Ten days.
That was the time given.
Not to prepare.
But to say goodbye.
⸻
[Day 1 – Max's Quarters]
The knock was soft.
Kang Mirae entered without waiting for an answer.
She looked thinner. Or maybe it was the light.
Max tried to smile, but it didn't stay.
"You heard?"
Mirae nodded, stepping inside. Her eyes scanned his belongings: a travel bag barely half-filled, a pair of spiritual herbs laid out on cloth, and the Codex-bound scroll that shimmered faintly on the desk.
"You're really leaving," she said.
"I have to."
Silence.
"Is it dangerous?" she asked quietly.
He hesitated.
"Yes."
She didn't cry.
Didn't argue.
Just walked over and pulled him into a hug.
💭 You were always the one who needed protecting. When did you become this? 💭
She pulled back after a moment and gave him a small, sad smile.
"I left something in your bag," she said. "Don't open it now."
"Okay…"
"And Max?"
He looked up.
"You better come back stronger. Or I'll come drag your sorry ass out of whatever secret realm they throw you into."
He laughed, voice cracking.
"I'll be waiting," she added. "But not forever."
Then she left.
And Max sat there, fingers shaking.
It was starting to feel real.
⸻
[Day 2 – Inner Sanctum Gardens]
Lian Yue stood before a tree older than the sect itself.
Beneath it knelt her sister, Seo Yura.
Dressed in pure white, hair tied with a single crimson ribbon, Yura looked like a gentle snow sprite—innocent, kind, watching her older sister with wide eyes.
"You're leaving again," Yura whispered.
"Yes."
"I thought… we could be together longer this time."
Lian Yue's expression didn't shift, but her knuckles tightened behind her back.
"It's not a choice."
"I know," Yura said, rising. "But you're not alone this time, are you?"
She tilted her head, eyes glinting.
"That boy. Max. You like him."
Lian Yue blinked.
"…It's not like that."
Yura's smile was soft. But something behind it wasn't.
"Oh. I see."
She leaned closer, gently adjusting Lian Yue's cloak like a doting younger sister.
"Still… I wonder. If something were to happen to him out there, what would you become?"
Lian Yue didn't respond.
She didn't need to.
Yura just laughed—sweet, melodic, and utterly unreadable.
"Be careful, unnie," she whispered. "Even the Veiled Path has eyes."
Then she turned and walked away, humming to herself.
The flame in Lian Yue's core flared slightly.
And her breath turned to mist.
⸻
[Day 5 – Departure Preparations]
The Veiled Path wasn't marked on any map.
That was the point.
Max was given a jade slip. Blank to most eyes. But when he poured Qi into it—
[Target Location: Veiled Path Initiation Point – ???]
Estimated Travel Time: 4 Days on Foot (Through the Withered Glacier)
Caution: Entry will be monitored.
Four days through one of the most desolate zones in the region.
A natural trial before the real one.
He met Lian Yue at the outer gates.
She had changed. Again.
Her aura was tighter. Sharper.
Like flame behind glass.
"You ready?" he asked.
She looked at him, something unreadable in her eyes.
"…You're still hesitating."
"What?"
"Not with your steps. With your heart."
Max opened his mouth—but no excuse came.
She didn't push further.
"Don't fall behind," she said, and turned.
He followed.
⸻
[Day 6 to 9 – Withered Glacier]
The Withered Glacier was as unforgiving as the records claimed.
Each night dropped to sub-zero temperatures. Each day brought mirrored illusions in the snow, powered by stray spirit remnants.
Max learned quickly.
How to anchor his soul against the cold.
How to burn impurities in his Qi using the Origin Codex.
How to follow Lian Yue—not by tracking her prints, but by sensing the flame imprint she left behind.
She didn't look back once.
Until the third night.
They huddled under a Spirit Barrier, exhausted. Max's lips were cracked, his robes stiff with frost.
He caught her watching him.
"What?"
She hesitated.
Then said, "I had a dream."
"Oh?"
"In it, I burned this entire glacier."
"…That's pretty metal."
She actually smiled.
Only briefly.
Then she said, "But when the fire faded… I was alone."
The wind whistled outside the barrier.
Max looked at her, the frozen nightlight casting soft silver on her cheek.
"You're not alone," he said.
Her gaze lingered a little longer this time.
"…Don't forget that," he added.
She didn't answer.
But her hand, resting near the edge of the barrier, moved slightly closer to his.
Just enough.
⸻
[Day 10 – Arrival: Veiled Path Initiation Grounds]
They reached it at dawn.
A massive frozen lake—still as glass, clear as sky.
At its center, an ancient archway stood, seemingly suspended above the water.
No path led to it.
No instructions waited.
Only a carving in Old Divine Script etched into the ice before them:
"To walk the path unseen, one must vanish from the world that knows them."
Max stared at it.
"So we… walk across?"
"No," Lian Yue said. "We disappear."
And without another word, she stepped forward.
Her body shimmered—and vanished the moment her foot touched the ice.
No ripple.
No sound.
Gone.
Max took one breath.
And followed.
[Entering the Veiled Path…]
Warning: All sect affiliations, protections, and bindings are suspended. Life and death shall follow true cause and effect.]
Path Unseen: Initiated.
⸻
[Unknown Realm – The Other Side]
The air was different.
Max stumbled as he reappeared, instantly hit by a wave of spiritual density ten times what the sect offered. His skin tingled. His Qi flared.
Lian Yue stood nearby, eyes already scanning.
Above them, a crimson moon hung in the sky.
Behind them, the gate was gone.
Before them?
A vast black forest.
And six figures waiting in the shadows.
One stepped forward, a woman with jagged scars across her lips and a blade carved from obsidian.
"Welcome," she said coldly.
"To the first of your real trials."
[Veiled Path – Trial One: The Hunt Begins]
⸻
[End of Chapter 30]
⸻
A/N:
They're no longer under sect protection. No elders. No boundaries. Just raw cultivation, hidden factions, and deadly secrets.