CHAPTER 164 — First Meetings and Shifting Paths
1. Tian Walks Into the Maw
The Abyssal Training Ground was not a battlefield.
It was a harsh teacher.
Tian stepped through the shimmering boundary of the spatial rift, thunder humming faintly in his bones. The moment he crossed the threshold, the air changed—denser, darker, vibrating with the familiar rumble of abyssal energy.
The beasts sensed him instantly.
A three-horned Voidcarver emerged from a ridge of black stone, its mandibles dripping corrosive ichor. Its gaze locked onto Tian, and it screeched—
Tian cracked his knuckles, excitement rising in his chest.
"Alright," he muttered. "Let's see if my bones really got tougher, or if Master just enjoys watching me suffer."
The Voidcarver lunged.
Tian stepped in, marrow burning with lightning, and threw a punch.
BOOOOOM.
The beast flew backward, smashing through an entire pillar of obsidian rock.
Tian blinked.
"…Oh. That's new."
Another beast—this one a massive, many-legged Hollow Strider—charged from behind. Tian didn't turn. He exhaled, feeling the thunder spread through his spine.
He twisted, bone and qi aligned, and punched upward.
The Hollow Strider exploded into smoke.
Tian stared at his hand.
So this was controlled thunder force.
Not wild.
Not overwhelming.
Just… perfectly unified power.
He grinned widely.
"Lin's gonna throw a fit when he sees this."
He continued deeper into the training ground, punching abyssal beasts aside as if they were made of dust, unaware that far beneath the plain's surface…
A faint tendril of ancient abyssal will stirred.
Searching.
Hunting.
Reaching.
For something that had escaped its grasp.
---
2. Yueyin's First Steps Under Clear Sky
Xuan Yueyin stood at the entrance of the central training plaza, palms sweating slightly as she watched other disciples pass by. Some nodded politely; most simply stared in curiosity.
Lower-realm survivors were always rare.
Ones with phoenix signatures? Almost unheard of.
She pulled her sleeves tighter around herself and took a slow breath. Today was her first day permitted to leave the healing ward for outdoor movement.
The sun felt warm on her skin.
Warmth—something her destroyed realm had lacked during its final hours.
She stepped forward.
Her legs still felt heavy from the Titan Realm's gravity, but after weeks of training, she could move without visibly trembling. She walked slowly around the courtyard, letting her body adjust, letting her senses stretch—
Then someone struck a large practice dummy nearby with a hammer.
A sharp shockwave blasted outward.
Yueyin flinched.
Just for a moment.
Her breath hitched as her eyes flashed with a memory—
A collapsing mountain.
The roar of a realm's core splitting open.
The ground cracking under her feet.
Her knees softened.
But she remained standing.
She exhaled, forcing the past back down.
She was alive.
She was here.
She would not break.
A soft voice spoke behind her:
"Are you alright?"
Yueyin turned—
And saw Lin Xuan for the first time.
---
3. A Meeting of Survivors
Lin stood a few steps away, hands clasped loosely behind his back, expression calm but eyes gentle. He hadn't approached abruptly—just waited at a respectful distance.
Yueyin straightened automatically.
"I'm fine," she said quietly.
"You reacted to the shockwave," Lin noted, not as criticism, but as understanding.
Yueyin hesitated. "I… am still adjusting."
"I know." Lin's voice lowered. "It takes time."
She blinked.
"You… also came from a destroyed world?" she asked softly.
Lin nodded.
Not a dramatic gesture. Not pitying.
Just acknowledgment.
For a moment, they simply stood there—two survivors of two different fallen realms, quietly recognizing the weight in the other's gaze.
Yueyin finally bowed slightly.
"Thank you," she said, "for asking."
Lin returned the bow. "If you need anything—guidance on gravity adaptation, access routes, or simply quiet space—I can help."
She didn't know why, but something about the way he said it made the knots in her chest loosen.
"Thank you," she repeated.
Then she excused herself, returning to her scheduled training with a calmer heart than she'd had in weeks.
Lin watched her go, expression thoughtful.
Aurora emerged beside him, unseen by everyone except Lin. "She carries a heavy sorrow."
"And a sealed fire," Lin murmured. "A dangerous combination."
"Will you help her?" Aurora asked.
Lin exhaled. "If she wants help."
Aurora smiled faintly. "You always choose empathy. It's what makes you dangerous."
Lin didn't deny it.
He turned away, heading toward the high platform where the Sect Master awaited his next lesson.
Behind him, Yueyin paused mid-step, hand lightly touching her chest.
For a reason she didn't understand—
Talking to him made breathing feel easier.
---
4. Cultivating the Laws of Space and Time
Sovereign Xuanyang stood before Lin with a blank expression, hands folded behind him.
"Your lightning and fire have grown sharper. Your gravity law has reached early mastery. Now… you will begin with something more delicate."
Lin nodded. "Space?"
"And time," Xuanyang added.
Lin's brow lifted slightly. "Both at once?"
"If you only comprehend one," Xuanyang said, "you will forever be incomplete. Space without time is a painting without motion. Time without space is motion without form. To walk your path of world-forging… both must be learned."
He tapped the ground.
A ripple of distorted reality spread outward, forming a dome of shimmering threads—like spider silk woven from moonlight and shadow.
Lin felt a chill.
"This is the Axis Chamber," Xuanyang said. "It isolates the laws so even a careless mistake won't fracture the sect grounds."
"That sounds… reassuring."
"It isn't meant to be."
Xuanyang pointed.
A simple stone floated into the chamber.
"Slow it."
Lin extended a hand.
He gripped the flow of time around the stone, imagining a river he could press his palm against. The stone paused—then moved, paused—then moved—
But continued falling.
Lin frowned. "It's resisting."
"Time always does," Xuanyang said. "It does not like being touched by the unworthy."
Lin inhaled deeply.
Tried again.
This time he visualized the suns and planets in his inner world, each orbit a rhythm of time. He pulled that rhythm outward—
The stone froze perfectly mid-air.
Lin exhaled sharply.
Xuanyang nodded once. "Good. Now—move space."
Lin blinked. "Move… space?"
The Sect Master flicked a finger.
The stone disappeared from one spot and blinked into another.
Lin's eyes widened.
"Yes," Xuanyang said. "Like that."
Lin stared at him. "That's not helpful."
Xuanyang shrugged. "I am a teacher, not a poet. Figure it out."
Lin sighed.
Then he began experimenting.
He tugged the fabric of the chamber gently, like stretching cloth. For a moment, space resisted. Then it shifted—
Barely.
A ripple.
A wrinkle.
Xuanyang watched in silence for hours, offering no instruction—only the occasional tilt of his head when Lin's attempts veered into dangerous territory.
At dusk, Lin managed to compress a single cubic meter of space by one percent.
He fell to his knees, sweating.
Xuanyang nodded approvingly.
"That is more progress than ninety-nine percent of cultivators make in a decade."
Lin blinked.
"…that's a decade's worth?"
"Did you think creation was easy?" Xuanyang asked dryly. "Now go rest. Tomorrow we begin real training."
Lin lay on the ground.
"That wasn't real?"
"No."
---
5. Yueyin Learns the Path of Laws
Meanwhile, in a quieter hall, Yueyin sat cross-legged with several lower-realm survivors as an elder explained fundamentals of higher-realm laws.
"In lower realms," the elder said, "laws are faint. Hard to sense. Harder to shape. In the Titan Realm, laws are thick. Even a novice can learn them—if their body survives the pressure."
Yueyin nodded slowly.
She could feel laws here—like threads drifting past her skin.
Her phoenix bloodline stirred faintly at their touch.
The elder continued.
"To begin, reach out with your spiritual sense. Touch only the most harmless law: wind."
Yueyin closed her eyes.
The chamber's air brushed against her.
Cool. Gentle. Present.
She extended her sense—
Something shifted.
A breeze answered her thought.
Her eyes opened in surprise.
The elder's brows lifted. "Good sensitivity. Your bloodline feels the laws easily."
"But it's sealed," she said quietly.
"For now," the elder replied. "But power is not awakened in a day. You survived a realm's destruction. You will survive a seal."
Yueyin lowered her gaze, hiding a faint tremor in her lashes.
Will I?
---
6. The Abyss Stirs
Far beneath the training ground, deep in the abyssal plain where ordinary disciples never wandered—
Something vast and ancient pulsed.
The Ancestor's scouts drifted through cracks of space, searching endlessly for what had been lost:
A phoenix flame that did not belong to darkness.
A fragment of destiny that slipped through its teeth.
A link to the one who stole a pseudo-demigod core from its maw.
A faint pulse of energy reached them from the edges of the training ground.
The scouts shivered.
At last…
A trail.
A direction.
A weakness in reality leading toward the Titan Realm.
The Abyss began to push.
Slowly.
Hungrily.
Patient in its hatred.
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