The ancestral temple loomed in eerie silence, its towering pillars bathed in the dim glow of flickering lanterns. Every step Wen Wuxing took echoed against the stone floor, an intrusive sound in a place that had been untouched for generations.
He had walked these halls before, knelt before the same engraved names of ancestors, but tonight, the air was different. Heavy. Watching.
The System's latest quest pulsed in his mind.
Ding!
Quest Update: The Whispering Relic
New Directive: "The answers you seek are buried in the Wen Clan's oldest tomb, sealed by a forgotten oath."
Warning: Presence detected. Unknown entity watching.
His fingers twitched at his side, but outwardly, he remained still.
The System itself had detected a watcher.
A second consciousness within the depths of this place.
"Patriarch?"
Wen Qian's voice was hushed, yet in the temple's absolute stillness, even a whisper carried weight. She stood at his side, ever his shadow, her posture taut with readiness. Her instincts, honed from years of espionage and bloodshed, sensed it too.
"We are not alone," he murmured.
A flicker of motion.
Not in front of them. Above.
Wuxing reacted instantly, tilting his head as a needle-thin dagger sliced through the air where his throat had been. Wen Qian moved at the same moment, her blade flashing like a silver arc toward the unseen attacker.
A figure descended from the rafters, landing soundlessly on the temple floor.
Black robes, featureless silver mask.
Another assassin.
But this time, something was different.
The very air around the intruder warped and twisted, as if the world itself struggled to perceive their presence.
Ding!
Unknown Entity Detected: "Echo of the Forsaken"
Analysis Failed. Incomplete Data.
"Interesting," Wuxing murmured, lowering his stance slightly. "Even the System does not recognize you."
The masked figure did not speak.
Instead, they raised a single hand, and the shadows themselves surged forward.
A living tide of darkness erupted toward him. Not a simple illusion. Not qi manipulation.
Something older. Something forbidden.
Wuxing activated Void Step, vanishing from the wave's trajectory, reappearing behind the intruder in the span of a heartbeat. His palm struck toward their back—only to pass through nothing.
The assassin was already gone.
Only a whisper remained.
"You search for ghosts, Patriarch Wen."
The voice did not echo. It did not belong to the living.
It existed outside of the present moment.
Then, silence.
Even the wind dared not move.
Wen Qian exhaled sharply, her grip tightening on her sword. "That… was not human."
"No," Wuxing agreed, his mind racing. "It was something far worse."
He turned toward the altar, where the first ancestor's name was inscribed into the stone. The flickering candlelight cast long shadows over the engraving, and for the first time, he noticed something strange.
An additional inscription. One that should not exist.
The words were etched in a script so ancient that even he could barely comprehend it.
"The First Betrayal was Never Recorded."
Ding!
Hidden Quest Update: The Whispering Relic
New Objective: "The truth has been erased. Find the voice that still remembers."
Wuxing's pulse remained steady, but within him, a realization was beginning to form.
The Wen Clan's fall had always been attributed to rival sects, internal betrayal, and imperial power struggles.
But if this inscription was to be believed…
The true fall of the Wen Clan had been hidden from history itself.
And whoever was behind it…
Was still alive.
A heavy grind of stone echoed through the temple as Wuxing pressed his palm against the hidden mechanism in the altar. A deep rumble followed, and the floor trembled beneath them. Wen Qian took a step back as a set of ancient steps revealed themselves, leading deep into the ground.
The entrance to the Forgotten Tomb of the First Patriarch.
No record of its existence had survived.
Even the elders of the clan did not know this place existed.
Yet somehow, the System had known.
Wuxing descended first, each step taking him deeper into the chilled depths of history itself. Wen Qian followed, her presence an ever-watchful guardian at his back.
The passage was tight, lined with stone walls inscribed with markings so faded they were nearly invisible. The deeper they went, the heavier the air became, a pressure unlike any natural force bearing down on them.
Ding!
Entering Forbidden Zone: The Sealed Chamber of Oaths
Warning: Presence Detected. Foreign Qi Signature Confirmed.
Wuxing narrowed his eyes.
There was something waiting for them.
The passage widened into a vast underground hall, lined with sarcophagi of the ancient Wen ancestors. And at the very center, beneath an altar that bore no name, was a stone tablet, glowing faintly with an ethereal light.
A relic of the past.
The Whispering Relic.
Wuxing stepped forward, reaching out—
And the world shifted.
The lanterns flickered and died, plunging the chamber into absolute darkness. The air grew cold, and the stone beneath his fingers was no longer stone but something... alive.
A voice whispered.
"You should not have come here, Child of the Forgotten."
Wuxing's breath remained steady, but deep within, something stirred.
This voice.
It carried no malice, no warmth—only the weight of endless time.
He did not flinch. Instead, he spoke. "Who erased my ancestors?"
A pause. Then the whisper returned, curling around him like smoke.
"The same hand that lifted them... is the hand that cast them into the abyss."
Ding!
New Hidden Quest: The Hand That Writes Fate
Objective: "Unravel the identity of the entity that erased the Wen Clan's true past."
Progress: 2% Complete.
The presence receded, as if it had only come to deliver this cryptic message. The lanterns flickered back to life, and the chamber was still once more.
Wen Qian's breath came in slow, measured exhales. "What was that?"
Wuxing's fingers curled around the Whispering Relic, now pulsing faintly with energy.
"A piece of a puzzle that should never have been hidden."
The Phantom Hand was watching.
But now, he had something to watch back.