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š Voyage to the Sea of Screams
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š Summary So Far:
Wang Wu has:
Formed his True Soul Core (Eye Core), combining Void, Flame, and Memory
Opened the Third Gate of the Void Pulse Scripture
Defeated a Heaven-Touched envoy sent by the Immortal Law Court
Become marked by Heaven as a deviation, hunted by multiple ancient forces
But now, to unlock the Fourth Gate, he must travel beyond the known worldāto a place even immortals avoid:
> The Sea of Screams.
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šŗļø The Map that Should Not Exist
Two days after defeating the Heaven-Touched envoy, Wang Wu returned to the Ruins of Gray Prayer, a long-abandoned temple said to hold echoes of lost destinies.
There, hidden beneath a broken altar, he found itā
A map drawn in soul ink, etched on the stretched skin of an ancient being, still faintly warm.
It depicted the Western Deadlands, an endless salt desert that collapsed into a coast. But the final destination was off the mapāwritten in characters that twisted when stared at:
> "ęµ·éååø" ā Hai Hun Ai Xiao ā Sea of Screams.
The Sea is not drawn. It's felt.
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š¾ Crossing the Deadlands
The Western Deadlands were unlike any desert.
No sun. No sky.
Only fog and bones.
He walked for three days through shifting dunes made from white ash. Each step cracked ancient remains. The wind moaned like children weeping.
He passed cities half-swallowed in the sand, temples upside down, and statues that bled salt.
Sometimes, he swore he heard voices:
> "Rootlessā¦"
"Come backā¦"
"This isn't your pathā¦"
Wang Wu ignored them.
He could not turn back.
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šŖØ The Spirit Caravan
On the fourth day, as his last water pill dissolved, he encountered something impossible:
A caravan of blindfolded spirit-beasts pulling a black carriage made of folded stone. Atop it sat an old man in a white prayer robe.
He was weeping blood.
> "Traveler," he said. "Do you seek the Sea?"
Wang Wu nodded.
The man gestured to the black carriage.
> "Only one way to reach it. Walk with the dead."
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š¢ The Descent to the Sea
Inside the carriage, time dissolved.
Wang Wu saw visions through the misted windows:
Cultivators drowning in gold flame, begging Heaven to forgive their pride
A god falling from the sky, his wings eaten by laughter
A tree growing from corpses, whispering the names of the unborn
Thenā¦
The carriage stopped.
Before him was no ocean.
Only a vast plain of glass shards under a storm of screams.
The sea wasn't water.
It was made of memory.
> "This is the Sea of Screams," the old man said. "Where broken karma is buried."
> "To enter, you must drown."
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ā°ļø Drowning in Memory
Wang Wu stepped into the sea.
Immediately, thousands of voices pierced his mind. Every regret, every death he'd caused, every moment he'd forgottenāthey came back.
The face of his childhood friend he let die in the Ice Sect raid
The screams of a cultivator he tricked for a talisman
His mother's last breath, covered in dust, whispering "run"
He screamed.
His Qi flared.
But the sea was not physicalāit couldn't be fought.
> "Let go," a voice whispered.
"Accept what you are. Or be lost."
He let go.
He let the Sea take him.
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š Beneath the Surface
He sank for what felt like weeks.
Thenā
He landed in a place without light.
Without time.
A cave beneath the Sea of Screams.
And thereā¦ stood a gate.
Not made of stone.
Not made of light.
But made of names.
Every letter in the gate was a memory of someone forgotten.
> "The Fourth Gate of the Void Pulse Scripture," Wang Wu said aloud.
It opened.
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š Inside the Fourth Gate: Origin Spiral
Inside, space looped in impossible ways.
Walls turned into sky. Mountains became rivers. Stars blinked from beneath the floor.
And in the center:
A massive rootless tree, dead and petrified, growing out of a floating skull.
Etched on its bark:
> "Here grows the tree of what never happened."
He stepped forward.
Each footstep triggered a memory he never lived.
A girl he never saved
A sect he never joined
A child he never had
These were paths not taken, each pulling on his soul.
> "This is the cost of the Fourth Gate," said a voice behind him.
"The path of all your forsaken truths."
Wang Wu turnedā
And faced himself, aged and blind, bleeding from a thousand invisible wounds.
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š©ø Dialogue with the Rootless Self
> "What are you?" Wang Wu asked.
> "I am the version of you that remembers everything."
> "The one who never forgot. Never lied. Never turned away."
Wang Wu fell to his knees.
He saw visions of lives he could've livedāhonest, small, kind.
But he had walked the path of stealing, fighting, rising.
> "You can't carry them all," the Rootless Self said.
"But you must acknowledge them."
> "Only then can the Fourth Gate remain open."
Wang Wu wept.
Then stood.
> "I carry the weight. I choose the cost."
> "Let it break me. Or let it crown me."
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š Fourth Gate Opens
The tree exploded into dust.
The cave tore apart.
A pulse surged through Wang Wu's Eye Core, expanding it. Golden chains wrapped his limbsāmemories of past selves, sealed within his body.
And then:
He reappeared on the surface of the Sea of Screams.
But no longer drowning.
Now, the sea whispered to him.
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End of Episode 17
New Powers and Traits Unlocked:
š Fourth Gate of Void Pulse Scripture: Path of Forsaken Truths
š Wang Wu can now manifest the powers of one "version" of himself that never existed (once per battle)
š "Memory Chains" now protect his soul from outside manipulation
š His Qi has been permanently infused with Sea Memory essence
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ā ļø Consequences
The Sea of Screams is now awake.
Across the world, memories once erased are returning.
Forgotten enemies. Lost truths. Dead legaciesārising again.
Heaven cannot seal what has already been touched by the Sea.