Scene 1 — Farewell to the Sect
The moon hung high over Jadeflow Peak.
Lin Xun stood before the sect gate, dressed not in robes of honor, but in simple gray traveling garb. He had only his cracked pendant, his blade, and the scroll given by Sect Master Qingshui.
Su Ruyan watched from the shadows, her expression unreadable.
"You're leaving without allies?"
"The Grave isn't meant for groups," Lin Xun said.
"It's where things go to die alone."
He turned to her, paused, and added:
"If I don't return… burn what's in my study."
Then he vanished into the night.
Scene 2 — The Journey
For seven days, Lin Xun traveled westward, away from sect lands and into the Withered Roots Basin, a place where Qi was thin, and spirit beasts avoided the soil.
The world here felt... hollow.
Each night, he meditated atop decaying trees, refining a new internal method:
Rootless Circulation — a passive cultivation flow designed to adapt to places without spiritual energy.
It drew instead on emotional residue, letting Lin Xun absorb fear, longing, and grief from the land itself.
By the fourth night, he broke through into Mid Foundation Realm, but the power was strange — not warm or bright, but cold and ghostlike.
And his dreams grew darker.
Each night, he saw an inverted tree swallowing stars.
Scene 3 — The Grave's Threshold
On the eighth day, he reached it.
A valley inverted — where the ground curved upward into an impossible dome, and upside-down trees hung from the sky like tangled veins.
The Sky-Rooted Grave was not a structure.
It was a scar.
At the center lay a floating coffin, suspended by silver chains from the sky-trees.
As Lin Xun approached, a voice — ancient and genderless — echoed:
"You carry a piece of the dead god's memory."
"Prove you are not merely its puppet."
The ground split open.
And Trial One began.
Scene 4 — Trial of Identity
Lin Xun found himself in a circular room made of mirror-like stone. Dozens of versions of himself surrounded him — each one representing a different possibility:
One who remained a servant.
One who sought vengeance above all.
One who killed his master.
One who never cultivated at all.
Each mirror-self spoke.
"You are none of us."
"You walk a road not meant for mortals."
"Abandon your body. Let us carry the burden."
Lin Xun smiled.
"If the path didn't exist, then I'll carve it out."
He drew his blade.
And fought himself.
Scene 5 — Birth of the Rootless Blade
The battle was more spiritual than physical. With each strike, Lin Xun cut away a false version of himself.
But it cost him.
Scars appeared on his real body.
Memories warped — childhood fragments, friends, even the scent of his old home faded.
But at the center, something pure remained.
He condensed all that remained into his sword.
And it changed.
His blade now shimmered with gray light — a weapon forged from possibility denied, its name whispered into his soul:
"You now wield the Rootless Blade."
"It will cut not what is... but what might have been."
The mirrors shattered.
Trial One was passed.
Scene 6 — Deep Below
Unseen, far beneath the Grave, ancient machinery stirred.
A sealed voice muttered:
"The Seed approaches the Core."
"Memory drift reducing."
"Resonance detected with Seventh Seal."
Elsewhere, in the Graveseal Cult's sanctum, Mother Ash opened her eyes.
"He passed the first trial."
She turned to her masked assassins.
"Prepare the Rite of Ending."
"When he reaches the second gate, we bury him in silence.