Chapter 87: The Trial of the Abyss

Darkness pressed against Li Feng from all sides, a crushing weight of shadows that twisted and writhed like living tendrils. The whispers had not stopped. They slithered into his ears, hissing ancient words in a tongue he could not fully understand yet somehow felt buried in his bones. The void around him pulsed with something beyond death, beyond life. He was no longer merely lost in the Abyss—he was becoming a part of it.

A ripple of energy coursed through the void, and before him, a figure materialized. It was neither man nor beast but something in between—its body shifting like ink dissolving in water, humanoid yet unformed, like the Abyss itself was trying to take shape.

"Who are you?" Li Feng's voice echoed, but there was no air, no true sound, just thought bleeding into existence.

The figure tilted its head, its featureless face suddenly molding into something familiar. His own face.

"I am what you could become," the entity said, its voice a thousand overlapping tones. "Or what you will leave behind. The Abyss does not consume, Li Feng. It transforms."

A cold claw raked through his chest—not physically, but through his mind. Images flooded him. His father, standing over a battlefield drenched in blood, victorious yet weary. The Coiled Dragon's power coiling through their veins like a curse. His mother's soft voice warning him of a path that could not be undone. His ancestors, standing tall as kings, yet whispers of conquest tainted their legacy.

Li Feng staggered back, gripping his head as memories—his, yet not his—poured through him. "What is this?!"

"Your past. Your truth." The entity flickered, and in its place, the shadow of Shen Longwei emerged, his eyes burning with abyssal fire. "Do you see now, Li Feng? Your clan was never just protectors. They sought power through the celestial alignment. They failed. And now, you stand at the precipice of their mistake."

The shadows tightened around him, dragging him deeper. Faces formed in the black mist—warriors, emperors, fallen souls who had once stood where he stood now. They whispered to him, promising him strength, offering him dominion over fate itself. If he only reached out. If he only took the Abyss as his own.

"Embrace it, and you will never be weak again," Shen Longwei's voice taunted, his form flickering like a ghost. "You saw what power did to me, but you are different, are you not? You can control it. You can become something greater."

Li Feng's breath came in sharp gasps. The Abyss was testing him, just as the Coiled Dragon had. But was there even a difference? The Abyss, the Coiled Dragon, the celestial power—they were all bound to the same cycle. Power corrupts. Power redeems. Power chooses.

He clenched his fists. "I choose my own path."

The Abyss shuddered. The shadows recoiled.

Shen Longwei's form twisted, breaking apart into countless tendrils before reforming, stronger. "Fool. You had your chance."

And then the void split open.

Meanwhile, in the physical world, Mei Lian and Yan Shun reached the edge of the Abyss. The battlefield was in ruins, fractures of celestial energy still crackling in the sky. The air itself felt heavier, like the world was holding its breath.

"We don't have time," Mei Lian said, her voice tight with frustration. "Li Feng is still in there."

Yan Shun ran his hands along the ground, brushing away debris until his fingers stopped on something cold and smooth. A pillar, half-buried, covered in runes that pulsed faintly in the dim light.

"This… this is ancient," he whispered. "It's been sealed for centuries."

Mei Lian didn't hesitate. She unsheathed her blade and pressed the edge against her palm, drawing blood before pressing it against the stone. "Then we unseal it."

As soon as her blood touched the glyphs, the ground rumbled. The Abyss shifted.

And inside, Li Feng saw a figure approaching through the darkness. Shen Longwei's spirit, no longer human, no longer bound by flesh, yet still smiling with that same cruel certainty.

"Now, we finish this."