Chapter 10: The Cave of Forgotten Blood
Mu-won's legs moved on instinct.
Every breath burned. Every step screamed. His muscles were overdrawn, his internal qi dangerously unstable after using the Second Form of the Crimson Fang twice in one day.
> "I pushed too far," he thought, biting his lip to stay focused. "But it was worth it."
He had wounded Jang Hui.
Even if slightly, he had made the Jade Tiger's blade bleed.
But now, the price was due.
He ducked beneath a branch, turned hard left at the ancient stone pillar half-swallowed by moss, and disappeared into a crack in the earth—a jagged gap hidden behind the old ironwood tree.
Only a handful of people in history knew of this place.
> The Cave of Forgotten Blood.
A place sealed off since the fall of the Bloodshadow Sect over a century ago.
Mu-won had discovered it in his previous life while hunting a rogue cultivator. Back then, he didn't dare enter. The aura had been too thick, too cursed.
But now?
Now he needed what lay inside.
---
The cave's air was heavy—choked with the metallic scent of dried blood and time. Strange runes pulsed along the walls, shifting and writhing as though alive. Darkness clung to the ceiling like a living entity.
Mu-won lit a crimson flame in his palm and walked deeper.
Each step echoed, and with every heartbeat, the pendant around his neck pulsed in sync.
> Thump. Thump. Thump.
> "You brought me here for a reason, didn't you?" he whispered to the pendant. "Let's see what your secret is."
---
He reached the central chamber.
A massive stone platform lay ahead, cracked down the center. On its surface—etched in dried, blackened blood—were the ancient sigils of the Heavenly Blood Scripture, the forbidden manual of the Bloodshadow Sect.
Mu-won approached slowly, his body trembling—not with fear, but with instinctual respect.
This was a relic older than any sect still standing.
The last time it was practiced, entire provinces fell into chaos.
> "In my past life, they said it drove its users mad."
> "But I'm already broken."
He knelt and placed his palm on the platform.
The moment skin met stone—visions erupted in his mind.
---
FLASH.
A battlefield soaked in blood. Thousands of martial artists screaming. A single man standing atop a mountain of corpses, his body glowing with blood-red light.
> "Power is pain refined," the voice whispered. "To rule the body is to rule the world."
FLASH.
A cave like this one. A boy kneeling. Chains binding his arms. Eyes glowing with madness and clarity.
> "The Heavenly Blood Scripture does not make monsters. It reveals them."
---
Mu-won's eyes snapped open, blood running from his nose, ears, and eyes. His pulse thundered.
His body was trembling—but it was evolving.
The techniques etched into his soul were awakening.
> "Not just the Crimson Pulse…"
> "But something older."
> "Something pure."
---
He stood, barely able to hold himself upright.
Outside, thunder rumbled—though no storm brewed.
And deep within him, a voice—his voice, yet not—echoed.
> "Let them come."
> "Let them all come."
> "From this day forward… I walk the path of blood and shadow."
---
To be continued.....