Descending Into the Abyss
Tri Nhat descended into the valley as lightly as a breath of wind, the hem of his azure robe weaving through churning black gales. The earth beneath his feet vibrated with a bizarre rhythm as dark thermal energy exuded from celestial fissures, warping the fabric of the surrounding cosmos. Though the blood-red pillar of light had dissolved, its residual echo lingered like a streak of primordial wrath, rendering the atmosphere thick and suffocating.
He advanced toward a massive fracture where geological strata had been torn apart by brutal force. From the abyss below, a surge of freezing miasma erupted—so cold that it instantly froze night dew upon pine needles, suppressing the divine consciousness of surrounding life. This convergence of scorching heat and freezing cold signaled a profound cosmic imbalance, a state where natural laws were completely warped.
Tri Nhat frowned, his deep eyes reflecting gravity:
“Yin and Yang are inverted, bearing the wrathful grievances of ten thousand aeons. This is no earthly calamity.”
He bent down, touching the jagged edge of stone to release a strand of divine consciousness to probe the domain below. Yet in a flash, an invisible counter-shock rebounded from the bottom of the abyss. Violent as an enraged beast, it struck directly against his sea of consciousness. Tri Nhat stepped back, his chest heaving as he steadied his jarred true qi.
That power bore the breath of an ancient entity imprisoned for millennia, now frantically shattering its barrier to break free. At that precise moment, a faint, agonizing moan echoed from the depths—intermittent and fragile, like a spark about to extinguish within a sea of darkness.
Without a shred of hesitation, he channeled his true qi, his form transforming into a streak of azure light as he plunged straight into the heart of the abyss.
The Fairy of the Moon Palace
Below lay a cavern vast beyond imagination, where celestial light filtering through the overhead fissure barely illuminated moss-covered black cliffs and deformed stalactites suspended in the void. The air was besieged by a dense layer of wrathful miasma accumulated over centuries, heavy enough to suffocate all vital energy.
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At the center of the cavern, a colossal stone sarcophagus rested in absolute silence, its lid half-shattered by immense force from within. Thin wisps of black smoke curled outward, condensing into grotesque forms of wrathful wraiths belonging to the old universe.
Then his gaze froze.
Beside the shattered ruins lay a young maiden dressed in white robes, her countenance pale as parchment, her remaining life force hanging by a thread. Her celestial root was astonishingly pristine, radiating the exact heavenly aura that had resonated with him upon the Magpie Bridge beneath the moonlight.
He stepped forward swiftly, kneeling by her side to place his fingers upon her slender wrist. Her pulse was exceptionally weak, completely transcending biological laws of mundane beings. Her body contained energy transparent as crystal, yet it was being progressively eroded by the surrounding darkness.
Tri Nhat exhaled softly, his heart heavy:
“Compassion does not allow me to stand idly by. Her celestial root will dissolve into the void if this primordial wrath is not purified within an hour.”
Her true essence belonged neither to human, demon, ghost, nor any practitioner of the red dust. That ethereal aura bore the profound grace of the heavenly palace—a life form belonging to the highest realm.
The Awakening of the Evil Spirit
Before he could compose his thoughts, the stone sarcophagus behind him shook vehemently. A low, muffled roar rumbled from the depths of the earth, like the wrathful cry of an age-old evil spirit breaking free after millennia of confinement. Cavern walls fractured as a deluge of stone fragments rained down like a raging tempest. From the darkness of shattered stone, a dense mass of black energy erupted, swirling to form a monstrous visage with blood-red eyes burning with hatred.
Tri Nhat vaulted to his feet, standing heroically as a shield in front of the white-robed maiden. His hands rapidly formed sacred mudra seals as azure light from his primordial body expanded to its limit, erecting a wall of brilliant luminescence to directly confront the darkness swallowing the cavern.
Beneath time-honored Jade Peak, the upheaval of the celestial nexus had officially commenced. Between the howling darkness of old law and the compassionate light of the saving vow, he stood unyielding, his gaze fixed upon the evil entity. A grand chapter of the epic of three thousand worlds began with a single footstep that would never retreat.
CANTO II: THE MYSTERY BENEATH JADE PEAK
The fathomless abyss runs cold and deep,
Where ancient storms and shadow-gales weep.
A maiden fallen from the halls of grace,
Now rests in silence in this ruined space.
Though demons roar and cosmic wheels turn,
In righteous hearts the sacred seals burn.
Across a hundred kalpas of the night,
Unwavering steps advance toward the Light.