Silence followed the elders' departure.
No whispers.No footsteps.Only wind dragging through shattered stone, carrying the taste of blood.
The terrace behind me was ruin—bodies, cracks, ash. The mountain had swallowed its own children, and still it waited.
I pressed one hand to the broken steps, feeling them pulse faintly under my palm.
Alive.
Or maybe that was me refusing to die.
✦
Arjun's ember flickered weakly, its glow dim but stubborn.
"…Ishaan… stop… rest…"
I smiled faintly through cracked lips.
"Rest after the peak."
The ember trembled as if sighing, its warmth fading.
The Inkblade purred, shadows curling like smoke.
"…the mountain breathes… the marrow above waits… climb, fracture… climb before the silence eats you…"
I pushed myself upright, each breath dragging fire through my ribs.
And climbed.
✦
Every step bled.
Qi pressed heavier, thicker, denser. The air itself felt alive, whispering voices just outside hearing.
Disciples' eyes that no longer lived.Elders' gazes that still burned.The weight of every soul who had failed here.
The mountain was built on their bones.
And their whispers told me to stop.
✦
I didn't.
The higher I went, the more the world bent. Clouds drifted upside down, threads of light rippling through the mist like veins.
Fracture Sense pulsed without command, revealing cords woven through the sky.
Not enemies.
Not traps.
Memories.
✦
I saw them—echoes of the sect's past.
A boy kneeling at dawn, swinging a wooden sword until his palms bled.A woman meditating until her breath stopped, then started again.Disciples falling in battle.Elders sealing the fractures I had just torn open.
A thousand lives stitched into the mountain's spine.
And I, an intruder, was walking on their marrow.
✦
The Inkblade hissed softly.
"…this is what order costs… repetition, submission, sacrifice… their cords are tight because they are strangled…"
I exhaled slowly.
"They built their heaven on obedience."
"…and you came to break it…"
✦
The mist around me shimmered.The air twisted.
And the whispers became screams.
The mountain moved.
Cracks ripped open in the steps. Shadows of qi surged from them—spectral forms shaped from the sect's collective memory.
Thousands of phantom disciples, faceless, armed, their blades made of past regret.
✦
Arjun's ember pulsed violently.
"…they're… not real…"
"Good," I rasped, blood dripping from my chin. "Real ones hurt more."
The Inkblade laughed, dark and eager.
"…cut ghosts, cut memories, it doesn't matter… marrow is marrow…"
✦
The first phantom struck.Steel met shadow.
Sparks burst like stars.
Then hundreds followed.
The staircase vanished beneath a storm of silhouettes, qi roaring, threads tangling in blinding patterns.
I moved on instinct—cutting, dodging, bleeding. Every swing tore new rents in the mist. Every breath burned.
They couldn't truly wound me—but they could drown me.
And the mountain wanted that.
✦
Fracture Sense ignited.Cords webbed the world—white, red, gold—interlacing into one knot pulsing at the center of the storm.
I roared through blood, shadows flaring outward.
"Enough!"
And I cut.
✦
The knot split.
Light burst.
The phantoms screamed without mouths, dissolving into streaks of qi that shot upward into the sky.
The storm cleared.
And I stood on cracked steps, alone again, breathing fire, every wound open.
✦
Arjun's ember flickered faintly.
"…you… broke memories…"
"Habit," I whispered.
The Inkblade purred, satisfied.
"…the mountain is remembering you now…"
I looked up.
Above me, the peak burned faintly through the clouds, like an eye half-open.
And I smiled, blood on my teeth.
"Then let's make sure it never forgets me."
The air thinned until every breath sliced my lungs.
Above me, the peak glowed faintly through the clouds—an ember of gold, pulsing like a heartbeat.The mountain was awake.
✦
Each step bled.Each heartbeat cracked a rib.
Arjun's ember flickered against my chest, voice a whisper on the edge of silence."…turn back…"
I smiled, teeth red."Too late. It's looking at us now."
The Inkblade quivered, shadows stretching like hungry roots.
"…yes… it sees… the marrow of the mountain… the script that built Murim itself… cut it, fracture… or be swallowed…"
✦
The wind stopped.
Threads hung motionless across the sky, glimmering faintly.Fracture Sense expanded without command—until I saw everything.
Cords thicker than any I had ever touched ran through the stone, through the air, through me.A network of stories, memories, laws.
And at their center pulsed one vast knot of light, so bright it hurt to look at.
The mountain's heart.
The source of every vow, every disciple, every rule.
✦
Then it spoke.
Not with words, but through the trembling of the cords themselves—a sound like thunder layered over whispers.
[ You have climbed where blood of the mountain alone may tread. ]
[ You carry shadow, fracture, hunger. ]
[ Why do you climb? ]
My breath shook.
"Because you told me I couldn't."
✦
The knot pulsed.The mountain laughed.
[ Defiance. Always defiance. ]
[ Then prove it. ]
The cords snapped loose.The sky tore open.
And the peak attacked.
✦
Qi poured downward in rivers, condensing into titanic figures—monks of light, giants of stone, dragons woven from vows.
All of them charged.
The Inkblade screamed with glee, shadow meeting light in a roar that split the clouds.
Steel and ink collided again and again.Every impact sent shards of qi flying, carving craters into the peak.
Each time I swung, another rib gave way.Each time I bled, the shadows thickened.
✦
Arjun's ember pulsed violently, voice breaking."…Ishaan, stop—!"
"I can't!" I shouted through blood. "If I stop, it writes me out!"
"…then write louder…" the Inkblade hissed.
✦
I cut.
One cord. Two. Ten.
Every stroke tore through law itself—vows unraveling, light faltering.
The mountain screamed.
Stone melted into air.Qi burst like shattered glass.
And through the chaos, the heart's knot flickered—bright, trembling, half-broken.
✦
[ Enough. ]
The voice cracked across the world.
All light froze.
Every figure dissolved.
The knot's glow dimmed to a soft gold, no longer furious—just… watching.
[ You cut what no disciple could. You endured what no elder would. ]
[ You are fracture. ]
The cords loosened, curling back into the mountain's flesh.
[ Climb no further—for there is nothing left to climb. ]
✦
Silence.
The storm ended.Only wind remained, whispering through ruined stone.
I stood at the summit.Bleeding.Laughing softly because I was still breathing.
Arjun's ember glowed faintly, his voice barely a breath."…you… did it…"
I nodded, pressing him close."For now."
The Inkblade purred, satisfied.
"…the peak bent… but it did not break… someday, we'll come back and finish it…"
"Someday," I whispered. "But not today."
✦
The system's tone cut through the quiet.
[ Murim Trial Cleared ][ Title Earned — The Climber Who Bleeds Light ][ Effect : Your endurance now bends rules that govern mortal limitation ][ Next realm path available. Choose wisely. ]
I smiled faintly."Of course there's another staircase."
✦
The clouds parted.
Far below, three distant fissures gleamed—the next realms, waiting.
And for a moment, the mountain's voice returned, quieter now.
[ Fracture… when you climb again… remember—every peak bleeds for its height. ]
I laughed, broken but alive.
"Then I'll make the sky bleed next."