The creature's retreat left behind a stillness that was almost louder than its arrival.
Fog crept low along the ground, curling around boots and blades like it didn't want to let them go. Somewhere deep within the trees, a branch cracked—too slow, too sharp to be from the wind. But no more shadows stirred.
Yan Xue lowered her sword, slowly. Her hand was steady, but her breathing had quickened. Su Yao exhaled a quiet breath, letting the flame in her palm dim to a soft glow.
Shen Yi stood unmoving.
His eyes were locked on the well.
Not in fear. Not in confusion.
But recognition.
"…What do you mean, 'you know it'?" Yan Xue finally asked.
Shen Yi didn't look at her. "I don't know. It felt… familiar."
Su Yao stepped beside him, peering into the darkness. "You think this is connected to the Immortal Demon Skill?"
He nodded slowly. "Or the thing behind it."
They stood like that for a long moment, until Yan Xue broke the silence again. "Let's not wait for it to come back with friends."
---
The sun didn't rise the next morning. Or if it did, the fog smothered it completely.
They stayed in the village to search. But there was little left. Half the houses looked undisturbed—like the residents had simply walked out. Meals half-cooked. Doors ajar. Blankets folded. But not a soul in sight.
By noon, Su Yao returned from a sweep of the outer woods. "Nothing living," she said. "Even the insects are gone."
Yan Xue stood by the edge of the well, her fingers tracing the now-faded carvings.
"There's something under this village," she said. "I can feel it."
Shen Yi walked to her side. "Not something. Someone."
She gave him a sidelong look. "You sound certain."
"I don't know how I know. But it's like a piece of me is buried here."
Su Yao frowned. "Then we dig?"
Yan Xue looked down at the stone, then back at Shen Yi.
"No," she said. "We go down."
---
They didn't bring torches.
Su Yao used a light charm—small and pale blue, hovering just above her shoulder like a floating pearl.
The well was deeper than expected. Its walls, once made of fitted stone, turned to rough earth after a few dozen feet. Wooden ladders had long rotted away. They used spiritual footing—stepping carefully against the walls with qi-bound soles, descending one by one.
At the bottom, the light revealed a tunnel. Narrow. Damp. Unnaturally clean.
The earth should've been packed. Dry. But it was soft—like something had recently passed through.
Or was still down here.
Yan Xue drew her sword again. Su Yao unslung a small pouch of charms. Shen Yi moved silently between them, his eyes distant but focused.
They walked in silence for what felt like an hour.
Until the tunnel widened.
And opened into a chamber.
---
The room was… wrong.
It wasn't large—maybe the size of a shrine's inner hall—but the air inside was heavy. Not with scent or sound.
With memory.
Stone walls surrounded them. Ancient carvings lined the edges—symbols of sects long since dead, techniques long forbidden. A broken altar sat at the center, etched with the same demonic glyphs they'd seen on the well.
But it was what sat behind the altar that stopped them cold.
A cocoon.
Or something like one.
It pulsed faintly. Veins of dark energy ran through it like cracked glass filled with blood. It wasn't large—just tall enough to fit a person, curled tightly.
Yan Xue raised her sword.
"Wait," Shen Yi said.
She didn't lower it.
Su Yao circled slowly, her charm-light casting long, eerie shadows.
"It's old," she murmured. "But… not dormant."
Yan Xue's grip tightened. "It feels like it's watching us."
Shen Yi took a step forward.
His chest felt tight.
With every step, the pressure grew. Not on his skin. Inside him. Like something was trying to reach out from his bones, from his soul.
He stood before the cocoon.
And then—
—it pulsed.
Not violently.
Softly.
Like a heartbeat, matching his own.
He stumbled back a step.
"What was that?" Su Yao asked.
He didn't answer.
Because he heard it again.
A whisper.
Inside him.
But not the voice that urged him to devour.
No.
This one said something else:
"Return."
---
Yan Xue stood still.
Too still.
Her eyes were fixed on Shen Yi—but her mind had gone somewhere else.
Because when the cocoon pulsed, she'd seen something—just for a second.
Not in the room.
In her memory.
A night of fire.
A hand reaching toward her through the smoke.
Not to save.
To kill.
The eyes had been red. Glowing.
But the mouth…
…it had been his.
And yet—
Something in her chest twisted sharply.
If this… thing had anything to do with what he had become, then maybe—just maybe—there was more to it.
More than rage.
More than betrayal.
More than blood.
But she didn't say that aloud.
Instead, she said, "We destroy it."
Su Yao hesitated. "Shouldn't we take it back for study?"
Yan Xue shook her head. "Too risky. If it's tied to the Immortal Demon Skill, then we don't let it wake."
Her blade rose.
But Shen Yi stepped between her and the altar.
"No."
She stared at him. "Move."
"I can't."
"You think this thing is part of you?"
He didn't speak.
But she saw the answer in his eyes.
It was.
Su Yao stepped forward. "Shen Yi…"
But Yan Xue's voice cut through.
"Then let me ask you this. If it wakes, and it takes you again—what happens to us?"
He didn't answer.
Because he didn't know.
Yan Xue's blade trembled slightly in her hand. Her voice was colder than the mist above them.
"I won't let it happen again."
She took a step closer.
"So move. Or I end it."
----
Shen Yi stood between Yan Xue's blade and the cocoon, unmoving.
The silence was a blade of its own—tight, sharp, stretched thin between them.
Behind him, the cocoon pulsed again. Faint. Rhythmic. Like it recognized him.
Yan Xue's eyes stayed locked on his. "Move."
"I can't," he said, voice quiet but firm.
"Why?" Her voice didn't rise, but something flickered in her eyes—something colder than rage.
"Because I think… this thing holds a piece of who I was."
Yan Xue's grip tightened on her hilt.
"And what if that piece is the part that killed my family?"
Shen Yi flinched. "Then I need to face it."
Her blade didn't lower.
Su Yao stepped in gently. "Yan Xue…"
"Don't," Yan Xue said without looking at her. "If he's wrong, if this thing wakes and consumes him again, we won't get another chance."
"I know," Shen Yi said.
Her eyes narrowed. "Then why protect it?"
"Because I need to know what it is before I decide what to do with it. If I destroy it now, I'll never understand what's inside me."
"That's the point," Yan Xue said. "Some things shouldn't be understood. They should be buried."
Her words cut more than her blade ever could.
But he didn't move.
Su Yao stepped between them, holding both palms up. "Enough."
The tension crackled like lightning about to strike.
"Yan Xue," Su Yao said calmly, "if you want to strike him down, do it. But don't pretend it's just about this thing. You're angry. You're scared. So are we. But if you raise that blade now, you won't end him—you'll only shatter the one chance we have at understanding what really happened five years ago."
Yan Xue's jaw clenched.
Shen Yi spoke again, softer now. "You don't have to trust me. But give me time. If it turns out I was wrong… I won't stop you next time."
For a long breath, no one moved.
Then slowly—slowly—Yan Xue lowered her sword.
But her eyes didn't soften.
"I'm not giving you time," she said coldly. "I'm giving you a leash."
Shen Yi nodded.
Fair enough.
---
They spent hours studying the chamber.
The cocoon remained still, its heartbeat slow and quiet. Su Yao sketched the carvings and copied a few glyphs. Yan Xue didn't speak again, and Shen Yi stayed seated a few feet from the altar, eyes half-closed, as if meditating.
But he wasn't.
He was listening.
And the more he listened, the more he felt… drawn.
Not in the way the Immortal Demon Skill once pulled at him, urging violence.
This was different.
It felt like a memory on the edge of waking.
A shadow behind a door that hadn't opened in years.
Once, he had devoured power without thought. Without care. But this… this felt older. Quieter.
More like a mirror than a monster.
---
That night, they camped above ground again. No one suggested sleeping underground.
The village was just as empty as before, but the fog had lifted slightly—like whatever presence had stirred was resting again.
They took turns keeping watch.
Su Yao sat first, whispering a protection mantra every few breaths. Shen Yi took second, his senses alert to even the faintest shifts in qi.
Yan Xue took last.
She didn't sit.
She stood at the edge of the broken village gate, watching the distant woods.
She wasn't listening for movement.
She was listening for herself.
Because something had shifted inside her.
She'd been so sure—so prepared to strike him down if he turned. She still was. But the clarity she once clung to was… blurring.
The boy she once loved had turned into a nightmare.
But now, standing beside this version of him—the one who remembered nothing but still carried the weight—something hurt more than her hate.
It was the possibility that maybe, just maybe…
…he hadn't chosen it.
And if that were true…
What did it say about her revenge?
---
At sunrise, Su Yao gave Shen Yi the orders from the Sect Lord.
"Report your findings. Do not bring the object back. Record glyphs and spiritual readings, then return."
Yan Xue said nothing during the briefing.
Shen Yi nodded. "I'll go back down one more time. Alone."
Su Yao hesitated. "You sure?"
"I need to know if it'll respond to me again."
Yan Xue met his eyes. "If it consumes you, I won't wait this time."
"I know."
---
He descended before midday.
The chamber was just as he left it. Still. Silent.
But the moment he stepped close, the cocoon pulsed stronger.
One heartbeat.
Two.
Then… a whisper.
A real one.
Not imagined. Not internal.
It came from the cocoon itself.
"…Shen Yi…"
He froze.
The voice was female.
Young.
Not Su Yao.
But familiar.
He stepped closer.
"What are you?" he whispered.
"Remember…"
He reached out a hand.
Not to touch—just to feel.
The moment his qi brushed the surface, the world around him vanished.
---
He stood on a mountaintop of shadow.
The sky above him bled red and gold. The ground below was scorched black. Screams echoed far below, but none reached him here.
Before him stood a woman.
Her hair was long and pale. Her eyes glowed silver. And her robes bore no sect crest—but shimmered with an aura that felt impossibly ancient.
"You shouldn't be here," she said.
"Who are you?"
"I was once your mirror."
"I don't understand."
"You will."
She stepped toward him.
"The Immortal Demon Skill is not a technique. It's a seed. A key."
"To what?"
"To a prison."
"A prison for what?"
She smiled sadly. "For what you were."
Before he could ask more, her form dissolved into mist.
And the vision ended.
---
Shen Yi gasped and fell back.
Su Yao caught him.
He hadn't heard her arrive.
"I felt your qi spike," she said. "What happened?"
He looked up slowly, heart pounding.
"There's someone inside the cocoon."
"What?"
"Or… something that used to be someone. It knew my name."
Yan Xue stepped into the chamber next.
She looked at him. "Did it show you anything?"
He nodded.
"And?"
"I think it's trying to tell me the truth."
Her voice sharpened. "Or trying to manipulate you."
He looked her dead in the eyes. "Then I need to know which."
She didn't reply.
---
They left the chamber at sunset.
The cocoon stayed behind.
Quiet.
But the glyphs around the altar had changed—just slightly.
One new word had appeared, scratched into the stone like it had been waiting for them to see it:
"Return."
---
Back at the sect two days later, the Sect Lord read the report with no visible reaction.
But when he finished, he folded it slowly and looked up.
"Assign him more tasks," he said to Elder Han. "Send him farther. Into older places. I want to see what else wakes when he walks near."
"And if more things like this cocoon appear?"
The Sect Lord's eyes narrowed.
"Then we prepare for the truth. No matter how old. No matter how buried."
---
That night, Shen Yi stood alone beneath the plum tree in the northern courtyard.
The petals were falling again.
Like they always did.
But this time, he didn't see blood.
He saw her hand.
The one that reached for him—back then.
And he remembered something strange.
Not pain.
Not fear.
But warmth.
Just for a moment.
Then it was gone.
End of Chapter 19