Chapter 13 – A Step Toward the Abyss of Shadows

The morning sky was still gray as Ye Tian's steps landed upon the cracked, barren stones, marking his entry into a forbidden land — the Black Bone Valley, a place spoken of only in hushed whispers by wanderers who barely survived its nightmare.

No life stirred here. No birds, no wind. Only a suffocating silence and the metallic scent of blood lingering in the air.

But to Ye Tian, silence was the most honest companion.

He walked slowly along the broken path, where ancient beast bones jutted out from the ground like petrified regrets. Each bone seemed to echo a scream from the past. And beneath his feet, the earth pulsed… as if the heart of the world harbored secrets that refused to be buried.

"Blood curse... this place knows you."

A voice echoed — not from without, but from deep within his mind. Like the distant beat of war drums.

Ye Tian halted.

The cursed mark on his hand glowed a deep crimson, radiating more intensely than ever before. An unseen force tugged at his body, drawing him toward a narrow crevice behind a massive boulder. Without hesitation, he stepped through it — and his path led him into an underground cave unmarked on any map.

The cave walls were layered with obsidian crystal, and a thin red mist filled the air.

As he ventured deeper, the voice returned — clearer now, more... alive.

"You… who inherit the cursed blood… come forth… unite the fragments of your fate..."

Suddenly, in the center of the chamber, a stone altar emerged — floating in the air, carved with ancient symbols. Above it hovered a fragment of golden-black blood, emanating such intense spiritual pressure that even the air seemed to bend beneath it.

Ye Tian's eyes widened.

"Ancestor's blood fragment?" he whispered.

But before he could approach, the cave walls trembled. From the shadows above, a terrifying creature descended — a Bone Shadow Beast, its body a fusion of liquid darkness and hardened bone. Its glowing blue eyes fixed on him, and each step shattered the crystal floor beneath.

Ye Tian raised his hand. The curse seal bloomed fully.

"If this is your trial, ancient blood," he said, eyes locked on the altar,

"...then allow me to prove I am worthy to inherit it."

With a single breath, his body became cloaked in dense blood aura. A shadowy form unfurled behind him — a winged demon-like silhouette, the embryonic form of the Eternal Shadow legacy.

And thus, the battle began.

The creature leapt, its shadow spilling like liquid darkness that devoured all light in its path. Its roar echoed through the cave, shaking the walls and stabbing at the soul. The Bone Shadow Beast — the valley's ancient guardian, only awakened when ancestral blood was called — now opened its jaw, forged from immortal shadow and bone.

Ye Tian stood his ground.

With a single stomp, his body shot into the air, creating a shockwave that shattered the crystal beneath. His right hand formed the Shadow Seal, and from behind his back, blood-clawed talons emerged — forged from a fusion of black Qi and heavenly blood essence, writhing like a serpent-dragon.

CLANG!!

Their first clash tore through the cavern's air. Shadow and blood collided, snarling and biting like ancient beasts. The Bone Shadow Beast hissed, then split itself into three identical clones — each spewing black venom from its gaping maw.

Ye Tian narrowed his eyes. To him, the world began to slow.

The Triple Void Vision — an unconscious technique of the cursed legacy — revealed every movement in slow motion. He read the patterns, anticipated the angles, and danced between death's fangs with inhuman grace.

With a twisting motion, he launched from the cave wall like a meteor, aiming the Heaven-Cursed Claw straight at the original beast's weak point.

BOOOOMM!!!

The spiritual explosion deafened the chamber. Dust and fragments of rock surged outward. The cave shook violently. And from within the smoke, the Bone Shadow Beast's form cracked — the fractures spreading like broken glass — until it shattered into vanishing shadow.

Ye Tian barely had time to breathe before the beast's blood was drawn into the altar. Golden-black light erupted, forming a glowing circle of sigils that wrapped around him — warm, yet agonizing.

His body trembled violently. His bloodstream felt rewritten.

Then came the vision — a flood of ancestral memory slamming into his mind.

He saw a silver-haired man standing atop a mountain of corpses, gazing at the heavens with eyes burning with hatred. Behind him, legions of black-winged beings knelt in silence — and above them, the sky had split open, revealing a colossal golden eye staring down upon the world.

"Heir to my blood... if you accept this burden... then prepare to be the enemy of heaven, earth, and time itself..."

Then the voice was gone.

Ye Tian collapsed to his knees. Cold sweat drenched his body, but his eyes now burned darker than before. On the back of his hand, the cursed seal transformed — three interlocked rings of blood now glowed, marking his breakthrough into the first stage of the Ancestral Blood Inheritance.

The air around him changed. The pressure made even the stones beneath his feet crack and groan.

But before he could move, a faint light emerged from the cave's depths — and from the shadows, a woman stepped forward.

Her long white hair flowed freely, her expression calm and distant. Her robes bore the crest of the Eternal Snow Palace, and her sword was unsheathed — though it had yet to strike.

Bai Ningxue.

"So it's true," she said softly. "You've awakened that blood."

Ye Tian looked at her. Their eyes met in silence.

"If you've come to stop me…" Ye Tian said coldly, "...you're already too late."

Bai Ningxue said nothing. Her gaze shifted to the altar, then returned to him — filled with concern, shock… and something unspoken.

"I didn't come to fight you, Ye Tian. I came to warn you. The heavens… have begun to move."

And in the cave's stillness, two fates clashed in silence.

Outside, the trembling sky began to change.

The atmosphere within the cave shifted once more. What had been a moment of calm spiritual energy now thickened into an oppressive pressure. Small stones began to levitate gently off the ground, suspended in the air as if gravity had loosened its grip. In the center of this altered space, Ye Tian stood unwavering, his eyes locked with Bai Ningxue's — whose blade still had not been lowered.

The altar's golden-black light had faded, but its presence lingered — woven into the very breath of the cave, etched into the pores of the stone, and into the flesh of Ye Tian's newly transformed body.

"Heaven has begun to move, you say?" Ye Tian finally broke the silence, his voice low and composed. Yet it rumbled like thunder beneath a brewing storm.

Bai Ningxue gave a small nod. "The great sects are restless. Especially the Heaven's Temple. They received an oracle." Her voice tightened. "A long-buried curse… has returned. They now speak of it as the Rebirth of the Eternal Shadow."

She took a step closer, her eyes unwavering.

"And they know… it's you."

Ye Tian did not flinch. Instead, he closed his eyes for a breath, drawing in the dense spiritual energy now freely flowing around him. With every inhalation, the essence in his veins grew heavier, more refined. His blood was no longer entirely his own — it carried the memory of a forgotten sin, a power the heavens had once tried to erase.

"Let them come," he said, opening his eyes. "If the heavens seek to destroy one man for inheriting what they themselves feared… then I shall raise my sword against the heavens themselves."

Bai Ningxue stared into him, then slowly lowered her sword.

"I should report you," she murmured. "Bring your head to the Hall of Purity. Erase your existence from this world."

"And yet?"

She hesitated. Her voice dropped, barely above a whisper. "And yet… I can't. You're still Ye Tian to me. Even if your eyes now carry shadows that make even the sky avert its gaze."

Ye Tian turned his back to her, stepping toward the cave's exit. His voice, though soft, echoed with gravity.

"If one day we must face each other as enemies… then don't hesitate. Strike me down."

Bai Ningxue gave no answer.

But as his silhouette faded into the deeper dark, her grip on her sword tightened. And in her eyes, a glassy shimmer began to form.

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Far from the Black Bone Valley, high upon the celestial spires of Heaven's Peak Mountain, within the most sacred chamber of the Heaven's Temple, ten figures cloaked in white sat in solemn silence around a jade divination mirror. The reflection it bore was not their own — but the vision of Ye Tian standing before the blood altar, the shadow of his legacy surrounding him.

"He has awakened… the cursed heir," one elder whispered.

"A curse the heavens could not erase… now breathes once more."

At the head of the circle, the oldest among them — a man with a beard long enough to rest at his knees — opened his eyes. His voice was frail, but as cold as wind from the polar edge:

"The Supreme Seal must be broken. This world shall once again be split between the blood of the sky… and the shadow that never dies."

And far across the realm… the heavens began to darken.

A thin mist drifted gently along the roots of the pine trees, curling like ancient breath over the broken earth at the foot of Slaughter Mountain — a place abandoned by the laws of man and feared even by beasts. The howls of nocturnal creatures echoed faintly, barely piercing the suffocating silence that hung in the air like a curse.

Through this silence, one figure moved.

Ye Tian.

His black robe flowed behind him like a shadow with form, and each of his steps carried the weight of something newly awakened — the blood of his ancestral curse still pulsing hot beneath his skin, unstable, unyielding. Though his expression remained still as ice, his internal energy churned with the ferocity of a storm bound in flesh.

He had come far.

Beyond the reaches of his origin, beyond even the dark valley where blood and fate entwined, his feet now touched the borderlands — Slaughter Mountain, a no-man's land between three great sects: Heaven's Temple, Blood Demon Sect, and the Eternal Snow Palace. Once a battlefield soaked with the blood of fallen legends, now it had become a neutral ground for wandering cultivators, exiles, and the lost.

"I need to grow stronger," Ye Tian murmured to the dark sky, clouds swirling above him. "If the heavens have begun to stir… then I must outrun their judgment."

He sat beneath a withered tree, his back against ancient bark. Slowly, he entered meditation. The spiritual energy of the mountain — wild and aggressive — surged toward him, drawn to the shifting bloodline within. His blood, now dark crimson with glints of gold, flowed in sync with the war-torn land beneath him.

In his inner consciousness, visions began to emerge.

A silver-haired man stood on a mountain of corpses, his golden eyes alight with fury and sorrow. Behind him knelt thousands of winged beings, their heads bowed. Before him, the sky had torn open — and from that rupture, a golden eye stared down upon the world.

"Child of my blood… you will bring salvation, or you will bring ruin. Choose."

Ye Tian's eyes snapped open. The air quivered. In the distance, wild beasts that had been watching him from the shadows suddenly fled, tails tucked, as though sensing a predator beyond their comprehension.

But he was not alone.

A crunch of twigs. The silence broken. A breath drawn in the dark — laced with killing intent.

Ye Tian stood without haste, turning his gaze toward the west.

"Come out," he said calmly. "You've been following me since the valley."

From the forest shadows, a man emerged — cloaked in dark purple, his chest bearing the emblem of Heaven's Temple. His eyes burned with hatred.

"Ye Tian…" the man spat. "By the will of heaven, I will erase your cursed existence from this world."

And on that night, beneath the bloodstained skies of Slaughter Mountain, another battle was about to begin.

The clash of blades and wills echoed through the trees like thunder rolling across a forgotten battlefield.

Ye Tian stood amidst broken earth, his breath steady but deep, eyes focused on the enemies gathering around him. Eight cultivators had come, cloaked in the colors of three sects — Heaven's Temple, Blood Demon Sect, and Eternal Snow Palace. They formed a semi-circle, each exuding murderous intent. Their cultivation levels varied, but all had come for the same reason:

To hunt the inheritor of the cursed blood.

To destroy the shadow they believed should never return.

The old hermit, still sitting at the door of the nameless shrine behind Ye Tian, let out a long sigh.

"So much noise," he muttered, sipping his tea. "Do they really think numbers mean anything before fate?"

The leader among the intruders — a middle-aged woman with crimson robes and pale gray eyes — stepped forward. Her voice rang cold and merciless.

"Ye Tian," she called. "You've awakened something that should have remained buried. By order of the Three Sect Alliance, surrender your body. We'll seal your blood before it corrupts the balance of this world."

Ye Tian didn't respond.

Instead, he stepped forward.

One pace.

The ground beneath him cracked.

Another pace.

His aura surged.

The cultivators tensed. A few subconsciously raised their weapons. One even took a step back, only to be glared at by his superior.

"You came to kill me," Ye Tian finally spoke. "But you stand there as if waiting for permission from heaven itself."

He raised his right hand.

The seal on his palm flared.

Three intertwined rings of blood rotated slowly, emitting a pressure so ancient and deep it seemed to bend the space around him.

"Let me show you… why heaven fears the blood it cursed."

In an instant, Ye Tian vanished.

Darkness moved with him — a swirling dance of shadow and crimson lightning. He reappeared behind one of the attackers, a hand already pressed against the man's back.

"Too slow."

BOOOOM!!

The man was blasted through the air like a doll, crashing into a boulder and falling limp.

Chaos erupted.

Spells were cast. Blades swung. The forest became a war zone. But Ye Tian moved like smoke and wind, untouchable, each movement more like an execution than a fight. His cursed bloodline empowered him — every drop of pain, every ounce of rejection from the world, all became his blade.

A figure from the Blood Demon Sect unleashed a sea of blood flames, engulfing the battlefield — but Ye Tian walked through it unharmed, the flames dying at his feet.

Another tried to bind him with golden chains of light, but the seal on Ye Tian's hand devoured them like threads.

One by one, the attackers fell.

Not killed — but defeated.

And when only the woman in red remained, standing with sword trembling in hand, she whispered:

"What... are you?"

Ye Tian approached her slowly.

"I'm the heir of a bloodline that the sky itself tried to forget. But I do not need the sky's permission to exist."

He struck the sword from her hands with a flick of his fingers, then turned away.

"I don't kill those who merely follow orders."

And just like that, he vanished into the mist, leaving behind broken earth, terrified hearts, and a silent shrine that now trembled with the memory of what had occurred.

The old man at the shrine chuckled.

"Now that's how you make an entrance into destiny."

He took another sip of tea.

Outside, the sky began to shift. Storm clouds rolled in, thick and golden. Far away, high above the clouds, an unseen force stirred.

Heaven had taken notice.

And it would not stay silent for long.

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