The subspace pulsed like a sleeping heart.

ast plains of black stone stretched endlessly beneath a sky that shimmered with faint auroras like bands of violet and jade that rippled without wind. Here, where the mountain's soul had folded upon itself, the Liu clan had built a world within a world.

Settlements clung to the slopes of the shadowed valley, their lights faint but alive. From above, they looked like constellations fallen upon obsidian earth. Every hammer stroke, every murmured chant of cultivation echoed strangely through the cavernous expanse, amplified by the stone itself.

For the first time in many days, the Liu had peace. if peace could be defined as the stillness before yet another storm. Li Wei stood upon the balcony of his new abode, which jutted from the mountainside like a shard of crystal.

The wind that stirred here was not true air but an imitation, mainly qi-driven currents that carried the scent of mineral and old incense. He breathed deeply. The quiet was deceptive, but he had learned to find meaning in falsehood.

Below him, thousands labored to raise shelters and storehouses along the valley floor. The clang of forges mingled with the murmurs of prayer from the shrines Ning Xue's disciples tended at the valley's rim.

It was a fragile order, but it was theirs.

Jia Lin's command posts dotted the upper ridges, banners of white and silver snapping in the wind. Mei Yu had converted the western cavern into a library and bureau, its walls lined with glowing glyphs that mapped the ley currents of this strange dimension.

While Ning Xue, ever the calm hand chose to walk among the people daily, lending comfort where attitude faltered.

Li Wei's gaze softened as he watched them. "Even a flower grown in shadow still blooms for the sun," he murmured. But his fingers clenched around the Heart Stone, and warmth seeped through his palm.

Too much warmth. The relic's inner light throbbed, responding to his thoughts as if eager to reveal its secret. He frowned. Its resonance was growing stronger each day, its pulses echoing through the subspace walls like distant thunder.

That rhythm was alive, insistent and was not one the mortal ear was meant to hear.

It calls to something beyond.

He could feel it, as clearly as he could feel the slow march of time. The more he studied it, the more he feared that its radiance might pierce the veil that protected them. If the imperial seers or the Blood Path acolytes traced this energy, even the mountain's subspace would not remain hidden for long.

It was this fear that kept him silent.

When Jia Lin had confronted him earlier that day, her voice had been low but steady. "Master, why keep the truth from them? The workers, the cultivators, the elders—they deserve to know what we guard."

Li Wei had replied without turning. "When one longs to see home, they may not be weary of the things obstructing them. Hope, untempered, is a blade without a hilt."

Jia Lin had bowed, though the flicker in her eyes betrayed her unease. She was the kind who thrived in clarity; he, the kind who hid light until it became a torch.

Now, standing alone beneath the phantom auroras, Li Wei watched the faint mist rising from the valley floor and whispered, "They will know soon enough. When the path opens, not before."

Later that evening, he convened the others in his hall.

The chamber was simple consisting mainly bare stone walls illuminated by lanterns of pale blue flame. The scent of sandalwood lingered faintly, mixing with the mineral tang of the mountain's breath.

At the room's center stood a low table carved from black jade, upon which the Heart Stone rested within a ring of etched sigils. Leng Yue stood at attention near the wall, silent and composed. Her white robes seemed to drink in the lamplight, her eyes calm yet sharp as river ice.

Jia Lin entered first, with dust lingering from the forges still on her sleeves. Mei Yu followed, carrying a sheaf of scrolls heavy with notes, and finally Ning Xue, serene as ever, hands folded around a prayer bead string that shimmered faintly with protective light.

Li Wei gestured for them to sit. "You've each done well," he began quietly. "In three short months, you have turned a situation of desolate conditions into a habitable refuge. But this peace is not eternal, it is temporary."

"Temporary? Why do you say that?" Ning Xue asked softly.

Li Wei's gaze drifted to the ceiling where veins of faint light pulsed through the stone. "From the world itself. The ley currents are thinning. The mountain does not wish us harm, but neither does it wish to harbor us for long."

Mei Yu's brow furrowed. "Then the subspace—"

"—is beginning to push us away," he finished.

A heavy silence followed. Only the hum of the Heart Stone filled the air.

"Master," Jia Lin said after a moment, "if that is the case, then perhaps we should seek a new refuge aboveground before the forces of the imperial palace discover us."

Li Wei shook his head. "Aboveground is chaos. The empire devours its children, and Crescent Moon burns anew. No, what we need is not retreat, but passage."

He placed a hand over the Heart Stone. "This… is a key. But a key that opens both directions."

Leng Yue finally spoke. "You mean to use it?"

Li Wei met her gaze. "Yes. But not for escape. For balance."

She said nothing, though her fingers tightened subtly at her side.

He rose, drawing from his sleeve a series of talisman papers inscribed with sigils older than the sects themselves. As he placed them in a circle around the relic, the air began to thrum.

"Master," Mei Yu said, alarmed, "the resonance—it's rising!"

"I know," Li Wei replied. His voice remained calm, but the faint strain in his eyes betrayed the effort. "When heaven and earth part ways, one must stitch the seam anew. The gate must be forged, or the stone will consume itself."

Leng Yue stepped forward instinctively, but he raised a hand to stop her. "Stay where you are. This task cannot be shared."

As he pressed his palm against the Heart Stone, the air rippled outward in concentric rings of light. The lanterns guttered; shadows twisted. Symbols flared along the floor, forming a lattice of silver fire that coalesced into a spinning sigil above the jade table.

The mountain trembled.

"Master!" Ning Xue cried.

Li Wei's voice cut through the storm of energy. "Do not fear! The heavens favor those who act without arrogance. What I do now is not defiance—it is negotiation!"

A column of light shot upward, piercing the ceiling and vanishing into the depths above. For a brief instant, the subspace seemed to breathe. Then the sigil contracted into a point of dazzling brilliance—

and opened.

A gate—no larger than a man—hung in the air, its edges rippling like liquid glass. Beyond it shimmered a world of shifting shadow and faint starlight, neither fully real nor wholly imagined.

Li Wei exhaled, sweat streaking his temples. "It is done."

The others could only stare.

Mei Yu knelt by the Heart Stone, now dim and still, its energy exhausted. "You have drained it nearly dry."

"It will recover," he said quietly. "As will I."

He looked to Leng Yue. "You will remain here as regent. Guide them. If this realm grows unstable, evacuate the settlements into the upper caverns. Jia Lin will command the guard; Mei Yu will monitor the leyline. Ning Xue…"

She bowed before he could finish. "I will keep their hearts steady."

Li Wei nodded, satisfied. "Good. Then the Liu will endure, even if I do not."

Leng Yue's composure wavered. "Master, you speak as if you do not intend to return."

"The river's course cannot be judged by its first bend," he said with a faint smile. "I will return when the tide allows. Until then, the mountain must breathe freely once more."

He turned to the gate. Its surface rippled like the skin of a lake under moonlight. He could feel the pull—the faint hum of the world beyond, the call of destiny unfulfilled.

Without another word, he stepped forward.

The light swallowed him whole.

Silence fell.

The gate flickered, then steadied into a faint glow, as though waiting.

Ning Xue's voice was the first to break the quiet. "He walks a road none of us can follow."

Mei Yu's hands trembled slightly as she gathered the scattered talismans. "Then may the mountain remember his name."

Leng Yue turned toward the Heart Stone, which now pulsed faintly, as if echoing Li Wei's heartbeat somewhere beyond. "He entrusted us with a living world," she said. "Let us ensure it is worth returning to."

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