Chapter 27: Truth Beneath the Crown

Location: Vault IX – The Silent Root Beneath the Palace

The stone door sighed open like an ancient lung releasing its final breath.

A cool wind slipped out—scentless, silent, and unnaturally dry.

Li Tianming stepped through first, his fingers brushing the flickering torch crystals along the wall. Behind him, Mei Xueyan followed, veiled in a moon-gray robe now etched with fresh sigils from her sect. Her gaze was calm—but her fingers curled slightly at her sides.

Trailing silently were Itachi, whose presence seemed to smother the light itself, and Shikamaru, who yawned so lazily it almost looked strategic.

The passage curved downward.

Stone gave way to something older—bone-like walls that pulsed faintly, as if grown rather than carved.

Mei Xueyan slowed.

"This wasn't built," she murmured. "It was… grown from something."

Tianming nodded. "My great-grandfather called this place the Living Vault. But he sealed it after the birth of my father, claiming it was cursed."

"Cursed?" Shikamaru sniffed. "Doesn't feel cursed. Feels like someone's whispering in my ear with no lips."

"That's not better," Mei Xueyan muttered.

Itachi paused, his Sharingan spinning slowly. "There are voices here. Faint. Repeating."

Mei turned sharply. "You hear them too?"

Tianming raised a hand. "Don't answer them."

Inner Vault – The Echo Chamber

They entered a massive dome-like chamber, lit only by the slow pulse of five obelisks placed equidistant along the walls. In the center rested a sarcophagus made of black jade, sealed in golden blood-runes. Faint motes of red light hovered above it, rotating in spiral patterns.

Shikamaru squinted. "Please tell me that's not someone's actual ancestor in there."

"It's not," Tianming said quietly. "It's something older than my bloodline. The Immortal Root."

Mei Xueyan looked up sharply. "That's a myth."

"So were summoned warriors from other realms," Tianming replied.

He walked forward, slow and careful. The red spirals parted before him, almost reverently.

"When Vermilion was young," he began, "before there was a throne or royal blood, this land was guarded by a sect older than yours. A sect of immortals whose bodies were too vast to exist above ground. They rooted themselves here, in the soil. Became part of it. And over time… forgot themselves."

Mei stared at the sarcophagus.

"So the leyline beneath the palace…"

Tianming nodded. "Isn't a leyline. It's a vein. From something asleep. Something we now call a convergence point."

Shikamaru scratched his head. "Okay, creepy plant gods with blood. What's the danger?"

Tianming turned to Mei.

"Tell him."

She hesitated.

Then: "If such a root truly exists… it explains the immortality experiments the Tiger Basin is conducting. They're bleeding something beneath their mountain ranges too."

Tianming's voice darkened. "They don't know what they're playing with."

Sudden Shift – Vault Disruption

A low chime rang through the chamber.

Itachi's eyes narrowed instantly. "That wasn't natural."

A glowing mark on the sarcophagus flickered—then cracked.

Shikamaru dropped his slouch. "Oh, fantastic. We woke something."

From the far wall, the shadows twisted.

Three silhouettes stepped out—not summoned. Not alive. Not human.

They were Memory Echoes, remnants of the Immortal Root's last guardians.

No cultivation aura. No life signature. Just silent, flickering rage given form.

"Protect the core!" Mei Xueyan shouted, stepping back, palm glowing with a compressed lotus sigil.

One of the figures lunged.

Itachi moved first—blurred across the chamber, his blade slicing through the echo's body. But it didn't fall.

Instead, it split into two.

"Lovely," Shikamaru muttered. "They mitosis when cut. Can't kill them traditionally."

"Then I'll burn them properly," Itachi said.

"Amaterasu."

Black fire roared over the shadow creature, clinging and devouring. But even in burning, it didn't scream. It simply kept walking.

Shikamaru snapped his fingers, his shadow reaching out to bind another—but the echo ignored his jutsu. It had no defined chakra flow. No nervous system.

Tianming drew his own blade—Spirit-cleaving, flame-woven, awakened to Peak Core Seed—and dashed forward.

"This thing remembers kings," he shouted. "Let it meet one in full."

He slashed through the second echo's core—not to kill, but to disrupt the stored memory.

The creature convulsed. Its shape faltered, and it vanished in a plume of vapor.

Mei Xueyan joined him, hurling seven lotus petals made of solidified soul force—Mid-Nascent Soul, each petal seeking the weak points of the final echo's flickering form.

It snarled silently.

Shikamaru raised his hands.

"Got it," he said.

The last echo stepped onto his shadow.

And froze.

"Doesn't matter what you are," Shikamaru muttered. "Everything casts a shadow."

Itachi appeared behind it, blade lowered.

Then—one last Sharingan flash.

"Sleep."

The echo shimmered—and collapsed into mist.

The room dimmed.

The crack on the sarcophagus sealed itself—slowly, painfully.

Mei Xueyan exhaled, wiping sweat from her brow.

"That was no illusion."

"No," Tianming said. "That was a warning."

"You've seen our enemies. And now you've seen what we guard."

Mei's voice trembled only slightly. "Why show me this?"

Itachi answered for him.

"Because the next war won't be between kingdoms. It'll be between those who know and those who abuse what they don't."

Shikamaru stretched.

"And because we're outnumbered. Let's be honest."

Mei finally nodded.

Scene Shift – Crescent Grove, Shadow Lotus Council

A sealed letter sat on Elder Magnolia's desk.

Handwritten. Subtle perfume of mountain lilies.

Magnolia read the first line:

"We were wrong. The Vermilion Throne does not sit atop power. It seals it. And I fear what will happen if someone else pries it open first."

Her fingers tightened.

"If we are to survive the age to come, we must not stand in Tianming's way. We must stand behind him."

Magnolia's expression darkened.

"So she's made her choice."

Elder Orchid stepped into the light.

"Then perhaps it's time we choose ours."