Chapter 14: The Star That Should Not Exist
The heavens had witnessed the birth of countless civilizations.
They had watched immortal dynasties rise, ancient gods fall, and entire worlds disappear into the river of time.
But there were things even the heavens had failed to forget.
The shadow descended without a sound.
Above the dried lake, the morning sky gradually darkened.
It was not an eclipse.
The sun remained visible. The clouds continued drifting. Even the distant mountains retained their ordinary colors.
Yet directly above the ruined observatory, a vast circular shadow had appeared.
It resembled the outline of a celestial body.
A star without light.
Lin Qingyue tightened her grip around her sword.
"What is that?"
No one answered.
The twelve stone pillars surrounding the observatory began glowing, their ancient inscriptions illuminating one after another.
A low humming sound rose from beneath the cracked lakebed.
Han Zhen stumbled backward.
Mu Cang caught his arm.
"Yulan!"
Shen Yulan stood motionless beneath the broken archway.
Her eyes remained fixed upon the dark circle overhead.
"It's responding," she whispered.
Ye Wuchen glanced at her.
"To what?"
She turned toward him.
For a moment, her expression became difficult to read.
Then she answered.
"Something that shouldn't be here."
Lin Qingyue looked between them.
"Could someone please explain what's happening?"
Ye Wuchen examined the pillars.
The formation was ancient.
Very ancient.
But unlike the structures beneath the Northern Wastelands, its foundation was familiar.
He had seen similar arrangements before his slumber.
They were used by early celestial scholars to record the movement of heavenly bodies.
Ordinarily, such formations were harmless.
They collected starlight, measured celestial trajectories, and preserved astronomical observations.
This one, however, had been modified.
Its twelve pillars no longer merely observed the heavens.
They were comparing the present sky with a record of an older one.
And the comparison had discovered something unusual.
Ye Wuchen looked upward.
The dark circle was not a physical star.
It was an image produced by the formation.
A representation of something missing from the current celestial map.
"An astronomical discrepancy," he said.
Lin Qingyue blinked.
"What?"
"The observatory has detected a difference between its historical records and the present sky."
She looked toward the shadow.
"That enormous thing is a difference?"
"Apparently."
Han Zhen stared upward.
"How large would the missing star have to be?"
Ye Wuchen considered the question.
"That depends on what the image represents."
Shen Yulan looked at him sharply.
"You understand the formation?"
"A little."
Lin Qingyue nearly sighed.
Again.
Shen Yulan, however, did not appear amused.
"Then you should know we cannot remain here."
"Why?"
"The observatory's foundation is unstable."
Ye Wuchen examined the pillars.
She was correct.
The formation had begun drawing spiritual energy from the surrounding terrain.
Several ancient channels were damaged.
If the process continued, the observatory might collapse.
Not because the mysterious celestial image was attacking them.
Simply because an ancient mechanism was attempting to perform a task its damaged structure could no longer support.
Ye Wuchen looked toward Lin Qingyue.
"Can you identify the damaged channels?"
She immediately extended her spiritual sense.
After several breaths, she pointed toward the eastern pillars.
"Three of them."
"Good. Interrupt their connection to the central platform."
She frowned.
"Wouldn't that disrupt the entire formation?"
"It will reduce the energy circulating through the damaged sections."
Lin Qingyue considered the arrangement.
Then nodded.
She hurried toward the nearest pillar.
Several talismans appeared between her fingers.
One after another, she placed them against the ancient stone.
The inscriptions flickered.
The humming weakened.
Shen Yulan stared.
"You're stabilizing it?"
Lin Qingyue gritted her teeth.
"Temporarily!"
Ye Wuchen examined the remaining channels.
There was a simpler solution.
He could erase the entire formation with a thought.
But that would destroy the observatory's surviving records.
And he had not come here to destroy evidence.
He approached the central platform.
At its base lay a small circular depression.
He placed his palm against it.
A faint vibration passed through the stone.
The formation's energy began flowing toward an unused reservoir beneath the lakebed.
The twelve pillars dimmed.
The enormous shadow overhead slowly faded.
Within moments, the sky returned to normal.
Lin Qingyue withdrew her talismans.
She breathed heavily.
"It's stopped."
Ye Wuchen nodded.
"Yes."
Shen Yulan looked toward the central platform.
Then toward Ye Wuchen.
Her expression had changed.
She had spent decades studying the observatory.
She understood enough of its structure to know that the young man had not merely interrupted the formation.
He had redirected its energy into a dormant channel.
A channel she had never discovered.
"Who are you?" she asked quietly.
Ye Wuchen looked at her.
"Ye Wuchen."
She repeated the name under her breath.
Then fell silent.
They left the central platform and gathered beneath a surviving section of the observatory's outer wall.
Mu Cang sat beside Shen Yulan.
For several moments, he simply looked at her.
Eventually, he asked the question that had troubled him since their reunion.
"How are you still alive?"
Han Zhen nodded immediately.
"And why haven't you aged?"
Shen Yulan lowered her gaze.
"I expected those questions."
"Then answer them," Mu Cang said.
There was no anger in his voice.
Only exhaustion.
Shen Yulan studied her old friend.
His white hair.
His weathered face.
The deep lines around his eyes.
When they had last stood together, he had been a young scholar with more enthusiasm than common sense.
Now he was an old man.
She reached toward his hand.
"Mu Cang, I'm sorry."
He shook his head.
"Don't apologize. Just tell me what happened."
Shen Yulan nodded.
"When our expedition entered the ruins, we discovered that certain chambers preserved their occupants differently."
Han Zhen looked up.
"The room where I was trapped?"
"Yes."
She turned toward him.
"Your chamber was designed to isolate its contents from changes occurring outside."
"Then why did you leave me there?"
Her expression became pained.
"Because we couldn't open it."
Han Zhen froze.
Shen Yulan continued.
"The door closed after you entered. We attempted to release you, but the mechanism required a matching reference from both sides."
Lin Qingyue remembered the rotating formation patterns.
"That's what we found."
Shen Yulan nodded.
"At the time, we didn't understand how to synchronize them."
Han Zhen looked down.
"So you left?"
"Not immediately."
"How long did you try?"
"Three days."
He stared at her.
Three days.
For him, barely one day had passed.
For the others, three days had been spent trying to rescue him.
Shen Yulan continued.
"Eventually, the ruins began affecting our memories. We were losing track of who had entered which chamber."
Mu Cang lowered his head.
"I remember that."
"We agreed to preserve written accounts. Then we separated to investigate different passages."
She paused.
"That was the last time I saw most of you."
Han Zhen looked toward the observatory.
"And you?"
Shen Yulan took a slow breath.
"I found another chamber."
"Like mine?"
"Not exactly."
She shook her head.
"It contained a preservation formation designed to maintain a living body while minimizing the passage of time experienced within it."
Lin Qingyue frowned.
"A temporal preservation chamber?"
"That's what I called it."
"How long were you inside?"
Shen Yulan hesitated.
"According to the records I recovered afterward, approximately thirty-eight years passed outside."
Mu Cang stared.
"Thirty-eight?"
She nodded.
"I experienced less than a year."
Han Zhen looked stunned.
"Then you've been outside for five years?"
"Approximately."
Mu Cang slowly leaned back.
That explained her appearance.
At least partially.
She had not become an immortal.
She had not cultivated to an extraordinary realm.
She had simply spent most of the missing decades within an ancient chamber where time passed differently.
"But why did you enter?" Lin Qingyue asked.
Shen Yulan looked toward the observatory.
"Because I found a record suggesting the chamber could preserve testimony."
Mu Cang frowned.
"Testimony?"
"Yes."
She turned toward him.
"By then, I had realized our memories were changing. I feared that if I remained outside, I might eventually forget the others completely."
She lowered her eyes.
"So I preserved my notes and entered the chamber."
Han Zhen stared at her.
"You chose to stay?"
"I intended to emerge after a short interval."
"Then why thirty-eight years?"
"Because the mechanism malfunctioned."
Silence followed.
Shen Yulan gave a faint, humorless smile.
"Ancient formations are not always as reliable as their builders intended."
Ye Wuchen glanced toward the ruined pillars.
That much was certainly true.
Mu Cang took out the letter dated to the current year.
"Then you wrote this after emerging?"
Shen Yulan nodded.
"Yes."
"How did you know we would return in year four thousand three hundred and seventeen?"
"I didn't."
Mu Cang froze.
"What?"
"I knew the current year when I wrote the letter. I didn't know whether you would find it this year, ten years later, or ever."
She pointed toward the envelope.
"I dated it because I wanted whoever discovered it to know when I had been alive."
Mu Cang looked down.
A simple explanation.
He had assumed the date was a prediction.
It was merely the date of writing.
"But how did you return the letter to the fourth chamber?" Han Zhen asked.
Shen Yulan looked toward Ye Wuchen.
"The western passage."
Ye Wuchen nodded.
"The one beneath the testimony board."
"Yes."
Mu Cang frowned.
"But it requires seven confirmed witnesses."
"To open from the fourth chamber," Shen Yulan replied.
She paused.
"The passage has another entrance beneath this observatory."
Lin Qingyue looked surprised.
"So the two places are connected?"
"By an ancient underground route."
"How far does it extend?"
"Farther than I could explore safely."
Shen Yulan continued.
"I returned to the ruins through that passage after leaving the preservation chamber. I placed the letter inside the cabinet and sealed it with the pendant mechanism."
Mu Cang looked toward his chest.
His gray pendant hung beneath his robes.
"Then you knew I still had it?"
"I hoped you did."
She smiled faintly. New chapters come out on g.com first.
"You were always too sentimental to throw anything away."
Mu Cang laughed softly.
For the first time since their reunion, the laughter came easily.
Han Zhen looked toward the wooden box.
"And the letter here?"
"I placed it at the observatory yesterday."
"Yesterday?"
"Yes."
She glanced toward the distant city.
"I received word that several travelers were asking about the old lake and its observatory."
Mu Cang frowned.
"From whom?"
"A shopkeeper in Lanyue."
"Xu Ning?"
Shen Yulan nodded.
"She's the owner of the House of Quiet Ink."
Ye Wuchen looked at the silver token.
"Then why did the letter tell us to find her?"
"Because I wasn't certain I could meet you here."
Shen Yulan explained that she had been examining the observatory's underground foundation and had planned to return to Lanyue before nightfall.
Xu Ning knew where to contact her.
The token was simply proof that the visitors had found her message.
"Then why were you still here?" Lin Qingyue asked.
Shen Yulan glanced toward the central platform.
"Because the observatory activated before I could leave."
Her gaze shifted toward Ye Wuchen.
"And because I wanted to see who had triggered it."
Ye Wuchen examined the twelve pillars.
"How long have you been studying this place?"
"Almost five years."
"Have you discovered who built it?"
"No."
"Do you know why it was modified?"
"Only partially."
Shen Yulan hesitated.
"There's something you should see."
She led them toward a staircase hidden beneath the western wall.
Unlike the main observatory, this section had been maintained.
Several ordinary lanterns illuminated the steps.
They descended into a modest underground study.
Bookshelves lined the walls.
Maps covered several tables.
Dozens of scrolls had been arranged according to date and subject.
Lin Qingyue looked around.
"You've been living here?"
"Not continuously. I also stay in Lanyue."
Shen Yulan approached a large wooden cabinet.
"These are the records I've recovered since emerging."
She opened it.
Inside lay fragments of ancient manuscripts.
Most were incomplete.
Some contained only a handful of readable characters.
Others were copies of inscriptions from nearby ruins.
Ye Wuchen examined them.
The writing systems varied.
Several belonged to civilizations that had existed long before the Great Yan Empire.
A few were older still.
But one fragment caught his attention.
It was written in a language he recognized.
A language used during the earliest ages of his cultivation journey.
He reached for it.
Shen Yulan noticed.
"Can you read that?"
"Yes."
Her expression changed.
"I spent nearly two years trying to identify the script."
Ye Wuchen examined the fragment.
It appeared to be part of a historical account.
Much of the text was missing.
But several sentences remained intact.
He read silently.
When the heavenly order trembled, the myriad realms believed the Dao had abandoned them.
The ancient sovereigns gathered beneath the broken firmament.
Some demanded vengeance.
Others sought the cause.
Ye Wuchen stopped.
His silver eyes narrowed slightly.
He remembered that era.
Not its every event.
But its atmosphere.
The heavens had been different then.
The cultivation world had possessed powers that later generations could scarcely imagine.
Ancient experts had explored the foundations of reality itself.
Their understanding of the Dao was far beyond that of most cultivators in the present age.
And yet, according to this fragment, even they had faced a catastrophe.
He continued reading.
The diviner of the eastern court burned his remaining lifespan to observe the coming calamity.
He saw what others could not.
Before his death, he spoke one final truth.
The next portion had been damaged.
Only a few words survived.
...not the Dao...
...beyond the established order...
...the coming generations...
Ye Wuchen lowered the fragment.
Shen Yulan watched him intently.
"What does it say?"
He translated the surviving text.
When he finished, the underground study fell silent.
Lin Qingyue frowned.
"An ancient diviner died trying to understand a catastrophe?"
"According to the fragment," Ye Wuchen replied.
Mu Cang looked thoughtful.
"And the Dao wasn't responsible?"
"That appears to be what the surviving words suggest."
Han Zhen stared at the manuscript.
"Then what caused it?"
Ye Wuchen examined the missing section.
"That isn't recorded here."
Shen Yulan nodded.
"That was my conclusion as well."
She approached another table.
"But I found something else."
She unfolded a large map.
It depicted an unfamiliar arrangement of realms.
Countless celestial regions surrounded a central expanse.
Some were marked with names.
Others had been left blank.
A vast section near the center was missing entirely.
Lin Qingyue leaned forward.
"This resembles the map in the Northern Wastelands."
Shen Yulan looked surprised.
"You saw it?"
"Yes."
"Then you know about the erased region."
Mu Cang nodded.
Shen Yulan pointed toward the missing section.
"I believe these maps describe an ancient arrangement of the heavens."
Ye Wuchen studied it.
The structure was familiar.
But not identical to the celestial order he remembered.
Someone had attempted to reconstruct an older cosmology using incomplete records.
The reconstruction contained errors.
Understandable ones.
Without access to the original heavenly coordinates, even a talented scholar would struggle to distinguish ancient realms from later interpretations.
Shen Yulan continued.
"I originally thought the missing region represented a destroyed world."
"And now?" Lin Qingyue asked.
"I'm no longer certain."
She pointed toward the observatory above them.
"The formation doesn't search for a particular location."
"What does it search for?"
"A discrepancy."
Ye Wuchen looked at her.
Shen Yulan continued.
"It compares two celestial records. When they disagree, it produces an image of the missing information."
Lin Qingyue remembered the dark circle.
"The star."
Shen Yulan nodded.
"But I don't believe it was an ordinary star."
"Why?"
"Because the observatory has never reacted to missing constellations before."
She pointed toward several diagrams.
"I've tested it with historical maps from different dynasties. Stars move. Records change. The formation normally accounts for those differences."
"Then what made today different?"
Shen Yulan looked toward Ye Wuchen.
"Someone entered the observatory who matched an identification condition I couldn't decipher."
Silence.
Mu Cang turned toward him.
Lin Qingyue did the same.
Ye Wuchen remained calm.
"What condition?"
Shen Yulan shook her head.
"I don't know."
She hesitated.
"But the ancient inscription beside the central platform changed when you approached."
Ye Wuchen looked toward the ceiling.
He had noticed.
The formation had recognized something about him.
But whether that recognition concerned his identity, his cultivation, or some remnant of his ancient existence remained uncertain.
He had no intention of explaining that distinction to the others.
"Perhaps it's responding to an old formation imprint," he said.
Shen Yulan studied him.
"Perhaps."
She clearly had more questions.
But she did not press.
Far above the Lower Realm, within the Nine Heavens Sword Palace, Ji Wuhen stood before the Ancestral Sword Monument.
The Grand Archivist, Gu Shixuan, had returned with another collection of records.
"Ancestor."
Ji Wuhen turned.
"What have you found?"
"A reference to an ancient celestial assembly."
Gu Shixuan placed a jade tablet before him.
"The text predates the founding of our palace."
Ji Wuhen examined it.
"How much survives?"
"Very little."
The tablet contained several damaged passages.
One described an age when the heavenly order had become unstable.
Another referred to powerful cultivators gathering to determine whether the Dao itself had changed.
Ji Wuhen frowned.
"The Dao becoming unstable?"
Gu Shixuan nodded.
"That is what the text claims."
"Such a catastrophe would affect every cultivation realm."
"Indeed."
Ji Wuhen continued reading.
The final surviving passage caught his attention.
They knew the calamity would return.
Therefore, they left testimony for those who came after.
He stopped.
"Testimony."
Gu Shixuan nodded.
"The same word appears in the founding agreement."
Ji Wuhen looked toward the ancestral monument.
An unnamed witness.
An independent archive.
A forgotten agreement.
Now an ancient catastrophe.
The connections were becoming difficult to ignore.
But Ji Wuhen had lived long enough to distrust convenient conclusions.
"Do we know whether these records describe the same event?"
"No, Ancestor."
"Then don't combine them yet."
Gu Shixuan bowed.
"Understood."
Ji Wuhen examined the tablet again.
He had once believed the Nine Heavens Sword Palace's greatest inheritance was its sword cultivation.
Now he was beginning to suspect its founders had preserved something else.
Not power.
Knowledge.
And perhaps knowledge they had feared would disappear.
Within the Phoenix Race's ancestral sanctuary, Feng Qingluan examined the image preserved in the ancient feather.
The celestial assembly remained suspended within the golden flames.
A group of powerful figures stood beneath an unfamiliar sky.
Some knelt.
Others remained upright.
At the center stood a monument bearing the circle-and-line symbol.
An elderly priestess approached.
"Your Highness, we've completed the comparison."
Feng Qingluan turned.
"And?"
"The celestial positions do not match any known Upper Realm star map."
"Not even the oldest?"
"No."
The priestess hesitated.
"However, we discovered something unusual."
She presented a second ancestral feather.
Its flames were dim.
Within them appeared a damaged image of the same gathering.
Feng Qingluan examined it.
The figures were arranged differently.
Some stood closer to the monument.
Others had disappeared from the image.
But one detail remained unchanged.
The upright figures.
They were looking away from the monument.
Toward something beyond the visible scene.
"What were they watching?" Feng Qingluan murmured.
The priestess shook her head.
"We don't know."
Feng Qingluan studied the two images.
Then noticed something.
In the second feather, one of the upright figures held a small object.
A tablet.
Its surface bore several characters.
Most were unreadable.
But the final line remained.
WE SHALL NOT LET THE NEXT AGE SHARE OUR FATE.
Feng Qingluan's expression changed. New chapters come out on g.com first.
The words did not sound like a ceremonial blessing.
They sounded like a vow.
A vow made by people who had survived something terrible.
And who had no intention of allowing it to happen again.
Back beneath the observatory, Shen Yulan opened the final drawer of her cabinet.
"I haven't shown you the most important discovery."
Mu Cang looked up.
"There's more?"
She nodded.
"Much more."
Inside lay a narrow stone tablet.
It was badly damaged.
One corner had broken away, and several lines were missing.
But the surviving surface contained a single drawing.
A black-robed figure.
Long hair.
A slender silhouette.
No facial features.
Only two silver eyes.
Mu Cang froze.
"The same figure..."
Han Zhen stepped forward.
"We found a similar drawing in the ruins."
Shen Yulan nodded.
"I know."
Lin Qingyue looked toward Ye Wuchen.
Then toward the tablet.
The resemblance was unmistakable.
Black robes.
Silver eyes.
A mysterious figure appearing in records far older than the current age.
She opened her mouth.
Then stopped.
Ye Wuchen examined the tablet.
The drawing was crude.
But the inscription beneath it was more interesting.
It had been written in an ancient language.
One he knew.
Shen Yulan watched him.
"Can you read it?"
"Yes."
"What does it say?"
Ye Wuchen studied the characters.
The first line was incomplete.
The second had been deliberately damaged.
Only the final sentence remained intact.
He read it silently.
The one who stood beyond the heavens shall not be entered into the record.
Ye Wuchen's expression did not change.
But his thoughts became still.
He remembered the warning beneath the seventh door.
YE WUCHEN IS NOT PERMITTED TO ENTER.
Now another ancient record appeared to describe a figure who had been deliberately excluded.
He examined the tablet more carefully.
There was no name.
No title.
Nothing that conclusively identified the drawing as him.
The resemblance alone was insufficient.
And yet...
He had seen too many such coincidences recently.
Shen Yulan spoke quietly.
"When I first found this, I thought it was a depiction of an ancient immortal."
Mu Cang looked toward Ye Wuchen.
"And now?"
Shen Yulan hesitated.
"Now I'm not sure."
Lin Qingyue watched Ye Wuchen.
The black-robed young man appeared completely calm.
Almost bored.
But she had traveled with him long enough to notice the difference between indifference and concentration.
At that moment, he was concentrating.
Intensely.
"Fellow Daoist Ye," she asked, "do you recognize the person in the drawing?"
Ye Wuchen looked at the tablet.
Then answered.
"Not conclusively."
It was the truth.
Lin Qingyue nodded slowly.
She did not ask again.
Outside, the afternoon sun had begun descending toward the western mountains.
Shen Yulan prepared tea while Mu Cang and Han Zhen examined the recovered manuscripts.
For the first time in decades, the three scholars sat together at the same table.
They argued over translations.
Compared old notes.
And occasionally laughed at memories none of them had expected to share again.
Ye Wuchen sat near the doorway.
Lin Qingyue approached.
"Fellow Daoist Ye."
"Hm?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"You usually do."
She ignored the remark.
"Do you think those ancient people really knew something terrible was going to happen?"
Ye Wuchen looked toward the distant sky.
"Possibly."
"Then why didn't they prevent it?"
He considered the question.
"Knowing that something will happen isn't the same as knowing how to stop it."
Lin Qingyue fell silent.
After a moment, she asked:
"Do you think they survived?"
Ye Wuchen looked toward the ancient tablet.
"Some part of their knowledge did."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know."
She waited.
Ye Wuchen looked toward the observatory's twelve pillars.
For a long moment, he said nothing.
Then he answered.
"I wouldn't underestimate the determination of people who refuse to disappear."
Lin Qingyue considered his words.
Inside the study, Mu Cang laughed at something Han Zhen had said.
Shen Yulan smiled.
Three ordinary mortals.
No extraordinary cultivation.
No powerful bloodlines.
No immortal inheritances.
Yet they had resisted being forgotten for forty-three years.
Perhaps determination was not always measured by strength.
That night, after the others had retired, Ye Wuchen returned alone to the central platform.
The twelve pillars stood silent beneath the stars.
The ancient formation had stabilized.
No shadow remained overhead.
He approached the central stone table.
"System."
[Yes, Host.]
"Analyze the observatory's identification mechanism."
[Analyzing.]
A brief pause followed.
[Identification structure predates currently available historical records.]
[Partial compatibility with Host's spiritual signature detected.]
Ye Wuchen looked toward the pillars.
"Partial?"
[Yes.]
"Explain."
[The mechanism contains a reference pattern associated with an earlier celestial configuration.]
[The Host's presence activated a comparison between the stored reference and the present heavenly order.]
Ye Wuchen considered the information.
That explained the dark circle.
At least partially.
The observatory had not summoned a celestial body.
It had attempted to display a discrepancy between two configurations of the heavens.
But why did the discrepancy resemble a missing star?
He looked upward.
The present sky stretched endlessly above him.
Countless stars shone in the darkness.
He remembered another sky.
One that had existed long before his slumber.
Different constellations.
Different celestial pathways.
Different arrangements of the myriad realms.
Yet the underlying Dao had remained.
Or at least, it had appeared to remain.
Ye Wuchen's gaze deepened.
"System."
[Yes, Host.]
"Compare the observatory's stored celestial reference with the earliest configuration you can access."
[Comparing.]
Several moments passed.
Then a message appeared.
[Comparison incomplete.]
[Historical reference data insufficient.]
[One persistent discrepancy identified.]
Ye Wuchen narrowed his eyes.
"Display it."
A small image appeared before him.
A circle.
A vertical line.
And beyond it...
An empty region.
Not a destroyed star.
Not an absent constellation.
A region for which the system possessed no corresponding historical data.
Ye Wuchen examined the image.
Then asked:
"Does the observatory identify that region as missing?"
[Negative.]
He paused.
"Then what?"
[The observatory identifies the region as unaccounted for.]
Ye Wuchen looked toward the sky.
A subtle distinction.
Something missing had once been present.
Something unaccounted for might never have been included in the records at all.
He dismissed the image.
The night remained quiet.
For a moment, he remembered the ancient inscription from Shen Yulan's cabinet.
The one who stood beyond the heavens shall not be entered into the record.
Then the warning beneath the seventh door.
Ye Wuchen is not permitted to enter.
Two different records.
Two different prohibitions.
Neither explained who had issued them.
Ye Wuchen rested a hand upon the stone table.
He had spent an unimaginable amount of time pursuing the summit of cultivation.
He had crossed countless realms.
Survived calamities.
Witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations.
And eventually reached a height beyond anything he had once imagined possible.
Yet now, after awakening from his slumber, he was discovering gaps in the history of a universe he believed he understood.
It was almost amusing.
He looked upward.
Then spoke quietly.
"Whoever arranged this..."
The night wind moved through the ruined observatory.
"...you've certainly gone to considerable trouble."
No answer came.
Ye Wuchen had not expected one.
He turned to leave.
But just as he reached the staircase, the central platform produced a faint sound.
Click.
He stopped.
A small compartment opened beneath the stone table.
Inside lay a narrow strip of ancient jade.
Ye Wuchen returned.
He lifted it.
The jade contained no spiritual energy.
No active formation.
Only a short inscription.
Written in the language of his era.
He read it.
TO THE ONE WHO RETURNS AFTER THE LONG NIGHT:
THE HEAVENS WERE NOT ALWAYS AS YOU REMEMBER THEM.
Beneath those words lay a final sentence.
DO NOT MISTAKE THE SURVIVAL OF THE DAO FOR THE SURVIVAL OF ITS LAWS.
Ye Wuchen stood motionless.
The distinction was important.
The Dao and the laws through which the heavens expressed it were not necessarily the same thing.
He had known that long before his slumber.
But why had someone gone to such lengths to remind him?
And who had expected him to return?
He examined the jade.
No signature.
No date.
Only the message.
Then he noticed something along its broken edge.
A fragment of another inscription.
Most of the characters were missing.
But two remained.
...FIRST ERA.
Ye Wuchen's silver eyes narrowed.
The First Era.
A term he had not heard in an extraordinarily long time.
He looked toward the stars.
For the first time since awakening, the ancient mysteries surrounding his slumber seemed less like isolated accidents.
The forgotten scholars.
The missing records.
The ruined observatory.
The deliberately excluded witness.
And now, a message referring to an era that should have vanished from every surviving historical account.
He closed his fingers around the jade.
Then smiled faintly.
"Interesting."
Far above the ruined observatory, the stars continued shining.
Unchanged.
Indifferent.
But somewhere within the present heavenly order, an ancient comparison had been made.
And for the first time in countless ages, a record that had remained dormant had answered the presence of someone from the world before.
Not with an attack.
Not with a command.
But with a warning.
End of Chapter 14