A harsh, whispering hiss echoed as Yung Mai forced his way through it, stepping on the ground hastily and gasping.

The blades of the grass brushed and slid against each other as the golden staff slammed on it, forcing the grass to bend against their will.

A dry rustling—shrrk, ssshh—echoed as stems bent and snapped back the moment Yung Mai finally stepped out of the tall grass and faced the direction of the bright light seeping out of the building like a blasting sun.

After moving five steps forward, Yung Mai's eyes widened the moment he saw a humanoid figure walking through the bright light.

Instantly, sweat snaked down his temple, rested on his eyelid, before finally falling off and blasting as it slammed on the mixture of grass and wet sand land.

A cracking sound echoed around him as his jaw clenched, and when his eyes narrowed, he saw two dual eyes, red and blue, glowing brightly like two suns placed beside each other.

"What is that?!" he said in a shocked voice that carried the rumbling speed his heart heaved.

Two minutes after the figure stepped out of the glowing purple light, all the rain that had stopped began to fall heavily, as if the invincible string holding them had been cut loose.

As the raindrops touched the ground, Yung Mai rushed forward, noticing the figure that had walked out of the glowing purple light to be Kai.

The moment he reached Kai's side, he lowered himself and grabbed Kai mid-fall.

"Gray…" a soft breeze echoed from Kai's mouth the moment his body bounced in Yung Mai's arms.

Hearing the name, Yung Mai's facial expression changed.

In his palms, Yung Mai could feel the boy's fast-paced heart humming as if he was holding the boy's heart instead of his body.

Kai's eyes blinked twice, then on the fourth blink, the glowing blue and red colors dimmed, giving him the normal dull-colored eyes.

Though they were the same blue and red, they weren't as bright as when he exited the building.

…

Carrying the boy and sending him into the meditation chamber where the large wooden monument was, Yung Mai pulled out two incense sticks and lit them beside the boy's body.

Then, he picked up a white cloth from the table the incense was on, wrapped it around the boy's body, letting it cover the large scar that had drawn from his left shoulder to both sides of his body—front and back.

Wind blew, blowing the lit incense and letting them flicker.

For a straight ten minutes, the light kept on flickering softly, as if guiding the light to glow brighter.

When Yung Mai knelt beside the boy's wrapped body and clapped his palms together, praying, a devastating wind gashed into the room, blowing all the incense light off.

Pale ribbons of incense smoke spread through the chamber, settling into the air like a quiet prayer that refused to fade. Yet, Yung Mai didn't stop praying; he kept on reciting the words over and over again.

"I kneel in absence. I offer the dark within. Turn your gaze on us. Let your light consume us. And let your shadow fall over your servant."

He stretched his arm toward Kai's body, then shouted.

"O Veiled King, who wore flesh and shadow alike, hear us beneath your silent throne."

"I offer the darkness born in your servant, Kai, and ask only this. Let your shadow fall, and mark him worthy to endure."

The moment Yung Mai's incantation ended, the entire Shadow Cult environment turned black, including the blue ponds and sea that moved under the buildings and bridges.

A shuffling sound echoed from the weapon room, as metals and staffs slammed on the ground with no human force.

All the drawers in the walls flew open, sending out all the sharp objects flying hastily in the room. But among the 101 drawers, only 100 drawers opened, leaving one unopened.

And when the last drawer shot open, a loud scream came from the meditation chamber, piercing through the ears of all the monks sleeping in their separate rooms.

All fifty monks jolted upright, their faces tense, yet they couldn't see anything, not even their own bodies, as the entire place remained as if a lightless void had struck them.

For minutes, the monks screamed:

"…What's going on?"

"…Are we dead?"

"…Where are my hands?"

"…I can't feel my body, what!"

"…Help!!!"

While the screams filled the air like an orchestrated instrument, the obsidian sword jolted from the last drawer and floated about in the weapon room.

Waves of wind and frequencies moved around it like a magnet as it hummed as if a human heart had been placed inside.

Debris fell from the walls of the weapon storage room as the obsidian sword slammed itself countless times against the door.

But as the door blasted open on the fifth attempt, the obsidian sword shot straight into the water beneath the bridge and vanished.

For thirty minutes, it didn't come up, and the shuffling sounds and the screams also lowered as the darkness that encapsulated the environment vanished.

…

Inside the meditation chamber, where the incense table was, the ground shook heavily as if a hibernating volcano was now ready to erupt and gash out the hot fire in it.

Sweat and black liquids gashed out of Kai's trembling body, tiling on the ground and stretching toward the direction of Yung Mai.

Yung Mai's knees shook as his knees began to shake, following the rhythm the ground was shaking to.

His closed eyes blinked countless times, opening and closing, and when they finally opened wide, he moved from the ground and moved three steps backward.

No matter how much he moved away from the mixture of the thick black liquid and the sweat, they stretched toward him as if he was the purpose they seeped out for.

And when he stopped by the side of the wall, where darkness had overshadowed, a loud sound erupted from where he stood.

In an instant, the pale smoke darkened, followed by a sharp, piercing sound.

Yung Mai placed his palms on his ears, covering them while his face tightened, as the sound grew louder and louder as if an excavator was finding its way toward where they were.

And in the blink of an eye, the ground cracked into two folds, followed by vaporized air that gave the air a vaporized, fire-like taste.

The obsidian sword shot right out of the center of the hole that had become visible, then hovered above the wrapped body.

The world in Yung Mai's view collapsed as he saw the obsidian sword melt and drip onto the white cloth wrapped around where the wound was.

Within two minutes, Yung Mai didn't move; he stood there silent, shocked, and devoid of any emotion he could think of, if only he was able to think at that moment.

The darkened smoke filled the room, snaking through Yung Mai's eyes and blocking his vision.

…

Meanwhile, at the top of the stairs and at the large courtyard of the temple, smoke filled the air so deep it clung to the walls like paper.

Several monks moved hastily, entering and exiting through the doors of the buildings, holding onto buckets of water.

They marched in one direction, tossing the buckets to the ones in front of them and passing them until they reached the one standing by the Wu Guan and the buildings closer to it.

"More water!"

Screams shot into the air as those standing by the burning buildings splashed the water and emptied the buckets, then handed them back.

Sweat snaked down their faces, yet they never stopped handing the buckets to each other, and those at the front of the burning buildings also never stopped splashing the water on the buildings.

After all the burning buildings were filled with evaporated air as the fire had been quenched, Jude, the leader of the Whispering Wind, and a few other monks of the Whispering Wind Cult walked out of the group of monks, shaking their heads.

"What do you think will be the cause of the fire outbreak?" Jude asked, turning a confused gaze at the leader of the Whispering Wind Cult.

The leader turned and shook his head, then gestured for them to hurry up as they continued climbing to the top of the mountainside of the Western Temple.

Outside the main entrance of the Western Temple, the branches of the bamboo shook, letting old leaves fall and give way to new ones.

At the exit of the bamboo forest, seabirds flew to the canopies of the bamboo, flapping their wings joyfully.

As the birds turned and moved back toward the seaside, the sound of crashing waves filled the air, swallowing their cries.

Beneath the shoreline, turtles with white bodies appeared, paddling through the wet sand and moving toward the jagged stones.

But as the first and smallest one reached the stone, jagged teeth slammed into the turtle's shell, crushing its skull and letting blood splash onto the sand.

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