that could either save their world or condemn it to a fate far worse than Arthan's grand reset. The choice of how, and if, to use it would be his, and the consequences theirs alone.