Part I: A Map Drawn in Breath
It had been five days since Mujin unearthed the Chronicle of the Skybone Emperor.
Each night, the sigil on his Heaven's Seal burned brighter.Each dream more twisted.
Whispers followed him now—half in Baekje dialect, half in a tongue that felt older than history.
"The sixth lies beneath breathless stone," the voice had said."Where sky and ground no longer speak."
So here he stood—at the edge of Cheonseong Valley, nicknamed the "Windless Tomb."
The air was wrong.
Still. Heavy. Like the sky itself was waiting for something to die.
Behind him, Elder Gihyeon murmured, "This place was sealed when Baekje was young. We were told never to enter."
Mujin: "And now?"
Gihyeon's eyes narrowed.
"Now we break the rules."
Part II: The Bone Gate
The entrance to the Skybone Emperor's vault was no door—it was a ribcage.A literal one. Towering, fossilized, half-buried in obsidian rock.Each rib etched with scripture that hissed if stared at too long.
Mujin approached, holding the Chronicle scroll.The sigil on his wrist pulsed.The ribs cracked open, groaning like something waking from a nap it didn't want to end.
"You sure this isn't cursed?""If it's not, it should be."
They descended.
Inside, the walls glowed faintly with bone-laced veins, like roots of the dead stretching for miles.
Then the whispers returned.
But this time… they came with footsteps.
Part III: The Echo Assassin
The attack came not with warning—but with reflection.
A mirror shimmered in the air—then broke.From it, a man emerged, face hidden behind a mirrored mask.Armor laced with teeth.Eyes that bled gold.
"You are not worthy to walk here," the assassin whispered."Not yet."
Mujin didn't speak.He unsheathed Skycut Fang and took a low stance.
The fight began without fanfare.
Silence as blades clashed.Each strike from the assassin distorted the air, like it was cutting echoes instead of flesh.Mujin blocked one—two—but the third grazed his ribs. Pain flared.
The assassin stepped in.
"I've killed those who dreamt of the Seal."
Mujin: "Then you haven't met a nightmare."
He unleashed Fourfold Wave, the technique Elder Gihyeon barely let him train.The floor cracked. The echo shattered. The assassin reeled—
—and Mujin stabbed him through the lung.
The assassin laughed, blood gurgling.
"You pass… Gate One."
Then his body crumbled into ash.
Only a single black key remained.
Part IV: The Chamber of Lost Names
The deeper they went, the colder it got.
At the vault's heart, they found a chamber with seven stone thrones.On each: a name carved, but each one erased by time.
In the center was a pedestal of bone and jade.Upon it, a stone vial—sealed with a dragon sigil.
Mujin reached out.
The vial shattered.Inside: a glowing, liquid orb.It pulsed once—and entered his chest.
Agony. Light. Visions.
He saw—
A battlefield of stars
The Skybone Emperor fighting his own reflection
A sword falling from the heavens
Then, darkness.
Epilogue: A New Mark
Mujin awoke outside the tomb.
On his wrist, the Heaven's Seal now bore a sixth symbol.
His body felt different.Stronger.But colder.
Elder Gihyeon: "You retrieved the Heart of Bone."
Mujin: "It wanted me to see something. A warning."
Gihyeon nodded. "Then listen to it well."
Far away, a temple bell shattered.
A figure cloaked in crimson smiled over a map of Baekje.
"The sixth seal has awakened. Let the seventh bleed."
To be continued.