The stench hit first—stale air, copper and rot.
Shen Yuan dropped into the tunnel behind Yun Xue, one hand braced against the slick stone as the narrow passage sloped downward. The air was heavier here, thick with the hum of suppression arrays. It pressed on his lungs with every breath, a constant reminder that this was the Nexus' heart.
[ DETECTION RISK: 23% ]
The System's overlay flickered faintly before his eyes, ghostly lines mapping the labyrinth ahead. Its voice was a low pulse through the tether. You must maintain formation. These corridors have not been traversed in decades.
Yun Xue slowed and motioned for the others behind her to keep their steps silent. She glanced back, eyes catching the faint red glow of suppression glyphs carved into the tunnel walls.
"They're active," she mouthed.
Shen Yuan nodded. He could feel it too: the glyphs drank at the edges of his qi, siphoning any spiritual energy that dared to gather.
[ HOST QI OUTPUT SUPPRESSED: 90% ]
A survivor stumbled on loose stone. Shen Yuan caught their wrist before they could fall. He held a finger to his lips until the survivor's trembling steadied, then pushed them gently forward.
The tunnel narrowed into a jagged archway. Beyond, the darkness deepened.
My scans detect a structure beneath the Nexus that predates Bone Court engineering, the System murmured. This lattice is… older. Something was buried here long before they built their fortress above it.
Shen Yuan frowned but said nothing. They had no margin for speculation.
The passage widened abruptly into a vast underground chamber.
Shen Yuan halted just inside the threshold, breath catching in his throat.
Dozens—no, hundreds—of bodies lined the walls. Branded captives, their limbs fused to the stone, heads tipped back in silent screams. Suppression glyphs had been carved into their flesh and anchored into the walls with iron rods, forming a continuous chain of living batteries.
Their spiritual energy pulsed weakly along the chains, feeding into the Nexus above.
One captive's eyes rolled sluggishly to meet Shen Yuan's. Lips cracked and bled as they tried to speak.
Yun Xue's hand shot out, catching his sleeve. Her voice was a whisper, sharp with fury. "We can't just leave them like this."
The System's tone was ice. Freeing them will increase mission failure by seventy-three percent.
"We can't leave them," Yun Xue repeated.
Shen Yuan's jaw locked. He stepped closer to the wall, studying the captives' brands. Most were so deeply fused to the suppression matrix that extraction would kill them instantly.
He looked at Yun Xue. "If we stop, none of this matters. They'll all die anyway."
Her shoulders trembled, but she sheathed her daggers and stepped back.
A quiet voice broke from the rear of the group. "Then we're no better than the Bone Court."
Shen Yuan didn't answer. He couldn't.
[ DETECTION RISK: 34% – RISING ]
You must move now, the System urged.
The group slipped through the chamber, careful to avoid brushing the captives' bound limbs.
Halfway across, a survivor's boot caught on a chain. The iron links rattled like a scream.
Everyone froze.
A faint vibration rippled through the floor, growing stronger with each passing heartbeat.
[ ALERT: ENEMY PRESENCE – ELITE SENTINEL APPROACHING ]
Shen Yuan motioned for everyone to hug the wall. He pressed his own body flat against the cold stone as the tremors intensified.
The first thing he saw was the glow of suppression glyphs crawling across armor plates. Then the sentinel stepped into view—a towering Bone Court elite, its eyes burning a pale blue, movements unnervingly precise.
It stopped at the chamber's center. The glowing brands along its gauntlets pulsed once.
It senses an anomaly, the System whispered. Do not move.
Shen Yuan's lungs burned as the sentinel's head turned, gaze sweeping the chamber. Its eyes lingered on the shadows where the group clung to the wall.
[ DETECTION RISK: 62% ]
A bead of sweat slid down Shen Yuan's temple. He could hear the shallow gasps of survivors struggling not to breathe.
The sentinel's head tilted slightly, as though listening.
Then, with terrifying abruptness, it turned and left the chamber.
The survivors didn't dare move until the tremors had faded.
[ DETECTION RISK: 19% – STABILIZING ]
Shen Yuan exhaled slowly. "We keep moving," he whispered.
Beyond the chamber, the tunnel sloped deeper. The suppression glyphs here were older, the carvings less precise, as though the Bone Court had merely grafted their lattice onto an existing foundation.
Yun Xue walked just ahead of Shen Yuan, her hand trailing lightly along the wall. "This place feels… wrong."
"It's Grave Omega," Shen Yuan said. "It's always wrong."
She shook her head. "No. This is different. Like something's watching us."
The System didn't disagree. There is a second network beneath the suppression lattice. It is transmitting a Sys-Net signal I cannot decode.
[ UNKNOWN TRANSMISSION DETECTED – SOURCE: BELOW ]
"Can it see us?" Shen Yuan asked under his breath.
Unknown.
The tunnel narrowed again, forcing the group into single file. Somewhere ahead, the faint sound of rushing water echoed off the stone.
A sudden spark of qi flared behind them.
Shen Yuan spun, spear raised, but it was only one of the survivors—a young branded captive, hunched and pale, clutching their arm where the brand burned bright.
"I—I can't…" The captive gasped, voice breaking. "The brand… it's reacting."
The System's analysis was immediate. The suppression lattice is drawing on their spiritual root. If they remain here, they will ignite.
Shen Yuan's gut twisted.
"Can we—" Yun Xue began.
We do not have time for extraction.
The branded captive collapsed to their knees. "Go… just go. Don't let this be for nothing."
Shen Yuan knelt beside them, hand hovering over the spear haft. He could end their pain with a single thrust.
"Do it," the captive whispered.
The tunnel trembled. The brand seared brighter.
Shen Yuan's hand tightened on the spear—then Yun Xue stepped forward, one swift strike severing the captive's life before they could scream.
The body slumped forward, still.
No one spoke as they moved on.
[ CASUALTY COUNT: +1 ]
The tunnel bent sharply and opened into a long corridor lined with glyph-lit pillars.
Shen Yuan knew immediately this was no part of the Bone Court's original design. The walls were smooth, almost metallic, the glyphs etched so deeply into the surface they seemed grown rather than carved.
"What is this place?" Yun Xue murmured.
An anchor, the System said softly. Something that pre-dates your Bone Court. I do not yet understand its function.
[ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 8% ]
Shen Yuan suppressed a shiver. "Then we keep moving until we do."
The corridor twisted and narrowed, forcing them to squeeze between the ancient pillars. Shadows stretched in unnatural angles along the walls, cast by no visible light source.
One of the survivors whispered a prayer.
Yun Xue shot them a look, but said nothing.
Shen Yuan could feel it too—the sense that they were trespassers in a place that remembered older things.
[ UNKNOWN PRESENCE DETECTED ]
The System's voice sharpened. Shen Yuan… something is following us.
The noise came from behind: a faint scrape of metal against stone.
Shen Yuan spun, spear leveled, but the corridor was empty.
"Was it—" one of the survivors began.
The scraping came again, closer this time.
[ ALERT: ENEMY PRESENCE – MULTIPLE SIGNATURES ]
"Run," Shen Yuan said.
They surged forward through the narrow corridor, the sound of pursuit growing louder with each step.
Glyphs along the walls flared red as the suppression lattice awakened.
[ DETECTION RISK: 92% – CRITICAL ]
The first sentinel burst from the shadows behind them, its armored frame scraping sparks off the ancient pillars.
Shen Yuan spun, driving his spear into its chest. The blade glanced off suppression glyphs and shattered.
The sentinel didn't even slow.
"Keep moving!" Shen Yuan shouted.
Yun Xue darted past him, daggers flashing as she severed a glyph conduit at the sentinel's knee. The elite staggered, but another emerged from the shadows behind it, and another.
There was no way they could hold this corridor.
You must reach the Blood Gate ahead, the System urged. It is the only path forward.
[ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 6% ]
Shen Yuan grabbed Yun Xue's arm and pulled her forward. "Go!"
The group sprinted down the corridor, shadows clawing at their heels.
At the far end, a crimson glow bathed the stone.
The Blood Gate.
A barrier of writhing energy blocked the tunnel, its surface screaming with the souls of branded captives.
Yun Xue skidded to a halt, eyes wide. "How do we get through that?"
The System's voice was grim. There is a bypass method. But it will require you to overdraw your qi to lethal levels.
Shen Yuan stared at the barrier. He could feel its hunger, could almost hear the Bone Court's brands calling to his spiritual root.
He tightened his grip on the shattered spear haft. "Then I'll do it."
[ HOST QI OUTPUT REQUIRED: 137% ]
"Like hell you will." Yun Xue stepped in front of him, daggers raised. "You won't survive."
"I can't ask anyone else to—"
"You didn't ask."
Before he could react, she drove her daggers into the barrier's anchor points and released a surge of her own qi.
The backlash hit her like a hammer. Blood sprayed from her mouth as the barrier shuddered.
"Yun Xue!" Shen Yuan lunged forward, catching her as her knees buckled.
The Blood Gate shrieked and shattered, fragments of energy scattering like dying stars.
[ ALERT: ENEMY MOBILIZATION – ELITE UNITS EN ROUTE ]
The System's warning barely registered as Shen Yuan held Yun Xue's limp body against his chest.
"Stay with me," he whispered, but her eyes had already rolled back.
Behind them, the corridor trembled with the approach of the sentinels.
And ahead, alarms screamed through the Nexus.