The darkness was absolute.
Not the kind of darkness one finds in the dead of night — this was deeper, older. A suffocating silence filled the void, broken only by the steady dripping of water echoing off cold stone.
Jin Rou didn't know how long he had been in the cell. Days? Months? Years? He remembered his name, vaguely. His body was numb, stripped bare of strength, dignity, and purpose. Yet something in him refused to die.
Then, the whisper came.
> "Do you want to live again?"
At first, he thought it was madness. The delusion of a mind eroded by solitude and suffering. But the voice persisted.
> "The world beyond this stone sleeps. A war brews beneath its skin. You are a spark. Burn, or be buried."
Jin Rou tried to speak, but his lips were cracked, his throat dust. He could only think. Who are you?
> "A shard of what you once were. A system left to rot. But I remember the Path. Do you have the will to walk it again?"
A surge of pain wracked his body. His memories—fragmented, scattered—flashed before him. A snowy peak. A duel. Blood. Betrayal. A sword shattered. A woman's scream.
What happened to me?
> "You fell."
The voice was ancient, but intimate. Like something carved from his soul. A heat stirred in his chest, faint but growing. For the first time in ages, Jin Rou felt… alive.
Suddenly, the walls trembled. Dust fell from the ceiling. A red glow seeped through the cracks in the stone, as if the mountain itself were bleeding.
Then, the seal broke.
His chains—inscribed with runes—snapped like dried twigs. He collapsed to the ground, gasping, as molten symbols carved themselves into his forearms, glowing with an eerie crimson light.
> [System Awakening…]
[Accessing Host Memory… ERROR]
[Rebinding Cultivation Core…]
[Welcome, Jin Rou — Initiate of the Veinbound Path]
[Path Rank: Broken Mortal]
[Core Type: Unknown | Mutated]
The message burned itself into his mind, clearer than any thought he had ever had. The red glow pulsed with his heartbeat. His limbs trembled, but strength — real, terrifying strength — whispered beneath his skin.
He stumbled forward and pushed open the heavy gate of the cell. It groaned, resisting for only a moment before giving way. The corridor beyond was lit with flickering torches, long abandoned. Skeletons in rusted armor leaned against the walls. Ancient guards? Fellow prisoners?
He did not mourn them.
Every step he took, the system responded.
> [Vitality: Restoring]
[Qi Veins: Clogged | Attempting Flow Initiation… Failed. Manual unblock required.]
[Warning: Host Physique severely degraded. Cultivation may collapse without stabilization.]
He reached the end of the corridor, where a staircase wound upward into shadows.
So the world still exists up there…
He touched the stone wall. It was warm. Not from the torches — but from something deeper. Something sleeping.
> "This place was a seal. Not just your prison — a lock on your very soul."
The voice was growing clearer, more human. It was part of the system, yet… something more. A fractured consciousness?
As he climbed, fragments of memory began to flash.
— A sword of light that split mountains.
— A black-robed man smiling with eyes like voids.
— A forbidden technique carved into the bones of an ancient beast.
— A promise whispered beneath moonlight: "If I fall, I will return through the veins of the world."
He emerged from the mountain just as dawn broke.
The sky was red. Not with sunlight, but with smoke. Fires burned in the distance — villages, perhaps. Strange airships floated across the sky, carrying banners he didn't recognize. The world had changed.
But more terrifying was what he saw below.
A corpse — still fresh — wearing robes of the Azure Phoenix Sect. One of the great sects from his era.
They've fallen?
The mountains he once knew were no longer guarded. Spiritual beasts roamed freely. The Qi in the air was turbulent, polluted.
And then the system gave him a message that made his heart freeze.
> [Main Quest Initiated: Reclaim Your Name]
[Objective: Discover what shattered the Nine Great Sects.]
[Reward: Unlock first meridian — Vein of the Rebellious Flame.]
He stared at the burning world.
Jin Rou was no longer the man who had once challenged the heavens. His power was gone, his name erased, his body ruined.
But the flame was still there.
And now, it had a path.
---
End Notes:
Jin Rou is a former peak cultivator imprisoned for mysterious reasons.
The "System" is not a friendly AI — it's more like a parasite with secrets.