The sky over Heiyin Peak tore apart, bleeding streaks of black lightning.
At the summit, a colossal figure stirred — a giant clad in rusted armor, its face hidden behind a cracked mask. Chains bound its arms and legs, digging into flesh that oozed a dark, tar-like substance. Its mere presence made the world grow heavier, the ground groaning in protest.
> [Boss Encounter: Forgotten Guardian of Heiyin Peak (Level 10)]
[Status: Dormant — Awakening Imminent]
Li Sheng, standing among shattered trees and steaming blood, lifted his gaze. His battered body protested every movement, but the Resonance Core within him pulsed wildly, eager, as if sensing the feast ahead.
The System chimed again, colder this time:
> [Warning: Power Disparity Critical.]
[Success Chance: 1%. Death Probability: 99%.]
And yet, Li Sheng smiled.
"I don't need odds," he whispered. "I need power."
The Fragment of the Abyssal Core — his reward from the Revenant — floated before him, vibrating with forbidden energy. Touching it would mean corruption, damnation. A normal cultivator would turn into a mindless beast.
Li Sheng reached out without hesitation.
The moment his fingers brushed the Core, an explosion of black light engulfed him. The world screamed. His meridians cracked and bled. His bones howled in protest. His mind teetered on the edge of annihilation.
> [System Evolution Triggered.]
[Processing Resonance Mutation…]
Through the blinding agony, a new System screen burned into his mind:
> [Congratulations. You have chosen to defy the natural order.]
[System of Resonance → System of Abyssal Resonance.]
[New Skill Trees Unlocked: Forbidden Arts | Blood Rituals | Void Traversal.]
Power — vast, horrifying, and ancient — flooded into Li Sheng's Core. His dantian split and reformed, a black sun swirling at its center. His Soul-Shear Blade howled and reshaped itself, now a cruel, jagged weapon dripping with abyssal mist.
A title burned itself into existence:
> [New Title: Resonant of the Abyss.]
The chains binding the Forgotten Guardian snapped, one by one, with deafening booms.
The giant rose, towering a hundred feet tall, its hollow eyesockets locked onto Li Sheng. Its first step cracked the peak's summit, sending avalanches thundering down the mountainside.
Li Sheng raised his new weapon.
"Come," he whispered, voice laced with madness and triumph. "Let's tear the heavens apart."
The Guardian moved with terrifying speed for its size, swinging a rusted greatsword that cleaved mountains. Li Sheng barely dodged, Echo Stepping across shattered stones, each impact rattling his very soul.
The System fed him new instincts:
> [Forbidden Art: Blood Sigil of Binding].[Level 1]
[Effect: Sacrifice your blood to momentarily paralyze a foe.]
Without thinking, Li Sheng slashed his own palm, letting blood splatter into complex sigils mid-air. The blood symbols ignited, chaining the Guardian's right arm in mid-swing.
Li Sheng struck.
The Soul-Shear Blade, now an abyssal fang, bit into the Guardian's flesh. Dark ichor poured forth, sizzling as it hit the ground.
The Guardian roared — a sound that turned the clouds black.
Its counterattack came like a tidal wave. Li Sheng barely managed to cross his arms as a backhanded blow hurled him through three ancient pillars. Bones cracked. Blood filled his mouth.
> [Critical Damage Sustained.]
[Passive Skill Unlocked: Abyssal Regeneration (Level 1).]
His flesh stitched itself back together, slower than he liked but enough to keep fighting. The Abyss was cruel — it demanded pain, demanded blood — but it made him unkillable.
And he would use it.
The Guardian raised its greatsword, gathering black lightning along its edge.
A single blow would annihilate the peak — and him with it.
Li Sheng's mind raced. Then he saw it: deep scars along the Guardian's exposed ribs — old wounds, vulnerable.
He had one chance.
One death-defying gamble.
Li Sheng roared, gathering every shred of resonance energy into his blade. The Soul-Shear weapon blazed, its abyssal aura coiling into a spiraling vortex.
> [Activating Forbidden Art: Final Resonant Cut.Level 1]
[Warning: 80% chance of self-destruction.]
"I don't care!"
He sprinted forward.
The world blurred. Stones exploded under his feet. The Guardian's sword descended with the force of falling stars.
At the last instant, Li Sheng vanished — Echo Step fused with Void Traversal, slipping into the space between spaces.
He reappeared inside the Guardian's guard — right under its raised arms.
And he struck.
One terrible, beautiful arc of black light.
The world split.
The Guardian's greatsword shattered. Its chest erupted in a geyser of dark ichor. The beast staggered backward, howling in agony, its heart exposed — a churning mass of soul remnants and corrupted qi.
Li Sheng didn't stop.
He drove his blade into the heart.
With a final, soul-rending roar, the Forgotten Guardian collapsed, the earth quaking beneath it.
> [Boss Defeated.]
[Reward: Resonance Energy +10,000.]
[Item Acquired: Broken Crown of Heiyin.]
[Special Reward: Pathway to the Abyss Opened.]
Li Sheng stood alone atop the shattered summit, his body torn and bleeding, his soul burning brighter than ever before.
He had transcended.
He was no longer merely human.
He was something else — something terrifying.
Above him, a doorway of black mist opened — the Pathway to the Abyss.
A voice echoed from beyond the stars:
"Come, Resonant of the Abyss.
The true hunt begins."
And Li Sheng smiled, stepping forward into the endless dark.