The world had no sky.
When Li Xian opened his eyes, only molten red light and echoing stone surrounded him. Fractures of the shattered seal drifted overhead like dying embers. The air stank of iron and ozone. Every breath burned.
Su Yao crouched a few paces away, her robe torn, silver aura guttering. She pressed a hand against the trembling earth. "We're under the ridge," she said, voice low but steady. "At least a hundred li down. The cavern's… alive."
It was. The walls pulsed in slow rhythm, veins of dark crystal beating like a buried heart. When Li Xian reached out with his senses, the ground answered with a whisper not of rock but of memory—ancient, mournful, hungry.
A shadow stirred above them. The fragments of the seal fused into a single shape: a faceless giant formed of mist and bone-white light. Its voice rolled through the chamber like thunder under water.
"Release. Restore the old sky."
Su Yao's aura flared. "We can't fight it head-on. Anchor the ground. Draw from the core vein!"
Li Xian slammed his palm to the floor; crimson runes spidered outward, locking into the crystal arteries beneath. The cavern screamed, the shadow convulsed, and a wave of force hurled both cultivators apart. Their lights—silver and red—struggled against the void, each flicker pushing back the dark inch by inch.
Far above, the Azure Blossom Sect shook as the aftershock reached it. Pavilions rattled; jade lamps burst. Elders streamed into the council hall, voices overlapping.
"What did they awaken?"
"The northern ridge collapsed—half the scouts gone!"
"If the Apex pair are dead—"
"Silence," Grand Elder Meng Tian snapped. His aged hand struck the table, splitting the wood. "No funeral until we find bodies. Ready a retrieval force. If Li Xian yet lives, he will need anchors to climb out."
Through the chaos, one disciple slipped away—a messenger from a hidden faction, already carrying word toward Mo Tian's dominion.
Back in the abyss, Li Xian's vision blurred. The shadow lunged again; its form dissolved into countless tendrils of dark qi that struck like spears. He caught them on crossed arms, felt blood bead along his skin, and answered with a surge of pure crimson flame. Su Yao joined him, her silver light weaving around his, sealing wounds as fast as they opened.
Their combined radiance carved a circle of safety in the cavern floor. Stone turned glass beneath their feet. The shadow recoiled, shrieking—a sound that made even the mountain tremble.
Su Yao met his eyes. "We can't hold it here. We have to rise."
Li Xian nodded, gathering what power remained. "Then we make the mountain our ladder."
He drove his blade into the rock. Energy roared upward, splitting the cavern roof. A column of crimson-silver light punched through layers of stone, seeking the sky. The abyss answered with a deeper roar—the entity chasing them, unwilling to be caged again.
Above, the storm over the northern ridge convulsed. A single beam of light burst from the crater, piercing the clouds. Disciples gasped; elders shielded their eyes.
"They're alive!" someone shouted.
But in the same instant, a second flare—black and violet—rose beside it.
Grand Elder Meng Tian's face drained of color. "They didn't seal it," he whispered. "They brought part of it back."