---
The Deadbone Wastes exhaled.
A gust of iron-scented wind rolled across the blighted landscape as Wen Wuxing's boots sank into the crimson-tinged soil. The ground itself felt wrong—not quite solid, not quite flesh—yielding underfoot like the chest of a dying beast. Behind him, Wen Qian adjusted her veil with hands that didn't tremble, but her knuckles had gone pale around the hilt of her dagger.
"Patriarch," she murmured, "the air here eats at spiritual sense. I can't extend detection beyond ten paces."
Wuxing didn't answer. His golden eyes tracked the pulsating veins threading through nearby "trees"—monstrous hybrids of bark and muscle tissue that wept viscous black fluid from knotholes resembling screaming mouths. The System's diagnostics scrolled relentlessly in his vision:
**[Bloodline Siphon Field - Stage IV]**
**[Current Drain: 0.3 Minor Realms/hour]**
**[Warning: Blood Moon Convergence in 3h 47m - Projected Drain Increase 300%]**
Xuanhu's low growl vibrated through the ground. The celestial tiger's normally radiant fur had dulled to a sickly bronze, its ears flat against its skull as it sniffed at a pool of congealed blood. A ripple passed through the liquid's surface—not from the wind, but from something stirring beneath.
Wen Zixuan suddenly gasped, clutching his chest. His Heaven's Pulse Meridian flared crimson through his robes. "They're singing," he choked out. "The trees—they're singing her name!"
The forest exploded.
Not with movement, but with sound—a thousand whispering voices rising from the gnarled trunks in perfect unison:
*"Lian... Lian... Lian..."*
The ground trembled as skeletal hands erupted from the blood pools. Not scattered bones, but complete skeletons moving with unnatural coordination—each one clad in fragments of Nine-Shadow Dynasty armor.
Wuxing's fist shattered the first attacker to powder before it fully surfaced. "Formation Delta," he commanded, his voice cutting through the cacophony.
Wen Qian moved like shadow given purpose. Silver threads unspooled from her sleeves, weaving through the air to form a shimmering barrier just as the second wave of skeletons lunged. Their bone fingers scraped against the threads, emitting ear-piercing shrieks as the conductive qi burned through them.
Xuanhu became a blur of fangs and fury, its massive paws crushing skulls with each swipe, but for every skeleton destroyed, two more clawed their way to the surface.
Zixuan stood frozen, his pupils dilated until only thin rings of white remained. "She's... she's changing the song," he whispered. Then screamed as his nose gushed blood: "THEY'RE COMING FROM BELOW!"
Wuxing barely had time to grab the disciple's collar before the earth beneath them collapsed.
---
**The Fall**
Darkness swallowed them whole.
Wuxing's body twisted mid-air, his spiritual sense screaming as the siphon field's intensity spiked during the descent. The System's warnings flashed like lightning strikes:
**[Bloodline Integrity: 94%... 87%... 79%...]**
They landed in a cavern so vast its ceiling vanished into gloom. The walls pulsed with bioluminescent veins, casting everything in eerie blue light. The ground beneath them wasn't stone—it was a latticework of fused bones, warm to the touch and vibrating with faint, rhythmic pulses.
Wen Qian rolled to her feet, daggers drawn. "This isn't a prison," she breathed. "It's a heart chamber."
Before Wuxing could respond, the bone lattice beneath them lit up with crimson runes. The voice that echoed through the cavern wasn't the Bone Collector's—it was deeper, older, vibrating with the weight of centuries:
"Welcome, descendants."
The runes flared, and the walls peeled open.
---
**The Crucible Revealed**
Wen Lian hung suspended at the center of a star-shaped platform, her arms outstretched in a mockery of embrace. Liquid shadows coiled around her limbs, merging seamlessly with her flesh where they touched. Her robes had mostly rotted away, revealing skin etched with glowing sigils that pulsed in time with the cavern's heartbeat.
But her eyes—those golden eyes identical to Wuxing's—were fully aware.
"You took your time," she said, her voice layered with echoes. "I've been calling for three hundred years."
Xuanhu whimpered, pressing its massive head against Wuxing's leg. The guardian beast's fur was shedding golden strands at an alarming rate, floating upward to be absorbed by the sigils on Wen Lian's skin.
**[Alert: Bloodline Reversion in Progress]**
**[Target: Wen Lian absorbing clan guardian essence]**
**[Countermeasures: None available]**
Wuxing stepped forward, his boots sinking slightly into the fleshy platform. "You're not trapped."
Wen Lian's laugh made the cavern walls bleed black tears. "Oh, I was. For the first century, at least." Her head tilted, shadows dripping from her hair like ink. "Then I realized the chains weren't holding me down—they were holding me together."
The sigils on her skin flared brighter. Somewhere above them, the earth rumbled as the Blood Moon's influence grew stronger.
"Now," Wen Lian whispered, "let's see if you're worthy of what comes next."
The shadows attacked.
---
**The Trial of Blood**
Wuxing's world dissolved into pain.
The liquid darkness didn't just pierce his flesh—it slithered into his meridians, burning like molten lead as it sought his core. The System's alerts became frantic:
**[Bloodline Integrity: 65%... 54%... 42%...]**
To his left, Wen Qian had collapsed, her veins standing out black beneath her skin as she convulsed. Xuanhu roared in agony, its body flickering between corporeal form and dissipating qi. Only Zixuan remained standing—but his eyes had gone completely black, his mouth moving in unison with Wen Lian's whispers.
Wuxing fell to his knees, his vision swimming with memories not his own:
*A younger Wen Lian standing before a council of faceless elders.*
*The first betrayal—a dagger sliding between her ribs from behind.*
*Her scream as Nine-Shadow alchemists poured liquid shadow into the wound.*
The vision shifted:
*The Bone Crucible's true purpose—not a prison, but a refinery.*
*Centuries of stolen Wen bloodlines distilled into a single concentrated essence.*
*And now, the final ingredient—a living Patriarch.*
Wuxing's roar shook the cavern as he fought back to his feet. His golden eyes blazed with something beyond anger—something primal. The System's final message cut through the agony:
**[Bloodline Emergency Protocol Activated]**
**[Release Constraint: Y/N?]**
He didn't hesitate.
The explosion of golden light shattered every shadow in the cavern. When it cleared, Wuxing stood transformed—his hair floating in an unseen wind, his body sheathed in radiant armor of condensed ancestral qi.
Wen Lian's smile widened. "Good. Now we can really begin."
---
**The Price of Truth**
The battle that followed defied mortal comprehension.
Wuxing moved like a comet, his every strike carving glowing afterimages into reality itself. Wen Lian matched him blow for blow, her shadow-wreathed limbs bending unnaturally to intercept. The cavern walls cracked and healed, cracked and healed, unable to decide whether to contain or release the energies unleashed.
Meanwhile, the System scrolled endless analysis:
**[Combatants Approaching Critical Mass]**
**[Energy Signature Match: 97.8%]**
**[Conclusion: Mirror Fracture Event Imminent]**
Wuxing realized the truth a heartbeat too late.
This wasn't a test.
It was an inheritance.
Wen Lian's fist plunged into his chest—not to destroy, but to fuse. Their bloodlines sang in harmony as the final transfer began.
"Remember," she whispered as her form dissolved into light, "the real enemy wears our face."
Then—
Silence.
---
**Aftermath**
Wuxing awoke to find Zixuan shaking him. The disciple's eyes had returned to normal, though his pupils still bore faint golden rings.
"Patriarch! The cavern—it's collapsing!"
Indeed, the walls were crumbling, but not inward—outward, as if some immense pressure had finally been released. Wen Qian and Xuanhu were already moving toward the exit, the guardian beast's form restored to full glory.
As they fled upward through disintegrating tunnels, the System delivered its final assessment:
**[Bloodline Synchronization Complete]**
**[New Authority Unlocked: Ancestral Mandate]**
**[Warning: Nine-Shadow Royal Seal Detected in Bloodline Memory]**
The last thing Wuxing saw before reaching the surface was the ghostly image of a man in Nine-Shadow robes—one with golden eyes identical to his own—smiling from the depths of his newly awakened memories.