Chapter 10 – The Day the Sky Forgot to Breathe
Outer Challenge — 1 Day Remaining
The sect was quiet.
Too quiet.
Not with peace — but pressure. The kind that made birds fly lower and fire dim faster. It was as if the air itself knew what tomorrow would bring… and did not wish to bear witness.
No one dared speak to Lin Feng anymore.
Not the arrogant. Not the sympathetic. Not even the curious.
> "He's not training," they whispered.
"He's surviving something else entirely..."
---
Lin Feng sat cross-legged on the cold floor, skin pale, lips cracked. Sweat didn't bead anymore. It soaked him like a second robe.
He hadn't eaten in two days.
Hadn't slept in three.
His body pulsed — not with Qi — but something older, something raw. A rhythm not found in manuals or cultivation techniques.
> Thump... thump... THUMP.
It wasn't a heartbeat.
It was the sound of something knocking from inside him.
He looked down at his chest.
> "Why… do I feel like I'm being born again?"
A thick vein throbbed across his collarbone. His ribs creaked — like bark splitting beneath growing roots.
He screamed into his hand, but it came out as a low growl.
His vision flickered — not from fatigue, but… overlap.
He saw himself standing.
Then falling.
Then rising again, flesh torn open, bones realigning.
---
He was somewhere else.
In a field of black snow.
Wind howled through hollow mountains. Above him, a sky without stars. Not a void — but a silence so vast, it devoured all light.
He stood, barefoot, shirtless — the broken sword embedded in his arm like a parasite.
And something whispered behind him:
> "You are not cultivating. You are returning."
He turned.
But no one was there.
Only the snow, melting into blood.
---
He woke on the floor, body steaming.
His skin was marked now. Tiny lines of silver tracing from his spine to his arms, like veins of molten ore beneath flesh.
> [Marrow–Vein Rebirth: 29% complete.]
[Soul Stabilization Failing. Host core destabilizing.]
The air around him vibrated. Candles curled inwards. The walls groaned like wounded beasts.
His fingernails cracked — and began to regrow sharper.
Something inside him was surging, trying to take over — or trying to be born.
> "No," he muttered. "I'm still Lin Feng…"
But his voice didn't sound like his anymore.
It sounded deeper.
And the sword — the broken one lying against the corner — began to tremble.
---
Night of Stillness
Far across the sect, atop the Spirit-Viewing Platform, Lan Xueyin knelt.
Eyes closed. Hands folded.
And yet… she couldn't concentrate.
Something pressed on her awareness — a thread tugging from afar, echoing through the Qi in the air.
> "He's… crossing something."
> "But into what?"
She opened her eyes, cold and clear.
And for a moment, they reflected a blood moon that hadn't yet risen.
> "If he survives…"
"…will I be the one forced to kill him?"
---
Moon Prayer Hall – Forbidden Scrolls
Meanwhile, the Seventh Elder stood before an ancient mural.
It depicted a man — not a cultivator — tearing apart beasts with bare hands, veins glowing like starlight.
Beside the image, an unreadable name had been burned away.
The elder touched the empty space.
> "He carries the pulse of the Unwritten Physique…"
He paused.
> "…but something else, too. Something we buried."
The room darkened — not from shadow — but memory.
---
Midnight again.
He stood outside, naked from the waist up, the cold wind licking his fevered skin.
The broken sword was strapped to his back with nothing but cloth. His body screamed, but he didn't falter.
He walked toward the arena.
Slowly.
Each step cost more than the last. His knees shook. His vision blurred.
> But his spirit…
…was no longer walking.
It was crawling through fire.
> "I will fight him," he whispered. "Even if I break."
The heavens didn't respond.
But for one breathless moment — even the stars looked away.