The moment the golden pill Enter into Zeravon's body, a blazing mark unfurled across his skin — molten and radiant, like a fragment of the sun trapped within flesh.
The mark pulsed once.
Then again.
And the world inside him trembled.
A strange vibration rippled outward from that golden seal — a ravenous pull clawing at his Qi, draining it with unrelenting hunger. His breath quickened. Veins tightened. Around his core, energy spiraled into a violent whirlpool, devouring itself.
"What… is happening to me?"
The thought flickered through his consciousness as his form blurred into mist — and he plunged into his Inner World.
---
Light exploded within.
Stars spun across an infinite void. Qi rivers raged like storms across a fractured sky.
At the center floated the pill — now burning like a miniature sun — drawing in every trace of his essence with a ferocity that shook the foundations of his being.
"Stop…"
His voice echoed across the void as he reached out, but the sun only blazed brighter, roaring in silence.
Every heartbeat dulled. Every thread of power dimmed.
Until—
Stillness.
Silence, absolute.
Then came a breath — soft, salt-laced, and impossibly real.
---
Waves whispered against an endless shore.
A girl walked barefoot across the sand, the wind bowing gently around her as if the world itself knew her name.
The ocean shimmered in her presence, each wave bending with reverence, foam glowing where her shadow touched.
She paused. Her gaze drifted toward the horizon — to a lone figure seated upon a weathered stone, facing the sea.
Eyes closed. Breath still. A faint golden aura wreathed his form.
"Such purity… and yet, something strange," she murmured, her voice a thread of curiosity and calm.
She stepped closer.
The breeze moved between them — and for a heartbeat, time itself hesitated.
The waves froze mid-crest. The world held its breath.
And she saw his face — Zeravon.
---
Within his Inner World, the pill shuddered.
Its golden brilliance twisted, bleeding into hues of crimson and azure — two forces colliding, folding into one another, then retreating to a distant corner of his soul.
It lay dormant there, quiet… watching.
A shiver passed through Zeravon. He felt it — a gaze, soft but vast, like the ocean itself staring back.
A cool, unfamiliar energy brushed against him.
Someone was here.
His consciousness surged, and the inner world dissolved around him.
---
Light flooded his vision as his eyes slowly opened.
Before him — a vastness, infinite, weightless.
And within it — a pair of eyes the color of the open sky. Boundless. Endless.
They drew him in, drowning his thoughts, twisting his breath into stillness.
His heartbeat stuttered once. Twice.
Then warmth — unexplainable, endless — bloomed within his chest.
He stepped back, disoriented. The world steadied.
A girl stood before him, her robes flowing in gradients of sky-blue and violet. Long black hair cascaded like midnight silk across her shoulders, swaying in rhythm with the unseen tide of her aura.
Her very presence reshaped the air — serene, yet immense.
Zeravon could feel it. Every cell, every vein, resonating with her.
As if the universe inside him recognized something ancient within her being.
Her steps made no sound. The wind chimed softly with her movements, a celestial melody no human could create.
When she spoke, her voice carried like light through mist — soft, but heavy enough to command silence.
> "Did you find something here?"
Zeravon stood still, words caught in the space between confusion and awe.
When he finally spoke, his voice trembled with the rawness of truth.
> "I… I don't understand. This place, this energy — it feels unreal."
A faint smile touched her lips, more mystery than warmth. Her gaze drifted, as though she existed between two realities — half here, half somewhere unreachable.
They circled each other with quiet gravity.
Neither moving too close, neither turning away.
The distance between them felt sacred — like the fragile edge between dream and awakening.
Their eyes met.
Something endless echoed between them — an unspoken pull, an infinite thread that neither could explain.
"She's not ordinary…" The thought rippled through him like a whisper from the depths. "No one should be able to enter this space."
The girl — Yue Yin — tilted her head slightly. Behind her calmness was a sorrow so subtle, it barely existed, yet Zeravon felt it more deeply than words.
The sea wind played with her hair; time seemed to slow.
He found his voice again.
> "Who are you? How did you come here?"
Her answer carried softness wrapped in quiet power.
> "My name is Yue Yin. And I came here searching for something… something I cannot afford to lose."
A faint radiance flickered in her eyes — a secret too heavy for sound.
Zeravon didn't understand why, but her presence filled him with a calm he had never known.
The air thickened between them, heavy with unsaid meaning.
Silence stretched — not empty, but full.
Their gazes locked once more, and in that stillness, something ancient stirred — an emotion nameless, eternal.
Yue Yin blinked, startled by her own words.
"I spoke too freely…" she whispered to herself, the realization brushing against the edges of her calm.
But Zeravon had heard.
Something inside him tightened — not out of duty, but an unshakable sense that fate had drawn her to him for a reason he could not yet remember.
> "What is it that you're searching for?" he asked quietly. "If you tell me… maybe I can help."
The air trembled.
The ocean groaned.
From its depths, a sound — deep, ancient — rose like thunder.
Waves towered skyward, the sea itself awakening.
Golden-blue light surged upward, bursting from the ocean floor — divine, blinding.
It pulsed, like a heartbeat older than creation itself.
Zeravon and Yue Yin exchanged a single glance — and without a word, they dove in together.
---
The deeper they sank, the darker the world became.
Pressure coiled around them. Silence screamed.
Then — a vast portal shimmered before them, forged of light and memory. Golden radiance poured from its edges, flooding the sea with the scent of eternity.
Zeravon turned to Yue Yin. No words — only resolve.
Together, they entered.
The instant they crossed, the portal flared — a brilliant bloom — and vanished, leaving behind only still waters and fading ripples.
Moments later, four figures descended from the sky —
Cultivators, cloaked in power, their auras shaking the air.
They scanned the waves, but the trail had already faded.
"The energy signature… it was right here," one growled.
"Someone reached it before us," another hissed, fury sharpening his tone.
---
Inside the hidden world, pressure crushed the air.
Zeravon and Yue Yin struggled as invisible force closed around them.
He reached for her hand—
A blinding surge erupted between them. White energy, pure and merciless, split the space apart.
It flung them in opposite directions — a rejection from the realm itself.
Light consumed everything.
The last thing Zeravon saw was Yue Yin's face, framed by shards of brilliance — then darkness swallowed all.
---
Drip.
Drip.
The sound of water echoed through the void.
A pale mist drifted over crystalline ground, glowing faintly beneath a hollow sky.
No stars. No horizon. Only the whisper of something ancient breathing below the silence.
Zeravon stirred.
His body ached, the remnants of white energy still biting through his veins.
He rose slowly, scanning the strange land — the endless fog, the luminous stones, the still air.
> "What… realm is this?" he whispered.
Then—
A weight pressed gently against him.
He looked down.
Yue Yin lay across his chest, unconscious.
Her skin pale, her robes torn, her shoulder marred by a wound still leaking faint spiritual light.
His heart clenched.
For a moment, the world fell away — there was only her.
Her breath, faint but steady. Her blood, shimmering faintly where it met the air.
Carefully, he lifted her and laid her beside a crystal boulder. His fingers brushed the hair from her face.
> "This happened… because of me."
He reached into his ring, drew out a single emerald-green pill — the one Wuje Xuanju had given him.
With trembling care, he placed it between her lips.
The pill dissolved instantly. A soft blue radiance unfurled from within her body, encircling them both.
Her wounds began to knit together, her aura slowly stabilizing.
Still, her face remained pale — empty of strength.
Zeravon sat beside her, his eyes burning with quiet guilt.
> "She took the blast meant for me… that's why she's like this…"
A flicker of golden light danced in his eyes, but he forced it down, hiding it deep within.
He inhaled slowly, steadying himself.
> "Not again," he whispered. "This time, no one gets hurt because of my weakness."
He crossed his legs, closing his eyes.
The air trembled around him.
A golden ring of Qi formed at his back, spinning silently.
Breath by breath, the chaos within him stilled. His focus remained on Yue Yin — on every faint rise and fall of her breath.
Their energies intertwined unconsciously, rippling through the space like threads of light.
Moments later, Yue Yin's fingers twitched.
Her breathing deepened.
And from her lips, a faint, fragile sound escaped — a whisper carried by the still air.
To Be Continued...
---