His dead heart missed a beat.
His body tensed—subtly, but enough. Muscles long since withered still rembered the instinct of fear.
His thoughts flickered—too fast, too sharp, fragnts of possibility racing through his mind like shattered glass. Had she discovered it? Had she seen through the cracks in his qi? Was this… a probe?
Because no—he was not an ordinary corpse.
Not like the others, whose flesh rotted into dull husks, whose minds fragnted into instinctual malice and broken hunger. No.
He rembered.
He rembered his na. His path. The scent of rain before his first tribulation. The weight of the sword he once called divine. The hand he held before the heavens shattered.
He rembered everything.
He knew who he was.
Actually he had not failed the tribulation by accident. It had been orchestrated. Every step calculated. Every backlash accounted for. Reaching the Yin Revenant Realm would have bound him within the cycle of harmony and transcendence.
But he had chosen the path of imperfection. The path of corruption.
The Abyssal path.
Where others clung desperately to life, he saw further—he sought a firr foundation. He possessed a true inherited corpse cultivation technique, It could only be fully activated by an Abyssal transformation.
He took a half-step back, every motion asured, voice carefully wrapped in humility.
"Senior flatters . I am rely one of the many who walk the path of death…"
But Sia was watching him. Her eyes—twin moons of withered starlight—glinted with quiet disdain.
"Hmph. Do you think I would waste my ti pursuing the secrets of a minor Abyssal corpse?"
Her gaze broke from his, as if the subject bored her already. The flick of her sleeve spoke louder than words. "I was rely curious."
His throat tightened, but he let out a low breath. Inwardly, he sighed—relief coiling in his hollow chest like a ghost dispersing.
So she wasn't here for him.
Or… so he hoped.
Then her voice landed like thunder.
"The reason I ca here is simple."
She turned her gaze back to him, sharp as broken ice. "I'm here to retrieve sothing. And I believe… you have it."
His breath stilled.
She rembered?
He paused, then slowly reached into his space ring. His fingers brushed against a cold, smooth surface.
A deep-blue crystal.
He withdrew it and extended it with both hands.
A faint hum pulsed from the crystal—dense with soul power, saturated over tens of thousands of years.
Revenant Sia took the crystal in silence. Her fingers brushed it lightly. Her eyes shimred with cold light.
Years ago, she had left this crystal buried here, seeded into the earth to harvest drifting soul remnants. It had been a tool of little consequence then—one of many. She had long since forgotten about it.
This was the Soul-Gathering Crystal had remained buried beneath the land's veins, absorbing the drifting souls of the unholy land all these years. She hadn't retrieved it simply because she no longer needed it.
But now—
After recent events, she had rembered.
She didn't need it.
But soone else did.
Her gaze fell back to the gray-robed man. Her voice was quiet, almost amused.
"You're not bad. I expected denial. That… would have been ugly for you."
The man lowered his hands slowly, his expression perfectly neutral. Inwardly, he snorted. Of course you expected that. But I'm no fool.
He had known long ago that the Soul-Gathering Crystal bore a tracking mark—an imprint refined directly from her soul. Only an idiot would try to hide it, let alone attempt to refine it for themselves. Even touching it too long without ntal safeguards would invite spiritual backlash. He had never dared. He kept it not as treasure, but as a warning bell—a harbinger that her shadow lood near once more.
And toady, the bell had rung.
Sia studied him a mont longer, then gave a slight nod. "Don't be discouraged. You're not a Revenant… but you're not far."
She spoke as one who had judged thousands.
"Turning into a Revenant… reverting from death to life… it's not an ordinary process. It requires arrangent. In life. Bloodline. Karma. Anchors. Without those… it's impossible."
Her voice shifted, softer. Almost instructive.
"You walked the Abyssal path out of desperation. But had you prepared—left behind a soul shell, severed your fate cleanly—you might have erged a true Yin Revenant."
She glanced away, then added, "Still. Your grasp of death laws is excellent. Your foundation… ugly, but deep."
The gray-robed man's lips twitched. Not quite a smile. Not quite rage.
A Revenant… no. He had cast that path aside. To beco sothing like her, sothing bound to heavenly order, locked within the cycle of death and rebirth—that had never been his goal.
Still…
He bowed slightly. "This one appreciates Senior's… generous evaluation."
Sia raised the crystal to her eye, letting it catch what little gray light filtered through the toxic sky. Her voice grew distant.
"Do you know what this crystal will be used for now?"
He shook his head slowly. "No, Senior."
She smiled faintly. "Good. You shouldn't."
And with that, she turned, drifting lazily across the air.
The gray-robed man remained still, watching her go. Only when her figure had vanished into the gloom did he finally relax.
He glanced down at his own hand once more—pale, corpse-white, yet trembling faintly.
True Abyss...
He closed his eyes.
I will reach it.
Not for transcendence.
Not for life.
But for freedom.
And then, whatever Sia... we'll see who stands above whom.
Back on the battlefield…
Kai's eyes sharpened with surprise as a ripple tore through the sky. A familiar figure descended like a falling shadow—graceful, silent, and terrifying in her calm.
Revenant Sia.
He stepped forward instinctively. "Master… where did you go?"
She landed lightly before him, her gaze cool. "Still calling 'Master'? Hmph."
A weary exhale followed, but she didn't press it. Instead, she reached into her sleeve and flicked her fingers.
A flicker of blue arced through the air.
Kai caught it without thinking. His hand trembled the mont his skin t its surface.
"A… Soul-Gathering Crystal?"
Sia gave a small nod. "Not just any crystal. That one contains enough soul essence to push a mid-stage Soul Alter cultivator into the Void Return Realm."
Kai froze.
His grip tightened around the crystal. The pressure in it was staggering—like holding a compressed storm of wailing spirits.
"Why… why would you give this?" he asked, brows furrowed. "Even with it, I… I still can't break through, can I?"
Sia tilted her head, expression unreadable, her voice was soft, almost amused.
"Who said anything about the Void Return Realm?"
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