Chapter 8: Beneath Bone and Silence
Night fell, but sleep never came to Lin Xuan.
Not after what happened.
He had survived a Heavenly Correction. Not a tribulation, not a karmic backlash—but a direct erasure attempt from the heavens themselves. The storm still lingered in the sky above, distant and ashamed.
But something else stirred.
A pull.
Faint. Wordless. Originless.
It drew him downward, through tunnels rarely touched by light or life.
The Marrow Mines – Forbidden Depths
Lin Xuan slipped past outer guards with Veil of Unbeing and activated Erosion Step to phase through old bone wards. The deeper he traveled, the less the world made sense.
Walls began to breathe.
Root veins pulsed softly with ashen energy, older than the sect itself. Bones fossilized into impossible shapes, curved like glyphs of a forgotten language.
And then he found it:
A doorless archway, framed by black roots that twisted inward toward an invisible center.
"This place…" he murmured. "It was never meant to be found."
He stepped through.
The world inverted.
The Hollow Bloom Chamber
He stood in a circular stone chamber lit by nothing—yet perfectly visible. There were no shadows here, because there was no light to cast them. In the center floated a massive petrified flower, black as absolute silence.
Its petals were made of layered void, fossilized concepts. They did not shimmer. They did not exist.
Beneath the bloom was a stone tablet.
He approached.
Legacy of the First Void Emperor
The tablet flared with ancient memory.
"To the one who has survived the Eye."
"You are not a cultivator. You are not a sage. You are not a god."
"You are the End that walks."
Fragments of memory surged into Lin Xuan's soul:
A man walking alone beneath a sky that would not accept him.
Armies collapsing into dust as he passed.
Stars dimming in his presence.
The Void Emperor, standing at the edge of the cosmos, unmaking fate itself.
The tablet disintegrated.
And from the Hollow Bloom emerged a thin black thread of power.
Lin Xuan did not hesitate.
He stepped forward.
The Root of Nothingness pierced his chest.
Void Cultivation Breakthrough Achieved
Void Embodiment – Stage Two The body is now partially anchored in non-existence. All perception-based techniques have a chance to fail against the user. Gains passive immunity to karmic bindings and divination.
He collapsed to one knee, gasping.
Not from pain.
From detachment.
His thoughts were no longer perfectly bound to his body. He could feel himself watching himself—a side effect of his soul partially existing outside reality.
And in that detached clarity, he heard it:
"Erase… the Root Above."
"The true Ashen Root is not marrow, but memory."
"The sect must fall for the Void to rise."
Elsewhere – The Celestial Court Stirs
Above the heavens, a throne of white mirrors shimmered.
A figure formed—a being in white robes with no face, no skin, no presence. Only reflection.
The White Mirror Envoy had arrived.
Its purpose was simple:"To correct the wound upon the Dao."
It turned its empty gaze toward the mortal realm.
Within the Sect – Nie Qing Waits
The bone whisperer stood above her puppet forge.
She had seen the flickers beneath the mines. Felt the void root awaken.
She whispered to a broken puppet:
"He will return from below."
"When he does… I will offer him a choice: join me in unmaking the world—or be dissected and remembered."
Her puppet smiled for her.
Back in the Bloom Chamber
Lin Xuan rose.
The Hollow Bloom had vanished. Consumed by the Root.
Within his dantian, the Void Seed no longer pulsed.
It throbbed. With hunger. With will.
He now carried the first fragment of the First Void Emperor's Dao Remnant.
"From now on," he whispered, "I will not survive Heaven."
"I will replace it."