Chapter 71: A Fractured Reality

The first thing Li Feng noticed was the silence. It was heavy, pressing down on him like the weight of the Abyss itself. The labyrinth's illusions had been shattered, yet their effects lingered, ghosts of what they had seen refusing to fade from their minds. He took a slow breath, steadying himself as the others stirred around him.

Mei Lian sat on a fractured stone, her arms wrapped around herself. Her gaze was distant, unfocused, as if she were somewhere else entirely. Whatever vision she had faced in the labyrinth had cut deep. Li Feng knew better than to ask. Instead, he studied Yan Shun, who had barely moved since waking. The swordsman stared at the ground, his knuckles white from clenching his fists.

"We need to move," Yan Shun said at last, his voice hoarse. "Standing here won't change anything."

Zheng Wei let out a ragged cough, barely able to sit up. His body trembled from exhaustion, the trials having drained him more than the rest of them. Mei Lian moved on instinct, kneeling beside him, but he waved her off weakly. "No time to waste," he murmured. "The Abyss... it's changing."

Li Feng frowned, glancing around. Now that he focused, he could feel it too. The air was thick, humming with energy, as though the very fabric of the Abyss had begun to unravel. A low rumble shook the ground beneath them, and a distant pulse of crimson light flickered at the edge of his vision.

"The celestial alignment," Mei Lian whispered, her hands tightening into fists. "It's starting."

Another tremor rippled through the ground, this one stronger. Dust rained from the cavern's ceiling as deep cracks split the stone beneath their feet. The air itself felt warped, as if reality were stretching, twisting into something unnatural.

Yan Shun pulled his sword free, his grip tense. "What is this?"

Before anyone could answer, the ground shifted. The walls around them bent inward, twisting as if responding to an unseen force. The path they had taken to get here was gone, replaced by a new one—a jagged, spiraling descent deeper into the unknown.

Li Feng instinctively reached for his Coiled Dragon Ring, and the moment his fingers brushed against it, he felt it burn against his skin. His vision swam, flickering between past and present—battlefields long forgotten, voices whispering in a language he could barely comprehend.

You are running out of time.

The voice was neither human nor entirely real, but it resonated through his mind like a distant echo. He clenched his jaw, breaking free from the trance, and turned to the others.

"We need to go," he said, his voice firmer than he felt. "Whatever is happening, we can't stay here."

Mei Lian hesitated, but Zheng Wei, despite his weakening condition, nodded. Yan Shun was the last to respond, but after a long pause, he sheathed his sword and stepped forward.

They followed the new path, every step resonating with the unnatural energy filling the Abyss. The deeper they went, the more distorted everything became—shadows shifting without a source, distant whispers slithering through the air. The celestial alignment was not just changing the Abyss.

It was tearing it apart.

Then, a deep rumbling shook the ground once more, louder this time, as if something beneath them had finally awakened. A pulse of dark energy erupted from the depths below, and suddenly—

The entire Abyss shifted.

The very fabric of reality twisted as a new, unknown path was revealed before them, leading into the heart of the Abyss. Something awaited them at the end. And it was watching.