The journey west took three days.
Yan Xiao rode whatever would carry him — bus, train, jeep, and finally his own two feet. The farther he went, the worse the roads became, until they simply vanished. Towns shrank to villages, villages to a few lonely huts, and then there was nothing but mountains and empty sky.
The air thinned. Temperature dropped. Every breath left a white cloud in front of his face.
"Ding. Host's vital signs are stable. However, altitude is reducing oxygen saturation. The System strongly recommends caution."
"I'm fine."
"Ding. Host is not fine. Host is stubborn. There is a difference."
Yan Xiao snorted and kept walking.
The valley, when he finally found it, was nothing like he'd imagined.
It hid behind a narrow canyon, invisible from the main trail. A rockslide from decades ago had sealed the entrance, but Yan Xiao spotted a jagged crevice just wide enough to squeeze through.
On the other side, the world changed.
The air hung dead still. No wind. No birds. No insects. Only silence — thick, heavy, absolute.
Gray gravel the color of old ash covered the ground. Nothing grew. Nothing had left tracks. The valley walls rose sheer on both sides, blocking the sun and drowning everything in cold shadow.
"Ding. Significant energy signature detected. Faint, but far stronger than the spiral stone. Host is close."
Yan Xiao kept moving.
The valley narrowed, walls pressing in until the gravel crunched under his boots like the only sound left in the world.
Then he saw it.
At the far end, carved straight into the rock face, stood a stone door. Strange symbols spiraled and twisted around its edges — shapes that made his eyes throb if he stared too long.
"The gate," he whispered.
"Ding. Confirmed. This is the source. The gate is sealed. The System cannot determine what lies beyond."
Yan Xiao approached slowly.
He pressed his palm to the stone. It should have been ice-cold. Instead it was warm.
He circulated his thin first-stage Qi Refining energy and pushed harder.
The symbols flickered. A weak pulse of light ran through the carvings.
"Ding. The gate is responding to Host's cultivation energy, but the reaction is minimal. The seal is ancient. The System estimates it would require months — possibly years — of continuous input to break."
Yan Xiao's jaw clenched.
He didn't have months. He didn't have years. Somewhere out there, his master was still chained in the dark.
"There has to be another way."
"Ding. The System is analyzing. Stand by."
He waited, hand still on the stone. The symbols pulsed once more, then died. The warmth under his palm faded.
"Ding. Secondary energy source located. Approximately three kilometers from current position. Signature is different — not spiritual Qi. The System cannot identify it. Host should investigate."
Yan Xiao pulled his hand away.
"Lead the way."
The secondary source was a cave.
Narrow and almost invisible among the rocks. Yan Xiao had to drop to his belly and crawl inside. A few meters in, the passage opened into a small chamber.
In the center, resting on a stone pedestal, lay the key — carved from the same dark material as the spiral stone. Its head was shaped like a snake devouring its own tail.
Exactly like Old Chen had described.
Yan Xiao reached out.
"Ding. Host, stop. The System detects a protective formation around the pedestal. Touching the key will trigger it."
He froze.
"What kind of formation?"
"Ding. Unknown. However, the System advises against contact. Host's current cultivation level is insufficient to survive a direct energy backlash."
Yan Xiao crouched, studying the key. It glowed faintly in the gloom, pulsing with the same warm light as the door.
"Can you disable it?"
"Ding. The System can attempt it. The formation is old and complex. It will take time."
"How much time?"
"Ding. Several hours. Possibly a full day. The System suggests Host rest while this unit works."
Yan Xiao sat down against the cave wall. The stone leeched the warmth from his back. Darkness pressed close.
He thought of his master and made a silent promise.
I'll find you. I'll bring you home.
The System worked.
Yan Xiao waited.
---
The System worked through the night.
Yan Xiao dozed fitfully against the wall, jerking awake at every drip of water, every scuttle in the dark, every distant rumble of thunder. The formation around the pedestal never triggered. The key never moved.
"Ding," the System announced at last. "Analysis complete."
Yan Xiao opened his eyes. "Can you disable it?"
"Ding. Affirmative. However, the process will be... noticeable."
"Noticeable how?"
"Ding. The formation is designed to react violently to interference. When the disabling sequence begins, it will release a visible energy burst. The System estimates it will be detectable from the valley entrance — possibly farther."
Yan Xiao stood and brushed dust from his clothes.
"How long will the burst last?"
"Ding. Approximately thirty seconds. After that, the formation will collapse and the key can be retrieved safely."
"Then do it."
"Ding. Host should stand back."
Yan Xiao retreated to the cave mouth and watched.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the symbols on the pedestal ignited.
The light was nothing like he'd ever seen.
Deep, angry red — the color of a dying star's heart. It spread across the cave walls like veins of molten blood. The air turned scorching. The ground shuddered.
And then the formation screamed.
There was no other word for it. A piercing, skull-splitting shriek that wasn't sound so much as pain given voice. Yan Xiao clamped his hands over his ears, but the noise drilled straight into his brain.
Thirty seconds.
The longest thirty seconds of his life.
Then — silence. The light died. The cave plunged back into darkness.
"Ding. Formation disabled. The key is safe to retrieve."
Yan Xiao lowered his hands. His ears rang. His head pounded. But he was still alive.
He walked forward and picked up the key.
It was heavier than it looked.
The warmth had vanished; the stone felt cold and dead in his palm. Yet he could still feel it — a faint resonance, a tug that pulled his gaze back toward the gate at the end of the valley.
"This is it," he said quietly. "The key to the gate."
"Ding. Confirmed. Energy signatures match. It should open the seal."
"Should?"
"Ding. The System cannot guarantee success, Host. The gate is ancient. The seal is ancient. The key may be damaged. Many variables exist. Caution is advised."
Yan Xiao slipped the key into his pocket.
"Caution is for people who have time."
He stepped out of the cave.
The valley looked exactly as he'd left it, yet everything felt different. A low vibration hummed in the air. He could feel it in his teeth.
He pulled out the key and held it up.
The symbols around the door flickered — weak, hesitant, like a dying ember catching one last breath.
"Here goes nothing."
He pressed the key into the center of the door.
Nothing happened.
Then the key began to sink into the stone as if the rock had turned to water. The symbols blazed to life. Light raced along every carving, flooding the entire door.
The hum became a roar. The ground trembled.
And the door simply ceased to be.
One moment it was solid stone. The next — gone. In its place yawned an impossible opening, revealing not a cave or tunnel, but an entirely different sky.
A vast, star-filled sky with constellations that made no sense on Earth. Below it stretched rolling hills, silver rivers, copper-leaved forests, and mountains that floated like clouds in the air.
"The Kunlun Palace," Yan Xiao whispered.
"Ding. The System detects a separate dimension — a pocket realm existing outside normal space. Spiritual Qi density is… three percent of Night Flower Continent baseline."
Three percent.
It sounded tiny compared to his old world.
But compared to Earth's dead, Dharma-Ending wasteland, it felt like an ocean.
"This is where the immortals hid," he said, "when the world began to die."
"Ding. The System cannot confirm the historical claim. However, current evidence supports the conclusion."
Yan Xiao stepped through.
The air inside was different.
Warmer. Lighter. It filled his lungs like it actually wanted to be there. Only now did Yan Xiao realize how heavy and dead the outside air had felt — the way it pressed down on his skin, the faint metallic taste of a world with almost no spiritual Qi.
He closed his eyes and breathed deep.
For the first time since leaving the Night Flower Continent, something inside his chest unclenched. He felt… almost like he was home.
"Ding. Host should not linger. The gate will not remain open indefinitely. The System estimates it will close in approximately six hours."
Six hours.
Not much. But enough.
"Where do I start?" Yan Xiao asked.
"Ding. The System detects a strong energy concentration approximately ten kilometers northeast. Possible structures. Possible artifacts. Possible… answers."
Yan Xiao started walking.
The landscape was breathtaking.