The blood jade ring lay cold in Feng Mo's palm, but the soul wisp trapped inside still whispered…
"Awaken the Third Vein… find the Grave of Ember Glass…"
Back in the shack, Feng Mo sat in deep meditation. The Blood Requiem Space inside him pulsed stronger now, like a second heartbeat. The black tree had bloomed a second bud—this one glowing faintly green.
Spirit Refining Stage has begun.
The system of his cultivation had shifted. He could feel it in his bones, his meridians. The Second Vein, now at 11% awakening, granted him not only energy control but blood forging—the ability to refine external materials using essence from the Blood Requiem.
He needed a weapon.
No—he needed a blood-bound spirit relic. And there was only one place within the sect where that could begin:
The Hall of Fallen Arms.
Two days later, Feng Mo arrived before an ancient ruin tucked behind the mountain's base, a place where damaged weapons, failed alchemy items, and broken soul-forged relics were left to rot. It was guarded by a single man—
Grandmaster Yi, the Forgemaster of the Outer Sect.
Yi was blind and half-mad, his beard twisted with metal wire and spirit vines.
"You… boy with the Requiem pulse. I felt you coming," Yi said, laughing hoarsely. "You want a spirit relic? They'll kill you before it binds."
Feng Mo bowed. "Then I won't bind it. I'll forge it."
Yi cackled. "Good answer."
The Forgemaster handed him a corroded blade—black steel, covered in rust and blood cracks. "This belonged to a disciple who slaughtered his team in a forbidden zone. The sect couldn't destroy it. Let's see if you can tame it."
Inside the Hall, relics hissed and screamed. Some hovered in the air like ghosts, others twitched inside piles of ash and bone.
Feng Mo placed the black blade on the altar and bit his thumb.
A drop of blood hit the sword. It screamed—a high, soul-shredding wail.
Then the Blood Requiem Space surged.
"Pulse Forge—Ritual Begin."
He poured blood qi into the rusted weapon. Chains lashed out from within his internal realm, binding the sword. The black tree's second bud cracked open—and from it, crimson fire spilled into the altar.
For one burning second, the sword and blood fused.
Name: Soul-Eater Fang
Type: Blood-Bound Spirit Weapon (Unstable)
Affinity: Veinborn users only
Ability: Absorbs slain souls, strengthens based on enemy power.
The sword glowed dimly and floated to his hand.
But something stirred in the shadows of the Hall.
A rusted spear fell from the ceiling. And then… a corpse rose behind it.
It was fully armored, covered in burial cloths. But what stunned Feng Mo was not its size or aura—it was the name stitched across its chest plate:
Yun Lian.
His mother's name.
The corpse's jaw cracked open, and from within it came a whisper—
"Feng… Mo…"
He stepped back.
"You know me?!"
The corpse nodded once. Then raised its hand.
A brilliant white flame surged from its palm. It didn't attack—it offered it.
Feng Mo took the flame—and the moment it touched him, his Blood Requiem Space roared.
A new altar appeared inside it, wrapped in white vines, holding a crystal shaped like an eye.
Memory Fragment Found: Yun Lian – Gravewalker Initiate.
"My mother… was a Gravewalker?"
He turned to ask more—but the corpse had already collapsed to dust. All that remained was a second blood jade ring, warm to the touch.
"Two rings. Two clues. Two sins."
Outside, Grandmaster Yi clapped once. "She gave you the fire, eh? Then you've been chosen."
Feng Mo asked, "What do you mean?"
Yi grinned. "The Gravewalkers were a sect within a sect. A shadow brotherhood. They believed death was a library."
"A what?"
Yi laughed. "A library of power. A place where secrets could be stolen from the dead. They forged weapons using dying memories. Your mother was one of them."
That night, Feng Mo held both blood jade rings, staring at the twin seals pulsing within.
"The Third Vein isn't just power."
"It's truth."
The girl with silver and black eyes stepped beside him.
"You've seen one grave," she said. "But there's another. One they buried beneath the sect itself—sealed in the old disciple catacombs."
She looked at him.
"And your name is carved into its door."
To be continued…
🔥 Major Reveals This Chapter:
Spirit Refining Stage unlocked
Soul-Eater Fang forged: a blood-bound spirit weapon that feeds on souls
First memory fragment of Yun Lian found: Feng Mo's mother was a Gravewalker
Gravewalkers: a hidden legacy sect that uses death as cultivation insight
Second Blood Jade Ring found