The sun had barely lifted past the tree line when Wang Lin stood at the edge of a shattered training platform, its stone surface scorched and cracked. This had once been sacred ground for cultivation, where elders passed down arts now lost to time.
Now, it was a grave.
Lian Hua knelt nearby, lighting incense before a row of weathered memorial stones. Her hands didn't shake, but Wang Lin noticed the way her eyes never stopped scanning the shadows. She hadn't truly rested in days.
Behind them, Jin Tao sat perched on the branch of a blackened tree, carving a fruit with a curved knife. "You two are too quiet," he muttered, biting into the flesh. "You know what they say—quiet ruins hide loud secrets."
Wang Lin didn't answer. His gaze was fixed on a faint etching near the platform's edge—a sigil, barely visible, carved in ancient script. It pulsed faintly beneath his fingers, reacting to his presence.
Lian Hua noticed. "That wasn't there before."
"No," Wang Lin murmured. "This… is a seal. Someone tried to hide something here. Not recently."
Jin Tao jumped down, brushing dirt from his clothes. "Then maybe we're not the only ones interested in this place."
The sigil flared.
A low hum resonated beneath their feet, followed by a grinding noise from below. Part of the platform cracked open, revealing a hidden stairwell descending into darkness.
Wang Lin's heart pounded. The Abduction Path stirred faintly within him, sensing energy—old, tangled, and bound by blood.
"Should we?" Lian Hua asked, already unsheathing her short blade.
Jin Tao shrugged. "I'm not the kind to ignore ominous underground staircases in cursed ruins. Lead the way."
They descended slowly, each step echoing with ancient weight. The air turned cold, damp with the scent of rotting paper and sealing wax.
At the bottom, they entered a long-forgotten chamber lined with scrolls and cracked tablets. But at the center stood something unexpected — a statue.
A man cloaked in robes, a third eye carved into his forehead.
Lian Hua recoiled slightly. "That's… that's the founder of our sect. But his likeness was forbidden to be replicated after the Great Disappearance."
Wang Lin approached, narrowing his eyes. "There's energy coming from the statue. Sealed. Powerful."
Suddenly, the air shifted.
A soft voice echoed in their minds, ethereal and hollow.
> "Child of the Abduction Path… you carry the mark of what was once stolen from the heavens…"
Wang Lin staggered.
The Abduction Path surged within him — not painfully, but as if… awakening.
Jin Tao drew his blade. "I really hate when statues talk."
The statue's third eye pulsed once.
Then… silence.
But Wang Lin felt it: something had changed.
The seal was weakening.
The Temple would come.
And deep below the surface, something long-buried had stirred....