The silence of the Third Beacon's chamber fractured as Liu Shen stepped through the newly revealed corridor. Each step he took echoed like a tolling bell through the vast obsidian tunnel. Red veins pulsed across the walls, responding to his presence, illuminating ancient inscriptions in an unfamiliar script—one not born of this world, but from the Abyss itself.
Yu Meixing and Lei Qing followed, both glancing at the strange runes.
"These words," Lei Qing said, voice low, "they're alive. They're not carved—they're growing."
Meixing nodded slowly. "They're the Abyssal Tongue. The same ones from the Heart Loom, but older… far older."
Liu Shen didn't respond. He was already deciphering the meaning through instinct—each inscription awakening a memory buried deep within his soul.
He who commands the oaths commands the Abyss.
As they proceeded, the tunnel subtly shifted, its shape responding to Liu Shen's demonic aura. Walls expanded, corridors bent toward him, and the light of the runes grew brighter.
Then the corridor split.
On the left: a tunnel wrapped in ethereal chains, whispering with voices. On the right: one that pulsed with a low, humming sound, like a heartbeat echoing across a battlefield.
Liu Shen's gaze lingered on both. "The left path leads to the Mausoleum of Oaths," he said at last. "Where the forsaken lie."
"And the right?" Meixing asked.
He turned to her. "Where one of the Seven Vows was broken."
Without another word, he chose the right path.
As they ventured deeper, the temperature fell. Frost crept along the walls, not natural but spiritual—born from frozen regrets and shattered promises. The corridor widened into a chamber. In its center stood a colossal stone tablet, cracked down the middle, dripping with black ichor.
Carved across it were the names of seven generals.
Six of the names remained intact. But the seventh—Kael—was scorched with celestial fire, his name half-erased, and in its place, a divine sigil burned.
Meixing's eyes darkened. "The heavens desecrated his name."
Liu Shen stepped forward and knelt beside the broken tablet. He touched the sigil—and pain flared in his mind. A memory not from this life—but his past self's—surfaced.
He remembered Kael.
A general clad in voidsteel, his twin halberds gleaming with soulflame, the first to kneel when Liu Shen had become Sovereign. Kael had fallen during the final battle at the edge of the Celestial Sea, holding back six Archangels so Liu Shen could shatter the Heavenly Mirror. But his death hadn't been clean.
"No," Liu Shen murmured. "They didn't kill him. They sealed him."
The divine sigil suddenly flared. A burst of golden light erupted from the tablet, forming a gate in midair. Chains of divine law wrapped around its frame. Through it, a figure could be seen—suspended in a pillar of light.
Kael.
Barely recognizable, his body torn and wrapped in golden chains, but his halberds still clutched in both hands. His eyes—though sealed—glowed faintly, fighting against the celestial suppression.
Meixing gasped. "He's still alive."
"No," Liu Shen corrected. "He's still waiting."
The gate began to collapse, unable to sustain itself without Liu Shen's full authority. But the vision was enough. Liu Shen stood, eyes burning.
"The next Beacon… lies where Kael is sealed."
The broken oath had not been Kael's.
It was Liu Shen's.
He had failed to return for his general.
Now, that would change.
He turned toward Meixing and Lei Qing. "Prepare yourselves. The next path leads to war."
And from behind, faint echoes stirred in the walls—shadows shifting, whispering old names. The Abyss was waking.
And it remembered its king.