“For countless ages,” the old man rasped, his voice echoing in the vast chamber, “I have wrestled with this riddle. I must know who destroyed my Eastern Serenity Sect, and what darkness festered in their heart!”

“Our Eastern Serenity Sect was ever at peace with the world, our tenets strict, few disciples ventured beyond our gates, and enemies were a rarity. Even I, in my wanderings across the Immortal Continent, found more friends than foes, my heart set solely on the path of cultivation.”

“Yet despite all this, Eastern Serenity, my home… was utterly extinguished. I sought the Great Celestial Sovereigns, hoping to unravel the threads of destiny, but the fate of Eastern Serenity remained shrouded in shadow. No cause, no effect could be discerned…”

“I pleaded with the Five Great Sovereigns, even prostrated myself before the Royal City’s Grand Astrologer. But all was in vain. Only the Astrologer, in the midst of his divinations, coughed blood and his face mirrored raw terror… but only for a fleeting moment. It was replaced by a chilling bewilderment…”

“For three days, he languished in that fog. For three days, I stood vigil before him. And when he finally emerged, the visions were gone, wiped clean from his mind as if by some unseen hand. The memories of those days, erased…” The old man’s voice trailed off, his eyes, pools of ancient sorrow, burning with a hatred as cold and deep as the grave.

“The stone tablet… I could not comprehend its secrets. But the inscription… the very essence of its characters is etched upon my soul. It is the only thread by which I might find the one responsible!” He drew a shuddering breath, then closed his eyes. “Warrior, would you gaze upon that tablet?” After an age of silence, he spoke, his voice like the rasping of stone on stone. Wang Lin, his face an unreadable mask, nodded slowly.

The old man, as if sensing Wang Lin’s assent, raised his withered hand and swept it outwards. Instantly, a wave of utter decay washed over the grand hall. It was as if the very air aged millennia in the blink of an eye. Dust billowed, cracks spiderwebbed across the towering pillars, and the three statues behind the old man crumbled into unrecognizable ruins.

The floor beneath him split and buckled, as if the hall were being swallowed by the earth. And it was not contained within the chamber; the wave of decay spread outwards, a deathly wind sweeping across the entire Eastern Serenity Sect.

Outside, the courtyard shattered, magnificent pavilions and towers crumbled into dust, verdant mountains withered into barren, lifeless stone, and shimmering streams evaporated, leaving behind only stagnant pools of foul water. The disciples of Eastern Serenity, even the two Golden Core Masters, vanished into nothingness. The entire Sect, in an instant, transformed into a desolate wasteland.

Only skeletal remains littered the landscape, their hollow eyes staring up at a pitiless sky.

Liu Jinbiao, standing dumbfounded at the edge of the decaying plaza, felt a chill run down his spine as he gazed at the desolate remains of a former civilization. An unexplainable sense of foreboding washed over him as his eyes locked onto a nearby skeleton, its vacant sockets fixated on him, seemingly searching for answers.

Then, rising from the heart of the ruined Eastern Serenity, stood a colossal stone tablet, its height dwarfing even the grandest towers. It seemed to have materialized from thin air.

Upon its face, a single line of characters, etched in dried blood, pulsed with an unholy power:

“Lock the Heavens’ Fortune, Imprint the Nether Court, Those who cannot attain the True Way, Shall forever be lost in the Sea of Bitterness, Dedicated to those who seek the path of Real Cultivation!”

The crimson had long since faded to a morbid brown, yet the dread it exuded clung to the air like a shroud, enveloping the entire Eastern Serenity Sect and casting the heavens above into a perpetual twilight. It was as if a titan’s hand had blotted out the sun, leaving the world blind. The skies themselves were rendered speechless under the oppressive weight of the stone’s power!

“Warrior, behold… This is the tablet,” the old man rasped, his gaze fixed upon the monolith looming outside the hall.

Wang Lin turned, and the moment his eyes fell upon the inscription, his mind reeled. He had seen such a tablet before! In the Realm of the Seven Colors, within the Immortal’s Cave!

He had always believed it to be the work of the Sect Leader, but now, a chilling realization dawned upon him. He was wrong. Terribly wrong! What chilled him more to the bone was the inscription on the tablet. The script itself appeared hauntingly familiar. As he scrutinized the dark characters, a faint memory arose, a time where he witnessed somebody writing the exact same words!

Script could be replicated, yes, but the aura that resided within, the essence of its author, that was something that nobody could imitate. Wang Lin knew the script, and he knew the power it contained!

“The person… Celestial Fortune…” Wang Lin whispered, paralyzed. How could he ever forget that feeling? The power he once felt when he visited the Realm of Traveling Heavens, the feeling that resonated through him, even to this day!

That person was part of the Heavenly Dao, and even though Wang Lin claimed to have destroyed him, deep down, he always believed that Celestial Fortune never died!

The script and essence was not that of the Realm of Seven Colors, but the presence of the tablet in this realm caused Wang Lin’s once clear memories to cloud and dissipate like mist.

“The Realm of the Cave… The Immortal Astral Continent… The Eastern Serenity Sect… These three places all connected to one being, the Immortal of Seven Colors! But he was split into three spirits, two of which I claimed… and one that was revived… In fact, I even visited the Eastern Serenity Sect in a lucid dream many years ago!”

“But why… why would this tablet appear here? Why would a similar monument exist in the Realm of Caves! What is going on here…?” Wang Lin muttered to himself, his eyes clouded with confusion. “Who destroyed the Eastern Serenity Sect, and left this tablet behind?”

“The script and power belongs to Celestial Fortune, but how could he have come to the Immortal Astral Continent, and why would he destroy the Eastern Serenity Sect?”

“And the Immortal of Seven Colors, I thought he perished many years ago, but how is it possible that he may still…”

“The Realm of the Cave… is far more complicated than I previously thought. What other secrets are hidden inside?”

“All this time, I thought that I had discovered everything, but it seems that I barely scratched the surface! I believed that I was standing on top of the mountain, staring at the horizon. But there was an eye in the sky, observing everything I had seen!” Wang Lin’s entire being became stone cold.
The old man’s voice, a rasping lament, echoed behind Wang Lin. “If in your life, you see the same script and the same aura, tell me…”

“Aye, I beseech thee, tell me. If vengeance is within my grasp, and release from this earthly tether is possible, he who provides me the thread shall find this old one his thrall, until death claims me…” The old man spoke deliberately, each word infused with a shocking determination and a profound belief.

With a sweep of his withered hand, the old man restored the great hall to its former glory. The emerald peaks stood defiant, the jade streams flowed clear, birdsong and the fragrance of blossoms once more filled the air of the Eastern Lonesome Sect. One by one, the disciples materialized, blissfully unaware of their demise, living joyously amidst the vibrant illusion within the hallowed grounds.

Outside the hall, in the grand plaza, the stone tablets vanished, and the scattered bones disappeared. Liu Jinbiao stared blankly at the space where the inscriptions once stood, a prickling sensation crawling upon his skin.

“By the spirits…what unholy place is this?” Liu Jinbiao’s heart hammered in his chest. His eyes darted around, lingering on the faces of the Eastern Lonesome Sect disciples. Dread coiled tighter with each passing glance.

“I will,” Wang Lin replied, his voice betraying none of the turmoil within, as he stood within the hall.

The old man regarded Wang Lin for a long, silent moment, before bowing his head, concealing the sorrow and loneliness that haunted his eyes. Even with his head bowed, the sorrow clung to him like a shroud.

“You came to the Eastern Lonesome Sect… by happenstance, or with purpose?” the old man rasped.

“I seek the use of the Eastern Lonesome Pool,” Wang Lin replied, suppressing the unease that lingered from what he had just witnessed. “The Eastern Lonesome Pool…” The old man paused, nodding slowly.

“The pool holds a strange water, connected to the earth and to a celestial spirit sealed beneath the Great Saint Continent… a spirit that is not beast, but a celestial cultivator…”

“He fell to the Immortal Ancestor in ages past and was sealed here. Though his body is long dust, his soul did not dissipate, but merged with the leylines. The Eastern Lonesome Pool is a nexus of that convergence.”

“A cultivator may only enter the pool twice. To enter a third time is to invite instant death. Few outside our sect know of its existence. Those who do, and who offer a price, are permitted to enter.”

“Whispers claim that one may forge a True Essence body within the pool, but this is false… If it were so, the Eastern Lonesome Sect would have ascended to become the foremost sect of the Immortals, but we would be unable to protect the pool from the Heavenly Venerates.”

“Even now, it invites the attention of the Heavenly Venerates. Only the memory of our first ancestor, the Eastern Lonesome Heavenly Venerate, and the fact that the pool cannot be moved, and that its power wanes with the turning of ages, prevents it from being claimed.”

“Eastern Lonesome Heavenly Venerate?” Wang Lin’s eyes narrowed. This was the first time he had heard that name spoken.

“The Immortal Race’s five Heavenly Venerates are not eternal, and do indeed fall… Our first ancestor was once a Heavenly Venerate, but he perished… Now, even his corpse is lost to time. Many seek it, even the current Heavenly Venerates, yet none have found it…”

“Some say that whoever finds the ancestor’s corpse may ascend to the rank of Heavenly Venerate without enduring the trials of the Primordial God Realm… But these are just rumors.” The old man spoke with a weary resignation.

Wang Lin drew a deep breath, startled that the Eastern Lonesome Sect possessed such hidden depths, and that it had once birthed a Heavenly Venerate.

“The pool’s potency is now diminished, and the forging of a True Essence body is but a fable. Its true purpose is to grant the visitor a glimpse into a strange state of being, a chance to perceive the unique source of power held by that celestial cultivator.”

“If failed, your source will be stronger.”