From a distance, the pine forest near Serene Mirror Lake seed half-real—a haunting silhouette beneath thick, swirling fog. Tall, ancient trees lood in shadow, their needle-laden arms sagging beneath invisible burdens.
At the entrance, carved from a slab of black stone larger than a house, stood a warning to all who valued their lives:
"The Ancestral Tomb. No idlers allowed."
The characters, deeply engraved, shone pale and austere even in waning dusk. From the stone’s face inward, only suggestive shapes disturbed the mist.
Soft bulges and scattered mounds, grave markers and earthworks winding deeper and deeper, hinting at centuries of secrets below.
This was where the greatest of the Azure Origin Dao Sect’s dead were laid to rest.
The further one ventured, the more formidable the bones—elders, core masters, protectors from ages past. Only the bravest or most foolish would travel far past the outer tombs. The power here was not a rumor told to cow children.
It was real, alive, and cold.
Dusk crept towards darkness. It was quitting ti for the errant disciples sentenced to labor here, they erged from the mist one by one, robes dusty and faces pale with chill.
"Senior Brother Ethan!"
"I’ve t Senior Brother Ethan."
"Junior Brother Ethan—so late today?"
Ten years had made him a fixture, as much a part of the tomb as the stones and roots themselves. Disciples, so young and new to their punishnt, so older and bearing respect, offered him greetings with wary smiles.
Strength impressed itself on mory, and few forgot the stories.
Ethan, the fisherman from the lake, who had once driven off troublemakers and bullies with a single glare.
He nodded in silent acknowledgnt to each, unaffected by the ritual.
These days, he’d grown so used to others’ fear and respect that no warmth or anger stirred in his heart. Old habits ran cold and deep.
Passing through the thinning crowd, Ethan disappeared steadily into the greater silence.
Fog grew thick, windless and waxy, swallowing every sound. The deeper he traveled, the colder he beca—bone-deep chill, reeking of death and power, clinging to the flesh of any who dared co this far.
He traced his path by mory, turning left past a crumbling Elder’s shrine, stepping over the remnants of a carved jade guardian cracked by frost years before. As the fog thickened, so too did his sense of unease.
The mist was whiter here, and the oppressive cold bit not flesh alone, but seed to gnaw at soul and marrow.
Not far from the tomb’s heart, Ethan found the tiny wooden hut he had built himself—a haven, camouflaged by dead vines, fitted with two defensive formations snaked underneath and above, the perfect insulation for midnight ditation.
To an ordinary cultivator of Core Formation or below, it was impenetrable; even most Nascent Soul experts would find it more trouble than it was worth to shatter.
He pressed a palm to the warped door, preparing to enter, when the wind changed. It grew unnaturally cold, carrying with it a flurry of white specks.
Ethan held out a hand and caught a snowflake. But instantly, dread coursed through his veins.
"This isn’t right," he muttered, studying the perfect, crystalline shape on his palm.
"It’s not the season for snow."
The realization ca quick and brutal.
The ’snow’ wasn’t snow at all, but materialized from pure yin—condensed cold spiritual energy, gnawing the air itself.
Alard, Ethan’s senses prickled with warning.
Sothing’s wrong in the tomb tonight. If I stay any longer, it might be too late to run. \
He turned sharply, moving to leave, but the world had other plans.
Suddenly, the fog thickened until he couldn’t see past the end of his nose. Visibility shrank to nothing, the very ground seed to wobble uncertainly beneath him.
"Heaven-Piercing Mind Eye!"
A flash of light blue burst from Ethan’s eyes, piercing the illusion with pure, focused spirit.
The haze peeled away under his scrutiny, shadows lting before his ntal gaze—and froze the blood in his veins.
From the ground itself, tendrils of black vapor coiled upwards, churning with the stench of rot, death, and ancient malice.
It was death aura, stronger than anything he’d felt here before, the kind of presence only spoken about in sect legends.
"What a heavy death aura... This can only an—" He paused, recalling an old horror whispered by the punished and the wise alike.
"Corpse transformation..."
Nearly a century ago, corpses had erupted from the ancestor tombs, mindless and enraged. In their wake, entire squads of cultivators were ripped to shreds. No one dared approach for a year afterward, so thick was the taint of resentful spirits.
Ethan clenched his fists.
Did this really just happen the mont I stepped in? Out of all days, all hours? This reeks of a set-up—a trap!
Before suspicion could settle, the ground shook violently.
With his enhanced sight, Ethan watched as tomb after tomb cracked, wooden markers split, slabs slid aside—rotted, shriveled hands burst from the earth, clawing madly at the night air.
Dozens, then hundreds, then uncountable corpses peeled soil away, crawling, jerking, their movents wrong, possessed by so hungry will.
The graveyard was coming to life—a macabre pageant pulled screaming from the world of the dead.
"Corpse transformation. Of course." Ethan muttered darkly, casting his gaze backward.
If he wanted to escape, he would have to race through an army of the dead. But every path was crowded—already, the corpses sward toward him with uncanny accuracy.
"S—stop!" Ethan shouted over his shoulder as he sprinted toward what he hoped was freedom.
"Why are you chasing ? There are plenty of other disciples in the tomb! Is there a sign on my back or sothing?"
He halted suddenly, forced to stop as another pack surrounded him, their bodies blocking escape. Cold, nacing, they seed to leer at him through fleshless sockets.
"Is all this... really... just for ?" he muttered, expression growing serious.
He reached out with his new eyes—probing the edges of his spiritual sense, two dozen ters beyond the ring of the undead.
On the wind, he felt the pulse of another’s spiritual power—a living cultivator, just out of reach, slick with concealnt. Even as the zombies sward, they left this hidden figure untouched, a ghost in plain sight.
"Ha," Ethan breathed, cool realization seeping into his voice, "So that’s how it is. Soone’s setting up, and I’m the star entertainnt. Hiding on the ridge, letting the dead do your work."
He almost smiled.
For people like , trouble is always just a shadow away. There will be no peace, not until one side’s gone.
Still, his fists curled around nothing, Ethan respectfully saluted the tomb’s restless denizens.
"Seniors, I’m sorry!" he said, voice echoing into the hungry dark.
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