The morning mist on the slopes of Venomous Mountain turned deep crimson as the first drop of blood touched the ritual ground. Ye Lin watched from a high cliff, his new body half human, half dimensional trembling under the pressure of the iron butterfly on his back.
"[THEY ARE CALLING US,]" hissed the metal voice behind him, its wings clanging like blades sharpening against each other.
Below, the Patriarch of the Venomous Leaf Sect raised his red crystal—a fragment of an inner world stolen from a former Boundary Warden. The crystal pulsed in rhythm with Ye Lin's heart, pulling him toward it like a vast, living magnet.
Inside the Inner World:
Ye Lin's shadow now a beast with eight legs thrashed violently.
"[ATTACK THEM!]"
But in the farthest corner of that world, a small wooden hut creaked open. The scent of corn soup drifted out, followed by the voice of a mother long dead for ten years.
"Lin'er… don't become like them…"
In the outer world:
"Boundary Warden!" the Patriarch shouted, his robes dancing in a wind that didn't belong to this realm.
"Join us! Together we will"
Ye Lin gave him no chance to finish.
With a motion faster than his own awareness, he plunged one of his iron wings into the ritual ground.
Dimensional rupture.
The gathered energy reversed in an instant. The blood diagram glowed white-hot, sucking the cultivators into itself like insects trapped in amber. The Patriarch screamed, clutching his crimson crystal as it began to crack
"[NOW!]" shrieked the iron butterfly.
But Ye Lin had already made his choice.
With the last piece of his humanity, he turned his wing against his own chest.
The world split.
Darkness.
Between Dimensions:
When consciousness returned, the sky had turned a deep violet. Glass flowers cracked beneath his faltering steps. His body felt weightless, nearly translucent like a ghost forgotten by time.
In the distance, atop a throne of bones, a man in a gold mask poured crimson liquid into a skull.
"Ah," the voice echoed strangely as if many voices spoke as one.
"At last, you've arrived, new Warden. I've been waiting… for fresh meat."
The half-remaining butterfly on Ye Lin's back hissed softly:
"[I KNOW HIM...]"
The masked man laughed, removing the mask revealing a face that was Ye Lin's own, only older, with pitch-black eyes and a mouth full of jagged teeth.
"Welcome home, my other self."