Beneath the floating royal seal at the end of the passage stood a stone stele engraved with "Jade Returns to Its Place," its surface crusted with a thin frost. Chen Wuya's hand still hung in midair, Misaligned Force lingering in his palm as the edge of the jade token grew faintly hot.
He could feel the true qi within him being drawn by some force, as though a thread extended from the royal seal and tugged at him, making his meridians ache faintly.
Bai Zhi stood half a step behind him, one hand still pressed to her abdomen. After that tremor just now, the movement of the fetus had stopped, but she did not dare relax. Mo Feng lowered his head to look at the marks he had drawn on the ground—those once-clear short lines had now warped into curved arcs, identical to the patterns on the back of the jade token.
No one spoke.
The air seemed frozen solid.
Suddenly, a streak of silver light flared behind the royal seal. The ground split open without a sound, and someone stepped out. His footsteps made no noise, yet the entire passage trembled once.
The newcomer was in his early twenties, his features cold and hard. Silver hair was tied behind his head, and a diamond-shaped crystal was embedded between his brows, brightening and dimming with each breath. He wore armor of black ice scales, and at his waist hung an ancient seal—a miniature replica of the one floating in the air.
Chen Wuya's pupils contracted.
The way this man had appeared was less like he had walked here and more like he had grown from the ruins themselves.
"Humans." The man spoke quietly, but his voice pierced through the cold wind. "You touched something you should not have touched."
His