The scroll Jao Xien left behind whispered truths even the elders had only heard in hushed legends.
“The Skybone Emperor... was not born,” Elder Gihyeon said.
“He fell—from beyond the veil.”
Mujin, the Obsidian Fang at his side and the Eighth Seal still burning in his hand, stood before a crumbling map etched in starlight.
The location marked:
a chasm beneath Mount Hyorong, where no birds flew and no moonlight touched.
Mujin and a small Woonryong scout team arrived at the foot of the mountain.
The sky above was unnaturally still—a silence so deep it ached.
They descended into a fissure in the earth, where the air grew thick, not with dust... but with memory.
"These ruins," one scout muttered, "they're dreaming."
Indeed, the walls moved when no one watched.
Runes blinked like eyes.
Time stuttered.
Then they found it—
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
A massive ribcage, fossilized yet humming with dormant qi.
The skeleton of the Skybone Emperor, arched over a gate of black crystal.
“This wasn’t a man,” Mujin whispered.
“It was a vessel.”
The gate opened.
Beyond the gate was a vast, circular chamber.
Statues of unknown warriors lined the perimeter, each frozen in agony or awe.
And at the center:
a platform floating in air, suspended by nothing but intent.
On it—an empty throne.
”To claim the Emperor’s path, a soul must endure remembrance,” the runes on the walls whispered.
Suddenly, Mujin was alone.
Time froze.
The chamber dimmed.
And twelve figures materialized—
warriors, assassins, monks, kings, all with eyes of silver flame.
“You walk the road of the Skybone,” one intoned.
“Then show us how you forget... and survive.”
They attacked.
Each one wielded a fragment of Mujin’s forgotten past.
The monk who had offered him peace, now striking with guilt.
The friend he left behind, whose blade screamed abandonment.
The version of himself who had killed, not saved.
Mujin fought, not just with the Obsidian Fang, but with every memory he could hold onto.
"I remember who I am,” he snarled.
“But more importantly... I remember who I won’t become."
With a roar, he struck down the final echo.
The floating platform cracked.
The throne crumbled into dust—
Revealing beneath it a glowing fragment of bone.
The Skybone Core.
It pulsed and whispered, in a voice like ancient thunder:
“One seal remains.”
And in the heavens far above—
a ninth constellation blinked awake.
At its center, a black hole shaped like an eye opened—
And watched Mujin.
To be continued...