The tremors intensified. Dust cascaded from the cavern ceiling as faint blue veins of light streaked across the walls. Every cultivator in the chamber stiffened, their instincts screaming danger.
"Back!" Liang Rui barked, dragging a glowing formation talisman through the air. But before the array could activate, the ground beneath them ruptured.
With a thunderous crack, the floor shattered like glass.
"Formation backlash!" Mei Ling shouted as spiritual currents surged upward, hurling them apart. The once-stable runic circle had come alive, twisting and rearranging itself in patterns none of them recognized.
Tian Shen struck the ground mid-air, trying to stabilize his descent with a burst of qi, but a suction force—stronger than anything he had felt—dragged him down. The light swallowed him whole.
He fell through darkness.
The air was cold, almost still, and the sense of falling seemed endless. Then, with a jarring impact, Tian Shen hit the ground. He rolled, his body instinctively shielding itself with spiritual energy. The faint glow from his palm revealed a vast underground chamber, eerily silent except for the faint hum of ancient energy.
"Where… am I?" he muttered, glancing around.
No sign of Mei Ling, Hao Feng, or Liang Rui. The tunnel behind him was sealed—smooth, seamless stone, as if it had never been broken. He was completely isolated.
He rose to his feet, adjusting his breathing. The chamber around him was circular, filled with faint inscriptions that pulsed with a soft blue glow. Each rune seemed to breathe—alive, almost watching.
Then, a faint sound—footsteps.
From the shadows, figures emerged. Two cultivators clad in black armor, bearing the insignia of the Ironblood Sect. Their eyes gleamed coldly.
"Well, well," one sneered. "The Azure Cloud pup lives."
Tian Shen's gaze hardened. "You were in the other tunnel. Looks like we've all fallen into the same trap."
The taller one smirked. "Trap or opportunity—it depends on who walks out alive."
Before Tian Shen could respond, both drew their weapons. Their blades shimmered with spiritual energy—one infused with lightning, the other with poison qi. The two struck in perfect synchronization.
Tian Shen's instincts kicked in. He pivoted, his footwork fluid, deflecting the lightning strike with his palm. A shock ran through his arm, numbing it briefly, but he countered with a burst of fire qi, forcing the first attacker back. The second swung low, the venomous blade slicing through the air. Tian Shen leapt back, barely evading the strike as the stone hissed where the poison landed.
They're coordinated. His mind raced. One distracts, one strikes to kill.
He exhaled slowly, then closed his eyes—sensing the faint vibrations in the air. The runes beneath his feet pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat. There was more energy here, flowing through the ground like a current. He could use it.
As the next strike came, Tian Shen moved—not away, but forward. His hand traced a sharp sigil midair, tapping into the lingering time resonance from the previous formation. For a brief instant, the world around him slowed. Lightning froze mid-arc. The venom blade gleamed motionless.
He stepped through the stillness and struck both men in the chest with a focused blast of qi.
When time resumed, both attackers were hurled backward—slamming into the wall, coughing blood.
The chamber fell silent again. Tian Shen's breathing was steady but labored. Using that technique drained him heavily—it wasn't true mastery of time, but a resonance, an echo he barely controlled.
The ground beneath him suddenly shifted again, the runes flaring brighter. A deep rumble echoed as new patterns appeared, forming a second circle around him.
Another trap!
He jumped back, but too late. Chains of light erupted from the runes, coiling around his arms and legs. He struggled, his qi flaring, but the chains absorbed it effortlessly, growing stronger.
"Tsk…" he hissed under his breath. "So that's your game…"
From somewhere beyond the circle, a cold, mechanical voice echoed through the chamber. "Trespassers of the Iron Veil… your presence disturbs the balance. Offer your energy, and be judged."
A blinding light enveloped the chamber as countless runes lit up across the walls—each one connected to the binding circle around Tian Shen.
And then he felt it—a foreign energy probing into his dantian, as if the formation sought to drain his very essence.
He gritted his teeth, summoning all his focus. "I won't… be devoured."
A faint silver glow flickered in his eyes once more—the power he had glimpsed before, tied to the rhythm of time itself. Slowly, deliberately, he began to unravel the chains from within, syncing his breathing to the pulse of the formation.
If this is a trap, he thought grimly, then I'll turn it into my forge.
As the light consumed the chamber, the runes trembled—and for the first time in centuries, the ancient formation hesitated, as if something within Tian Shen's qi did not belong to this realm at all.