A pale silver moon hung high in the night sky, illuminating the valley where the group had emerged. Cool winds drifted over the mountaintops, rustling through the leaves like whispers from an ancient time. The stars blinked, quiet observers to the storm of fate now brewing far beneath their eternal gaze.
Li Yi sat cross-legged atop a flat boulder, Chaos Qi circulating steadily around him. His breathing was calm, but his body pulsed with raw power—more refined than before, but heavier, as if bearing the weight of something greater than he himself had anticipated.
He had stepped into the Abyss and returned.
But the feeling that lingered in his bones was not one of triumph—it was of warning.
Behind him, the others had set up a temporary camp. The valley, ringed with protective formations conjured by Xue Lian, was isolated enough that no nearby sects or beasts could sense them. Mo Ruyan was meditating beside a spiritual pond that shimmered faintly under the starlight. Feng Lin sat apart, his body wreathed in a red-gold flame that was neither hot nor wild. It danced around him gently, as if rediscovering the essence it had once lost.
Lan Qing'er and Zhao Feiyu prepared simple food beside a small fire. The silence that lingered between them wasn't awkward—it was heavy with the weight of survival, and the bond that only battle could forge.
Li Yi opened his eyes slowly. A silver ring around his pupils flickered before fading.
He had reached Spirit Sea Realm – Mid Stage.
That made him stronger than most core disciples in the major sects of the Xuan Realm, and he had gotten here within months of beginning his journey. But power alone wasn't enough. The taste of the Abyss, of the corrupted soul of Feng Lin, lingered in his thoughts.
What if he hadn't been fast enough?
What if it had been someone else?
Footsteps approached behind him.
"You're getting stronger faster than any of us can believe," said Lan Qing'er, her arms crossed as she stood beside the rock.
Li Yi offered her a small smile. "The Chaos doesn't sleep."
She sat beside him without asking, gaze drifting to the sky. "Neither do your burdens."
He didn't answer.
"Do you know what's next?" she asked.
"I do."
"Are you sure it won't kill you?"
"No," Li Yi said honestly. "But I have to try."
The next piece of the map lay in the ruins of the Starfall Temple, an ancient site believed lost since the first collapse of the realm's celestial bridges. It was said that long ago, cultivators tried to build a stairway to the heavens from that very location. What remained now was a scarred land, haunted by twisted spirits and corrupted divine remnants.
Zhao Feiyu joined them. "I heard that temple hasn't been entered in three hundred years. Not since the Starburn Cult perished in that catastrophe."
"It's the only clue we have," Li Yi replied. "Feng Lin's memories were fractured, but he remembered one thing: that his ancestor left something behind there. A seal, he called it. Something to bind what should never awaken."
Mo Ruyan walked over, her voice quiet and cold. "Then we go prepared to die."
Li Yi rose to his feet. "We go to live. Every clue we find, every flame we reignite, brings us closer to unlocking the truth about the Abyss… and restoring the path to the God Realm."
His words sank into the group like stone into still water. The God Realm. That forbidden land above even the Upper Realm. The truth of their origins, their destinies, and their bloodlines lay shrouded beyond that celestial veil.
"Rest for now," Li Yi said. "We leave at dawn."
—
Dawn came cloaked in mist.
The group traveled on foot, not risking flight lest they alert the sects in the region. The mountains gave way to ancient plateaus where the air grew heavy with spiritual distortion. Trees became twisted; the rivers flowed in reverse. Birds with two heads watched from high branches, their eyes glowing with eerie intelligence.
By midday, they reached the outskirts of the Starfall Temple.
A cracked staircase of obsidian stone led up the side of a broken hill. At its peak stood a collapsed spire half-swallowed by thorny vines. Strange runes etched into the stairs glowed faintly as the group approached.
"This place reeks of forbidden essence," Xue Lian murmured.
Lan Qing'er stepped forward, her eyes narrowing. "No. It's celestial... but wounded. Like something divine tried to protect this place once… and failed."
Zhao Feiyu tested the first step with his halberd.
The moment the weapon touched the stone—clang!
A pulse of energy threw him backward.
"Damn it!"
Feng Lin stepped forward, his eyes glowing red-gold. "Let me try."
He extended a hand.
The staircase shimmered—and accepted him.
The group stared in silence as he began climbing.
Li Yi followed without hesitation. The others exchanged glances, then began to ascend one by one.
Each step felt heavier than the last.
The temple was testing them—not physically, but spiritually. Visions began to emerge: past fears, losses, regrets. Zhao Feiyu saw his dead brother. Lan Qing'er heard her mother's last scream. Mo Ruyan walked through a river of corpses, every face a former ally.
Li Yi, however, saw a figure robed in starlight.
His mother.
Her voice came not through sound but through sensation—warmth and sorrow.
"Yi'er… seek the Gate of Ascension… but beware… not all stars shine for you."
Then she was gone.
He reached the summit.
What lay beyond wasn't a ruined temple—but a crater.
A crater filled with countless broken mirrors, each reflecting a different sky.
In the center hovered a single orb of violet flame.
"Is that it?" Feng Lin whispered. "The Celestial Brand?"
Li Yi approached slowly, heart pounding.
Before he could reach the flame, a voice rang out:
"You've come far, Descendant of Chaos."
A figure emerged from the shadows.
A man with silver robes, a third eye on his forehead, and power radiating like a star being born.
"I am the Guardian of the Brand," he said. "Prove your right—or perish like those before you."
Li Yi stepped forward, blade in hand.
"Then test me."
—
End of Chapter 22