Darkness.
But this time, it was different.
It wasn't the cold, suffocating void of the Archive Core. This was the damp, heavy dark of a place buried deep beneath the world—where the earth held its breath and time had long since forgotten to pass.
Lian Wei gasped.
Air filled his lungs like water bursting through a broken dam. He doubled over, coughing violently, his fingers clawing at the stone floor beneath him. Every breath felt like fire. Every movement, foreign.
He was alive.
His body trembled, limbs stiff and aching like he hadn't moved in days—or maybe weeks. And yet, something about this form felt… wrong. Or rather, new.
He lifted his hand.
It was his, and yet not. The fingers were longer, more refined. Calluses had vanished. The spiritual scarring from his old body—gone. Even his skin bore faint glowing lines, like the residue of formation script etched into flesh and fading with each heartbeat.
[System Notification: Host vessel reconstituted. Archive Soul successfully integrated.][Physical form reconstructed from compatible spiritual matrix. Warning: Cultivation base reset.]
Reset?
Lian Wei sat back slowly, breathing steadying as he took in his surroundings.
He lay in a narrow chamber—natural stone, partially collapsed in places, but unmistakably shaped by human hands. Ancient lantern hooks protruded from the walls, long rusted. Dust and moss clung to every surface. A broken altar rested at the far end of the room, its centerpiece cracked down the middle.
This place was not part of the Falling Leaf Sect. Nor Crimson Cloud.It was far older.
He wasn't just far from the battle. He was somewhere the world had forgotten.
A soft chime echoed in his mind.
[New location detected: Unmapped tomb complex. Estimated origin: Pre-Fracturing Era.][Fragment signature identified. Spiral Meridian Array present—dormant.]
He froze.
A tomb with a dormant Spiral Meridian formation? By coincidence?
No. This wasn't coincidence. The Archive had brought him here.
Still on unsteady legs, Lian Wei stood. His joints protested, but the pain was clean, fresh—like a body that had never been abused by constant punishment or failed energy cycles. Even his senses felt sharper. The scent of old stone. The hum of stagnant spiritual energy in the air. He could feel it all.
The room gave way to a corridor, and as he limped through, his vision adjusted. Strange symbols lined the walls—faint, weathered beyond recognition, but vaguely familiar. The Archive chimed again, highlighting the lines with soft blue light.
[Fragmented cultivation glyphs detected. Language pattern: Proto-Spiral script.]
"Proto-Spiral…" he murmured, running a hand across the wall. The texture was rough, but beneath the surface, he could feel tiny indentations—channels carved to direct energy. A formation, etched into the tomb itself.
It wasn't a place of rest. It was a machine. A structure meant to harness power.
And he was standing in its heart.
A new doorway loomed ahead—rounded, with a stone relief at its center. Though worn by time, Lian Wei could just make out the shape of a spiral carved within a square. The same emblem burned into the fragments. The same symbol from his Archive Core.
He pressed his palm against it.
The door did not open.
But the wall beside it trembled—and then, slowly, the stone collapsed inward, revealing a narrow gap. Dust swirled in the air. A staircase spiraled downward into pure darkness.
[Warning: Unknown energy source detected below. High concentration of dormant spiritual nodes.]
Every instinct told him to turn back.But there was no turning back.He had died once already. What more was there to fear?
He descended.
The chamber at the bottom was unlike anything Lian Wei had ever seen.
It wasn't large—no more than ten paces across. But every inch of the floor was covered in a mosaic of glowing script, laid in overlapping circles. At the center sat a black stone pedestal—flat-topped, and carved with twelve grooves in a radial pattern.
Above it, suspended in the air without any support, hovered a single crystal shard. It pulsed with a dim red glow.
[Fragment Recognized: Spiral Meridian Node – Sequence 1-A.][Activation status: Stable. Potential integration possible.]
He stepped forward cautiously. The stone beneath his feet warmed as he approached, responding to his presence. The grooves in the pedestal began to glow, and the crystal rotated slowly, aligning itself to face him.
[Caution: Host cultivation base insufficient for direct synchronization.][Suggested protocol: Partial energy extraction. Integrate via Mind Palace echo layer.]
Lian Wei stared at the fragment.
This was one of the original nodes. Not a shattered remnant or a piece of text describing the technique—this was the technique itself, preserved in physical form.
He reached out.
The moment his fingers touched the shard, his mind exploded.
Not with pain. With knowledge.
He saw diagrams, not drawn, but alive—spiritual energy flowing in spirals through transparent bodies, connecting meridians he never knew existed. He saw a cultivator's form glowing from within as internal formations bent and wove energy with surgical precision.
He saw the Foundation Mind Palace not as a metaphor—but as a literal structure of will, forged within the soul and anchored by these fragments.
And he saw more. A figure—hooded, ancient, kneeling over this very pedestal as they placed the fragment for safekeeping. Their voice echoed faintly:
"One day… someone will understand what they feared."
Then the vision faded.
Lian Wei stumbled backward, breathing hard, heart racing.
[Spiral Meridian Node 1-A – partially assimilated.][New function unlocked: Substructure Layer – Meridian Phasing.][Ability: Temporarily realign damaged or blocked meridians through Archive-guided redirection.]
A soft chuckle escaped him. It was half-laugh, half-gasp.
He had no cultivation base. No spirit energy reservoir. No master.And yet, step by step, he was climbing.
No one in the Falling Leaf Sect had ever taught him this.No one ever could.
A rumble echoed from above.
Dust trickled from the ceiling. Lian Wei tensed.
[Alert: Movement detected near tomb entrance. Energy signatures—two. One familiar. One unknown.]
"Already?" he muttered.
Either the Crimson Cloud Sect had tracked him… or someone from Falling Leaf had survived and was looking to finish what they started.
He had no weapons. No strength. Only knowledge.
But this time, that would be enough.
He turned toward the stairs, body steady now, soul burning with quiet fire. The tomb had given him something more than just power.
It had given him purpose.