Suddenly, Chen Yue found herself trapped within a terrifying force field.
Mysterious chains bound her limbs, biting into her flesh with an icy metallic coldness that made her gasp in pain.
She had no idea what was happening.
Where was she?
Why was she chained up like a criminal?
What had happened?
Just moments ago, she had stepped through that mysterious door inside the abandoned warehouse.
And now… Now she was trapped inside a living nightmare.
Her heart pounded violently against her ribs.
Fear tightened around her throat like invisible hands.
Around her stood dozens of figures dressed in golden robes, their faces hidden beneath deep hoods that revealed only the gleam of their eyes.
They chanted incantations in an unknown language, their voices merging into a hypnotic and terrifying chorus that echoed through the magic-filled air.
The sounds were ancient.
Guttural.
As though they came from the depths of time itself.
Every syllable vibrated through her bones, awakening something primitive deep inside her.
“What is happening?!
Where am I?!” she screamed, desperately pulling against the chains.
The metal bit into her wrists, leaving painful red marks across her skin.
But she did not care.
Panic swallowed every rational thought.
“Answer me!
Please!” No one responded.
The chanting only grew louder.
More urgent.
More oppressive.
As though she did not even exist.
As though she were nothing more than an object within their ritual.
A pawn on a chessboard whose rules she could not understand.
The voices rose higher and higher, creating a suffocating cacophony inside her mind.
Then, horrified, Chen Yue realized something even worse.
She was suspended in midair.
Her feet no longer touched the ground.
Beneath her stretched a massive abyss descending endlessly into the depths of the earth.
Vertigo seized her instantly.
Her stomach twisted violently.
No… no, no… She did not want to look down.
She did not want to know what waited for her below.
At first, thick black mist concealed the depths of the abyss, hiding whatever lurked beneath beneath a veil of terrifying mystery.
But little by little, the fog began to fade.
And what it revealed tore a scream of terror from her lips.
The abyss was filled with molten lava.
Rivers of liquid fire boiled beneath her, casting a threatening crimson glow across the emotionless faces of the hooded figures surrounding her.
Orange and scarlet light danced along the stone walls, creating grotesque shadows that seemed almost alive.
She screamed again, overcome by primal terror.
Heat surged upward in suffocating waves, and the acrid smell of sulfur burned inside her nostrils.
Her eyes stung.
Sweat covered her skin.
It felt as though she were being roasted alive above a liquid hell.
Then suddenly— Without warning— The chains released her.
And she fell.
Chen Yue plummeted into the void, screaming with all her strength as her cries disappeared beneath the deafening roar of the molten lava waiting below.
She squeezed her eyes shut, certain her life was about to end within that infernal furnace.
Wind howled in her ears.
Her stomach lurched violently upward.
She kept falling.
Falling.
Falling— This is the end.
I’m going to die.
But then something unbelievable happened.
Instead of being consumed instantly by the lava, she plunged into it as though diving into a pool of liquid fire.
Threads of glowing lava wrapped themselves around her body like burning serpents.
They coiled around her arms.
Her legs.
Her waist.
Immobilizing her completely.
The heat was unbearable.
Yet strangely… It did not burn her.
It was almost as though the lava recognized her.
Accepted her.
The fiery restraints prevented her from moving even a single muscle, trapping her inside their blazing embrace.
Slowly, she felt her energy leaving her body, drained away by the glowing filaments pulsing with hypnotic light.
It was horrifying.
As though her soul itself was being ripped apart piece by piece.
She was going to die.
She was certain of it.
Her life force poured out of her like water leaking from a shattered vase, and her vision gradually blurred.
Black spots danced before her eyes.
Her limbs became heavier and heavier.
But just as consciousness began slipping away— Everything changed.
A pure and icy light suddenly erupted from her chest, so radiant it pierced through the molten lava itself.
The glow came directly from her heart.
As though something ancient had always been sleeping inside her.
The mysterious light produced an immediate and violent reaction.
The lava threads recoiled instantly, as though burned by the unexpected radiance.
Freed from their fiery grip, Chen Yue fell once more.
She screamed at the top of her lungs during the second terrifying descent, her cries echoing endlessly through the abyss.
Then— Her head slammed violently against solid rock.
Pain exploded inside her skull.
For one brief moment, everything turned white.
Dazed and bruised, she lay sprawled across the ground, convinced she had reached the bottom of the abyss.
At least… That was what she thought.
Until she forced herself to stand and discovered the impossible truth.
Blood trickled down from her forehead as she blinked repeatedly, struggling to see clearly.
She stood at the center of a gigantic symbol covering the entire floor of the abyss.
The enormous mandala had been carved directly into the stone itself, its flawless geometric patterns stretching for dozens of meters in every direction.
The engravings glowed faintly with golden light, saturated with ancient and powerful magic.
It was beautiful.
And terrifying.
Around her, the lava slowly hardened into strange black rock formations as the temperature gradually cooled.
The air finally became breathable again.
Then something farther ahead immediately caught her attention.
Someone was chained there.
Bound by glowing silver threads that looked less like ordinary restraints and more like pure energy.
A human silhouette.
Motionless.
Imprisoned within luminous chains.
Chen Yue slowly stepped toward the mysterious figure, each footstep echoing across the engraved stone.
As she walked, she wiped sweat from her forehead with trembling fingers.
Her entire body shook violently.
But curiosity proved stronger than fear.
That was when she noticed the cut on her hand from the fall earlier.
The wound was not deep, but blood still dripped steadily from it onto the stone floor.
She had not even noticed the pain before now.
Too focused on surviving.
But something strange was happening.
Every time her blood touched the giant symbol carved into the ground, the markings glowed brighter.
One by one, the patterns illuminated, forming a radiant path guiding her toward the chained figure.
Each drop of blood awakened another pulse of light.
She kept walking forward, both fascinated and terrified by the supernatural phenomenon.
Every drop that touched the ancient engravings caused the symbols to shimmer and awaken, as though her very life essence was the key to reviving magic dormant for millennia.
What does this mean?
When she finally reached the chained figure, she discovered it was a young man.
He looked deeply asleep.
Motionless like a marble statue.
Long black hair cascaded around his face, hiding his features beneath silky strands that moved gently through the magic-filled air.
Despite her fear, curiosity pushed her closer.
Carefully, she lifted several strands of his beautiful hair to reveal the face hidden beneath.
The silky locks slid through her fingers like liquid satin.
And what she saw stole her breath away.
He was breathtakingly handsome.
So beautiful it felt unreal.
His features were sculpted with impossible perfection, his pale skin smooth as jade.
Even asleep, he radiated a mysterious aura of overwhelming power that sent chills through her body.
Who are you…?
As she stared at him, mesmerized despite herself, the gigantic symbol beneath them continued glowing brighter and brighter.
Worried, she turned around— And froze in horror.
Every drop of blood that had touched the engravings had illuminated and consumed another fragment of the enormous mandala.
The symbols lit up one after another like stars awakening in the night sky, creating a chain reaction spreading across the entire circle until the complete magic formation pulsed with blinding energy beneath her feet.
The glow became so intense she had to squint.
Terrified by the incomprehensible phenomenon, Chen Yue instinctively stepped backward.
But in her panic, she completely forgot someone stood behind her.
Watch out—!
Too late.
Her wounded hand — the one still bleeding — accidentally grabbed the glowing restraints imprisoning the sleeping young man.
The moment she touched them, a violent surge of energy shot through her arm like lightning.
Suddenly, her energy began draining into the chains.
An irresistible force pulled her life essence directly through the wound in her hand, as though the restraints were greedily feeding on her blood.
No!
Let go of me!
She tried desperately to pull away.
But nothing worked.
Her fingers remained trapped, fused to the strange energy.
As though her flesh and the glowing chains had become one.
Like mystical leeches, the restraints devoured her life force with terrifying hunger.
Chen Yue felt herself fading.
Her strength vanished.
Her vision blurred.
Her consciousness flickered weakly like a dying flame.
I… I don’t want to die… She was going to lose consciousness.
She knew it.
In only a few seconds, she would collapse into darkness and perhaps never wake again.
Her legs could no longer support her.
Her body was growing cold.
But just before she blacked out completely— Something startled her.
Strong arms suddenly wrapped around her waist, catching her with a strange mixture of strength and gentleness.
Warm arms.
Solid arms.
Comforting arms.
It was him.
The young man bound by the glowing chains.
She had awakened him.
Before losing consciousness entirely, Chen Yue managed to glimpse his eyes slowly opening.
Eyes of molten gold.
Eyes capable of piercing straight through her soul.
And then… Nothing.