The journey through the cave continued with Elijah leading the way as the Zenith women followed behind. There was little for him to guide them through at first. The passage ran forward without a branch or turn.Hours passed without any sign that they were drawing closer to Alaric Voss’s burial chamber. Elijah’s left leg had already limited his pace, and the longer they walked, the more heavily he had to lean on the staff. Exhaustion was beginning to settle through the rest of his body as well, but he refused to slow down further.He had spent long enough on Galecrest searching for an answer he could not even prove existed. Everything depended on the belief that somewhere at the end of this journey was something capable of changing his condition. For now, that belief was all he had to follow.When the passage finally opened into two paths, Elijah stopped and looked from one to the other. Rowan was beside him almost immediately.“What

The moment the prayer beads released him, Elijah’s survival instinct took over. His arms drove through the water while his legs kicked beneath him, and within moments he broke through the surface with a sharp breath. Water streamed down his face as he looked around. He was still inside a cavern, but it resembled no part of any cave system he had passed through since entering Galecrest. Even the place Rowan had knocked him from seemed ordinary compared to this place. Precious stones were embedded throughout the walls, their faint glows casting different shades of light across the rock. Between them, unfurled paper scrolls had been fixed to the stone, their loose ends hanging several feet downward. Ancient characters covered them from top to bottom. Elijah’s gaze travelled over the writing until he noticed a figure seated farther ahead, perfectly still on a raised section of stone. He swam to the nearest edge and pulled himself out. Water dripped from his torn clothes a

Elijah stayed where he had landed, watching the old monk replace the stopper in his wine gourd and set it beside him.Once the gourd was down, the monk spoke.“You have taken many lives with those hands, child. Even beneath Buddha’s mercy, there is sorrow for those whose journeys are cut short before their appointed time, forced from one life into the next by another man’s will rather than the natural turning of their path. All life is precious beneath Buddha’s gaze, yet wherever your feet have carried you, death has followed closely behind.”His fingers moved over the smaller strand of prayer beads wrapped around his hand.“You kill one because he killed first, then kill another because resentment tells you the balance remains unsettled. In this manner, the path of vengeance continues without end. You will kill and kill until one day you meet another whose strength is enough to shut that path you follow.”The monk regarded him without a change in expression. “This vengeance you cling

“Must the path before you always be cleared by violence, child? Even when restraint is offered, your feet still choose violence as though no other path exists.”Elijah glanced back at the old man, then at the disciples lying across the cavern floor. Their lack of cultivation had left them vulnerable to his needles, but every one of them was still breathing.“You’re different from every other monk I’ve met in this life,” Elijah said. “They are what I would expect.”The old man remained silent as Elijah turned fully towards him.“Monks don’t normally walk the same path as martial arts practitioners. Most avoid worldly conflict entirely, and even those who train their bodies don’t cultivate the kind of strength used throughout our martial arts world. Against a real practitioner, men like these would eventually fall.”His attention moved from the disciples to the unusually large strand of prayer beads resting around the old monk’s neck.“But you are nothing like them.”Elijah had spent t

A pin-drop silence settled over the cavern as Elijah stared at the man before him. Several seconds passed before Alaric spoke.“I know this may be difficult to process, Elijah. Under different circumstances, I would have given you the time to do so, but time is something we do not have right now.”Elijah blinked, his lips parting as he struggled to decide on one of the questions crowding his mind.“How do you know my name?”Of everything he could have asked, that was what finally came out. He kept his eyes on Alaric, who regarded him for a moment before answering.“When one crosses the hurdle of the Grandmaster realm and steps into what lies beyond it, many of the rules that govern this martial arts world begin to lose their hold. Your perception changes, your awareness expands, and things that once existed beyond the limits of your senses gradually become clear.”Elijah listened closely, his brows drawing together at the mention of what lay beyond the Grandmaster realm. Alaric turn