The ruins didn't exist on any map.
Luo Feng knew this because the Fox Spirit had stolen every map in the continent—"for research"—and none showed the obsidian monolith jutting from the wasteland like a broken fang. The air here tasted of burnt metal and something older, something that made the System flicker in and out like a dying candle.
Li Qing's new sword—a loan from her master that she refused to acknowledge as a gift—hummed uneasily at her side. "This place rejects cultivation."
The Fox Spirit, her missing tail still a raw wound, shivered. "Yeah, well, it's about to reject our faces if we don't find that stupid artifact."
[System Alert: Check-In Location – Void Dynasty Origin Ruin]
[Mission: Retrieve the "God-Sealing Nail"]
[Reward: Memory Fragment (Who Were You Before?)]
[Failure Penalty: Becoming Part of the Ruin]
Luo Feng stepped forward—
—and the ground screamed.
Black veins erupted from the soil, latching onto his ankles. The System blared:
[WARNING: VOID MEMORY DRAIN DETECTED]
[COUNTERMEASURES: NONE]
Then the visions hit.
[The First Memory: A Throne of Lies]
He was kneeling before the Void Emperor, but not as a supplicant—as an equal.
"It must be you," the Emperor said, his starless eyes burning. "The pantheon cannot know what we've lost."
Luo Feng (was that his name?) reached for the offered blade—
The Fox Spirit's teeth sank into his wrist, yanking him back to reality. "Snap out of it!"
Li Qing had her sword drawn, its edge frostbitten from slashing at the creeping void tendrils. "Move. Now."
They ran for the monolith as the ruins writhed behind them.
[The Trial: Three Truths of the Void]
1. The Door That Bleeds
The monolith's entrance wasn't a door but a wound—a jagged tear in the stone weeping black fluid.
The Fox Spirit prodded it. "So do we, like, knock or—"
Li Qing shoved her aside as the "fluid" lashed out, forming words midair:
"WHAT WILL YOU SACRIFICE?"
Luo Feng didn't hesitate. He pressed his palm to the wound.
It drank a year of his memories—the taste of his first meal, his master's face, the color of the Verdant Cloud Sect's spring blossoms—gone in an instant.
The door screamed open.
[Progress: 33%]
2. The Hall of Forgotten Kings
Inside, statues of rulers no history remembered lined the walls, their features melting like wax. At the center floated the God-Sealing Nail—a shard of crystallized void humming with power.
The Fox Spirit lunged.
A statue moved, catching her by the throat. "THIEF," it rasped.
Li Qing's sword shattered its arm, but ten more statues twitched to life.
Luo Feng did the only thing he could—he lied.
"We're here to return what was stolen!"
The statues paused.
The System, for once, backed him up:
[Deception Boosted by Void VE]
[Effect: Temporary Historical Override]
The statues bowed.
[Progress: 66%]
3. The Emperor's Secret
The nail seared Luo Feng's palm when he grabbed it, flooding him with a final vision:
The Void Emperor on his knees, begging someone—something—with Luo Feng's face: "Without you, the timeline unravels—"
Then the ruin collapsed.
[Check-In Complete (At What Cost?)]
They barely escaped, the nail burning a hole in Luo Feng's pouch. The Fox Spirit coughed up void dust. "Okay, what the hell was that?"
Li Qing stared at the nail. "A mistake."
[Reward Claimed: Memory Fragment]
[Truth: You Were Never Supposed to Be You]
The System's final message scrolled slowly, like it feared being read:
[The Void Emperor Didn't Create You… He Replaced You.]
END OF THE CHAPTER23