Darkness clung to the walls like a living thing. The damp air carried the scent of burning incense, faint yet distinct, mingling with the raw scent of earth and stone.
Lin Xuan's breath was slow, controlled, but his mind was anything but calm.
He sat cross-legged on a rough stone bed in the depths of the cave, his new body aching as if it had never moved before. The sensation was familiar, the weight of reincarnation.
His limbs were frail, but beneath his skin, power surged.
He had done it. He had defied the natural order.
Yet…
"Why?"
That single question echoed in his mind, but no answer came. His memories were fragments, mere flashes of light that disappeared the moment he tried to grasp them.
He clenched his fists. It didn't matter.
No matter what he had lost, his path remained the same.
He would rise.
He would ascend.
And nothing in this world or the next would stop him.
The Voices of the Unknown
Footsteps.
The sound of rough sandals scraping against stone.
Lin Xuan snapped his eyes open.
"He's awake."
A deep voice, cautious yet steady.
"Impossible. His soul should have been torn apart."
Another voice, sharp and disbelieving.
Lin Xuan remained motionless, his senses expanding, absorbing every detail around him. He was in a dimly lit chamber, an underground sanctum, its walls covered in strange, flickering runes. An altar stood in the center, its surface stained dark with ancient blood.
"A ritual site?"
The cave entrance was blocked by three figures, dressed in tattered black robes, their hoods drawn low. Their auras were weak—Qi Refinement at best.
Lin Xuan's eyes narrowed.
"Mortals." No, worse. Cultivators barely clinging to the first steps of their path.
He studied them, letting his silence become a weapon.
The leader, a tall man with graying hair, took a hesitant step forward. He looked cautious but held himself with authority. His gaze was sharp, calculating.
"You should not be alive," he said.
Lin Xuan tilted his head slightly, his face unreadable.
"Yet, here I am."
The man frowned but did not react to the arrogance in Lin Xuan's tone. Instead, he glanced at the two others.
"Fetch Elder Su. Tell him the ritual was a success… but the results are unexpected."
One of the hooded figures vanished into the shadows, moving with surprising speed. The other hesitated, his face pale.
"Sect Master… if he truly came from the offering, then…"
Lin Xuan's eyes flickered with interest.
"Offering?"
A sharp realization struck him.
This body was not created for him.
"I was not meant to be reborn here."
The ritual. The bloodstained altar.
Someone else had prepared this body, perhaps to house a different soul, or something worse… but the Rouages of Ascension had chosen otherwise.
Lin Xuan had stolen this rebirth.
And now, these people didn't know what to do with him.
Good.
That meant they didn't understand the kind of monster they had just brought into their world.
The Chains of the Mortal Sect
Minutes passed before another figure entered the chamber.
An old man, his posture slightly hunched, was draped in thick ceremonial robes. His eyes gleamed with ancient wisdom, yet his aura was weak. Qi Refinement, barely Foundation Establishment.
Lin Xuan suppressed a sneer.
Lowly cultivators.
"Let me see him," the old man Elder Su murmured.
The sect master stepped aside. Elder Su moved closer, inspecting Lin Xuan like one would examine a rare beast.
"Strange… his dantian is already formed… yet unstable. His meridians are too refined for a mortal."
The old man's voice was filled with both curiosity and unease.
"This boy… is no ordinary child."
Lin Xuan remained silent, letting them puzzle over what they had done.
He needed information.
Where was he? What sect had unknowingly summoned him?
And most importantly… how strong was this world?
Elder Su suddenly raised a withered hand and pressed two fingers to Lin Xuan's forehead.
Lin Xuan felt the probe of spiritual energy, weak but deliberate. The old man was trying to read his soul.
A foolish mistake.
Lin Xuan let him.
For a brief moment, Elder Su's mind touched the abyss, a fragmented consciousness, swirling with chaos and ambition, a power that should not belong to this world.