Chapter 22 – The Gate That Dreams
The stars above Qinghe flickered like candle flames in a restless wind.For the first time in a thousand years, the heavens themselves trembled — not because of divine wrath, but because of something they could not understand.
Ren Yu stood in the heart of the canyon, surrounded by still air. The night had fallen silent after the Abyssal Messenger's departure, but silence was never just absence. It was breath before the storm.
He sat cross-legged, eyes closed, the three suns of his inner world pulsing faintly — gold, silver, and black, each beating to a different rhythm. They clashed, twisted, and bled into one another, forming a spiral of chaotic harmony.
Lira watched from a distance, her sword drawn but resting on the ground. Her instincts screamed that something unnatural was happening, but her heart refused to move away.
When the wind stirred again, it carried a sound — faint, melodic, almost like a lullaby whispered through dreams.
Ren Yu's eyes opened slowly. "It's calling again…"
The Dream Beneath the World
He saw it again — the Gate.Not as stone or steel, but as thought. It existed between one breath and the next, behind the thin veil of reality. When he reached for it, the world around him began to bend.
The trees swayed though there was no wind. The moon flickered between phases — full, half, crescent — every second. The mountains in the distance shimmered like mirages.
He heard whispers again — but this time they were clearer.
"The horizon awakens. The dream remembers."
He stood, his spiritual aura bursting outward like a silent explosion. The ground cracked beneath his feet, revealing glowing veins of golden and black light intertwined.
Lira took a step back. "Ren, stop! You're distorting the spiritual field!"
But he couldn't stop. He had to see.
The Gate pulsed within his mind — a vast archway of shimmering symbols and formless light. It was beautiful and terrible, infinite yet impossibly close. It wasn't opening outward. It was opening inward.
Ren Yu realized then — it wasn't a doorway to another world.It was a doorway within him.
The Echo of His Former Life
A sudden memory tore through his mind — sharp, clear, and utterly alien.
He stood in a vast hall filled with golden armor and banners of ancient script. Thousands knelt before him.He wore black and white robes — a mark of a Dual Monarch.At his feet, a broken spear glowed with dying light.
"Your Majesty," a voice said, trembling. "The heavens refuse your ascension. The abyss demands your blood."
He had smiled then — a smile filled with defiance. "Then I will rewrite both."
The memory shattered. Ren Yu gasped for air, clutching his head. His vision blurred as the Gate within his soul pulsed faster.
Lira rushed to him. "Ren! What did you see?"
He opened his eyes, dazed. "A life… before this one."
"Your past life?" she whispered.
He nodded slowly. "No. Something older. A life the world erased."
The Gate's Awakening
The sky turned red.
All around Qinghe, spiritual beasts screamed and fled. The stars vanished, replaced by a shifting void.From beneath the canyon, an immense sound echoed — a heartbeat, slow and ancient, shaking the ground like thunder.
Ren Yu looked up, eyes glowing with threefold light.The Gate was no longer a vision. It was there — in the air above him, a colossal arch of black-gold fire, suspended in the void.
Lira fell to her knees, awe and terror mingling in her gaze. "Ren… what have you done?"
He stepped forward. "It's not me. The Gate responds to my pulse. The three suns are… keys."
The Gate pulsed again, sending waves of spiritual distortion across the land. Mountains cracked. Rivers reversed their flow. Time itself seemed to hesitate.
Then, for the briefest instant, the Gate opened.
The World Without Shape
Light poured through — but it wasn't light as mortals knew it.It was colorless, infinite, filled with sound and silence at once. Within it floated shapes — broken fragments of stars, faces without names, and cities that bent in impossible directions.
Ren Yu stood at the edge, his soul trembling. He could feel everything — every breath of life across the world, every heartbeat, every whisper of pain and joy. But beneath it all was something else. Something vast. Watching.
A voice spoke — not aloud, but through the core of his being.
"You are the Continuum — the bridge between end and origin."
He dropped to one knee, gasping. "What are you?"
"We are the dream the heavens forgot."
Suddenly, an enormous shadow moved within the Gate — serpentine, radiant, its scales made of shattered stars.
Lira's eyes widened. "A… dragon?"
Ren Yu whispered, "No. The first dragon."
The Will of the First Flame
The creature spoke, its voice echoing across planes of existence."Three suns. Three pulses. Yet balance eludes you. Will you bear the burden of both creation and decay?"
Ren Yu met its gaze, trembling but resolute. "If that's what it takes to protect this world… then yes."
The dragon's eyes flared like galaxies. "Then the Gate will open fully, when the suns converge and shadow finds form."
A blinding flash enveloped him — and when it cleared, he was back on the canyon floor, the Gate gone as if it had never been.
But something had changed.
A mark now glowed faintly on his chest — a ring of three intertwined lights.
Lira stared at it. "That's not… spiritual energy. That's…"
Ren Yu finished softly, "The mark of the Continuum. The Gate lives within me now."
He looked up at the storm-filled sky, his expression calm but determined."If heaven and abyss cannot coexist… then I'll forge a path where both can."
Elsewhere – The Sky Palace Trembles
The Supreme Elder clutched his staff, sweat running down his brow. "The readings… impossible! The abyssal resonance has merged with divine frequency!"
A younger elder whispered, "He's rewriting the very fabric of cultivation…"
The Supreme Elder closed his eyes, muttering, "Ren Yu… you've begun something none of us can end."
Lightning tore across the heavens, splitting the clouds. And from the depths of the earth, something vast stirred again — an echo of the Gate, now seeded in every living being.