The Ashen Gate loomed before them, tall and silent.
Black stone, etched with silver runes that pulsed like a heartbeat. The air around it was colder than the mountain night, though no wind stirred the dust at its feet.
Wushen swallowed hard. The closer he stood to it, the clearer the song became—a low, wordless hum that wrapped around his bones, asking questions he wasn't sure he could answer.
Bai stepped up beside him, her blade drawn but resting at her side.
"It's a door," she said quietly. "But not for the world. For us."
A-Yan grinned, though it didn't reach her eyes. "Then let's knock."
Yiran reached out with her formation sense, fingers tracing the edges of the runes. Her eyes went wide.
"It's… listening," she whispered. "It's not just a seal—it's a question. It wants to know who we are before it lets us in."
Tianya closed her eyes, focusing inward. "Then let's answer it."
Wushen took a breath.
He stepped forward.
He placed his palm against the cold stone.
Ding! Legacy Node Access Initiated – Ashen Gate (Tier 5).Warning: Emotional resonance will be amplified. Inner trials may manifest physically.Proceed? Y/N
He whispered, "Yes."
The runes flared—silver light spilling out in twisting patterns, washing over him, over Bai, Yiran, A-Yan, Tianya. The world went silent.
Then—
The Gate opened.
Not with a sound.
With a pulse.
Like the world itself taking a single, shuddering breath.
A gap appeared in the stone, dark and endless.
And beyond it—nothing.
No stars. No sky. Just a space that waited.
Bai met Wushen's gaze.
"Together," she said.
He nodded.
And they stepped through.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the world changed.
The cold vanished, replaced by an oppressive heat—like standing inside a forge. The air smelled of ash and old blood, but there was no smoke, no flame.
They stood on cracked stone, black as night and streaked with silver veins that pulsed faintly beneath their feet.
Above them, the sky was… wrong.
It shifted between colors, swirling like an oil-slick ocean—purple, green, black, white—always moving, never still.
A-Yan whistled softly. "Pretty. Creepy, but pretty."
Yiran's eyes narrowed. "This place… it's alive. It's built from memory and will."
Bai scanned the horizon. "Then whose memory?"
Wushen didn't answer.
Because he already knew.
Ding! Inner Trial Initiated – Echo of the Mentor's Requiem.Objective: Survive. Understand. Integrate.Warning: Failure may result in permanent mental fragmentation.Host Status: Outside – Observer only.
Disciples' Status: Bound by Echo.
The world shifted.
One moment they stood together—five silhouettes on cracked stone.
The next, they were apart.
Wushen found himself alone in a vast hall.
Columns rose into darkness, their tops lost to a sky of shifting light. The air smelled of old paper and forgotten songs.
At the far end, a figure sat on a low dais.
White robes. Face hidden behind a blindfold of black silk. Hands resting on a guqin—an instrument older than the Sect itself.
The figure spoke.
"Lin Wushen."
His voice was gentle. Ageless.
"What will you leave behind to find your echo?"
Wushen's throat went dry.
He clutched his flute. "I… I don't know."
The figure's head tilted.
"Then listen."
The guqin's strings sang—a single note that cut deeper than any blade.
Elsewhere, Bai stood in a corridor of ice and shadow.
Mirrors lined the walls, each one reflecting a different version of herself—some younger, some older, some… monstrous.
She walked forward, hand on her blade.
A voice whispered from the mirrors.
"What price will you pay to protect your truth?"
She didn't flinch.
"I'll pay it," she said. "But only on my terms."
A-Yan found herself in a field of lotus blossoms.
They stretched to the horizon, petals glowing faintly.
But each flower was empty—petals without scent, color without life.
At the center of the field, a single flower pulsed with light.
A voice echoed.
"What are you willing to steal back from the world?"
A-Yan's smile was sharp and sad.
"Everything it took from me."
Yiran walked through a maze of paper and ink.
Scrolls drifted in the air, each one inscribed with the stories of lives that had never been lived.
She read them as she passed, feeling the weight of possibility in every line.
A voice spoke softly.
"What will you write into the world?"
She paused.
Then she said, "My own truth."
Tianya stood in a hall of endless doors.
Each one marked with a name—some she recognized, some she had never heard.
She walked forward, opening each door in turn.
Each one showed a memory—a choice.
A question.
At the end of the hall, one door remained.
No name.
No mark.
She placed her hand on it.
"What will you fight for?" a voice asked.
She answered with a single word.
"Us."
In the real world—or what was left of it—Luo Feng stood at the threshold.
He couldn't enter.
Not without losing the last pieces of himself.
But he could watch.
He could feel.
And he could remember.
Ding! System Advisory: Ashen Gate resonance confirmed. Host and disciples bound to shared echo field.Current Integrity: 92%.Warning: External forces attempting to interfere.
At the edge of the forest, hidden in the shifting shadows, Elder Ren watched the Gate.
A faint smile curved his lips.
"So they chose the Gate," he murmured. "Good. Let them see what happens when you chase echoes too far."
He raised a hand, fingers weaving a silent seal.
Back inside the Gate, Wushen stepped closer to the blindfolded figure.
"I… I want to understand," he said. His voice was raw. "I want to sing the song my brother died for. But I don't know if it's mine."
The figure's head tilted again.
"Then listen."
The guqin's strings hummed.
And in that note, Wushen heard every mistake he'd ever made.
Every fear he'd ever carried.
Bai walked deeper into the corridor of mirrors, cutting down every twisted reflection that tried to chain her.
A-Yan tore the empty blossoms from the field, planting her own heartbeat in the soil.
Yiran rewrote the drifting scrolls with her breath, carving her own story into the air.
Tianya stood before the nameless door and whispered her promise.
Outside, Luo Feng closed his eyes.
And in the dark of his mind, he heard the Mentor's Requiem begin to play.