Chapter 38: The Shadow of Return
But peace, as always, was temporary.
Far from the cities, in the mountains scorched by divine flame, something stirred.
A fragment of the seal that bound the gods shimmered faintly. Within it, an eye opened—burning red, ancient, vengeful.
A whisper echoed across the wind:
> "She thinks it's over… but I was never part of the heavens."
In the shadow of what once was heaven, a new threat was born—not god, not demon, but something far older.
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Back in the village, Ying Yue woke with a jolt.
She clutched her chest, breath ragged. A cold sensation spread through her ribs—like something had touched her soul.
"Another dream?" Bai Jiu asked, instantly awake beside her.
She nodded. "But it wasn't from my past. It was something else. A voice I don't know."
Bai Jiu frowned. "You sealed the gods… but not everything divine belonged to them."
Ying Yue's hand trembled. "There's more?"
"There always is," he said. "But this time, we face it not as pieces of who we were… but as who we've become."