2026-07-05 03:20:07Pain, that was the first thing Kai felt.
It was not the ordinary kind of pain that came from a bruise or a twisted ankle. It was a deep, burning sensation, as though molten fire had been poured directly into his veins. He collapsed onto the cold stone floor of the underground chamber, clutching his chest. “Agh… what is happening to me?” he cried out, his voice trembling with fear. The golden light around him grew brighter. The ancient book floated in the air, its pages turning by themselves. The strange voice echoed once more. “Spiritual Inheritance initiated…” Then memories that did not belong to him flooded his mind. He saw mountains floating in the sky, he saw men and women flying on swords, cultivators battling giant metallic machines beneath a crimson moon, cities burning, and finally… He saw a man in white robes. The man smiled. For a brief moment, Kai thought it was his master, but it wasn’t. The man slowly raised a hand toward him. Then everything disappeared. Kai gasped and opened his eyes. The golden light vanished. Silence returned, only his heavy breathing remained. “What… was that?” he muttered weakly. Then his phone vibrated. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. He blinked at it. He slowly pulled the phone from his pocket. An unknown message had appeared. Unknown Number: If you want to live, don’t move. Kai frowned. “What kind of prank is this?” he muttered. Another message immediately arrived. Unknown Number: There are armed men approaching your location. Stay where you are and do exactly as I say. Kai’s face paled. How could anyone know where he was? A third message arrived. Unknown Number: And no, this isn’t a prank. Kai swallowed instantly, a cold chill ran down his spine. Then he heard it, footsteps, heavy footsteps and voices. “They’re here,” a man said from above. Kai’s heart nearly stopped. Someone really was coming. His fingers trembled, who were these people and why were they looking for him? Another message appeared on his phone again. Unknown Number: Take the jade ring and the black book. Then hide behind the altar. Move now. Without understanding why, Kai obeyed. He grabbed the ring and book before rushing behind the broken altar. Moments later, several men descended the staircase. They wore black uniforms and carried strange weapons. One of them pointed a device at the room. “Residual energy confirmed,” he said. “Search everything,” another man ordered. Kai covered his mouth. His heart pounded so loudly he feared they would hear it. The phone vibrated again. Unknown Number: Don’t panic. Breathe slowly. Fear makes your heartbeat louder. Kai stared at the message. Who was this person? How could they know exactly what he was feeling? The men spread out. One moved toward the altar, another checked the walls, and a third approached Kai’s hiding spot. Kai’s breathing became shallow, the footsteps grew closer, one more step, then another. He could already see the man’s boots. The phone vibrated again. Unknown Number: Throw the loose stone to your left. Kai blinked. He looked down. There really was a loose stone. Very carefully, he picked it up and threw it toward the opposite side of the chamber. Clack! The sound echoed loudly. “Over there!” one of the agents shouted. All three men turned, the agent near Kai immediately rushed toward the noise. Kai released a shaky breath. His legs nearly gave out. Another message then appeared. Unknown Number: You’re welcome. For some reason, despite the danger, Kai almost laughed. This mysterious person sounded strangely calm. Then the leader frowned. “There should be something here,” he muttered. His device suddenly began beeping. Beep. Beep. Beep. The sound became faster. The agent looked around, “Sir… the energy source is moving.” Kai’s eyes widened, moving? The golden puppy! The little dog had somehow grabbed the jade ring’s chain in its mouth and was running across the chamber. The device immediately locked onto it. “There!” the leader shouted. “After it!” The agents ran after the dog. The puppy barked loudly and disappeared into another tunnel. The men followed. Within seconds, the chamber became silent. Kai stared blankly, the dog had saved him again. The phone vibrated. Unknown Number: Coast clear. You can leave now. Kai slowly emerged from hiding. His entire body felt weak. “Who are you?” he typed. A few seconds passed, then a reply came. Unknown Number: Someone trying to keep you alive. Kai frowned, because it can’t be coincidence. Kai: How did you know I was here? The reply came instantly. Unknown Number: That’s classified. Kai stared at the message. “What kind of answer is that?” he muttered. Then another message appeared. Unknown Number: More importantly… congratulations. Unknown Number: You just became the most wanted person on Earth. Kai nearly dropped his phone, “What?!” There was no reply after. He quickly typed another message. Kai: What are you talking about? The response took longer this time. Finally, a message appeared. Unknown Number: Because two hundred years after the last sighting… a cultivator has appeared. Kai’s breathing stopped. Cultivator? The word sounded familiar, too familiar. Memories of his master’s stories returned, immortals, spiritual energy, the ten realms of cultivation, legends, myths and impossible things. He suddenly looked at the ancient book in his hands. His master had warned him that if this book ever opens… Run. A chill crawled down his spine. The message arrived again. Unknown Number: The government calls you one thing now. A final message appeared. Unknown Number: The Last Cultivator. Kai stood frozen. Then, something intriguing happened. BOOM! The ground suddenly shook. Dust fell from the ceiling. A deafening roar echoed from above. The mysterious sender immediately texted him. Unknown Number: Bad news. Another message followed. Unknown Number: They brought reinforcements. Kai’s eyes widened. Then he heard heavy metallic footsteps. Clang. Clang. Clang. They were too heavy to be human. Another message appeared. Unknown Number: Don’t look up. Unfortunately… Kai looked up. At the entrance of the chamber stood a massive steel machine with glowing red eyes. It slowly turned its head toward him, then its eyes flashed. TARGET DETECTED. Kai’s blood ran cold. The machine raised its arm. A cannon emerged from its wrist, and for the first time in his life… Kai understood exactly why his master had told him to run. Far away in a dark room filled with glowing computer screens, a young woman pushed her glasses up nervously. She stared at Kai’s camera feed. “Oh no…” she whispered. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, then she muttered in disbelief, “Why did they send a Hunter Unit already?” She looked at Kai’s frightened face on the screen and bit her lip. Then she typed one urgent message. Unknown Number: Kai… if you want to survive, you’re going to have to fight.
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30: The Voice Inside the Machine
Kai could not move. The government machine loomed before him, its enormous body wrapped in smoke and broken concrete, but none of that mattered anymore. The weapons, the soldiers, the glowing core pulsing inside its chest, all of it faded beneath one single sound that had just crackled through its speakers.His master's voice.*Run, Kai.*His fingers tightened slowly at his sides. For years he had dreamed of hearing that voice again, imagined it during lonely nights, remembered it whenever cultivation grew difficult, sometimes even turned around on instinct whenever a stranger spoke in the same calm tone. But his master was dead. Kai had stood through the funeral himself. He had carried the grief for years, certain the man who taught him everything had left this world for good.So why was his voice coming out of a machine?"That is impossible," Kai whispered. Shen Tian stood behind him, silent. That silence frightened Kai more than the machine ever could.Kai turned his head. "Master?
29: The Identity They Found
Kai woke with his heart pounding. The image from the Spiritual Realm refused to leave his mind, stubborn and vivid. His master, young. Shen Tian, standing beside him. Both of them staring down the same terrifying machine. He sat at the edge of his bed, staring at the cultivation manual resting on his nightstand. “How long have you been lying to me,” he said quietly, to no one, though the question hurt regardless because he already suspected the answer. Probably longer than he had been alive. His phone buzzed. Aria. He answered instantly. “What happened?” he asked. Her breathing came fast and uneven. “They found someone,” she said. His expression hardened. “Who?” he asked. “Not you,” she said, then paused. “They found Shen Tian.” Aria’s monitors filled with dozens of government files. Kai stood behind her, watching as she moved rapidly through encrypted databases like she was racing something invisible. “The government has been searching for Shen Tian for years,” she said. “B
28: The Man Who Vanished
Rain washed the blood from the hospital pavement, but it could not wash away the question that had followed Kai out into the night. Why had Shen Tian disappeared? Kai stood beneath the awning of a closed pharmacy, still gripping his master’s walking stick like letting go of it might make the whole night more real than it already was. The words carved beneath the hospital bed kept crawling back into his mind, over and over, no matter how hard he tried to push them out. TRAITOR OF THE IMMORTAL PATH. He wanted to believe it was a lie. He needed it to be a lie, honestly, more than he needed almost anything else right now. Shen Tian had been the man who taught him that cultivation was never simply about strength. He had taught Kai how to breathe properly, how to circulate Qi, how to control his own emotions before they controlled him, and most importantly, how to survive in a world that would kill him without hesitation if it ever discovered what he truly was. How could that same
27: Ninety Seconds of War
The blade stopped less than an inch from Kai’s throat. His body moved before his thoughts could even catch up to the danger, which was, honestly, becoming an alarming habit lately. *Shadow Drift Step.* He twisted sideways, letting the assassin’s blade skim past his hood by a hair, before driving his elbow straight into the man’s ribs. *Mountain Fist!* The impact sent the masked assassin flying clean across the emergency ward, straight into a medical cabinet with a crash loud enough to wake the dead, or at least the very heavily sedated. Kai did not celebrate. He immediately looked up instead, because the hospital ceiling suddenly felt paper thin, like glass someone could see straight through. Somewhere far beyond the clouds, a satellite was searching. And it had already found the Qi signature. His heartbeat kicked up hard. If he stayed here, the government would arrive within minutes. If he ran, Shen Tian would be captured the second Kai’s back was turned. And if he kept f
26: The Man Kai Could Not Lose
Kai had never run so fast in his entire life. The city blurred around him as he raced through the rain, his jacket soaked through against his skin, his breathing turning increasingly ragged with every block. Every instinct screamed at him to use Qi and move faster, but the satellites were still watching the city, patient and unblinking. One burst of uncontrolled Qi could turn an ordinary hospital into the center of a government hunt within minutes. So he ran like a normal man, even though every fiber of him wanted to move like a cultivator. *Please, Master. Just stay alive.* The thought terrified him more than he expected, mostly because it forced him to admit something he had spent years avoiding. Shen Tian was not simply his teacher. He was the closest thing Kai had ever known to family. The man had fed him when he was hungry, sheltered him when he had nowhere else to go, taught him to read ancient characters nobody else alive still understood, and patiently guided him through
CHAPTER 25: A Heart Divided
The collapse of the hydroelectric station haunted Kai long after the dust had settled.He stood outside the ruins with Shen Tian, watching emergency vehicles flood the area. Firefighters battled the last stubborn flames while government recovery teams sealed off the perimeter with yellow tape that flapped uselessly in the wind. Ordinary civilians believed the whole thing had been some kind of industrial accident, a faulty generator, bad luck, nothing more. Only Kai knew the truth. *A machine had cultivated.*Or at least, someone out there was desperately trying to make machines cultivate, which honestly sounded like the kind of sentence Kai never expected to think seriously about before this year.He glanced sideways at Shen Tian. The old man leaned heavily on his walking stick, breathing uneven, his face noticeably paler than it had been that morning.“Master, you are injured,” Kai said quietly. Shen Tian smiled like nothing at all was wrong with him. “I am merely getting old,” he sa
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