Chapter 9 – Razorvine Gorge
The next morning, the forest opened to a jagged cliffside trail. Below it, Razorvine Gorge split the earth like an ancient scar. Black stone walls, steep and cracked, plunged into mist below. Vines — twisted, silver-veined, and razor-sharp — hung across the chasm like threads of a spider's web.
"We cross here?" Wei Lian asked, staring into the fog.
"No choice," Shen Beijun said. "The only path to Xuandao. Safer than the mountain, faster than the marshes."
"And the vines?"
"Alive."
Shen stepped forward, drawing his sword. With one fluid motion, he cut a hanging vine clean in half. The severed end writhed like a snake, oozing black fluid, then fell twitching into the abyss.
"They react to movement. Some strike. Some coil and pull. Most are too slow. But if one wraps your leg while another goes for your throat… you're gone."
"Any Qi beasts?"
"At least one. A Ravenguard Lizard's been seen in the area. Half the length of a carriage. Camouflages in the stone. Probably drawn by cultivators who bleed too much."
Wei Lian didn't flinch.
"Good."
"Good?" Shen asked, amused.
"I need something to kill."
Crossing began at midday.
The ledge narrowed within minutes, barely wide enough for two feet. Wei Lian balanced himself with his walking stick. Shen walked ahead, his blade loose in his hand, eyes flicking constantly between the vines and the rock.
Mist curled upward from the gorge's throat. Every sound echoed — footfalls, falling stones, and the occasional low growl far, far below.
Wei Lian's heart pounded.
But it wasn't fear.
It was clarity.
This place didn't care about talent.
The vines didn't ask your background. The Ravenguard wouldn't stop to ask your spirit root.
Here, everyone bled the same.
Halfway across, Shen raised a hand.
"Stop."
Wei Lian froze.
Ahead, three vines had twisted together, blocking the path.
Their edges shimmered — unnaturally sharp, pulsing faintly with a dull silver light.
"Can't slice them," Shen muttered. "Too dense. They've absorbed Qi from corpses. They'll shatter a sword."
"Then how—"
He was cut off by a sound from behind.
Stone crumbling.
Wei Lian turned just in time to see a figure tumbling down from above.
A girl — battered, bleeding — slammed into the ledge twenty paces behind them.
And from the rock above, it came.
A Ravenguard Lizard.
Black, armored, eight-legged. Eyes like molten iron. Its claws scraped sparks from the stone as it skittered down the wall headfirst, tail lashing behind like a whip made of steel.
Shen's sword was already out.
"Go," he barked. "Now!"
"What about—"
"I'll handle the beast. You handle yourself."
Wei Lian didn't hesitate.
He lunged forward — and into the vines.
They struck instantly.
One sliced the air where his head had been. Another coiled around his ankle. A third whipped toward his shoulder.
He dropped to the ground, rolled, slashed at the vine with his walking stick — useless. But the blow redirected it just enough.
He staggered forward, foot slipping on wet stone.
The path tilted.
He nearly fell.
No.
He slammed his hand onto the ledge, fingers bleeding, and pulled himself up.
I'm not dying here.
He crawled beneath one vine, leapt over another, ducked, dodged — and finally burst through to the other side.
Panting. Shaking. Alive.
Behind him, the sound of combat shook the gorge.
Screeches. Steel. Roars.
Then silence.
Moments later, Shen appeared, blood on his blade, dragging the unconscious girl over one shoulder.
"She'll live," he said. "Ravenguard won't."
Wei Lian didn't respond.
He was still staring at the vines behind him.
His palms bled. His robes were torn. His legs ached.
But he'd crossed.
No spirit root. No technique. No Qi.
Just will.
And that was enough.
For now.