Chapter Five: The Spear That Does Not Break
The air tore apart the moment sword met spear.
It was not a clash of strength…
but a clash of wills.
Han Ruo lunged forward, his broken spear releasing a strange metallic echo, as if the missing piece was not a weakness… but an unfinished intent to kill.
Lin Chi stepped back only half a step.
The legacy stirred.
Not to empower him—
but to leave him alone.
Good.
The sword spun.
A clean horizontal slash, without technique.
Han Ruo blocked it, but his feet sank into the ground.
"You're not from a sect!"
he shouted.
"Neither are you!"
Lin Chi replied.
The spear suddenly coiled, striking back from an impossible angle. Xiao Yin shouted a warning, but Lin Chi had already sensed it.
[Activation: Void Step]
He vanished.
Reappeared behind Han Ruo, sword descending.
But the strike did not land.
The spear cracked further…
then changed.
The fracture glowed.
[Treasure responding to emotion]
The spear released a shockwave that hurled Lin Chi ten steps backward.
Han Ruo breathed heavily.
"My brother died because the world chose him… not because he was weak."
Lin Chi planted his foot.
"The world does not choose."
Then he stepped forward.
"We do."
The next strike was not lethal.
But it broke something in Han Ruo.
Not bone.
But blind hatred.
The spear fell.
Silence returned.
Han Ruo dropped to one knee.
"Kill me."
Lin Chi turned his sword and slid it back into its sheath.
"No."
He looked at him.
"Walk with me… and you'll see who truly stole your brother's fate."
The legacy recorded it.
[Incomplete Bond Formed]
The Gate of the Forbidden Land
Two days later, everything changed.
The trees blackened.
The ground cracked.
The sky drew closer.
They stood before a massive stone gate, unguarded—yet every stone exhaled a silent threat.
The Forbidden Land.
Han Ruo clenched his fist.
"Here… an entire sect was lost."
Xiao Yin swallowed.
"And here… secrets are buried."
Lin Chi stepped forward.
The legacy screamed for the first time.
[Final Warning]
[Entry = Loss of Remaining Protection]
"Then…"
Lin Chi said calmly.
"This place is mine."
He stepped through the gate.
The world inverted.
The Breathing Graveyard
The inside was not dark.
It was silent.
Broken buildings.
Tattered banners.
And petrified corpses frozen in combat stances.
Death here…
had not ended.
[Area: Sect Graveyard]
At the center of the plaza stood a massive pillar, carved with thousands of names—then crossed out.
Xiao Yin read one.
"Seventh Wind Sect…"
Han Ruo froze.
"That's my sect's name."
The pillar trembled.
The names began to move.
Then—
They emerged.
Specters of cultivators, neither soul nor body—only lingering techniques.
The attack was immediate.
Lin Chi raised his sword.
But the legacy did not respond.
[Local Laws: Dead]
He smiled.
"Even better."
He charged.
Combat without energy.
Without paths.
Only decision and strike.
Han Ruo fought beside him, his spear now lighter, faster.
Xiao Yin changed her style—using the environment, debris, shadows.
When the last specter fell—
The pillar opened.
Inside…
A stone coffin.
[Extinct Sect Legacy]
Lin Chi did not touch it.
Han Ruo stepped forward.
Opened the coffin.
Inside—
A black book, its cover broken.
[Technique: Spear of the End]
The spear in Han Ruo's hand trembled.
Tears fell without sound.
"This… is my brother's style."
Lin Chi placed his hand on the pillar.
The names stopped bleeding.
[Silent World Event]