Footsteps echoed at the chamber entrance.
Not hurried.Not cautious.
Measured.
Alaric counted them by sound alone.
Three.
The cadence was disciplined—cultivators trained to move together, spacing precise, breath controlled. Sect patrol, not scavengers. The kind that didn't panic when formations behaved strangely.
Xue's fingers tightened against the stone beside her.
"They won't leave," she whispered. "They never do."
"I know," Alaric replied.
He stepped forward, placing himself between her and the entrance. The fractured lines beneath the floor pulsed faintly, reacting to his shift in weight.
At the threshold, three figures emerged from the dim passage.
Azure Boundary Sect robes.
Clean. Undamaged. Unlike the land they walked into.
The man in front stopped just inside the chamber, gaze sweeping the glowing cracks, the half-formed array at the far end, then finally settling on Alaric.
"Interesting," he said mildly. "This site wasn't supposed to be active."
Alaric said nothing.
The second cultivator's eyes locked onto Xue. "There she is."
Xue flinched—but didn't look away.
"Step aside," the lead cultivator said to Alaric. "You're not our concern."
Alaric didn't move.
"She's destabilizing the formations," the man continued, tone sharpening. "If this collapses, we'll all be buried."
"That's already true," Alaric replied calmly. "With or without her."
The man's eyes narrowed. "You're unregistered."
"Yes."
"And injured."
"Yes."
"And you think you can interfere?"
Alaric's gaze flicked briefly to the unfinished array behind him.
"I already am."
The air tightened.
The second cultivator shifted his stance, hand brushing the hilt of his blade. His aura flared—solid, controlled.
Mid-Foundation.
Stronger than Alaric.
The third remained silent, eyes fixed on the ground beneath their feet, studying the fractured lines.
"Captain," he said quietly, "the formations are responding to him."
The lead cultivator's attention sharpened.
"Responding how?"
"Adapting," the third replied. "Poorly—but deliberately."
That earned Alaric a new look.
"You," the captain said, "are causing this."
Alaric inclined his head slightly. "Not alone."
A beat passed.
Then the captain smiled.
"Very well," he said. "We'll simplify matters."
He gestured.
The mid-Foundation cultivator moved.
Fast.
Alaric reacted instantly.
Pain screamed through his shoulder as he twisted aside, the blade passing close enough to shear cloth. He countered with two fingers aimed at the cultivator's wrist—but the man adjusted mid-strike, aura reinforcing bone.
Impact.
Alaric staggered back, breath driven from his lungs.
Too strong.
The ground beneath them pulsed violently, fractures spreading.
"Stop!" Xue shouted. "You'll collapse the—"
The third cultivator raised a hand.
The chamber shuddered.
A suppression formation snapped into place, crude but effective, forcing the fractured lines into temporary alignment.
The pressure spiked.
Alaric dropped to one knee as his foundation screamed in protest, circulation stuttering dangerously. Blood rose in his throat.
He swallowed it down.
"Enough," the captain said. "Take the girl."
The mid-Foundation cultivator advanced again.
Xue moved.
She forced circulation.
Qi surged violently from her chest, ripping through the partial seal near her heart. Pain twisted her face—but her blade moved with desperate precision, slashing across the fractured lines beneath the man's feet.
The ground reacted instantly.
The suppression formation faltered.
The cultivator lost balance for a split second.
That was enough.
Alaric lunged.
Ignoring the agony tearing through his body, he struck low and precise—two fingers driving into the unstable convergence point at the man's knee, where qi reinforcement lagged.
Bone cracked.
The man screamed and fell.
The chamber roared.
Cracks raced across the floor, the unfinished array flaring wildly as the land rejected forced harmony.
"Retreat!" the third cultivator shouted.
Too late.
The captain's expression finally changed—calculation giving way to alarm.
"Fall back!" he ordered.
The chamber collapsed inward.
Stone sheared loose from the ceiling. The fractured lines beneath the floor surged chaotically, no longer negotiating—reacting.
Alaric grabbed Xue and dragged her toward the unfinished array as the ground split open behind them.
"Don't fight it!" he shouted over the roar. "Let it take us!"
"What?" she gasped.
"No time!"
He slammed his palm against the half-formed structure.
The world inverted.
Pressure crushed inward, then vanished.
Sound cut off abruptly.
Alaric felt weightless for a heartbeat—then pain tore through him as they slammed onto solid ground.
Silence followed.
Heavy. Absolute.
Alaric lay on his back, chest heaving, vision swimming.
Xue groaned beside him.
Slowly, he pushed himself upright.
The chamber was gone.
Above them stretched a cavernous space bathed in dim, shifting light. The air was thick with ancient qi, heavy enough to press against skin. Faded formations covered the walls—older, deeper, more complete than anything outside.
A sealed space.
Not the remnant site.
Something below it.
Xue stared around them, breath hitching.
"…Where are we?" she whispered.
Alaric wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and looked at the glowing patterns surrounding them.
His expression hardened.
"We crossed a boundary," he said quietly.
Behind them, the passage they had fallen through sealed shut, stone knitting together without a seam.
Whatever this place was—
It did not intend to let them leave easily.