The fire danced before them, its tongues slowly rising as if trying to touch the darkness of the sky.
The camp was small—two torn tents barely suitable for sitting, and a few dry branches that had caught fire after Lin Xian had silently gathered them. Beside him sat Yue Mi, holding her sleeping sister close, her eyes never leaving the strange man who sat opposite them quietly, as though what had happened earlier was nothing more than a heavy dream.
But it hadn't been a dream.
The flesh dragon, the wolves fleeing with terrified howls, and his voice when he spoke of the second gate… all of it was real.
The man remained silent.
His eyes stared into the flames, watching them like someone watching the fire of his own life slowly burn away. He carried no sword. He had no visible weapon. And yet, by all measures—he was the most dangerous person they had ever seen.
Lin Xian couldn't suppress his wariness; his fingers still trembled on his sword's hilt. But something inside him whispered: "He's not your enemy… he's something deeper than that."
Then, the man spoke, in a calm voice—like someone reciting something he'd known since birth:
"My name... is Ray Yu."
A moment passed. Yue Mi looked at him cautiously and asked, "Who are you, really?"
He replied without looking at her:
"I am... a shadow of doors opened. An echo of what's to come."
The answer wasn't enough. But he continued:
"I believe it's time you understood what you're caught in. What this world really is... and what's truly happening."
He slowly turned his head and looked up at the stars, barely visible between the clouds.
"Have you ever heard of the Nine Dao Gates?"
She didn't answer. Even Lin Xian looked frozen.
Ray Yu said:
"In ancient times, people believed power came from training, from meditation, from spiritual cultivation... That's wrong."
He raised a finger toward the sky:
"True power... doesn't just come from within. It opens."
"Opens?" Yue Mi murmured.
"Yes. Every true power passes through one of the Nine Dao Gates.
Each gate... is a level, a reality, a trial for the world itself.
The fall of each gate... means the laws of this world are changing.
That it becomes weaker, and closer to collapse."
He paused, then added in a deeper voice:
"The first gate... has already fallen.
The second... will follow soon."
Yue Mi asked quietly, "What does it mean for a gate to fall? What happens when it does?"
He answered her with a steady gaze:
"Things are unleashed.
Things are awakened.
Beings, laws... even humans themselves—change."
Then he looked directly at Lin Xian, and said:
"You... which Dao are you aligned with?"
The question hit like a blade.
Lin Xian froze. It was clear he hadn't expected it. His lips moved… then stopped. He wanted to answer, but didn't. Instead, he pulled something from his coat—a black, rectangular device, with green crystal circles embedded in it—and powered it on.
A hologram appeared before them: a three-dimensional ghost of an elderly man with a gray beard and eyes full of worry.
He spoke in an ancient Chinese dialect, his voice deep and ragged:
"I am Doctor Han Yi Chuan, from the Yi Long City Labs.
If you're hearing this message, it means the first gate has fallen.
The Eastern Kingdom is in chaos. The balance has broken.
We believe some members of A.C.E.S. have defected, and there are those
who've begun building a new philosophy... one that challenges the rules.
We don't know if we'll survive.
But we are certain: the world as we know it... will never be the same."
The recording ended there.
Yue Mi gasped, and Lin Xian swallowed hard.
But Ray Yu? He didn't flinch. He simply reached out… and crushed the device.
The hologram shattered into glowing dust, vanishing into the air.
He spoke in a whisper—but with the certainty of mountains:
"Soon... you will know everything.
But knowledge alone… won't save you."
He rose to his feet and let the fire speak in his place.
"Rest tonight.
Tomorrow... we move.
Before the second gate falls."
Then he disappeared among the trees.
And his words left behind shadows that would not fade.