Dawn broke blood-red.
Ren Zhe, Meimei, and Jin reached the edge of the Graveyard by morning. They crossed into a region known in the old maps as the Crownless Expanse—a realm of broken dynasties, where once stood an empire so mighty its name alone bent the heavens.
But no one remembered it anymore.
At least, no one alive.
Jin did.
As they made camp in a crater carved from forgotten warfare, the boy stirred.
"I know where we're going," he said.
Ren Zhe didn't ask how. He had stopped asking. Some things were better left unspoken. Jin's memories weren't his own. Not entirely. They belonged to something older.
"The Emperor's Tomb is beneath the capital ruins. But the capital is sealed."
Meimei frowned. "By what?"
Jin looked at her, eyes glowing again. "By a curse cast by his heir. The First Traitor."
That silenced the wind.
Meimei spoke carefully. "Do you remember him too?"
Jin hesitated. "Only his face. He had no shadow. No heartbeat. No guilt."
Ren Zhe felt a chill crawl up his spine.
Shadowless. Heartless.
He had heard of such beings.
Cultivators who transcended morality, becoming Void-bound Immortals. Not demons. Not humans. Not even spirits.
Unwritten laws said they were hunted to extinction.
But Ren Zhe had once found a sigil in the pit, carved into bone.
A name.
Xue Han.
It burned now in his memory.
"He'll come for us," Jin said.
Ren Zhe nodded. "Let him."
They traveled southwest.
The land turned strange. Trees with hollow cores. Rivers that flowed backward during noon. Broken palaces emerged from under the sand, their towers filled with silent screams.
Then they found it.
The Gates of Silk and Iron.
They stood 300 feet tall, guarded by two statues—one weeping, one laughing.
Jin stepped forward and placed his hand on the iron gate.
It opened.
No creak. No groan. It simply yielded.
Beyond was the capital.
Or what was left of it.
Stone melted. Spires collapsed. Roads that led into cliffs.
And at the center, the Tomb of the Emperor—sealed in crystal, suspended above a void.
As they approached, a voice rang through the ruins.
"You shouldn't have come."
A man stood atop a broken archway.
He was beautiful. Ethereal. Robes of gold and ink. His hair was silver, eyes like still water.
And no shadow followed him.
Jin whispered, "Xue Han."
The First Traitor smiled.
"You have your father's arrogance," he said to Jin. "And your mother's death wish."
Ren Zhe stepped forward. "You will not touch him."
Xue Han looked amused.
"And you must be the Graveborn. The one who clawed his way out. I smelled your return before you took your first breath."
Ren Zhe clenched his fists.
Xue Han raised a finger.
The world bent.
Meimei was thrown to the ground, coughing blood. The wind stopped moving. The sky held its breath.
"I was the one who buried the Emperor," Xue Han said. "Do you think you can do what he could not?"
Ren Zhe took one step.
The shard in his chest ignited.
Another step.
The air caught fire.
Final step.
He stood before Xue Han.
And swung.