The moon rose red that night. Not the soft crimson of dusk but deep, ominous, like it had been soaked in war and left to hang as a warning.
Li Tian stood in silence before the ancient archway known as the Bloodmoon Gate, its twin pillars towering high above the forest, half-swallowed by time and overgrowth. Strange glyphs shimmered faintly along the surface alive, aware.
He had seen the gate in visions, always half-formed, always veiled in smoke. But now it stood before him. Tangible. Real.
Mei Lin approached quietly behind him, her cloak drawn tight against the night wind. She hadn't spoken much since their escape from Blackroot Peak. Too many questions lingered. Too many wounds still burned fresh.
"Is this… where it begins?" she asked.
Li Tian didn't answer. Not immediately.
Instead, he stepped forward and pressed a hand against the stone.
The System stirred.
[Location Detected: Bloodmoon Gate (Sealed Path – Tier 2)] [Access Requires: Soul Imprint Verification – Initiating Sequence…]
The gate pulsed.
Then, for a moment, everything around them froze.
The air thickened. The wind ceased. Even the stars seemed to flicker.
Then a voice not the System, not human filled the space between heartbeats.
"The one who walks twice. The marked soul. Do you seek passage?"
Li Tian's breath caught in his throat.
He had heard of sentient gates in the old texts. Relics of the primordial war. But he had never expected to stand before one.
"Yes," he said clearly. "I seek the truth… and the ones who stole it from me."
"Then bleed," the gate whispered.
A thin slash appeared across his palm, unprovoked. Blood dripped onto the stone, and the symbols blazed to life scarlet light spiraling across the arch like veins awakening.
The world tilted.
Mei Lin gasped as the ground beneath them trembled. From within the arch, a swirling portal of mist and memory formed. A vision played within it: a great citadel floating in the sky, burning as two armies clashed beneath it.
Li Tian's face changed.
That memory wasn't just a glimpse.
It was his.
Meanwhile, within the inner sanctum of the Zhao Clan…
Zhao Fan stood in front of a black cauldron surrounded by twelve seated elders, their eyes glazed, mouths chanting something not meant for mortal tongues. The air smelled of ash and lotus root a combination used only in necromantic divination.
"He's found the gate," one of the elders muttered.
Zhao Fan's grip tightened. "Then we're out of time."
He turned to his apprentice. "Unseal the Forgotten Ones. We'll need them to hold him at the Ninth Verge."
"But Lord Zhao, they're"
"Do it."
Back at the Gate…
As Li Tian stepped through the portal, everything changed.
He wasn't just moving through space.
He was moving through memory.
The world around him twisted. The forest dissolved. Mei Lin vanished. He walked a hall of mirrors again but this time, each reflection showed him wielding different powers, facing different enemies, holding different choices in his hands.
In one, he knelt before a dying master.
In another, he crowned himself with a broken circlet of bone.
In the last he raised a child in one arm, while cutting down an army with the other.
Each version spoke the same words:
"Do not forget who you are."
The mist parted.
He found himself at the edge of a ruined city, floating on chunks of shattered stone high above the world. Buildings drifted like islands. Fires still burned. But not a soul was present.
Or so it seemed.
Then came the growl.
Low. Primal. Not human.
From the shadows crawled creatures with crimson eyes and mouths full of black flame—twisted remnants of cultivators turned hollow by lost memories. Forgotten Ones.
The first leapt. Li Tian struck.
The fight was different this time. The blade responded not just to his commands—but to his thoughts. The Soulbane Edge became part of him.
Each slash brought back a piece of himself.
Names. Faces. The taste of betrayal. The warmth of loyalty.
The monsters fell.
But not before one of them hissed his name his real name.
"Tianshou… Yun…"
He froze.
Not because he feared it but because hearing it no longer hurt.
He remembered.
And now, he was ready.
As he stood at the heart of the ruin, a second gate began to form this one vertical, forged of moonlight and sorrow.
The System chimed again.
[Bloodmoon Gate Phase 1 Complete.] [Synchronization: 28% New Trait Unlocked: Memory Anchor] [Caution: Tier-3 Entity has marked your passage.]
The wind howled through the ruined city.
Far behind, the portal shimmered.
Mei Lin's voice echoed faintly.
"Come back to me."
Li Tian turned toward the second gate.
"No," he murmured. "This time, I go forward."