Darkness was not the absence of light—it was the presence of something older.
Rin Xie emerged into a new world where that darkness was alive.
It breathed. It pulsed. It clung to the walls like flesh.
He stood on a narrow stone path suspended over an endless abyss. Beneath him, the yawning void exhaled softly, as though asleep. Above, the sky was made of bone—arches of giant ribs looping over the world like a dead god's cage. There was no sun. No moon. Only a faint gray luminescence that pulsed from the mist itself, as if death had its own rhythm, separate from time.
He had descended through the portal.
And arrived in a realm that had no name.
But the moment he stepped in, the dagger in his hand whispered.
Not in words. Not truly. But the sensation was unmistakable—a voice pressed into his thoughts, not from the outside, but from beneath.
"Death… is not the end."
"It is the only path."
"But each step costs. Bleed. Or be buried."
The voice came with no tone, no origin, no warmth. Only truth.
Rin Xie gripped the dagger tighter.
It no longer pulsed with necrotic hunger. Instead, it hummed gently, like a blade in meditation. Yet its presence had changed. Before, it had been a weapon.
Now, it was a guide.
He walked forward, boots scraping ancient stone. The path wound like a serpent, narrow and uneven, as though carved by blind hands. No wind. No echo. Only the crunch of dried moss beneath his steps.
As he moved, a panel of translucent glyphs flickered before his eyes:
[Death-Refinement Core: Awakening Stage]
Death Aura Stored: 11 units
Resonant Artifact: Death-Refinement Dagger (Key 1/7)
Core Law: Only that which touches death may refine death
Condition: Soul Fracture (87%), Body Ruin (64%)
Cultivation Method Unlocked: "Threshold Breach – Near-Death Tempering"
To grow, you must die—but not yet.
He paused.
"Threshold Breach."
It made sense. He had felt it in the ruins—how death itself was fuel, not a failure. But now, it was clearer. He did not gain power by avoiding harm. He gained it by inviting it, skimming the edge of death and drawing from the brink.
He understood the cost.
He continued forward.
The dagger pulsed once more, guiding his steps—not with direction, but with hunger. He felt it veer to the left, toward a ragged crevice at the side of the path.
The air changed.
It grew heavy. Sour.
He heard chewing.
Rin crouched low, pressed against the stone wall, and peered through the opening.
Inside, he saw a wide cavern dimly lit by lichen glowing a sickly green. Corpses lined the walls—fresh ones. Their robes marked them as cultivators, though faded and half-eaten. Several were missing limbs. One had his spine gnawed halfway through, leaving the upper half limp like a puppet cut from strings.
And in the center of them all was the carrion beast.
It stood taller than two men, with a bloated torso covered in bone-warts and patches of sloughed-off skin. Its face was a mask of flayed muscle, with three sunken eyes and a jaw that unhinged like a snake. Dozens of human fingers hung like trophies from its neck, tied by gut-string.
It chewed noisily.
Then stopped.
Its eyes turned toward the crack in the wall.
"Fight. Bleed. Taste death."
The dagger's whisper was calm.
Rin Xie stepped into the cavern.
He didn't hesitate. Hesitation was for the living.
The beast shrieked and lunged.
Rin moved to the side, narrowly avoiding the first strike. Claws the size of sickles scraped stone. He ducked under a second strike, rolled, and slashed with the dagger—not to kill, but to provoke.
The blade sliced a thin line across the beast's thigh. It roared.
And Rin smiled.
Pain bloomed in his ribs as the beast struck back, claws raking his side. Blood splattered the floor. His body screamed—but the core pulsed.
[Threshold Breach Achieved – Vitality dropped below 35%]
Initiating Near-Death Tempering…
Time slowed.
Rin saw the death aura rise from his wound like smoke, curling into his nostrils, ears, pores. His meridians lit up—gray veins glowing faintly. His dagger pulsed with it, not in hunger, but in resonance.
The closer he came to death, the more the dagger remembered itself.
He attacked.
Fast. Brutal. Reckless.
Each wound he received opened a new gate. He let the pain sharpen him. Let the fear refine him. Not fear of death—but fear of not dying enough to be reborn.
They clashed again.
And again.
Blood drenched the stones. Flesh tore. The dagger sang.
In a final charge, Rin Xie let the beast strike him full across the chest.
His ribs broke.
His lungs nearly collapsed.
But his dagger pierced the creature's eye and drove deep into its skull.
The beast howled.
Then collapsed.
Dead.
Rin fell to one knee.
You are dying.
Not enough.
Push further.
The dagger pulsed violently.
His vision blurred.
He could feel it—that precipice. One step further, and he would die for real.
One step back, and he would waste this trial.
So he let himself fall.
He slumped onto his back, bleeding, broken. Not unconscious. Not yet.
And at that edge—between this breath and the last—the core bloomed.
[Near-Death Tempering Successful]
Death Aura Absorbed: 24 units
Threshold Mastery Increased: 12% → 37%
Body Part Refined: Right Lung (Carrion Lung)
Effect: Filters poison, disease, and corpse gas; + minor death aura conversion per breath.
He gasped.
His right lung—previously collapsing—had stopped bleeding. It pulled in air again, but not normal air. It drank death, filtered it, turned it into essence.
A part of him had changed.
Not healed.
Evolved.
Rin Xie lay still for a long time.
The cavern was silent, save for the slow drip of blood.
Around him, the death aura was thicker now, drawn from the carrion beast's corpse and the scattered dead.
He inhaled.
Exhaled.
Inhaled again.
Each breath now cultivated death.
The dagger twitched in his hand.
He looked at it.
"I hear you," he said aloud.
The whisper came again. Closer. Clearer.
"Refine or rot. Choose."
"The living fear death. The dead resent life. But you—you must become their boundary."
"Each step forward costs a piece of you. Skin, name, belief, fate, meaning…"
"Are you willing?"
Rin Xie didn't answer immediately.
He stared at the beast's corpse. At his blood. At the slow rise and fall of his breath.
And finally said:
"I am not afraid of losing myself."
"So long as I lose everything… on purpose."
The dagger pulsed, content.
He stood.
Weaker. Stronger. Both.
He pulled one of the beast's claws and cracked it off, tying it to his waist like a trophy. Not to boast, but to remember.
His path forward was clear now.
Not a road paved with steps—but with thresholds.
Each threshold would demand he come close to death.
Each would change him.
And the deeper he went…
… the less of Rin Xie would remain.
But what remained would be stronger.
To be continued…