Darkness.

  Feiyin had always been aware of it, but never like this.

  The cavern swallowed everything—light, sound, warmth. It pressive emptihat ed around him like a cold shroud. There was no dawn to signal the passing of time, no familiar voices to break the silehe only thing keeping him pany was the steady rhythm of his breathing and the faint echoes of his owbeat.

  I'm alone.

  The realizatioled deep into his chest, heavier than any wound he had suffered.

  Not just alone in this cavern, but separated—from his parents, from Sun Ke and Jiang Hu, from the militia that had always been there. He had spent his days training beside them, ughing, learning, striving to grow stronger. And now? They were gone. His home was gone. He didn’t even know if they were alive.

  A lump formed in his throat. He tried to swallow it down, but it only grew tighter, pressing against his ribs, against his lungs, making it hard to breathe. His body was still sore, but this—this was something else. A different kind of pain, ohat burrowed deeper than flesh.

  And then there was Yue and Ren.

  His first true friends.

  They had been by his side sihat wretched day, struggling together, surviving together. And now he was alone.

  His vision blurred as hot tears welled up in his eyes. He ched his fists, trying to suppress the wave of emotion crashing over him, but it was too much. The dam broke.

  A choked sob escaped his lips, and o did, he couldn’t stop the rest from following. Tears spilled freely, sliding down his face as he curled in on himself, pressing his forehead against his knees. His shoulders trembled, his breath came out in uneven gasps, a the sorrow take him, let it drown him in the silence.

  There was no oo see. No oo hear.

  For the first time, Feiyin allowed himself to be a child.

  A small, lost child g in the dark.

  Why did this happen? Why was he taken? Why did they have to suffer?

  The questions looped in his mind with no answers, only the suffog weight of uainty. His parents had trained him to be strong, to eo push forward—but how could he, when the world had torhing away from him?

  His breath hitched again, his body shaking with the force of his sobs.

  How long had it been? Minutes? Hours? Time held no meaning in this abyss. His cries faded into muffled sniffles, his body exhausted from the outpour of emotion.

  And then—

  A thought surfaced, quiet but insistent.

  The dark… it’s just like before.

  That endless, boundless darkness. The formless void that had surrounded him before he was even born.

  The Nexus.

  The momehought of it, something inside him shifted.

  Slowly, he raised his head, his tear-streaked face illuminated only by the faint glow of his irength. He took a shaky breath, closing his swollen eyes as he remembered.

  The Eight.

  They were there, always there, lingering at the edges of his mind like silent watchers. He could not speak to them, nor did they speak to him—but their presence had been with him for as long as he could remember.

  When he had first been taken, when he had first ehe darkness of the cavern system, he had been too focused on surviving to think of them. But now, in his lowest moment, he turo them once more.

  Feiyi out a slow, trolled breath, steadying himself.

  He visualized.

  One by ohe Eight emerged in his mind's eye. Their forms were blurred, indistinct, but they were there. Always watg. Always waiting.

  And just like that, the crushi in his chest eased—just a little.

  He was still alone. But not pletely.

  As long as he had this, as long as he could return to this space within himself, he would not be lost.

  Sniffling, Feiyin wiped his damp cheeks with his sleeve. His body still ached, his heart still felt raw, but the overwhelming despair had lessened.

  He wasn’t do.

  He couldn’t be.

  His parents were waiting for him. Yue and Ren were out there, surviving. Sun Ke, Jiang Hu—the militia—they were all somewhere.

  He would find them again.

  But to do that…

  He had to move forward.

  With a final, deep breath, Feiyin straightened his posture. The darkness no longer felt quite so suffog. He was still grieving, still uain, but he had found something to hold onto.

  He would endure.

  Just like always.

  After all, His parents had taught him many things.

  But perhaps the most important lesson of all—

  Pain does not make you weak.

  Letting it e you does.

  He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

  He wasn’t alone.

  Yue. Ren. Shen Mu. The others.

  They were still out there.

  They had to be.

  And as long as there was hope, he would keep moving forward.

  He exhaled, closing his eyes.

  When he opehem again—

  There was resolve.

  His body still ached. His wound still throbbed.

  But he was alive.

  And that was enough.

  For now.

  —

  The cavern remained unged.

  Dark. Cold. Silent.

  Yet, Feiyin had ged.

  The raw ache of loneliness still sat heavy in his chest, but it no longer ed him. It had been swallowed by something else—resolve. The Eight had reminded him who he was, what he o do. His parents’ teags, his training, his will—these were what defined him.

  He would not let despair cim him.

  But for now, he o recover.

  His body was battered, his muscles sore and stiff from the wounds he had sustained against the Venomfang and the tipede. His torso still carried a deep gash, though it had already scabbed over thanks to his tempered blood. Still, if he wao survive, he had to be careful.

  For the first time, he truly felt the value of his body tempering. A normal person, even a body tempering cultivator with a weaker foundation, would have succumbed to exhaustion, fever, or iion from such wounds. But Feiyin’s perfectly tempered body fought to repair itself, his refined blood w stantly to clot and regee.

  Even so, he needed nourishment.

  And there was only one source of food avaible.

  He stared at the tipede’s massive carcass, the same beast that had nearly killed him. Its sharp legs were still twitg faintly, its grotesque body sprawled across the cavern floor. The st of its blood was thi the air, metallid acrid.

  His stomach growled.

  With a deep breath, Feiyin forced himself to move, ign the soreness as he pushed himself up.

  Oep at a time.

  The first thing he did was break off one of the tipede’s bded appendages. He tested its sharpness with his thumb—still keen, still dangerous. Good. It would serve as a temporary on, but more importantly, he could use it to carve the beast’s flesh.

  Croug dow to work, using the jagged limb to slice through the tipede’s tough carapace. It wasn’t easy—the exoskeleton was thick, yered, aant. He had to be patient, using his osciltion seo find the weakest points before applying careful, deliberate force.

  After what felt like ay, he finally cut deep enough to reach the meat beh.

  The flesh was dark, almost purplish, and pulsed faintly with residual venom. He carefully avoided the venom sacs, his fingers steady as he pulled free a strip of meat.

  It was slimy. Cold.

  His stomach twisted at the thought of eating it raw, but he had no choice. There was nothing to burn, no material for fire. Either he ate it like this or starved.

  Feiyin exhaled slowly, steadying himself.

  Theook a bite.

  The texture was chewy, rubbery, and faintly bitter, but it was edible. That was all that mattered. It was fuel. He chewed methodically, swallowing without hesitation. If he thought too hard about it, he might hesitate. And he couldn’t afford hesitation.

  Each bite sent warmth through his body, the nutrients feeding his battered form. His blood circuted a little faster, his limbs felt a little strohis will work.

  He tinued eating until his stomao longer protested.

  Then, his thirst became the problem.

  Feiyin moved carefully to one of the deeper wounds on the tipede’s body. The fresh blood still pooled there, viscous and dark. He didn’t hesitate. Cupping his hands, he scooped the warm liquid to his lips.

  The taste was metallid bitter, but as it slid down his throat, his body responded immediately—replenishing what had been lost in battle.

  He would survive.

  The following days followed a strict rhythm.

  Wake. Eat. Rest. Train. Recover. Repeat.

  His discipli him moving. Kept him sane.

  Every day, his wounds closed a little more. His beed, proof of his past efforts. He had fed himself into something durable—resilient. And that resilience was carrying him forward.

  Thankfully, he was able to rest without any disturbances, likely due to the lingering st and presence of the Bded tipede.

  But resting was not enough.

  He had reached the peak of body tempering. His step was meridian opening. And while he was trapped in this cavern, waiting for something to ge, there was er time to advance.

  So, Feiyin focused.

  With his inner sense newly developed, he could finally see the meridians within his body—thin, almost invisible pathways that ran through him, waiting to be opened.

  The first had been difficult, but not impossible.

  The sed had been harder.

  And now, the third…

  Feiyin sat cross-legged in the darkness, drawing in a slow breath. His body hummed with irength, cirg steadily through his system.

  The first two meridians had already strengthened his foundation, but eae he opened made the expoially more difficult. The resistance was greater. The barrier was thicker.

  But he wasn’t going to brute-force his way through.

  Not this time.

  He had learned something from his battle with the tipede—yered force. Resonance.

  Just like before, he wouldn’t just hammer away blindly. He o match the frequency of the blockage, find the oint, and drill through.

  He focused, his mind sinking into his inner sense, feeling the subtle currents of his own energy.

  He could hear it, like a distant echo.

  The melody of his meridians.

  Slowly, he cycled his irength through the five elements.

  Earth. Steady. Rooted. The foundation.

  Metal. Sharp. Cutting. Precise.

  Water. Flowing. Adapting. Persistent.

  Wood. Flexible. Growing. Resilient.

  Fire. Explosive. Passionate. Breaking through barriers.

  He cycled through them again and again, yering their forces until they merged into a single, flowing current. A harmony of self.

  The moment he felt the resonance align with his third meridian’s blockage, he struck.

  His irength drilled forward like a perfectly tuned note, pierg the resistah precision. It wasn’t force that broke through—it was uanding.

  And then—

  The barrier shattered.

  His third meridian opened.

  The rush of world essence surged into his body, flooding his system with a power that was both fn and familiar. The baptism of energy sed him, reinf his meridian pathways, solidifying his foundation.

  His body shook from the force of it, but he endured.

  When the energy finally settled, he let out a slow breath, his entire body humming with newfound power.

  The third meridian en.

  And with it, he had stepped further into the Meridian Opening Realm.

  He exhaled deeply, his body feeling lighter, sharper. The exhaustion from the battle and his injuries hadn’t fully faded, but his recovery had accelerated.

  I o keep going.

  He ched his fists, feeling the rength c through his veins.

  He would not stop here.

  He would survive.

  And then, he would return.