The aftermath of battle left the forest eerily still.
The mists had withdrawn, curling around shattered roots and smoking stone. What had once been vibrant jade light now dimmed to a pale, sickly hue. The Domain was wounded.
But alive.
Yu Ling stood beneath the drooping canopy, her breath shallow, her hands faintly trembling. The air around Lin Xuan still rippled from the aftershock of his awakening — that subtle distortion that bent qi currents without effort or intent.
It was not dominance.
It was alignment.
The Domain no longer resisted him. It flowed through him, as rivers yield to the pull of the moon.
And yet, beneath that tranquil control, Yu Ling felt a hidden danger — a devouring pulse, steady and deep. The jade shard in his chest resonated with the world's wounded rhythm, like a heart beating behind Heaven's wall.
"Your resonance hasn't faded," she murmured.
Lin Xuan's eyes remained half-lidded, calm as still water. "No. The Domain is still calling. Its voice doesn't end with battle."
He spoke without pride — only quiet awareness. The power that had awakened inside him no longer felt borrowed. It felt like an inheritance demanding recognition.
Yu Ling turned toward the ground. Beneath the cracked stone and twisted roots, faint light shimmered. At first, she thought it was reflected qi. Then she realized — these were not veins of spirit stone, but lines of memory.
Runic inscriptions pulsed beneath the earth, humming too softly for mortal senses — like the distant echo of a song sung before creation.
Da-dum. Da-dum.
The pulse of the Jade Veins.
Her blood responded to it. The rhythm matched her heartbeat. Her vision wavered, and suddenly, the world above vanished.
She saw rivers of jade flowing beneath the surface like veins through the flesh of a slumbering titan. Each current carried whispers — fragments of history, voices of emperors, scholars, and gods.
Lin Xuan caught her wrist before she collapsed.
"Yu Ling!"
Her pupils trembled as she gasped softly. "I… I can hear it."
He frowned. "Hear what?"
"The Domain," she whispered. "It's not just reacting to you. It's speaking."
The words made Lin Xuan freeze. He had felt the Domain respond before — bending, synchronizing, obeying. But to speak? That was something else. If the Domain was speaking, then something alive lingered within this realm.
Yu Ling closed her eyes. The hum grew louder — until it formed meaning, not words. Visions flashed behind her eyelids: towers swallowed by mist, rivers running red, a jade throne crowned with seven broken halos.
Her lips parted.
"The Emperor sleeps below the roots," she breathed.
"And the Collector carries His breath."
Lin Xuan's pulse spiked. "The Emperor? You mean the First Emperor of the Xu Empire? He died thousands of years ago."
Yu Ling shook her head faintly, silver strands of hair swaying. "Not died. Buried. His will was sealed within this Domain. The trials — the so-called 'Heavenly Selection' — they aren't to choose successors. They're searching for fragments."
Her eyes locked with his, sharp and clear. "You're one of them."
A chill swept the clearing.
For years, Lin Xuan had believed the jade shard within him was a relic — a remnant of the Heavenly Attribute Collector Sect's fall. The last ember of a forgotten glory.
Now he saw the truth. It wasn't a remnant.
It was a key.
He turned his hand over. The jade shard pulsed, glowing softly like a living organ. Its heartbeat was no longer his — it was older, steadier, vaster.
"Then why does Heaven hunt me?" he asked quietly. "If I carry its chosen relic—"
Yu Ling cut him off, her tone barely above a whisper.
"Because Heaven fears what it cannot control."
For a long while, silence claimed the forest. Only the faint drip of dew and the slow trickle of spiritual mist filled the space between their breaths.
Then, far above them, the sky flickered.
Golden ripples spread across the firmament — not sunlight, but divine activation. The second layer of the trial was awakening.
A voice boomed across the heavens, echoing from horizon to horizon:
"The First Trial is complete.
The second path opens — the Veins of Heaven.
Step forward, or be buried."
The ground trembled. The mountains groaned and folded inward, rivers reversed their flow, and from the fractured landscape rose colossal jade arteries — radiant tunnels that pulsed with inner light.
They wove through the world like veins of a living god.
Lin Xuan and Yu Ling barely had time to brace before a surge of energy seized them. The pull was immense — not physical, but spiritual, as if the Domain itself had chosen them.
"Hold on!" Lin Xuan shouted, seizing her hand.
Light consumed them.
When their vision returned, they were no longer in the forest.
They stood upon a translucent bridge suspended above an infinite abyss. Below, rivers of liquid jade flowed like molten constellations, casting soft radiance upward in rhythmic pulses.
They had entered the Veins of Heaven — the spiritual circulatory system of the Domain itself.
Yu Ling's hair floated around her as if weight had lost meaning. "This place…" she whispered, awe trembling in her voice. "It's alive. The Domain isn't a test ground — it's a body. A living construct of Heaven's will."
Lin Xuan nodded slowly. "And its heart lies ahead."
Before he could say more, footsteps echoed across the bridge.
From the far end emerged a lone figure — a woman in white-gold robes, her veil drifting softly. Her aura was pure divinity, yet cold and hollow. When she walked, her steps left no sound upon the jade path.
When she stopped, her voice filled the air — neither loud nor gentle, but absolute.
"Lin Xuan of the Northern Plains," she intoned. "You have violated Heaven's equilibrium."
Lin Xuan's expression hardened. "I merely survived."
"Survival without sanction," she replied, lifting a finger, "is rebellion."
The bridge quaked. Lines of spiritual law rose like serpents, coiling around her hand — ready to strike.
But Yu Ling stepped forward.
Her voice was quiet, yet carried through the void like a bell.
"Stop. The Domain accepts him. You cannot judge what Heaven already recognizes."
The Envoy's head turned slightly toward her, veil fluttering. "Ah. The Listener awakens."
Yu Ling's breath hitched. "You… know who I am?"
"Of course." The Envoy lowered her hand. "Your bloodline predates this world. The Listener was meant to interpret Heaven's silence — not to challenge it."
Her tone sharpened like steel drawn across glass. "You stand beside a thief of attributes, a heretic who consumes divine resonance. When his ascension completes, he will not balance the Dao — he will devour it."
Lin Xuan's eyes gleamed with restrained fury. "Then Heaven should have killed me in the womb."
For the first time, the Envoy smiled — cold and distant. "Perhaps it tried."
Her aura flared. Golden light surged from her palm, coalescing into radiant spears that cut through the void.
Yu Ling didn't hesitate. She raised both hands, channeling sound instead of qi. Invisible waves pulsed outward, pure resonance colliding with divine energy.
The world cracked.
The bridge shattered beneath them.
They fell — plunging into the rivers of jade below.
The descent was endless.
Lin Xuan wrapped his arm around Yu Ling, his qi shielding her as the jade current swallowed them. The flow burned — not with fire, but with memory.
Visions flooded his mind: cities crumbling, gods chained in silence, and an emperor kneeling before a mirror of Heaven, whispering words of rebellion:
"Let my heirs devour what Heaven hoards."
When they struck the riverbed, the impact should have shattered their bones — yet the jade embraced them instead, flowing through their bodies like breath.
Lin Xuan's veins lit from within, glowing with the same pale light as the shard in his chest. The current merged with him. His blood sang in harmony with the world's pulse.
Yu Ling floated nearby, unconscious but radiant. The river around her softened, rippling in rhythm with her heartbeat — gentle, balanced, harmonious.
He stared at her, realization dawning.
She wasn't merely the Listener.
She was the Balance itself.
Without her, his Collector's fragment would consume everything — Heaven, Earth, and him along with it.
A voice rose from the depths of the jade river — soft, ancient, melodic:
"Heaven gave one the gift to take.
Heaven gave the other the gift to hear.
When both awaken, the path returns to origin."
Lin Xuan clenched his fists. "Origin… what origin?"
The voice faded, leaving only silence — and a faint golden shimmer glowing below.
He turned.
Something vast lay buried beneath the jade — a titanic structure shaped like a heart, beating once every hundred breaths. The Heart of the Emperor's Domain.
At its core, seated in eternal meditation, was a man encased in crystal — his robes of black and gold untouched by time.
Lin Xuan's breath caught.
The First Emperor himself — preserved within the Domain's heart.
Yu Ling stirred, whispering weakly, "Lin Xuan… the whispers say the heart is breaking."
He looked closer. Cracks spidered through the crystal shell. Light seeped out — chaotic, wild, and divine.
The shard in Lin Xuan's chest blazed in response, pulsing faster, harder, until his entire body shook.
The resonance was unbearable. The jade rivers boiled, the heavens above churned, and the once-still Veins of Heaven began to twist violently.
Yu Ling reached for him, voice trembling.
"It's calling you!"
"I know," he gritted out, teeth clenched against the storm within. "But I don't know if it wants me to save it… or replace it."
The crystal heart shattered.
And in that instant — Heaven, Earth, and soul became one blinding surge of white.
The world screamed.
And from the depths, the Eternal Vein began to awaken.