The Devoured Land

The air thickened into suffocating silence. Bird calls vanished. Wind died. Light leached away, leaving jagged obsidian ridges stark and skeletal under a bruised sky. A profound hollowness pressed in, a constant, subtle drain pulling towards an unseen center. The Black Vale wasn't a valley; it was a wound.

Inside the carriage, the suppression runes sputtered erratically. Le Yang and Yun Hai sat rigid, tension radiating from them. Yun Hai's hand rested near his dagger, eyes scanning the desolation with heightened alertness. Le Yang's restless fingers were still, replaced by grim watchfulness. Spirit stones faded faster. Cultivating felt futile.

Ye Chen remained outwardly still, shrouded in his father's robe. Inwardly, his void core thrummed in deep, resonant harmony with the Vale's decaying energy – a low, hungry vibration. The cold in his right arm intensified, a sharp counterpoint to the ambient chill.

"Elder Wei Lan will require an account of your condition upon arrival, Young Master Ye," Le Yang stated, his raspy voice formal, devoid of warmth. "The Vale's touch breaks the weak."

"Indeed," Yun Hai added, his tone flat, respectful only in structure. "Your endurance thus far is... unexpected. We near the rim camp." The unspoken 'for now' hung in the heavy air.

The carriage crested a skeletal ridge. Ye Chen looked out. Dread settled like ice.

Before them sprawled a colossal sinkhole of despair. Jagged, light-absorbing shards littered the steep plunge. At its heart, a league away, gaped the Heartscar – a vertical shaft of pure darkness. Above it, the sky swirled with bruised purples and sickly greens, torn by veins of black. Tendrils of visible distortion writhed upwards. Absolute silence reigned.

Scarlet Moon's camp clung to the rim: dark tents huddled behind stone barricades topped with flickering spirit-iron spikes. Sentries moved stiffly, faces pale beneath hoods pulled low, flinching when stronger pulses of void energy washed over the camp, causing the spikes to hum erratically.

The carriage halted inside the perimeter. The door opened. The full weight of the Vale slammed into Ye Chen – a crushing pressure, an insidious drain on vitality and spirit. His meager qi shrank; the air felt sterile, dead. His void core drank the ambient negation eagerly. The cold in his arm flared, biting deep. He suppressed a gasp, letting only a sharp intake of breath escape, followed by a visible tremor running through his small frame.

"Elder Wei Lan awaits, Young Master Ye," Yun Hai stated, his voice devoid of inflection, gesturing towards the large central tent like a jailer indicating a cell. They flanked him closely, their posture less escort, more containment. Their sharp eyes missed nothing: the tremor, the hitched breath, the faint, momentary shimmer of condensed cold air around his concealed right arm before the Vale swallowed it, the unnatural pallor deepening on his face.

Inside the warded tent, the air was thick and still. The man awaiting them was older, streaks of grey in a severe topknot, clad in dark crimson robes edged with intricate silver crescents. His aura was dense, controlled – Mid Foundation Establishment. His eyes, obsidian chips, held no warmth, only a detached, calculating assessment. Overseer Wei Lan.

"Envoy Le Yang. Envoy Yun Hai," Wei Lan acknowledged them with a curt nod. His gaze immediately fixed on Ye Chen, cold and evaluative. "Young Master Ye Chen."

Le Yang bowed slightly, his report clipped and functional. "Elder Wei Lan. As observed: pronounced physical tremor and significant pallor upon perimeter exposure. Breathing hitched noticeably. Observed distinct, localized cold emissions concentrated around his right arm, recurring during travel, coinciding with stronger environmental fluctuations. Duration: brief, dissipating quickly. No observed qi deviation or loss of consciousness. Basic function maintained."

Yun Hai added, voice flat, "Endurance exceeds baseline expectations for age and observed cultivation. The cold emission remains unexplained – no detectable active qi signature. Appears reactive, physical."

Wei Lan listened, his expression unchanging. He made no move to examine Ye Chen, showed no scholarly curiosity about the cold. It was merely a noted anomaly in a disposable asset. "Tolerance is sufficient. The task requires endurance, not understanding."

He gestured dismissively towards the terrifying vista visible through the tent's reinforced viewing port – the descent into the basin and the distant maw of the Heartscar. "You will descend into the basin, Young Master Ye. Your objective is simple: reach the outer slopes of the Heartscar itself. Plant one of our survey markers." He nodded to Yun Hai, who produced a heavy, foot-long spike of dark, non-reactive metal, etched with Scarlet Moon sigils. It was utterly inert, designed solely to withstand the environment, not sense it. "Hammer this marker into the bedrock as close to the Heartscar's edge as you can physically reach. Survive the placement. Return.

No instrument. No pretense of gathering esoteric knowledge.A grim smile touched Ye Chen's lips. Of course. The solution is simple: remove the problem. Remove... me. A blatant assertion of dominance. The marker was a flag planted on a corpse, claiming territory through sacrifice.

"The environment deepens the drain," Wei Lan continued, his tone matter of fact. "Terrain is treacherous. Energy fluctuations can cause disorientation, physical trauma. Your observed resilience suggests you possess a marginal chance where others have failed. That is your value. Use it."

He offered no gear, no advice, no encouragement. Le Yang stepped forward, not handing the spike to Ye Chen, but holding it out for him to take, his expression impassive. "Young Master."

Ye Chen looked at the cold, dark metal spike. A simple, brutal tool. No resonance. No connection to his power. Just dead weight and a death warrant. He reached out with his left hand, his movements stiff from the pervasive cold and the Vale's pressure. His fingers closed around the icy metal. It felt heavy, inert, a symbol of the Scarlet Moon's indifferent cruelty.

Wei Lan watched the simple act of taking the marker. No reaction from the spike. No reaction from him. "Prepare him with basic cold-weather provisions and climbing gear," he instructed the envoys, his gaze already shifting back to his maps, dismissing Ye Chen. "He descends at first light. Ensure he understands the marker must be planted. His return is... preferable for confirmation, but secondary to the marker's placement."

The message was chillingly clear: the marker's presence mattered more than Ye Chen's life. Proof of the Scarlet Moon's reach into the Vale, achieved through expendable flesh.

As the envoys led him to a bare, cold observation tent, Ye Chen clutched the heavy survey spike. The cold from his arm seeped into the metal, a futile protest against its dead weight. To Wei Lan, he was a marginally hardy beast of burden, useful for planting a flag in a lethal zone. To the envoys, he was a doomed curiosity exhibiting unexplained cold. The spike was no key, only a shackle. Dawn would see him descend into the Heartscar's shadow, carrying the Scarlet Moon's symbol of conquest into the maw of the very darkness they sought to claim, his true nature hidden beneath layers of observed suffering and their utter disregard. The Devourer's lair awaited, and he carried its would-be conqueror's brand.