"You may split the mountain, but the sky you bury will rise elsewhere."
— From the Forbidden Doctrine of the Sky-Burying Sect, sealed in the Eastern Vaults of Veilcloud Monastery
🌌 Eastern Edge – Veilcloud Monastery, Forgotten Zone
Fog rolled like silk over a shattered cliffside where sky and stone had once met. Now, only broken pillars remained—dozens, hundreds—each carved with the same word:
封 (Sealed)
A lone mountain peak still stood amid the wreckage. Upon it: a ruin shaped like a massive inverted lotus. Cracked, weatherworn, yet eerily untouched by time.
This was the Tomb of the Sky-Burying Sect—a place even the Nine Pacts feared to name.
⛰️ Arrival – Four Walk the Mist
Jin Mu-Won led the way, his Hollow Pulse vibrating low and steady beneath his ribs.
Behind him walked Su Ren, Ash-Eye Dagan, and Lin Xue—her mask gone, her face once again her own.
"I've never heard of a sect sealing the sky," Su Ren murmured.
"Is that metaphor?"
Ash-Eye shook his head.
"No. They buried it."
Lin Xue added softly:
"They believed ascension was the great lie—that the heavens were corrupted long ago. So they built this temple to drag the sky down into earth… and shatter it."
The air thickened with memory.
And something stirred beneath the stone.
📜 Lore Entry – Sky-Burying Sect
Founded during the Age of Fractured Wills, this sect practiced inverted cultivation—refusing heavenly qi in favor of gravity-core techniques and soul weight elevation. Rather than ascending, their masters focused on pulling divinity downward, claiming it corrupted less when fused with mortal soil.
Their final act: a ritual known only as Sky Burial—a forbidden art that tore the boundary between heaven and ground, shattering a continent in its wake.
They were erased shortly after.
But their pulse never truly vanished.
🧠 Hollow Trigger – Ancient Pulse Detected
Echo Contact Detected – Residual Cultivation Array "Heavenfall Engine"
Warning: Atmospheric Pressure Distortion – Void Ascension Imminent
Unlocking Echo Memory Class: Sect-Scale Remnant (S-Rank Threat)
🌀 Descent Into the Lotus Temple
The structure was inverted—a temple carved downward instead of skyward. They passed shrines twisted by gravity, statues that hovered upside-down, blood trails on the ceilings, memory scrolls encased in folded rock like crushed flowers.
In the center chamber stood a single pillar of sky—frozen blue flame that reached downward into a dark abyss.
Around it: thirty seated skeletons in meditative poses, each facing inward, their skulls bowed toward the flame.
"Final sect elders," Su Ren guessed.
"Self-buried."
Ash-Eye stepped carefully.
"This is no grave."
"It's a prison."
⚠️ Echo Activation – Heavenfall Engine Reactivation (Partial)
"Why do you climb skyward?"
"Why do you believe the heavens owe you a place?"
"We broke the sky so it could never lie again."
The thirty skeletons rose.
Not as corpses.
But as memory-bound echo forms—psionic projections bound to the will of the sect's dying vow.
They floated. Faces unmoving. Weapons sealed in gesture. Energy inverted.
Battle Triggered: Sect-Scale Echo Gauntlet – Sky-Burying Guardians
⚔️ Combat Engagement – Memory Gauntlet Begins
Each guardian wielded an inverted art:
Void Palm of Earthly Sovereignty – a strike that causes enemies to fall inward
Heavenweight Chains – binds movement by increasing soul gravity
Skyless Reversal Arts – disables flight, suppresses light-based qi
Jin led the charge, Hollow Form Four active.
Lin Xue and Su Ren fought back-to-back, her flame flaring downward into the ground like firewater. Ash-Eye bared his arms, his suppressed dragonfire now tuned to fight pressure—not heat.
🔥 Jin's Counter – Form Four: Boundless Mourner (Resonant Strike)
Jin's aura extended in all directions, anchoring his allies' memories against distortion. With each swing of his blade, fragments of the guardians' thoughts surfaced—half-remembered teachings, fractured laments.
"We gave up the sky for peace…"
"We buried the stars to stop the wars…"
"Why won't the silence hold…?"
Jin whispered:
"Because memory was never meant to be buried."
And with that, he pierced the Heavenfall Pillar—driving his Hollow blade through the sky-bound flame.
⚡ Collapse of the Heavenfall Engine
The temple trembled.
The thirty guardians bowed once—and then disintegrated into light.
But what they left behind was no treasure.
It was a single scroll, floating in still air.
Jin caught it.
It was labeled:
Sky Fragment – Oath Echo of the Mourner's Crown
📜 Echo Gained
[Fragment: Mourner's Crown — Sky-Burying Sect Vowcore]
Enables resistance to sect-scale pressure zones, void ascension sealing, and memory-weighted combat fields
Also grants awareness of buried sects across three regions
Attunement with Jin Mu-Won at 96.7%
Mourner's Crown Awakening: 25%
🌄 Aftermath – Climbing Out of the Inverted Temple
As the team emerged from the broken lotus, the sky above seemed a little clearer.
And for the first time in years, a single star flickered directly over the site—unburied.
Lin Xue looked to Jin.
"You think there are other sects like this?"
"No," he replied.
"I know there are."
He turned to the eastern wind.
"And I'll remember them all. Because if I don't—no one will."