Chapter 24: The Dead Lands
Recap: Fang Yuan defeated the Dragon Lord and earned his eighth badge. The Spring Autumn Cicada was unlocked. Now, with all eight badges in his possession, he travels north to the Dead Lands—where the door awaits.
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The world changed north of the capital.
The green hills turned to grey rock. The forests shrank, then vanished. The rivers dried up, their beds cracked and empty. And the sky—the sky turned from blue to gray, from gray to black, until there was no sun, no stars, no light at all.
Fang Yuan walked through darkness, his Moonlight Dragon—his evolved first capture—hovering at his shoulder, its silver light pushing back the shadows. Behind him, his other Subjects followed: the Storm Phoenix, the Frost Serpent, the Magma Tortoise, the Solar Dragon, the Stone Dragon, the Wildfire Stallion, and the Spring Autumn Cicada, pulsing with time itself.
He had been walking for seven days.
His primeval stones were gone, spent on food, on healing, on supplies. His Subjects were tired, their moves exhausted, their bodies aching. But he could not stop. The door was close. He could feel it—a pressure in the air, a weight on his chest, a whisper at the edge of his thoughts.
Come. Open me. Set me free.
He reached into his pocket and touched the cracked stone. The creature stirred.
We are close. The door is in the valley ahead. Beyond it, the thing you seek.
Fang Yuan's hand tightened. "And the thing you seek?"
The creature was silent for a long moment.
Freedom. The same as you.
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The valley was a wound in the earth.
Fang Yuan stood at its edge, looking down. The walls were black, veined with red, and the ground below was cracked, steaming, as if the earth itself was bleeding. In the center of the valley, a door rose from the ground—a door of black metal, its surface etched with symbols that shifted as he watched.
The door he had seen in his dreams. The door the system was built to seal. The door that should never be opened.
He descended into the valley.
The air was thick, heavy, hard to breathe. His Subjects pressed closer, their lights dimming, their movements slowing. The Moonlight Dragon's silver light flickered. The Spring Autumn Cicada's pulse weakened.
The door is draining them, the creature whispered. It feeds on power. On life. On time.
Fang Yuan recalled his Subjects, one by one, until only the Moonlight Dragon remained. Its light was faint, but it held.
He walked to the door.
It was massive—taller than the Dragon Lord's palace, wider than the Beast King's camp. Its surface was cold, colder than anything he had ever touched, and when he placed his hand on it, the symbols flared.
[Warning: Unauthorized access detected]
[System override in progress]
[Please stand by]
Fang Yuan smiled. "I've been standing by for five hundred years."
He pushed.
The door groaned. Its hinges screamed. The symbols flared brighter, then dimmed, then went dark.
[System override complete]
[Seal broken]
[Welcome to the end]
The door swung open.
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On the other side was darkness.
Not the darkness of night, not the darkness of shadow, but the darkness of absence—a void without light, without sound, without time. Fang Yuan stepped through, the Moonlight Dragon at his side, its silver light the only thing pushing back the void.
He walked for hours. Days. Years. Time had no meaning here. There was only the void, and the door behind him, and the thing ahead.
He found it at the center of the void.
A creature—massive, ancient, its body made of shadow and bone, its eyes burning red, its mouth a void within the void. It was chained to the darkness, chains of light wrapped around its limbs, its wings, its throat.
[The First One]
Type: Void
Rank: ???
Moves: ???
Ability: ???
The creature's eyes fixed on Fang Yuan. Its mouth opened, and a voice emerged—not sound, but thought, pressed directly into his mind.
You came.
Fang Yuan met its gaze. "I came."
You have the fragments. The pieces of my broken self. Give them to me. Set me free.
Fang Yuan reached into his pocket and pulled out the cracked stone. The creature inside stirred, but did not speak.
"What are you?" Fang Yuan asked.
I am the beginning. The end. The first Gu, before Gu existed. The system was built to contain me. The badges were the keys. And you—you are the one who was meant to open the door.
Fang Yuan's hand tightened on the stone. "Why me?"
Because you are like me. A demon. An outsider. One who does not belong in this world. One who has been fighting since the moment he was born.
The creature's chains strained. The light holding them flickered.
Give me the fragments. Set me free. And I will give you what you have always wanted.
Fang Yuan's eyes narrowed. "What's that?"
Immortality. True immortality. Not the pale imitation the Gu offer. Not the endless cycle of death and rebirth. I will make you eternal. I will make you a god.
Fang Yuan looked at the stone in his hand. Then at the creature in the void. Then at the Moonlight Dragon, hovering at his side, its silver light steady.
"No," he said.
The creature's eyes blazed.
No?
"You're not offering me freedom. You're offering me a cage. A different cage, but a cage nonetheless." He tucked the stone back into his pocket. "I've spent five hundred years breaking cages. I'm not going to walk into another one."
The creature roared. The void shook. The chains of light cracked.
Then you will die here. With me. Forever.
The creature lunged.
Fang Yuan raised his hand. "Spring Autumn Cicada. Time Rewind."
The jade-green insect materialized, its wings buzzing, its eyes gold. Time itself reversed—the creature's lunge became a retreat, its roar became a whisper, its chains reforged.
The creature screamed. "You cannot hold me forever! The system is broken! The door is open! I will escape!"
Fang Yuan smiled. "Maybe. But not today."
He turned and walked back through the void, the Moonlight Dragon at his side, the Spring Autumn Cicada pulsing with time.
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He stepped through the door and closed it behind him.
The valley was still there. The black earth, the cracked ground, the bleeding sky. But something had changed. The pressure was gone. The weight on his chest had lifted.
He opened his Status screen.
[System restarting]
[Seal reinstated]
[Door closed]
[All badges consumed]
TRAINER: Fang Yuan
Rank: 6 (Immortal)
Badges: 0/8
Primeval Stones: 0
Immortal Essence Stones: 0
Active Subjects: 19/∞
Total Captures: 28
Rank 6. Immortal. The system has rewarded me for closing the door.
He looked at his hands. They were the same—small, young, weak. But he could feel the difference. The power flowing through his veins. The time at his command.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the cracked stone. It was cold, silent. The creature inside was dormant again.
Rest, he thought. You've earned it.
He turned and walked south, away from the Dead Lands, away from the door, away from the end of everything.
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He walked for days. Weeks. Months.
The world changed around him. The black earth turned green. The gray sky turned blue. The rivers flowed again, and the forests grew, and the villages rebuilt. The war was over. The system was broken. The door was closed.
But Fang Yuan knew it would not stay closed forever. The creature in the void was patient. It would wait. It would watch. And one day, it would try again.
He would be ready.
He reached the coast and stood on the cliffs, looking out at the sea. The sun was setting, painting the water in shades of gold and red. Behind him, his Subjects waited—the Moonlight Dragon, the Spring Autumn Cicada, the Storm Phoenix, the Frost Serpent, the Magma Tortoise, the Solar Dragon, the Stone Dragon, the Wildfire Stallion, and all the others.
Nineteen Subjects. Countless battles. Eight badges. One door.
He smiled.
"What's next?" he asked aloud.
The creature inside the cracked stone stirred.
Whatever you want. You're free.
Fang Yuan laughed—a real laugh, the first in five hundred years.
"Yes," he said. "I am."
He turned and walked into the sunset, his Subjects at his side, his future ahead.
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End of Book 1
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End of Chapter 24