The next day, pale sunlight filters through the narrow windows of the apartnt.
A knock echoes from the door on the second floor, and Lin Zhu goes to answer.
When he opens it, his eyes widen. “Master… Senior Brother? Why are you here?”
Xiao Yun stands beside his father, Xiao Zhan, both carrying neatly wrapped gifts.
Xiao Zhan offers a courteous nod. “We ca to thank your brother. Without him, last night would have ended in disaster.”
Lin Zhu steps aside quickly, still stunned. “Please, co in.”
Inside, rin sits at the small table, pale but awake, drinking from a cup of water.
He looks up as Xiao Yun and Xiao Zhan enter, and he sets the cup down before rising to greet them.
Xiao Zhan speaks first. “You have my gratitude. The clan owes you for saving those girls.”
rin shakes his head gently. “Without Xiao Yun’s help, I couldn’t have rescued them. The credit is not mine alone.”
Xiao Yun watches him for a mont before asking, “Do you know who struck the final blow to the monster?”
rin pauses, his expression calm, then gives a faint smile. “I only rember falling beside the blood pool. After that… nothing.”
Xiao Yun studies him in silence but doesn’t press further.
Xiao Zhan places the fruit basket on the table. “Please accept this token of thanks.”
After a few more words, father and son excuse themselves, leaving the gifts behind as they descend the narrow stairs of the apartnt building.
Not even an hour passes before another knock rattles the wooden door of the second-floor apartnt.
Lin Zhu hurries over and pulls it open. A man in grey robes stands outside, a young girl beside him. Lin Zhu frowns in confusion. “Who are you?”
The girl, Li Mie, tilts her head. “We are from the Four Gate?”
Startled, Lin Zhu calls out, “Brother! People from the Four Gates are here!”
Inside, rin pauses, withdrawing his hand from Lin Mi’s wrist. Her breathing steadies, colour slowly returning to her cheeks after the vitality he fed her. Leaving her resting, he steps into the main room.
There, he finds Head Tie, the Four Gate leader, standing with Li Mie.
Head Tie clasps his hands in greeting. “rin, on behalf of the city, we thank you for saving the girls.”
rin shakes his head. “I only acted for my sister.”
Head Tie smiles faintly. “Even so, the city has decided to reward your deed. You will receive ten large gold coins and a house with a yard—three bedrooms, space enough for your family.”
Lin Zhu’s eyes widen in awe, but rin simply bows in acceptance.
As they prepare to leave, Head Tie studies him closely. “Do you know who killed the old man?”
rin’s gaze remains calm, unreadable. “When I fell unconscious, I saw the monster sliding toward us. I saw nothing.”
Head Tie and Li Mie exchange a glance but do not press further. They take their leave, footsteps fading down the stairwell.
A few hours later, another knock sounds at the door.
This ti, a city official in a neat uniform bows when rin opens. “By order of the council, three days from now, you will be rewarded in the city square. Your presence is required.”
rin nods without hesitation. “Understood.” He presses a large silver coin into the man’s hand. “For your trouble.”
The official’s eyes brighten at the gift, and after offering thanks, he departs down the stairwell.
Closing the door, rin returns to the quiet room. Lin Mi still lies asleep, her breathing steady, her cheeks regaining life.
rin sits cross-legged at her sister’s side, opens the book on spiritual runes, and lets his mind sink into its diagrams and principles as the evening deepens.
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He realises the difference between the runes he normally inscribes and spiritual runes—the forr are carved in the physical world, while the latter are drawn inside the sea of consciousness itself.
Turning the pages carefully, he studies the thod of constructing these runes within his inner sea, each stroke described as if etched upon the soul.
On the final page, he finds a revelation: when a physical rune and a spiritual rune are combined, they form what is called an Earthly Rune.
Closing his eyes, he organises the knowledge, and in a single breath, he understands it fully. Even if what he possesses is only a sliver of divine consciousness, it is still the divine consciousness of a demigod.
He then picks up the second book—the Heavenly Lightning Spiritual Body technique. He reads it once, and again the knowledge settles instantly into his mind. Yet he knows he cannot practice it now—his soul energy has not recovered.
Placing both books aside, he exhales, lies down near Lin Mi, and drifts into sleep as the night embraces the quiet room.
As rin’s body rests in the quiet room, his consciousness slips into the dream space, where the soul of the old man is bound in chains of mist.
“Co,” rin whispers, his voice echoing across the dreamscape, and the prisoner stirs. The old man’s soul thrashes, its aura stained and distorted, tainted by sothing far older.
rin presses his divine will, and the soul unravels—fragnts of mory flooding like broken glass, sharp and polluted. Scenes twist and collapse, but within the chaos, truth flickers.
He sees the old man ten years ago, bloodied and hunted, fleeing beyond the empire’s borders into the wildlands. There, deep within the forgotten plains, he stumbled across a tribe kneeling before an altar carved with symbols of blood and madness. The shaman healed his failing body, chanting praises to an ancient demigod. In exchange, the old man offered devotion, swearing himself as a believer.
The na strikes rin like thunder: Ngazi’Mawu—blood and madness in a tongue lost to distant lands. It coils with power, thick and hateful, filling every fragnt of the soul.
The old man returned with that faith carved into him, spreading it in secret. His thod of proof was sacrifice, a display of the god’s favour—bleeding mortals to ascend toward the rank of high Celestial Master.
As rin digs deeper, he uncovers the hidden thread: the Yang family’s shadow moving behind the sche. They provided protection, resources, and victims. And most chilling—he sees why Lin Mi and Xiao Yixian were chosen. Their bodies resonate with two of the Twelve Earthly Season Runes, fragnts of the world’s ancient foundation. Together, the twelve chosen would form the complete cycle.
The mory frays into madness, voices chanting, blood flowing like rivers. rin’s head throbs, but he pushes on until nothing more can be gleaned.
At last, he lifts his hand, and his dream ision ability devours the soul completely. Power surges into him, filling the hollow spaces, knitting his soul energy back together.
rin exhales and opens his eyes in the waking world, his heart heavy with the knowledge of Ngazi’Mawu and the truth of the Yang family’s sches.
Three days later, the city square overflows with people, banners fluttering, drums beating.
rin stands with Lin Zhu and Lin Mi at the side platform, together with Xiao Yun, Xiao Yixian, and their father.
From the main stage, the city lord personally calls nas, rewarding the six gate guards who followed rin into the cavern, along with Captain Zhang. Cheers rise as each receives their honours.
Then cos the na of Xiao Yun. He steps off the side platform and walks steadily toward the main stage, his back straight beneath the eyes of the crowd.
Whispers ripple through the square.
“Xiao Yun has changed paths…”
“He’s no longer a martial artist, but a Heavenly Celestial Master.”
“He should have done it three years ago when his cultivation collapsed.”
rin listens silently, eyes narrowing. He knows better. Three years ago, Xiao Yun couldn’t have beco a Celestial Master even if he wanted to. His body had already reached the rank of Blood Yang, radiating potent yang energy—an innate force that rejected the Celestial Master’s spiritual cultivation.
Only now, with the soul within his ring awakened, could he forge a new path. But what he walks isn’t the ordinary Celestial cultivation thod. His foundation is sothing stranger, a fusion of the martial and celestial paths.
rin’s heart stirs with recognition. This road ans that after cultivating the peak of the Heavenly Celestial Master realm. To advance further, he will have to cultivate martial arts again, climbing to its peak, and then rge both disciplines into one.
rin stands silent as Xiao Yun bows before the city lord. His thoughts linger on the truth he has just uncovered—this double peak of martial and celestial cultivation, the path beyond the ordinary realm.
Then his own na is called.
He walks calmly to the main platform.
Before the watching crowd, the city lord presents him with the reward: ten large gold coins and the deed to a spacious house with a yard and three bedrooms.
Applause rises, though hushed whispers follow, voices wondering about the mysterious youth who led guards into the cavern and returned alive.
When the ceremony ends, the crowd scatters, leaving the square noisy with vendors, families, and idle chatter. rin draws close to Xiao Yun and quietly speaks.
“The Yang family gave the city records to that evil Celestial Master. That’s how he knew the birth dates of the girls… to use them in so blood ritual.”
Xiao Yun’s face hardens, then softens as he exhales. “Tomorrow I leave for Heisha Domain Academy. I want you to co with , Lin Yu.”
" And I will leave a gift for the Yang Family."
rin shakes his head. “No.”
Xiao Yun is going to the academy for better developnt. But rin doesn't need it.
They clasp forearms, the weight of unspoken trust between them. Then, with Xiao Yixian and their father beside him, Xiao Yun departs.
rin turns back with Lin Zhu and Lin Mi. The three walk ho in silence, the city still lively behind them. Once inside, rin begins folding their few belongings, placing them carefully into bundles. Lin Zhu moves about quickly, stacking what little furniture can be carried, while Lin Mi watches, still pale but slowly regaining her strength.
They are preparing to leave the apartnt behind and step into a new house—one bought with blood, battle, and reward.
And the next morning, he hears that the Yang Family house was burned down by a mysterious green colour fire that wouldn't extinguish with water.
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