Strongest Incubus System

Mu Qing caught up to Damon before he had taken five steps.

"Don’t follow the call."

He kept walking.

"That recommendation would carry more weight if you hadn’t just said we need to find exactly what is calling me."

"One thing is searching."

"Another is being invited?"

"Exactly."

Damon looked at her.

"That was a surprisingly sensible distinction."

"I’m four hundred years old."

"It doesn’t always show."

Chen Mo passed both of them.

"She’s right."

Damon sighed.

"Of course."

Ester appeared beside him.

"Then we stop."

"No."

"You just agreed."

"I agreed that it’s dangerous."

"That should naturally lead to the second part."

"Not in my case."

"I know."

The mark pulsed again.

Damon stopped.

This time, the call was clearer.

Not a voice.

A direction.

The sensation entered through his arm and traveled across his shoulder as though something were tugging on a thread tied inside him.

Left.

Damon turned his head.

Mu Qing noticed.

"It wasn’t that way."

"Before."

"Yes."

"Now it is."

That worried even Chen Mo.

"Then the fold is responding to the core."

Damon looked at the black water.

The reflection no longer showed the inverted ceiling.

It showed corridors.

Buried stone structures.

A staircase descending somewhere that should not have fit beneath Heshan.

Aria approached.

"Was that there before?"

"No," Mu Qing replied.

"Excellent."

Damon stepped in the indicated direction.

The water beneath his boot turned dark blue.

The same color as the mark.

Xue Lian became serious.

"Stop."

He stopped.

She approached and examined the circle that had formed around his foot.

"This isn’t the fold."

"Then?"

"The core is opening a route."

Yun Shuo looked at Mu Qing.

"You said you found it by accident."

"I did."

"Then why does it know how to open a path now?"

"I don’t know."

Damon raised his marked arm.

"It knows."

Xue Lian slowly nodded.

"The anchor isn’t only connecting you to the core."

"It’s authenticating me."

"Yes."

Aria wrote down one word.

"Key."

Damon looked at her.

"I was going to say that."

"I was faster."

The blue circle expanded.

The water vanished beneath them.

A staircase appeared.

Black stone.

Ancient.

Descending.

Ester looked at Damon.

"One hour."

Mu Qing stared at the stairs.

"It was."

"How long now?"

She swallowed.

"Maybe ten minutes."

Damon smiled.

"See? We saved time."

Ester closed her eyes.

"Don’t talk to me."

They began descending.

Mu Qing went first.

Damon directly behind her.

Xue Lian, Chen Mo, Jian Yue, and Yun Shuo followed.

Ester stayed close to Damon, while Aria ended up almost in the middle of the group, recording symbols even while walking.

Xue Mei had remained in Heshan.

Damon noticed Xue Lian looked back twice before the passage disappeared.

He did not comment.

The staircase ended in a circular corridor.

The place was completely different from the Tomb.

There was no ice.

No natural roots.

Everything looked built to imitate them.

Stone pipes crossed the walls.

Thin channels ran along the floor.

Artificial symbols occupied every intersection.

Damon recognized it immediately.

"Vorn."

Ester did too.

"Yes."

Not identical.

But far too close.

Xue Lian ran her fingers along one of the walls.

"Shen Liang."

Damon looked at her.

"Same pattern?"

"Older."

"So Vorn copied it."

"Or received a refined version."

"That doesn’t reassure me."

"It wasn’t meant to."

Mu Qing stopped before a fork.

"Before, it was right."

The mark pulled Damon left.

Everyone went silent.

Mu Qing looked at him.

"That’s bad."

"We’ve been accumulating a lot of that assessment."

Chen Mo crouched.

Touched the floor.

"This isn’t the same fold."

"Can it change that much?" Jian Yue asked.

"If someone is controlling it."

Damon looked at his arm.

"It’s guiding us."

Xue Lian corrected him.

"It’s guiding you."

"Detail."

"Important."

The mark pulsed.

Damon turned left.

Ester grabbed his shoulder.

"If you walk off alone—"

"I won’t."

She let go.

"Good."

Damon looked at the others.

"Then let’s find out why something buried for a hundred and seventy years is so excited to meet me."

Aria raised her notebook.

"That sentence is going in the record."

"Of course it is."

They went left.

The corridor began to change.

First came doors.

Then rooms.

Most were empty.

But one contained something.

Damon stopped.

"Wait."

Inside were small beds.

Six.

Leather restraints.

Grooves along the sides.

And symbols on the headboards.

Xue Lian entered.

Her expression hardened.

"Vessels."

Damon remained in the doorway.

He did not need to ask.

Children.

Again.

Ester entered after her.

She touched one of the restraints.

"Old."

"How old?" Damon asked.

"I don’t know."

Xue Lian answered.

"Older than Mu Qing."

Mu Qing remained outside.

"I’ve never seen this room."

Chen Mo looked at her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Then the core was hidden inside another facility."

Damon approached one of the beds.

There were scratches in the wood.

Not symbols.

Fingernail marks.

He looked away.

"We keep going."

No one argued.

Farther ahead, they found a wall covered in names.

Some crossed out.

Others accompanied by numbers.

Aria moved her notebook closer.

"This looks like a results list."

Damon read.

"Compatibility."

Xue Lian went still.

He looked at her.

One name was almost erased.

But still legible.

Xue Lian.

Beside it:

87%.

Damon slowly looked at her.

"You were here."

"I don’t remember."

"But you were."

Xue Lian touched the name.

Nothing happened.

"My master erased more than I realized."

The line below had another name.

Unknown.

42%. Failure.

Another.

61%. Rejection.

Another.

93%. Unstable.

Then several scratched-out entries.

Damon scanned them.

"You weren’t the best."

Xue Lian noticed the same thing.

The 93% record.

The name had been destroyed.

Not merely crossed out.

The stone itself had been scraped away.

"Who was it?" Jian Yue asked.

Xue Lian did not know.

Damon looked down the corridor.

The mark burned.

Stronger.

"The core knows."

They continued.

This time, no one complained.

The path ended before a massive door.

At its center was the same symbol as Damon’s mark.

An incomplete circle.

Three lines.

Dots around it.

Mu Qing went pale.

"It was here."

"You went inside?" Damon asked.

"There wasn’t a door."

"What?"

"There was an altar in the middle of an open chamber."

Chen Mo approached.

"Then someone sealed it afterward."

Damon touched the door.

The mark responded.

The circle on his arm opened.

The circle on the door did the same.

Xue Lian grabbed his wrist.

"No."

Damon looked at her.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"We observe first."

She crouched.

Examined the three central lines.

"This isn’t only a lock."

"Then?"

"Transfer."

Mu Qing approached.

"No."

Xue Lian looked at her.

"You recognize it?"

"I copied that symbol."

"On Jian Li."

Mu Qing nodded.

Damon became serious.

"So if I open it..."

"It may try to transfer something."

"Into me."

"Yes."

Ester answered before anyone else could.

"Then you don’t open it."

Damon remained in front of the door.

The mark pulsed.

Something on the other side responded.

For the first time, it did not feel like a call.

It felt like a knock.

One.

Two.

Three.

Damon stepped back.

Everyone heard it.

Aria stopped writing.

"That came from inside."

Another knock.

Mu Qing turned white.

"That never happened."

"You said it was inactive," Damon replied.

"It was."

Xue Lian watched the door.

"Maybe the core was never inactive."

Damon looked at her.

"It was waiting."

"For a compatible anchor."

His arm burned.

The door glowed too.

Then a voice came from the other side.

Low.

Distorted.

But human.

"Finally."

Damon went still.

Ester pulled out a needle.

Jian Yue drew his sword.

Chen Mo lost every trace of humor.

Xue Lian looked directly at Damon.

"Don’t open it."

The voice continued.

"Damon."

The silence became worse.

Aria looked at him.

"It knows your name."

"I noticed."

Damon moved only one step closer.

"Who are you?"

Nothing.

Then came a short laugh.

"You really don’t know."

Damon narrowed his eyes.

The voice spoke again.

"Vorn didn’t tell you?"

His expression changed.

"You know Vorn."

"I know his work."

"That didn’t answer me."

"He was useful."

Damon looked at Xue Lian.

She had already understood.

Vorn was not the source.

He probably never had been.

"Architects of Return?" Damon asked.

The silence lasted two seconds.

"That name still exists?"

Xue Lian stepped forward.

"Who are you?"

The voice did not answer immediately.

Then it changed.

Less amused.

"That voice."

Xue Lian went still.

"Impossible."

Damon looked at her.

"He knows you."

Something moved on the other side.

Chains.

Heavy.

The voice returned.

"Xue Lian."

She lost all color.

"No."

Damon became serious.

"You recognized him."

"Not the voice."

"Then what?"

Xue Lian stared at the door.

"The way he says my name."

The knocking came again.

Three times.

Xue Lian stepped back.

For the first time since leaving the Tomb, Damon saw true fear on her face.

"Shen Liang."

Silence.

Then the voice laughed.

"Took you long enough to remember."

Damon looked at Xue Lian.

Then at the door.

"You said you killed him."

"I did."

"Are you sure?"

"I watched his soul come apart."

The voice answered from inside.

"Correct."

Damon went still.

That was not good.

"In that case," the voice continued, "I really did die."

Damon tightened his grip on his sword.

"Then what is talking to me?"

The door began to tremble.

The symbols lit one by one.

Damon’s mark answered.

And Shen Liang’s voice became clear.

"Continuity."

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