Night in the Crimson Serpent Sect wasn't silent—it breathed.
Wind howled softly through bamboo corridors. The spirit lamps flickered in rhythm with the cold, unsettled air. Somewhere, a beast screamed in the outer forest, beyond the disciple walls. And deep underground, beneath layers of earth and ancient sealing formations, something pulsed with slow, forgotten power.
But Su Chen wasn't concerned with the mysteries.
Not yet.
He sat cross-legged in the abandoned herb shed behind Mistvale Garden, cloaked in the shadows of cracked wooden beams as moonlight spilled through a shattered windowpane.
Earlier, Lin Yao had silently offered him the space.
"No one comes here after dark," she'd whispered. "Too many spiders."
Su Chen didn't mind spiders.
He had once meditated atop the corpse of a demon serpent that stank of rot and poison for three months without flinching.
This? This was luxury.
> [Qi Channeling Time Remaining: 35 Hours, 52 Minutes]
[Current Progress: 12.1% → 13.6%]
Qi coursed through his meridians like a river carving through cracked stone. The foundation of his cultivation was taking shape, slowly but surely. Already, he had surpassed what most outer disciples accomplished in their first month.
And he still had over a day of System-boosted gathering left.
But his thoughts weren't on numbers.
They were on a name.
Elder Miao.
In Su Chen's previous life, Elder Miao had been the architect of one of the most catastrophic betrayals in the sect's history. She had nurtured disciples like flowers—only to crush them beneath her heel to fuel her advancement. He had been one of those sacrifices.
Once.
Not this time.
The next morning, Su Chen descended the cliffside path toward the Crimson Vault—a lesser-known sanctum where outer disciples could trade merit points for cultivation resources.
Officially, it was a reward hall for elite performers.
Unofficially, it was a web of bribes, secret trades, and shadow politics.
He passed beneath a blood-colored stone arch and stepped into the dark, humming interior. Elder Duan's personal disciples guarded the entrance, eyes sharp as blades, hands never far from their sword hilts.
Su Chen approached and handed over his wooden token—still fresh, still glowing faintly from the merit seal granted after his duel with Lu Shan.
One of the guards raised an eyebrow.
"Outer disciple with no Qi foundation, and already earning merit?"
Su Chen smiled, just a little. "I've always been ahead of the curve."
The man grunted, stepping aside.
Inside, the Crimson Vault revealed itself not as a glittering treasury, but as a quiet maze of glowing shelves. Jade slips, dusty scrolls, spirit bottles, and weapon manuals floated within transparent cubes, sealed by formation arrays that hummed with suppressed power.
Each item bore a price—not just in contribution points, but in reputation, allegiances, and sometimes... oaths.
But Su Chen wasn't here for treasure.
He was here for answers.
> [System Ping Detected]
[Hidden Item Nearby – "Broken Dao Mirror Fragment"]
His pulse sharpened.
That name—it didn't belong to the Crimson Serpent Sect. It was a relic from the Void Temple—his own domain, ten thousand years ago. A fragment of something forgotten, yet immensely powerful.
So it had survived.
Which meant someone had found it. Someone in this timeline had gotten there first.
He followed the faint blue guidance of the System, weaving between glowing cases toward the back shelves—where even the warding formations were brittle and dust choked the air.
And then—he stopped.
Someone was already there.
A boy. Tall. Robes clearly custom-stitched. A jade talisman shimmered on his belt—a symbol of direct inheritance.
But it wasn't the wealth that made Su Chen pause.
It was the aura.
Not overwhelming in power, but in something darker.
Arrogance. Cruelty. And beneath that, a suppressed, festering madness.
This wasn't just another disciple.
This was a future nightmare.
His name came rushing back from memory like a blade to the chest.
Ji Liang.
A direct descendant of one of the Twelve Founding Families.
In Su Chen's last life, Ji Liang had ascended swiftly to the inner sect, leaving a trail of corpses and chaos. A monster born of privilege and untouchable blood.
Ji Liang turned.
He had already sensed him.
"Looking for something?" he asked. His voice was light. Casual. But the undertone was steel.
Su Chen bowed. "Just browsing."
"Careful where you browse." Ji Liang's smile cut across his face like a crack in stone. "Some shelves are sharp. And they bite."
Su Chen's gaze flicked to the item in Ji Liang's hand.
It was cracked, but pulsing faintly with a golden shimmer.
The Dao Mirror Fragment.
In the last timeline, Ji Liang had used it to create a terrifying technique—one that allowed him to copy an opponent's techniques mid-battle. With it, he became a slaughterer, nearly unbeatable.
And now, Su Chen was seeing it firsthand.
> [Optional Objective Added: Steal or Copy Dao Mirror Fragment]
[Reward: Partial Memory Restoration – Void Arts Archive Lv. 1]
He bowed again. "I'll be careful."
Then he walked away.
For now.
That night, back in the dark of the herb shed, Su Chen sat not in meditation—but in calculation.
Ji Liang was a beast in a boy's skin. A viper wrapped in silk.
And Su Chen would either neutralize him—or steal the power that turned him into a threat.
> [Checkpoint Suggestion: After Dao Mirror Acquisition]
"Yes," Su Chen whispered. "First the mirror. Then the reset. Then the reckoning."