Chapter 92: The Corruption Beyond the Rift
Gray Ghost Valley was dying.
The mist that had shrouded the valley for centuries was finally beginning to dissipate, revealing a landscape that looked less like a place in the Gu World and more like the remains of a battlefield abandoned by the heavens themselves.
Trees had been reduced to black ash.
Rocks lay scattered across the ravines, their surfaces fractured like shattered glass. In some places, the ground had sunk several feet, exposing layers of stone that had not seen daylight for countless years.
Occasionally, the air itself rippled.
A distorted outline would appear above the earth, remain for a fraction of a second, and vanish.
Each time it happened, Han Feng felt the Celestial Diagram respond with a faint tremor.
He walked slowly through the wreckage, one hand pressed against his injured chest.
The forced resonance he had used to close the fissure had damaged his meridians. His primordial essence circulated unevenly, and every attempt to draw upon it produced a sharp pain beneath his ribs.
He had already tried to examine the damage twice.
Both attempts had ended with blood in his mouth.
He would have to wait until he found somewhere safer.
If such a place still existed.
The girl followed several steps behind him.
Shen Lian had regained enough strength to walk, although her movements remained stiff. She had stopped asking questions about the fissure, but Han Feng noticed that she occasionally glanced toward the sky, as though expecting the opening to reappear.
He understood the feeling.
He had seen the enormous hand.
He had heard the voice.
And he could not forget the final words spoken by the thing beyond the boundary.
We found you.
Those words had not sounded like a threat.
They had sounded like recognition.
That distinction disturbed him more than any display of strength could have.
Han Feng had spent his time in the Gu World hiding his abilities, concealing his origins, and avoiding the attention of powerful cultivators. He had assumed that if he remained careful enough, he could decide when to reveal himself.
The entity beyond Gray Ghost Valley had challenged that assumption.
It might not need to follow his tracks.
It might not need to search the mountains.
If the connection through the fissures continued to strengthen, it might be able to sense him wherever he went.
Han Feng clenched his jaw.
First, I need to understand the connection.
Then I'll decide how to sever it.
He did not allow himself to consider the possibility that it might be impossible.
Not yet.
They reached the remains of an old stone marker shortly before noon.
The marker had been split in half. Its upper section lay several paces away, partly buried beneath ash.
Han Feng stopped to inspect it.
The stone was ancient, but the inscription had survived.
Most of the characters were worn beyond recognition. Only a few remained clear enough to read.
...the passage must remain sealed...
Han Feng's eyes narrowed.
He crouched and brushed away the ash covering the lower section.
Another line emerged.
...the living are not to answer the voices...
He remained still.
Shen Lian approached cautiously.
"What does it say?"
Han Feng moved aside so she could see.
She stared at the inscription.
Her expression changed.
"My master mentioned something like this."
Han Feng turned toward her.
"You said your master knew about Gray Ghost Valley."
"Not much. He had never entered it."
"Then what did he know?"
Shen Lian hesitated.
"He said the valley was once used by an ancient sect to guard a passage. He didn't know what the passage connected to, only that the sect disappeared."
Han Feng examined the broken marker again.
"Did he mention the name of the sect?"
"No."
"Did he tell you why it disappeared?"
She shook her head.
Han Feng straightened.
The information was incomplete, but it aligned with what he had already suspected.
The valley had not simply become contaminated because a fissure appeared above it.
Something ancient had existed beneath the ground long before the recent disturbances.
The fissure had awakened a response.
Perhaps the buried formation had once been designed to prevent precisely this kind of event.
Or perhaps it had been built for another purpose and was now failing.
He had no proof.
Still, the inscription made one thing clear.
Someone had known about the passage.
And they had left a warning.
Han Feng glanced at Shen Lian.
"Your master was connected to an old cultivation lineage?"
"He studied ancient formations."
"That isn't what I asked."
Shen Lian looked away.
For several seconds, she remained silent.
Then she answered.
"He belonged to a small group that collected records of ancient sites. We weren't a sect. There were only a few of us."
"Where are they now?"
"I don't know."
Han Feng studied her face.
She was withholding something.
But whether she was protecting herself, her dead master, or the remaining members of that group was impossible to determine.
He decided not to press her.
If she had information worth hiding, he would learn it eventually.
For now, he had more immediate concerns.
They needed to reach the Central Region's outer routes before nightfall.
And he needed to find medicine.
By midday, the road beyond Gray Ghost Valley had become crowded.
Cultivators hurried past in small groups. Merchants abandoned damaged wagons and carried their remaining goods on their backs. Several families traveled with everything they could fit into two wooden carts.
The fear was no longer confined to rumors exchanged in taverns.
It had become movement.
People were leaving.
A caravan passed them from the south, its guards visibly exhausted. One of them had wrapped his left arm in layers of cloth, and dark blood had soaked through the bandages.
Han Feng heard fragments of their conversation as they passed.
"Three fissures. Three different regions."
"That report is already outdated. Someone saw another opening near the eastern border."
"What about the Rank Five cultivator?"
The injured guard lowered his voice.
"They found his belongings."
"And him?"
"Nothing."
The second man swallowed.
"Then he escaped."
The injured guard shook his head.
"No. They found his shadow burned into the rocks."
The conversation ended there.
Han Feng continued walking.
The story was almost certainly distorted by fear, but the underlying pattern was becoming difficult to dismiss.
Spatial disturbances were appearing across the Gu World.
Cultivators were disappearing.
The environment around the fissures was changing.
And whatever lay beyond them was not necessarily waiting passively.
The incident at Gray Ghost Valley had shown him that foreign energy could interact with living bodies, dead corpses, ancient formations, and even the Celestial Diagram.
The implications were enormous.
If the contamination spread through ordinary spiritual currents, even places far from an active fissure might eventually become dangerous.
A sect could seal its gates.
A clan could retreat into its defensive formation.
But how would they defend against something that changed the nature of the energy sustaining their cultivation?
Han Feng looked at the distant mountains.
The stronger factions will begin investigating.
Some will try to seal the fissures.
Others will attempt to exploit them.
He had no doubt which approach would attract the most ambitious demonic cultivators.
And if even a fraction of the rumors about the Bone Refining Sect were true, the situation could become far worse.
A cultivator who discovered how to manipulate the contamination might gain an advantage over ordinary opponents.
A cultivator who misunderstood it might destroy himself.
And a cultivator who succeeded in combining it with an existing technique could create something nobody knew how to counter.
Han Feng's expression grew colder.
I need to avoid all of them.
For now, survival was still the only sensible objective.
The three stars appeared again after sunset.
Han Feng noticed them while crossing a barren ridge.
The clouds had thinned, revealing a darkening sky. Three points of light remained visible above the horizon.
Red.
Purple.
Gold.
They were too bright to be ordinary stars.
Han Feng stopped.
The golden one appeared slightly larger than he remembered.
He could not tell whether it had actually changed or whether the clearer sky made it seem closer.
The Celestial Diagram vibrated faintly.
Han Feng closed his eyes and focused on the resonance.
The red light produced a rough, unstable sensation.
The purple one was difficult to perceive, as though its presence were being concealed by layers of distance.
The golden light felt different.
It did not produce the violent pressure associated with the entity in Gray Ghost Valley.
Instead, its resonance seemed to follow a slow, consistent rhythm.
For a brief instant, the golden lines within the Celestial Diagram settled into a similar pattern.
Then the sensation faded.
Han Feng opened his eyes.
He had no explanation.
The golden star might be connected to the silent presence he had sensed after the fissure closed.
Or it might be another phenomenon entirely.
The resemblance was suggestive.
Nothing more.
He would not build a theory on a single moment of resonance.
Shen Lian noticed that he had stopped.
"Are you feeling it again?"
Han Feng glanced at her.
"What?"
"The strange energy."
She looked toward the sky.
"Sometimes, when the clouds move, I can feel something changing. It's faint, but it feels as if the world is... listening."
Han Feng regarded her carefully.
"You can sense that?"
"Not clearly."
She pressed a hand against her temple.
"It's more like pressure behind my eyes. My master said I was sensitive to spiritual currents, but this feels different."
Han Feng considered her answer.
The Bone Refining Sect had claimed she possessed a rare spiritual lineage. He had assumed that the men were simply using that explanation to justify capturing her.
Now he was less certain.
Her ability might be a natural sensitivity.
It might be the result of her master's training.
Or the contamination might have affected her in some way.
He had no intention of testing the possibility while she was still recovering.
"Tell me if the sensation becomes stronger," he said.
Shen Lian nodded.
Han Feng resumed walking.
Behind his calm expression, his thoughts continued turning.
If Shen Lian could detect changes in the spiritual currents before they became visible, she might prove useful.
But usefulness was not trust.
He had learned that lesson long before entering Gray Ghost Valley.
That night, they took shelter beneath the remains of an abandoned roadside shrine.
The building had partially collapsed, leaving one stone wall intact. A faded carving covered its interior surface, depicting six figures surrounding a circular pattern.
Han Feng examined the carving before choosing a place to rest.
The figures had no faces.
Their hands were raised toward the center of the circle, where a seventh shape had once been engraved.
The center had been deliberately scratched away.
He ran his fingers over the damaged stone.
The Celestial Diagram responded with a faint vibration.
Han Feng immediately withdrew his hand.
He looked at the carving again.
Six figures.
A missing center.
It was not identical to the Diagram's structure, but the resemblance was close enough to trouble him.
He did not activate the Diagram.
He did not release Qi.
He simply memorized the location and moved away.
If the shrine contained another resonance mechanism, he would examine it after his injuries had stabilized.
He had already paid too much for his last attempt to interfere with an ancient formation.
Shen Lian settled against the remaining wall.
After a while, she spoke.
"You could have left me in the valley."
Han Feng continued examining the entrance.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you?"
He thought about giving her a simple answer.
Because the Bone Refining Sect was dangerous.
Because she might know something useful.
Because he had not wanted another person to die in front of him.
The last explanation was the least comfortable.
He finally said, "Leaving you there wouldn't have made the situation any safer for me."
Shen Lian studied him.
"That's not the whole reason."
"No."
He looked toward her.
"But it's the only one you need for now."
She seemed dissatisfied, but did not argue.
After several minutes, her breathing became slower.
Han Feng remained awake.
He was too injured to cultivate safely, and the Celestial Diagram still produced occasional tremors. Each one reminded him of the moment the fissure had opened and the enormous hand had pressed against the boundary.
He closed his eyes.
For the first time since leaving Gray Ghost Valley, he allowed himself to examine the sensation left by the entity's final words.
We found you.
He tried to identify the point where the connection had formed.
It did not feel like a thread attached to his physical body.
Nor did it seem to originate from the golden seal alone.
The sensation was deeper.
As though something had recognized a pattern within his existence.
His reincarnation.
The Celestial Diagram.
The resonance of the ancient inheritance.
Perhaps all three.
Han Feng could not separate them.
He tried to withdraw his awareness.
A distant pressure answered.
His eyes snapped open.
The shrine remained dark and silent.
Shen Lian was still asleep.
Nothing had moved.
Yet for a brief instant, Han Feng felt as though his consciousness had touched an immense emptiness.
Dead stars.
Fragments of ruined worlds.
A darkness stretching farther than his perception could measure.
And somewhere within that vastness, a solitary figure sat motionless.
He could not see the person's face.
He could not determine whether the figure was looking toward him or toward something far beyond him.
But the moment its eyes opened, Han Feng felt a chill pass through his soul.
The contact ended.
He opened his eyes fully.
Cold sweat covered his forehead.
The Celestial Diagram had stopped vibrating.
The golden lines were still.
For several breaths, Han Feng remained motionless.
He had experienced something similar before, but never with such clarity.
This had not felt like the chaotic entity struggling through Gray Ghost Valley.
It had carried no obvious aggression.
No demand.
No attempt to force its way through the boundary.
It had simply observed.
And when that presence appeared, the Diagram's agitation had subsided.
Han Feng slowly exhaled.
Two different reactions.
The first presence had tried to force a passage open.
The second seemed capable of existing beyond the boundary without disturbing it in the same way.
That did not make the second presence friendly.
A silent observer could be more dangerous than a raging beast.
But the difference mattered.
He wondered whether the two presences were aware of one another.
Then another thought occurred to him.
Fang Yuan.
Han Feng had seen enough of that man's calculations to understand that he would not ignore a disturbance capable of affecting the structure of the world.
If Fang Yuan had sensed the same presence, he would likely be investigating it already.
Perhaps he had even found a way to observe it.
Han Feng stopped himself.
He had no evidence that Fang Yuan had made contact with the silent figure, or that the two had even perceived one another directly.
Speculation would not protect him.
He needed information.
And for that, he needed to reach a place where ancient records, experienced cultivators, and reliable resources were available.
The Central Region remained his best option.
He lay back against the stone wall.
Sleep came slowly.
Before it finally took him, one thought remained.
If the Diagram keeps opening these connections without my permission, then sooner or later something will use them to reach me.
He did not know how to prevent that.
But he would find out.
Before the next fissure appeared.
By late afternoon the following day, Han Feng and Shen Lian reached an ancient stone road leading toward the outer routes of the Central Region.
The road was lined with broken pillars and weathered boundary stones. In better times, it had carried merchants, wandering cultivators, and sect envoys between the western territories and the Central Region's smaller settlements.
Now it was silent.
Bodies lay scattered across the road.
Dozens of them.
Farmers.
Merchants.
Guards.
Several wore the robes of minor sect disciples.
Han Feng stopped immediately.
The corpses showed no obvious wounds.
Their skin had shrunk tightly against their bones, and their faces had become pale and hollow.
Their vitality had been drained.
Not through ordinary blood loss.
Something had taken it from them.
Shen Lian's expression changed.
"Bandits?"
Han Feng crouched beside the nearest body.
He examined the man's hands, then the ground around him.
No defensive Gu had been activated.
No weapons had been drawn.
The man's fingers were curled around a small wooden token, as though he had been holding it when he died.
Han Feng turned the token over.
Its surface had been scorched.
A faint trace of unfamiliar energy lingered in the grain.
He immediately put it down.
"No."
He looked toward the road ahead.
"This wasn't a robbery."
A sound reached him through the thin mist.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Unhurried.
Someone was walking toward them from the opposite side of the road.
Han Feng stood.
He moved slightly in front of Shen Lian, keeping his damaged side away from the approaching figure.
A silhouette emerged between the broken pillars.
Black robes.
Long gray hair.
A thin body that seemed almost too fragile to support itself.
The man walked with one hand pressed against his forehead.
His skin was pale, except for irregular black lines spreading across his neck and disappearing beneath his collar. They resembled cracks in burnt wood.
Then he raised his head.
His eyes were entirely red.
Han Feng's expression hardened.
The man's aura was unstable.
Two distinct energies seemed to circulate within him, colliding and separating in irregular waves. Every few breaths, the space around his shoulders distorted slightly.
The Celestial Diagram vibrated.
Not with the violent reaction it had produced near the fissure.
This time, the response carried a warning so clear that Han Feng did not need to interpret it.
Danger.
Enormous danger.
The man stopped beside a corpse and stared down at it.
For a moment, his expression became almost sorrowful.
Then he smiled.
The expression was wrong.
His lips curved upward, but the muscles around his eyes remained still. The result looked less like happiness than an attempt to remember how a human being was supposed to smile.
He turned toward Han Feng.
"Can you hear it too?"
His voice was quiet.
Han Feng did not answer.
The man pressed his fingers against his temple.
"They're calling..."
His smile widened.
"From the other side."
Shen Lian stepped backward.
The man seemed not to notice.
"So beautiful," he whispered. "So vast. I never knew the world was so small."
The black cracks along his neck brightened.
A thin wave of energy passed through the road.
Every corpse within several paces trembled.
Han Feng immediately drew Shen Lian farther away.
The man looked at his own hand.
His fingers were shaking.
"I can hear them even when I close my eyes."
He laughed softly.
"They told me what lies beyond the sky."
Han Feng kept his voice steady.
"Who are you?"
The man's expression changed.
For a moment, something resembling confusion passed through his eyes.
Then the smile returned.
"I used to know."
He looked at Han Feng.
"Do you remember your first death?"
Han Feng's body went still.
The question struck too close to something he had never revealed.
He concealed his reaction almost immediately, but the man's red eyes narrowed.
"There it is."
He took one step forward.
"You hear it differently from me."
The energy around him surged.
Han Feng's damaged meridians tightened in response. He suppressed the instinct to retreat and examined the man carefully.
The black cracks were not merely marks on the skin.
They pulsed in time with the fluctuations surrounding him.
Something had altered the man's body from within.
But the two energies in his aura did not seem to have merged successfully. One repeatedly overwhelmed the other, producing violent distortions around his limbs.
He was not simply a cultivator suffering from madness.
His body appeared to be caught between incompatible systems of energy.
The man's gaze shifted toward Han Feng's chest.
Toward the golden seal beneath his clothes.
Han Feng's heart tightened.
The man smiled again.
"Ah..."
He whispered the word as though he had finally found the answer to a difficult question.
"You have a door, too."
Han Feng's expression became completely still.
Shen Lian looked between them.
"What does he mean?"
"Stay behind me," Han Feng said.
The man began laughing.
It started as a quiet chuckle.
Then it grew louder.
His shoulders shook.
The black cracks spread farther across his face, and the air around him warped into a series of overlapping outlines.
"They're all doors," he said. "Every living thing. Every soul. Every little world that believes itself separate."
He lifted his hand.
A thin crack appeared in the air behind him.
Han Feng immediately activated the Art of the Celestial Veil and shifted his weight.
The fissure was tiny.
No wider than a finger.
But the moment it appeared, the Celestial Diagram trembled violently.
The man looked at it with childlike wonder.
"See?"
The crack widened slightly.
A faint gray light shone through.
Han Feng felt the golden seal begin to warm beneath his chest.
He immediately suppressed its response.
The man turned his red eyes toward him.
"You can hear them, can't you?"
Han Feng did not answer.
The man's smile faded.
"Then why are you pretending?"
The space behind him fractured again.
This time, the crack extended several inches.
The road groaned.
A nearby corpse disintegrated into dust, its remaining vitality pulled toward the opening.
Han Feng's mind raced.
The fissure was not appearing randomly.
It had formed in direct response to the man's unstable aura.
The corruption had changed him into something capable of disturbing the boundary.
Perhaps he had not been born with this ability.
Perhaps prolonged exposure to the fissures had made him a living anchor for the same foreign energy.
Either way, the danger was immediate.
Han Feng looked at the crack.
Then at the man.
He could not fight at full strength.
His meridians were damaged, his primordial essence was depleted, and the Celestial Diagram remained unstable after the battle in Gray Ghost Valley.
A direct confrontation could kill him.
But allowing the fissure to widen might be worse.
The man extended his hand toward Han Feng.
"Come closer."
His voice became strangely gentle.
"I'll show you."
The crack behind him widened again.
Han Feng's eyes narrowed.
"No."
The man's expression changed.
For the first time, genuine irritation appeared beneath the broken smile.
"You don't understand."
"Then explain it from where you are."
Silence.
The man stared at him.
Then his head tilted sharply to one side.
A cracking sound came from his neck.
"You sound like the others."
His red eyes brightened.
"They all said no."
The energy around him exploded.
BOOM!
The air fractured.
The tiny fissure behind him split into three narrow branches, each one opening onto a darkness that did not reflect the surrounding light.
Shen Lian cried out.
Han Feng pulled her behind a broken pillar just as a wave of distorted energy swept across the road.
Stone disintegrated.
The bodies nearest the opening collapsed into ash.
Han Feng's damaged meridians screamed in protest.
He could not sustain another battle like the one in Gray Ghost Valley.
Not even close.
But as he looked through the mist at the red-eyed man, he understood that this encounter was different.
The entity in Gray Ghost Valley had forced its way against the boundary from the other side.
This man was standing inside the Gu World.
And the boundary was breaking around him.
The corruption had become a source of instability in its own right.
Han Feng's gaze hardened.
If this continues, every contaminated cultivator could become another fissure.
The implications were worse than he had imagined.
He glanced toward Shen Lian.
She was trembling but conscious.
"Can you sense where the energy is gathering?"
She stared at him.
"What?"
"The spiritual currents. Can you tell where the crack is drawing power from?"
Shen Lian looked toward the fractured air.
For a moment, she seemed unable to breathe.
Then she closed her eyes.
"I... I think so."
"Don't force it. Just tell me what you sense."
She swallowed.
"The road."
Han Feng frowned.
"What about it?"
"The stones. There's something beneath them. The energy is flowing toward him through the ground."
Han Feng looked down.
The ancient road.
The broken boundary stones.
The faded formations beneath the surface.
He had noticed the road's age when they first arrived, but he had not considered that it might be connected to the disturbances.
Now the Celestial Diagram began to vibrate again.
The golden lines aligned briefly with the cracks in the stone.
Han Feng understood.
The road might be part of an old formation, one designed to regulate spiritual currents between distant locations.
The corrupted man was drawing upon it, whether deliberately or unconsciously.
If Han Feng could interrupt the flow, he might weaken the fissure without confronting the man directly.
It was dangerous.
It was uncertain.
But it was the only option he could see.
He drew a slow breath.
"Shen Lian, stay behind that pillar."
"What are you going to do?"
"Something I might regret."
Han Feng stepped onto the road.
The red-eyed man watched him approach.
His smile returned.
"Finally."
Han Feng ignored him.
He focused on the stone beneath his feet.
He could not release enough primordial essence to activate the entire formation. His meridians would fail before he reached the central point.
Instead, he searched for a single connection.
One line.
One point where the energy gathered before flowing toward the corrupted man.
The Celestial Diagram pulsed.
Han Feng felt the answer as a faint pressure beneath his left foot.
He moved.
The red-eyed man screamed.
Not in pain.
In recognition.
"Don't touch that!"
Han Feng's expression changed.
Too late.
The man lunged.
The fissure behind him expanded.
And the ancient road beneath Han Feng's feet began to glow.
The first battle against the corruption had begun.
But Han Feng had already realized something more dangerous than the strength of his opponent.
The man was not merely opening fissures.
Something beyond the boundary was teaching him how.