Chapter 40 – Echoes in the Abyss

  The fog hadn’t lifted even after the trial ended.

  Tianming blinked slowly, breath curling in the cold mist as the echoes of the Trial of Masks faded into silence. He looked around—no masked elders, no voice announcing success or failure, no visible path forward. Just the dense, soul-dampening fog that clung to their clothes and chilled their bones.

  Lei Xueyan shivered and pulled her cloak tighter. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “Did we… fail?”

  “No,” Jiang Chen said, lips drawn into a tight line. “They’re testing us still. They just didn’t tell us.”

  They wandered for hours through the obscured terrain beyond the main gate of the Nether Abyss Sect. The fog seemed alive, shifting with each step they took, twisting their sense of direction. No gates opened. No elders returned. It was as though the trial had been a trick—and they were discarded now.

  Then, through the veil of mist, came movement—shadowy figures in tattered robes moving with quiet steps, hesitation in every stride. Tianming raised a hand in caution, and the three stood at alert.

  A boy among the group—perhaps no older than sixteen—saw them and gasped. “You… you were in the trial?”

  Jiang Chen nodded. “You too?”

  The boy’s eyes filled with dread. “We were. We failed.”

  Another woman in the group stepped forward, her face pale and voice hoarse. “The elder said only those who faced their truest selves would be allowed entry. We couldn’t face it. So we were left here… like ghosts.”

  “How long have you been wandering?” Lei Xueyan asked, brow furrowed.

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  “Three days. Maybe four. There’s no way to know anymore.”

  Tianming studied them, then quietly asked, “Is there another way in?”

  The woman hesitated. “There’s a path. Forbidden. Through the ravine and beneath the old bones of the sect’s war beasts. It’s said to lead into the lower districts of the Nether Abyss.”

  “And you’ve seen it?” Xueyan asked.

  The boy nodded. “My brother tried it once. He never came back.”

  Tianming met Jiang Chen’s eyes. “It might be dangerous.”

  Jiang Chen gave a faint smirk. “So is standing here like fools in the mist.”

  “Show us the path,” Tianming said.

  Reluctantly, the group led them through the thick fog toward a jagged ravine veiled by time and overgrowth. The ground was slick, and sharp roots coiled like the claws of ancient beasts. They descended through the shadows of towering stone spines—remnants of monstrous creatures that had once defended the sect in wars long forgotten.

  There, hidden beneath a half-collapsed shrine, they found the entrance: a cracked archway, sealed with old runes barely glowing anymore.

  One of the former trial-goers placed a hand on the stone. “This is as far as we go.”

  Tianming nodded in thanks, eyes solemn. “You’ve helped more than you know.”

  As the trio stepped through the archway, the air changed—thicker, laced with unseen energy. The tunnel ahead was dark, its stone walls etched with swirling patterns and sigils that pulsed faintly as they passed. Lanterns glowed with ghostly flame, lighting their way deeper into the abyss.

  At last, they emerged into the outermost district of the Nether Abyss Sect.

  It felt like stepping into another world.

  Massive stone buildings rose in sharp angles, casting jagged shadows under a sky forever grey. The cultivators here moved in silence, their robes dyed in shades of midnight and ash, eyes hollow with secrets. Cries of caged spirit beasts echoed in the distance, and vendors sold talismans that reeked of blood offerings and bone marrow ink.

  Everything here whispered of power bought with sacrifice.

  Lei Xueyan clutched her sleeve tightly. “It’s like this place feeds off your fear.”

  Jiang Chen’s expression was unreadable. “No… it feeds off your will to survive.”

  And all the while, the mark on Tianming’s chest pulsed—dull and steady, as if the Nether Abyss itself was aware of his presence.

  Later that evening, as they sat by the quiet hearth of a secluded inn, their strange benefactors gone, a voice called out softly.

  “You made it.”

  Tianming turned to see the woman from before, cloaked in a robe too large for her and eyes dark with exhaustion. “I… I followed you. I had to know if it was real.”

  Tianming offered her food. She hesitated, then smiled faintly. “I don’t know why, but it feels less terrifying when you’re around.”

  Xueyan’s soft laughter filled the air. “You’ll get used to him. He’s like that.”

  For the first time since arriving in the sect, the three of them shared a moment of warmth—a fragile bond forming in a place that had none.

  But deeper shadows awaited.

  They didn’t know it yet, but one of those they would meet soon—perhaps a friend, perhaps a guide—would lead them to a powerful technique hidden in the second district…

  …and betray them in the process.

  Next up in chapter 41

  In the shadowed second district, the trio is guided to a hidden trial to learn a powerful technique.

  But no

  thing in the Nether Abyss is ever freely given.