Two figures moved steadily across the vast plains of Yen-Lu, their silhouettes outlined only by the faint starlight.
One was an elderly figure draped in tattered robes. He held an ancient lantern in one hand and a wooden staff in the other. The other was a young man with long, flowing raven hair. He wore a black cloak, and he also had a blindfold on.
The night around them felt heavy. It was quiet in a way that wasn’t peaceful, but watchful. The grass swayed in long, slow waves, rustling just enough to remind them how empty the world around them was.
From ti to ti, the pair walked straight through bloody battlefields where Magi from the Unorthodox Faction and the Arcane Alliance waged a brutal war. But strangely enough, none of them seed to notice the two of them—clearly, a result of the elderly man’s magic.
The two traveled for a couple of months together, and now their destination was within sight.
"We’re almost there," said the hermit, his voice aged but gentle.
"...I see." Adam tried his best to suppress the nervousness in his voice. But, of course, he failed. So, instead, he just smiled like a madman.
Far ahead, the landscape shifted into sothing unnatural. A massive black line cut through the earth as if the land had been split by a colossal blade. It stretched endlessly in both directions, too straight and too deep to be natural.
The closer they drew, the more it seed to pulse with silent threat.
Above the jagged scar, the sky looked just as wrong. Dark clouds gathered and twisted, forming a torn fissure that mirrored the ground below. Flickers of faint, sickly light moved behind the clouds, giving the impression of sothing alive writhing inside the storm.
The sight was unsettling, mysterious, and impossible to ignore.
"Are you certain?" The hermit asked. "You still have a choice. But once you enter that place, everything will change."
The two of them kept walking towards the forbidden zone, their pace neither hurried nor hesitant.
Adam didn’t reply. His face twisted between a crazed and a nervous expression. In the end, his lips ended up curling into a wide, unnatural grin, and he just laughed.
He laughed and laughed and laughed.
A long ti later, he finally cald down a little. His expression returned to normal, and he said in an even voice, "One way or another, I will end up there."
"Is it because the Will of the World?" the hermit asked.
"Yes." Adam nodded. "Partly"
He paused for a mont before continuing, "I don’t know if you’re aware of this, Sect Leader, but within the forbidden zone, ti is distorted to a great degree. One year outside would amount to several years inside the forbidden zone. The exact numbers... I’m not so sure."
Now it was the hermit’s turn to slip into thoughts.
"...I did not know that," he murmured. "Why do you think that is?"
Adam shrugged. "Well, that’s what I’m going there to find out. The Will of the World... it wants to find out. No, it probably already knows, and it wants to go there. For what? I still don’t know."
"Is it because of the magic of coincidences you ntioned?"
"Indeed." Adam nodded. "Years before I set foot in the realm of Yen-Lu, I experienced a series of coincidences. It’s like... things sohow just happened to align, and they all pointed towards the forbidden zone."
The hermit remained silent for a long ti as the pair slowly approached their destination.
"So then what are your personal reasons to visit that forbidden zone?" the hermit asked, his voice calm and soothing.
"I don’t know if you’ve realized... but I’m a little crazy," Adam said with a wide grin. "To be more precise, my spirit sea is fractured and my soul heavily injured."
The hermit was stunned. "Are you going to the forbidden zone to look for a cure? I must warn you, young Magus, but you shouldn’t place such high hopes. I doubt there is anything in this world that can nd a fractured spirit sea and heal an injured soul!"
"I know." Adam flashed a little smile. "But I have to at least try..."
There was no way he was going to tell the hermit that he had in his possession an artifact that could heal his soul. He didn’t trust the man that much. He didn’t trust anyone that much. Except Valerian, perhaps.
Fearing that the man would start to ponder the existence of so kind of miracle cure inside the forbidden zone, Adam quickly changed the subject.
"Because of the ti distortion in that place, I hope to lessen the madness in ," he said. "I believe with enough ti, such a thing would be possible."
But, of course, the truth was, with enough ti, his soul would be fully healed by the lotus. Not only that, but it would also beco stronger than before!
"This..." The hermit was now unsure whether to take the youth to his destination. But every divination he perford told him that this was the right path. He just couldn’t understand.
"Rest assured, sect leader." Adam smiled. "If I wasn’t confident, I wouldn’t be attempting such a thing. Besides..."
He laughed out loud. "I’m sowhat of a coward myself! I place a great importance on my life, you know."
Under the shadows of the hood, the hermit’s lips twitched. In the end, he helplessly sighed. "How long do you think you’ll take to return?"
"I don’t know." Adam shrugged. "Could be years. Decades even."
"In the outside world," the hermit said in a grim voice. "aning, even more ti will have passed inside the forbidden zone."
Adam’s lips curled into a nervous smile. "I’m trying not to think too much about it. Besides, I just turned thirty-nine today. I’m still young. Hopefully, when I return, I’ll still be young."
He paused for a mont, then burst into laughter. "Well, it doesn’t matter if I appear old or young. It’s not like I have a lover waiting for to court her. But still... I hope I don’t grow too old."
The hermit deeply looked at Adam. He then gently placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Are you afraid, young Magus?"
"Yeah..." Adam smiled. "I’m terrified."
Traversing through fear and madness, the Dark King had reached his destination.
At long last, the winds of fate had carried him to the Dark Valley!
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