The elder held the Seal of Ashfall loosely in one hand, letting its weight settle against his palm. The black wood didn't glow or hum, but the air around it felt heavier.
He placed it on the table between them and looked at Wang Jie with quiet eyes.
"This is more than a symbol," he said. "It carries the legacy of those who came before."
Wang Jie didn't touch it. He just watched it for a moment before lifting his gaze.
The elder didn't move.
Then, after a long silence, he spoke again.
"Tell me... do you know why the Jade Immortal Sect was truly destroyed?"
Wang Jie didn't flinch.
"I know."
The answer came too quickly.
Jin Hao sat up straight in his chair. "Wait. What?"
The elder's eyebrows twitched. His voice sharpened.
"You know?"
There was another pause. Then Wang Jie blinked once, slowly, like waking from a dream.
"…I don't know."
He said it quietly. This time his tone was different — hesitant, uncertain. As if the first answer had come from someone else entirely. Even he seemed confused by what he'd just said.
Jin Hao stared at the screen. "Okay… what?"
The elder's expression shifted. He leaned back slowly and folded his hands together beneath his sleeves.
"I see."
That was all he said.
But his gaze lingered on Wang Jie just a moment too long. Something behind his eyes had changed — like he had seen something unexpected and didn't know whether to fear it or not.
Wang Jie remained silent.
So did Jin Hao.
And the Seal of Ashfall, still sitting between them, said nothing at all.
The hall had gone still again.
The elder's hands remained folded, but his eyes had lost their sharpness. They looked older now. Tired in a way that had nothing to do with age.
He let out a long, quiet breath.
"I suppose… if you've come this far, and the sect truly has fallen, then there is no reason to keep the truth buried."
He looked at Wang Jie, but his voice was for something deeper. For the past.
"The Jade Immortal Sect was not destroyed by accident. It was not overrun by beasts, or weakened by corruption, or torn apart by internal rebellion."
He paused.
"It was offered. Sacrificed."
Wang Jie said nothing.
But Jin Hao sat frozen in front of the screen.
The elder continued, his voice heavy now.
"For centuries, the Jade Immortal Sect guarded the eastern frontier. Our land stood directly across the sea from the continent of demons. When they marched, we were the first to see their ships. When they flew, we were the first to burn. And when they retreated, it was only after we drowned them in our blood."
His hand tapped the table softly as if remembering old battles no one wrote down.
"We were the sword pointed at their throat," he said. "The wall that held them back. The bane of their kind. But that made us... inconvenient."
He looked up again, and his next words came slower.
"There was a war. A long one. Longer than the history record. For a while, it seemed as if no side could win. The demon clans were too many. Too strange. They twisted the world around them. Every time a great sect advanced, it fell. Every time we pushed, they scattered and returned like fog."
Jin Hao leaned in closer.
"But then… a deal was made," the elder said.
Wang Jie finally stirred. "A deal?"
The elder nodded.
"The Four Pillars of the Cultivation World. The great sects that rule even now. They came together behind closed doors. They told the world that a truce had been forged. That the demons would retreat. That the war had ended."
He looked at the floor.
"But peace has a price. And they paid it with us."
Wang Jie's expression didn't change. But his hands clenched slightly at his sides.
"We were not told. We received no warning. One day, the demon ships returned — not to conquer, but to claim. And the gates of the sect were already open."
The elder's voice dropped to a whisper.
"They walked past our wards. They ignored our formations. Someone had fed them the keys. Coordinates. Bloodlines. They killed the elders in their chambers. Slaughtered our beast companions. And they did it without resistance."
Jin Hao stared at the screen, barely breathing.
"All because the Jade Immortal Sect was deemed expendable. A 'bargaining chip,' they called it. An acceptable sacrifice for a thousand years of peace."
He looked up again, gaze sharp despite the weight in his voice.
"They sold us to the enemy to protect themselves. And to this day, not one of the Four Pillars has spoken of it."
Wang Jie's eyes stayed lowered. His voice, when it came, was quiet.
"I see."
The elder sat back and let the silence return.
But Jin Hao didn't speak this time.
Because deep down, he already knew what this meant.
They weren't just rebuilding an old sect.
They were reviving a name the entire world had buried on purpose.
And if the world found out… they'd try to bury it again.
The elder sat still for a long moment after speaking, as if the memories had drained something out of him.
Then, quietly, he placed a hand over the Seal of Ashfall on the table.
"There's something else you should know," he said. "About the seal."
Wang Jie looked up again, his eyes calm.
"This is not just a symbol of the village. It's a key. A pass."
He tapped the edge of the seal lightly.
"It opens the way to a realm that should not exist."
Jin Hao squinted at the screen. "What kind of realm are we talking about here…?"
The elder's next words hit like a hammer.
"The Demon Slaying Tower."
The name alone made Wang Jie's breath hitch — just slightly.
Even Jin Hao jolted in his seat. "I'm sorry, what tower?"
"It is a hidden realm," the elder continued. "One constructed at the peak of the sect's power. A prison built from divine ore and ancient formation rings. Within it are sealed the greatest enemies the sect ever faced."
He looked at Wang Jie carefully now.
"Not just demons. Some of them are human. Traitors. Criminal cultivators. Spirit beasts who devoured entire cities. But most… most are demons too strong to be killed. Monsters whose cores could not be destroyed, even after three cultivators at the Divine Transformation stage gave their lives trying."
Wang Jie's gaze did not waver.
Jin Hao, on the other hand, was already panicking behind his screen.
"There are Divine Transformation demons still alive in there?! What kind of sealed realm just keeps those lying around?! Is this guy serious?!"
The elder continued, his tone heavier now.
"Many years ago, when our former Sect Master foresaw the fall, he made a decision. He transferred the seal to me. Quietly. Without ceremony. Without explanation."
He looked down at the seal again.
"Only later did I understand. He knew his end was inevitable. But he did not surrender to fate. He prepared. He left me here, buried beneath the ash, holding the one thing the Four Pillars could not afford to touch."
He looked up again.
"I am not a cultivator of great strength. But I was trusted to carry this seal. And now… I see why."
His gaze shifted to Wang Jie's chest.
There, hanging against his robe, was a small badge. The crest of the Jade Immortal Sect, faintly pulsing with a soft inner glow.
The elder's voice was calm.
"I know this is a heavy burden. But it is one that a Sect Master must bear."
Wang Jie looked down at the badge.
Then he nodded once, slowly.
"I understand."
Jin Hao, however, absolutely did not.
"I don't understand anything! Wang Jie, were you actually just an old man in disguise?!"
But no one answered.
The silence stretched.
Then the elder sighed.
It wasn't tired or regretful. It sounded almost… peaceful.
"Of course," he said softly, "we also left one final surprise for you."
Wang Jie looked up, unsure what he meant.
But before he could ask, his badge began to glow.
A low hum echoed through the hall, slow and heavy. The light from the badge flickered once—then flared.
Without warning, tendrils of light surged outward.
They didn't lash or strike. They drifted, soft and steady like smoke moving backward. They touched the walls. The floor. The ceiling. The formation plates buried under the village. And then… the people.
Outside, villagers froze in place as faint strands of golden light pulled from their bodies. They didn't scream. They didn't run. Their eyes were calm. Their mouths slightly parted, like they were breathing in a memory.
"No," Wang Jie whispered. "Stop!"
He stood from the table, reaching out as if he could stop what was happening.
The elder didn't move.
His skin had already begun to pale. The lines on his face deepened. His hands withered slightly.
Wang Jie stepped forward, eyes wide. "Stop it! This wasn't—this can't be—!"
But the badge didn't listen.
It pulsed again, and the Seal of Ashfall responded in kind. Its golden lines lit like veins, and the floor beneath them shimmered as if awakening for the first time in a hundred years.
The elder looked at him, eyes dimming but steady.
"This is our last gift to you," he said quietly.
Wang Jie clenched his fists, jaw tight.
"You don't need to worry about the seal loosening anymore," the elder went on, voice thinning. "It will be like before."
He took one last breath as the color drained from his cheeks.
"This was the Sect Master's plan. And something… we all agreed to long ago."
His body withered before Wang Jie's eyes, turning to dust as the light drained from his limbs. And just like that, the elder was gone.
Jin Hao stared in horror.
"What the hell—what the hell was that?! You just absorbed an entire village! What kind of 'surprise' is that?!"
But no one could hear him.
The room was quiet again.
Outside, the ash settled softly, blanketing the empty streets.