The two of them closed in on the stone marker.
And on their way Riven noticed something that made him shiver.
The corpses weren't just unharmed, they were also extremely thin, emaciated.
Skin clinging to bone where it remained, robes hanging like deflated cloth.
"What the hell happened here?"
Their faces—what little remained—were hollowed.
Riven's expression hardened as they neared the stone.
A few steps later they arrived.
The huge stone door, and the upright stone marker in front.
Their eyes narrowed as they tried to make out the text on it.
"To those who have reached this place:
You have passed the first test.
You possess enough potential to be my successor.
Congratulations."
"First test?" Riven muttered.
His mind flashed back to the lake.
To the water passing through his body.
As if… testing something.
A cold chill ran through him.
If I hadn't passed whatever it was testing…
Would he have died in the lake?
Drowned before even reaching this cave?
Now that he thought about it…
The pressure had only lifted after the strange water currents had left his veins.
He swallowed, hard.
Yue Lin stepped closer, brow furrowed.
"Successor?" she repeated aloud.
In the cultivation world it wasn't that unheard of for strong cultivators to prepare some kind of trial before passing down their skills when they were about to pass away.
If so, this might be what people called fortune in misfortune.
It was a chance for them to improve by leaps and bounds.
Both of them continued reading.
"The second trial is one of fate."
"If you and another may simultaneously channel your qi into the door's grooves, it will open."
"If no other arrives in time… then you were simply not fated."
"I hope you brought enough rations."
"Good luck."
Silence.
Then the realization hit.
Why they all had no wounds.
Why they'd died spaced apart.
Why they'd been so thin.
They hadn't been killed.
They'd starved.
Their faces paled — both of them.
This most definitely wasn't the legacy of some benevolent sage.
Riven's gaze slowly swept the chamber again. Bones, robes, faded weapons — all scattered like remnants of a forgotten pilgrimage.
He turned toward Yue Lin — and found her already looking at him.
Her expression was unreadable. Calm, but with a tightness in her jaw. Like she was forcing it.
And yet, seeing her there — alive, solid, familiar — grounded him.
He'd never been more relieved to see her quiet, stoic face than now.
"Shall we open the door then?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.
Afterall they didn't really have a choice here.
It was that, or starve to death.
But her response caught him off guard.
"Yes. But first…"
She turned away — facing the corpses.
"…I'd like to collect them."
"What?" he blinked.
She looked back at him, calm as ever. "What do you know about the Graveweaver Court?"
"Uh… not much. They deal with corpses?"
"Exactly," she said, nodding slightly. "And especially the corpses of strong or talented people. They're valuable to us."
She motioned toward the fallen bodies.
"And while I don't know exactly what this place tested… if that expert thought they had enough potential to be brought down here... they're worth collecting."
Riven stared.
Right.
He always forgot.
No matter how nice she was to him. No matter if saved his life. No matter how innocent she looked — she was still a disciple of a demonic sect.
A corpse handler.
Someone who looked at a room full of the dead… and saw opportunity.
He exhaled.
Then again, who was he to judge?
He wasn't exactly from a clean sect either.
Or had only done good things.
His hands were stained with blood too.
And if this helped her grow stronger… he had no right to say anything…
"Go ahead," he said finally, waving a hand and sitting down beside the stone wall.
"I'll wait." He let out a dry chuckle. "Not like I can leave anyway."
A faint grin tugged at her lips — the tension easing, if only a little. She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
"I won't take long."
Yue Lin stepped lightly across the chamber, her footsteps careful but practiced, this was clearly not the first time she'd done this.
She pulled out a small talisman from who knows where — bone-white and etched with threadlike runes that pulsed faintly as she activated it.
One by one, she moved between the bodies, holding the charm just above each. A faint glow passed between corpse and talisman, and then the remains shimmered — shrinking, condensing — until they vanished entirely into the charm's surface with a whisper of pale light.
Riven watched from where he sat, in wonder and in thought, legs loosely crossed, needle still between his fingers but resting now in his lap.
At first he'd wanted to bring up their previous escape, but the longer he thought about it, the more he felt like he didn't have to.
It felt like what happened was just right.
As it should be.
He took her with him.
And she came back for him.
Simple as that.
He let out a slow breath and leaned his head back against the wall.
I hope these robes dry faster.
Unfortunately, while the chamber had air again and the water no longer reached this far, their clothes didn't magically dry with it. His robes were still soaked — heavy and clinging, a faint chill pressing into his spine.
There was an array sewn into the lining, but it was a cheap one. It cleared stains — blood, dust, the occasional smear of grass — but did nothing about water.
At least it looks good.
He resolved to check the clothes functions out properly too, if there was a next time.
Wait. He frowned slightly. How did Lumi not know about this?
Across the chamber, Yue Lin moved calmly from corpse to corpse.
Riven's gaze drifted to her sleeves — already dry. Her dress like robes looked immaculate, as if she'd never touched the lake at all.
Lucky, he thought. Cleans and dries.
He sighed. There wasn't anything he could do about it now.
All he could do was wait.
At least his body felt better. The brief rest had helped ease the strain from earlier — the aching backlash of Divine Speed was dulling.
Normally, he wouldn't have been pushed to that point. But carrying Yue Lin during it, then immediately running afterward without a single breath of pause, had pushed him past his limit.
Now, with time to recover, he was stable again.
Still, he wouldn't be able to use it again for a week.
He rubbed the back of his neck, flexing his fingers absently.
A few moments later, soft footsteps approached.
Yue Lin had finished.
She stood in front of him again, expression composed — though something about her seemed a touch more solemn than before.
"Ready?" she asked.
Riven pushed himself to his feet and nodded. "Yeah. Let's go."
Together, they turned toward the looming black door.
One groove for each of them.
No words needed.
They stepped forward — side by side — and raised their hands.
"Three," Riven murmured.
Yue Lin nodded. "Two."
"One."
Their palms pressed into the stone.
Qi flowed.
The grooves lit first — pale light spreading outward like veins of silver through the dark stone.
Then the door shuddered.
A low hum echoed through the chamber, deep and resonant, like the sound of a mountain exhaling.
Stone cracked — not from damage, but from movement. The door split down the center with a hiss, and then slowly began to slide open.
A rush of cold air swept past them.
The space beyond was utterly black. No glowing crystals. No nothing. Just darkness. Heavy. Endless.
Riven regretted not having brought hee Illuminating Stone from the Newbie's Trial right about now.
The two exchanged a glance. Neither of them said anything.
Then — as one — they stepped inside.
The air shifted the moment they crossed the threshold.
It was like walking through a curtain of static. A thin, invisible veil that hummed across their skin and made their bones feel just a little too light.
Riven stumbled slightly. Yue Lin caught herself against the wall.
The door groaned closed behind them — sealing them in with a sound like distant thunder.
Then —
Light bloomed.
Not from the walls.
Not from above.
But from below.
The ground under their feet began to glow — not with steady illumination, but with shifting patterns. Runes. Arrays. Symbols neither of them recognized — vast and slow-moving, like the surface of a turning clockwork engine beneath their boots.
And then—
The floor… dropped.
They didn't fall. Not exactly.
But the space around them fell away.
Stone and darkness peeled back like paper, revealing something far, far larger.
They were still standing — but now on a circular platform, suspended high above an impossible landscape.
A colossal cavern opened beneath them, so vast it could have swallowed a city.
Floating platforms drifted in the distance like shattered islands. Faint lights flickered between them — blue, green, crimson — like will-o'-wisps dancing between ruins.
At the far end of the chasm, barely visible, a mountain-sized statue sat slumped in the dark. Its shape was humanoid — but warped. Its limbs were far too long, almost spindled. Strands of stone — or something that looked like it — stretched from its back to the cavern walls, taut and silent like webbing in a forgotten lair.
Riven felt a chill coil up his spine.
He didn't like it.
But somehow… he knew.
Whatever that thing was —
That's where they had to go.