The world went dark and then light appeared.
Victor's eyes opened slowly.
He was standing on a stone floor. No forest. No field. No wild terrain or outposts.
He turned his head slowly.
White-robed attendants passed in the distance. A courtyard tree blood in radiant violet beside him.
The sparkling floor reflected his feet. A teapot stead on a wooden table nearby.
It hit him like a gong.
He was back.
Back in his core disciple quarters—in the Violet Spring Sect.
Which ant…
"Bluefla City?" he muttered aloud. "How the hell…?"
He hadn't logged out here. The last ti he was in-ga, he'd been stranded in the unknown far from Bluefla City.
A shadow moved.
Victor turned sharply.
From the far side of the room, leaning against the wall with his arms folded and expression blank, stood Tarkos.
His scars along his jawline twitched as he offered a slow nod.
"Welco back," Tarkos said. "I thought you were never going to return."
Victor stepped forward. "Tarkos? What happened? How am I back here?"
Tarkos responded with a faint smirk.
"We caught her."
Victor stilled.
"…Her?"
Tarkos gave a single nod.
"Yes."
Victor voiced in confusion. "Her... Who?"
Tarkos's scar twitched slightly, as if even speaking the na drew sothing bitter to the surface.
"Serika Varnis... The one who imprisoned you in an abridged version of the ancient grove."
Victor felt his spine stiffen. Flashbacks of the strange pocket dinsion that mimicked the Ancient groves appeared in his mind…
"The sa Serika who trapped ?" Victor asked for confirmation.
Tarkos nodded once. "The very sa. The one who calls one of the sealed Corrupt Immortals her master."
Victor let out a long breath. "That's... I thought she escaped."
Tarkos didn't reply imdiately.
He turned and gestured toward a small table nearby. "Co. You should hear how it happened."
Victor followed after Tarkos.
"We had been tracking residual spiritual distortions near the real entrance to the Ancient Groves," Tarkos began. "Sothing felt off. Elder Mo thought there might be soone responsible for your disappearance because we saw you right before you vanished. The traces left behind linked to so tampared forbidden spatial distortion..."
Victor sat down slowly. "She tried to cover her tracks well."
"She did," Tarkos admitted. "But not well enough."
"We found out from the closest trader to the final route that led to the ancient groves that a strange person seed to frequent this route... Why would anyone have reason to co to close to the ancient groves unless they had suspicious business within?"
He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a faintly glowing jade stone. It was coudy and inscribed with movent-locked mory runes.
"When she made her last trip to ths ancient grove, we were ready. We left a spirit-trapping ward along the route. When she stepped into the marked region, the trap activated and sealed her in place."
Victor raised a brow. "Just like that?"
"Not quite," Tarkos said dryly. "She resisted. She nearly escaped. But Elder Mo was waiting with a soul chain. Once she was restrained, we began questioning her."
Victor leaned forward. "And?"
"She didn't deny trapping you. However, she claid you had escaped her Abridged Grove," Tarkos explained. "But couldn't say where you vanished to. So we forced her to take us back—back to where she'd last made contact with you."
Victor's thoughts drifted to the last ti he was here. He had traveled quite the distance from the location he last made contact with Serika.
"We retraced your path," Tarkos continued. "It took us days. But eventually, we found your body… lying unconscious, inside a collapsed cave, buried under roots."
Victor blinked with a stunned. "So that's how I got back here."
Tarkos nodded. "We brought you ho."
Victor stared down at his hand for a mont, watching faint streams of qi ripple beneath the surface of his skin.
"Wow," he muttered. "Thanks. I honestly thought it'd take ages to find my way back."
Tarkos folded his arms again. "You're lucky. If a beast had gotten to you first, you might've never returned."
Victor's tone hardened. "Where is she now?"
"In one of the City Lord's dungeons," Tarkos replied. "We've tried questioning her more about her plans and her master but she's been tight-lipped. We've exhausted most interrogation paths."
Victor frowned. "That old hag... Perhaps I'll try to get so more info out of her."
Tarkos interjected. "The scroll with the seal's structure. The one with the layered imprint of the chains and talismans holding the gate shut. We've been waiting for you to wake... so we can finally confirm the damage she's done."
Victor's nodded in understanding. "The scroll. Yeah, I still have it."
Tarkos gave a firm nod. "Then let's not waste ti."
---
Minutes later, the two of them were moving through the halls towards Elder Mo's courtyard.
As usual, the spiritual energy in the air here was heavier, denser, infused with layers of old enchantnts and deep-rooted qi pulses.
They found Elder Mo seated in a lotus position beneath a crescent-shaped ditation ring with his robes fluttering gently despite the still air.
His eyes opened as they approached with a calm look.
"Fang Chen," he smiled faintly. "It is good to see you return. Whole."
Victor bowed respectfully. "I'm glad to be back, Elder. And even more grateful you pulled out of wherever I was."
Elder Mo rose to his feet gracefully, like air responding to a command.
"We'll talk more later. For now... we have a scroll to inspect, don't we?"
Together, the three headed toward the City Lord's Palace.
---
The palace stood tall over the heart of Bluefla City. It was a tiered fortress of stone and jade, protected by ancient beast statues and patrolling guards clad in light-forged armor.
Inside, the halls were flanked by murals of past battles, sect pacts, and the city's long-standing defense against the corruption beyond.
The City Lord greeted them personally.
At his side stood a thin but serious eyed advisor with robes trailing ink marks from talisman design drafts.
"Fang Chen," the City Lord greeted. "Welco back."
Victor bowed. "Thank you city Lord."
"Let's get to the point," Tarkos said. "The scroll."
Victor reached into his pouch and pulled out a tightly rolled parchnt sealed with three wax stamps.
They each bore traces of energy from the Hollow Verdant, the Abridged Grove, and Victor's own imprint.
A nearby guard stepped forward, receiving the scroll with a respectful nod before handing it to the advisor.
The advisor unfurled it slowly across the central table. As the layers spread, visual representations of massive interlocked chains, talisman seals, sacred pillars, and what looked like vast, circular runic traps swirled through space.
Everyone leaned in.
The City Lord's face darkened almost imdiately.
The advisor muttered, "No... no, this—this pattern's wrong. These outer talismans have already lost over eighty percent integrity."
"And the soul ward here—see the crack?" Elder Mo pointed. "That barrier's not just weakened—it's frayed at the edge. One more destabilizing pulse and it'll collapse completely."
Victor's gaze sharpened. "That's what I was trying to warn about. Serika's been weakening the seals. She admitted it while I was trapped inside the fake ancient grove. She's been doing it for centuries."
The City Lord clenched a fist behind his back. "If this had gone a little longer unchecked…"
"The Corrupt Immortals would have already escaped," Tarkos finished.
Elder Mo gestured to the diagram. "The worst part? These aren't normal seals. So of those chains are forged from myth-rank ores. The talismans are written in ancient ink drawn from spirit beasts that haven't existed in over a century. Even if we start repairs today… getting the materials will take ti."
The City Lord looked at Elder Mo, then back at Victor.
"We need to start gathering needed materials imdiately," he voiced with a purposeful tone. "Ti is no longer on our side."
As the room buzzed with tense whispers and analysis around the sprawling scroll of the failing seals, Victor's eyes flickered to a corner of his sight.
His internal interface pinged sharply, ringing in his vision like a flare in the dark.
> [Quest Update Notification]
[ Previous Duration: 4 Months Left ]
[ Updated Duration: 2 Months ]
Warning: Dinsional interference accelerating seal degradation. Ti limit reduced due to increased instability.
Victor's pupils shrank.
'Two months? That's like two weeks in the real world... Shit!"
He inhaled sharply. Just two months to complete a task that already felt impossible.
He tapped the side of his temple and brought up the other major quest still pending.
> [Return to Lingyun Town]
Ti Remaining: 2 Months
"…Of course," he muttered. "Now both are racing each other."
Originally they were nearly three months apart in timing.
Tarkos noticed the sudden change in Victor's deanor. "What is it?"
Victor turned to Tarkos with a grim expression; "Let's just say we have way lesser ti than we thought..."
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