Contents
Chapter Four: A Tainted Path
The taste of dust was a familiar companion. The Last Man on the Wall, known to some as Revan, and the scholar Kaelen moved quickly away from Solara, the glittering city now feeling like a gilded cage.
The tome they’d found in the Grand Librarium had revealed a terrifying truth: the Destroyers were not a myth of the past, but an active, insidious threat using the Chaos Faction to their ends. And as a Void Root cultivator, Revan knew he was both a weapon and a potential target.
Kaelen, his face a mask of worry, wiped sweat from his brow. “So, the ‘heroes’ of the Imperial and Union Factions will hunt you before they even look at the real threat,” he grumbled, his voice thick with a mix of fear and indignation.
Revan didn’t reply, his mind already far ahead. The whispers from the rune—the same ones that had haunted him for months—were a siren’s call, pulling him toward Havenstone. He had to warn Elder Mei and the others, but he knew Kaelen was right. A Void Root cultivator and a famously drunken scholar wouldn’t be taken seriously.
“We need proof,” Revan said, his voice a low rasp.
Kaelen nodded, then pointed ahead. “We need something else first,” he said.
Lying slumped against a gnarled oak tree was a woman, her clothes torn and soaked with blood. She was unconscious, a gaping wound on her side.
Revan’s training as a scout took over; he scanned the area for threats while Kaelen cautiously approached her.
“Poison,” Kaelen announced, examining the jagged black marks around her wound. “She’s not going to last long.”
Revan knelt beside her, his Void Root flaring with a familiar pull. The air around her wound was thick with chaotic, malevolent energy, a corruption he recognized from the engine core. This woman hadn’t just been attacked; she had been tainted by an Elder Rune.
He touched the edge of the wound, his body tensing as the chaotic energy surged into him, a painful but necessary process. He was a vessel, a living filter for this kind of poison.
The woman’s breathing steadied as the corruption receded. The wound was still there, but the poison was gone, leaving a sickly grey scar.
“We can’t just leave her,” Kaelen said, carefully lifting her. “We need to get back to Havenstone.”
They carried the unconscious woman between them, the journey back now a desperate race against time. The closer they got to Havenstone, the more the whispers intensified.
As they reached the city’s gates, Revan felt the familiar stares. The guards whispered, “The Last Man on the Wall,” their words a mix of respect and fear. His heroic stand had saved them, but his nature still made them uneasy.
They went straight to the Adventurer GuildA guild is a mortal-run organization focused on a specific trade, craft, or field of service. Unlike sects, guilds are not ruled by cultivation power but by skill, experience, and reputation. Each guild follows a standardized rank system, provides unique privileges to its members, and operates independently across cities and nations. In the Realm of Origin, major guilds include the... More. Revan tried to explain their findings, the ancient factions, and the elder runes, but his words were met with skepticism.
GuildA guild is a mortal-run organization focused on a specific trade, craft, or field of service. Unlike sects, guilds are not ruled by cultivation power but by skill, experience, and reputation. Each guild follows a standardized rank system, provides unique privileges to its members, and operates independently across cities and nations. In the Realm of Origin, major guilds include the... More Master Varis listened patiently, but his eyes were filled with doubt. “Revan, we know you’re a powerful cultivator,” Varis said, “but to speak of ancient factions… this sounds like the ravings of a madman. A drunken one at that,” he added, with a glance at Kaelen.
Their reputation—or lack thereof—was a wall they couldn’t breach. Despair began to set in, but just then, a lone figure stepped forward.
“I believe him,” a woman’s voice cut through the tension.
She was a tall, lithe ranger, with a bow slung over her back and a quiver full of specialized arrows. A half-mask covered the lower part of her face, and her eyes, a sharp and vibrant green, held a glimmer of understanding.
She had been exiled from her guildA guild is a mortal-run organization focused on a specific trade, craft, or field of service. Unlike sects, guilds are not ruled by cultivation power but by skill, experience, and reputation. Each guild follows a standardized rank system, provides unique privileges to its members, and operates independently across cities and nations. In the Realm of Origin, major guilds include the... More for refusing to take part in an unethical hunt, a loner with a code of her own. Her name was Sylas.
“He held the line for us,” she said, her voice clear and strong. “He’s not a liar. And I know a few things about whispers and shadows that don’t add up.”
Revan felt a glimmer of hope. He wasn’t alone. He and Kaelen had an unlikely, but a powerful, new ally.
The three of them, a Void Root cultivator, a disgraced scholar, and a rogue ranger, were now a small, desperate party against a world that refused to see the coming storm.
And in a makeshift bed in the corner of the guildA guild is a mortal-run organization focused on a specific trade, craft, or field of service. Unlike sects, guilds are not ruled by cultivation power but by skill, experience, and reputation. Each guild follows a standardized rank system, provides unique privileges to its members, and operates independently across cities and nations. In the Realm of Origin, major guilds include the... More hall, the mysterious woman they had saved began to stir, her own power lying dormant, waiting to be unleashed.
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