The man stumbled forward, his hurried, nervous footsteps echoing along the rocky trail.

The air still carried the cold left behind by Kyrian, and the contrast with the mountain's natural heat made steam rise from the ground like a living mist.

Kyrian followed him in silence.

Each of his steps sounded controlled, heavy, and rhythmic.

Different from the other man, who almost ran, glancing back every three steps as if a monster were chasing him.

"Keep walking." Kyrian's voice cut through the air, firm, without raising his tone.

The man swallowed hard and quickened his pace, tripping over a stone.

The path stretched toward a deep but hidden opening between the mountains, where the ground grew blackened and the air took on a metallic scent of hot iron and ancient dust.

Kyrian felt the shift in the environment and looked closer with his eyes.

The sight before him appeared distorted, like a dense veil covering part of the mountainside, a curtain that swallowed the light.

The man stopped before what seemed to be an ordinary stone wall and turned.

"It's here."

Kyrian observed in silence.

To ordinary eyes, the place appeared as nothing more than a natural mountain wall. But to Kyrian's eyes, the flow of Qi betrayed the illusion.

Lines of formations swirled around a specific point, concealing what lay behind.

The man extended his hand and touched the rock. To him, it was nothing more than solid stone. But to Kyrian, something different appeared.

The runes shone for an instant, and the wall folded in on itself. What was revealed wasn't a normal cave, but a massive iron door, thick and ancient, with rusted seals at every corner.

The man passed through it as though walking through mist. But Kyrian saw the entire structure move, the iron door opening slowly with a low groan.

On the other side lay darkness and heat.

A narrow tunnel stretched downward, carved into stone steps that vanished into the shadows. The air there was suffocating, hard to breathe, and smelled of burnt metal.

Kyrian looked at the man.

"This is the way you came?"

"Y-yes. This is the shortest path," the man stammered nervously.

"What is this place?"

The man hesitated.

"I… I don't know exactly. I don't have permission. But… it leads to our base," he said, lowering his gaze.

Kyrian frowned slightly but didn't respond. He simply kept walking forward.

The heat grew stronger, along with the faint sound of droplets falling deep within the tunnel, echoing from far below.

The staircase descended for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of steps. With each level down, the air became denser, the smell stronger, and the formations on the walls more numerous.

Seals of ancient energy, symbols he had never seen or fully understood. Some seemed recent, while others had been there for countless years.

And there was a clear pattern guiding everything downward.

Kyrian touched one of the walls. The stone vibrated faintly under his touch. The formation pulsed softly, as if alive.

"This was built a long time ago."

The construction, the tunnel, was too perfect. The harmony of millimetric runes everywhere made it obvious that this organization hadn't built the place, they were merely using it.

To build something like this would have taken many years, perhaps centuries, and unimaginable resources.

This wasn't a simple base, it was a system, a structure built for some purpose, completely hidden beneath the country of Linha.

They continued descending. The man was breathing heavily, sweat dripping down his face.

Kyrian, however, was different, using a minimal amount of icy energy to isolate himself from the suffocating heat.

After hours of descent, the tunnel finally opened into a vast, straight corridor that stretched for many meters. A narrow tunnel stretched downward, carved into stone steps that vanished.

The floor was smoothly polished, and reddish crystals were embedded in the walls, finally lighting the way with a living glow.

They walked for so long that the man began to stagger, having to use his Qi as a barrier to avoid being completely overcome by the heat.

Kyrian remained silent, just observing.

Throughout the entire path, he analyzed and memorized every formation, every symbol.

All of it formed a massive circuit, and the direction of the entire flow was singular, toward the center, where the tunnel led.

Kyrian couldn't help but feel curious about such a construction.

'These ancient markings definitely weren't made by ordinary cultivators… What exactly was this place used for?' Kyrian thought, unable to understand.

When the corridor finally ended, the sensation changed.

The heat rose suddenly, and a reddish light began to fill the space.

They had arrived.

The passage opened into a colossal cavern, a subterranean dome so vast the ceiling vanished into darkness.

Stone pillars supported the space, each covered in circular formations pulsing like veins.

Rivers of energy ran along the walls, flowing from hundreds of connected tunnels coming from every direction.

It was as if the entire underground of the country of Linha converged there.

The ground was divided into rings, each like a core. Ancient symbols glowed in shades of red and orange, and the heat made the air tremble.

At the center stood an iron platform supporting structures resembling massive furnaces. The sound of molten matter echoed inside them, mixed with distant screams.

Kyrian observed everything without expression.

Suddenly, something fell from above.

A blur dropped from one of the suspended constructions, landing heavily on the ground.

The impact echoed.

A masked man in a dark cloak, weapon in hand, stood before Kyrian. The curved blade stopped just centimeters from Kyrian's neck.

Kyrian, however, didn't move.

He had seen the leap from the start with his peripheral vision and didn't act because he was curious.

If the man truly intended to kill him, he would have been frozen before touching the ground.

The one who had guided Kyrian there spoke, trembling.

"As ordered, I brought one of the disciples from the Verdant Sword Sect."

The masked man slowly turned his head.

"Where are the other two? And why did you return alone?"

The man hesitated. Kyrian's cold gaze behind him felt like ice crawling down his back.

He swallowed hard and answered quickly.

"The three disciples were… stronger than expected. Half of my men died, the rest stayed behind collecting samples from the breach. I managed to capture only this one, the others died."

He lied. Even in this place, he couldn't feel safe with Kyrian standing so close.

The masked man was silent for a moment, then muttered,

"Tsk. Useless."

Then he turned to Kyrian.

The gaze behind the mask was cold.

He expected Kyrian to show some reaction but found none. Kyrian stared back with the same indifference as always, his eyes fixed on the structures around them.

"What exactly do you do in this place?" Kyrian asked calmly.

The man seemed irritated by his neutral tone.

"That's none of your business. Just keep quiet."

Kyrian simply nodded, showing no reaction.

The man's Qi was stronger than normal, he likely had some kind of technique attribute, and he was at the 9° stage of the Qi Liberation Realm. Yet even so, he was nothing Kyrian considered a threat.

He followed him calmly.

They crossed the underground base, passing through platforms, tunnels, and stone bridges.

Everywhere, people ran, dressed in black, covered in ash, manipulating strange substances and scrolls.

The heat intensified with every step. In some areas, the air rippled with energy, and the sound of flames mixed with screams of pain and pleas.

Kyrian silently watched as bodies were dragged into blazing circles and reduced to ashes. The smell was unbearable, burnt flesh and iron.

"What are you doing here?" he asked again, his tone colder.

"Shut up and walk," the masked man replied.

Kyrian said nothing, merely followed.

They passed through dozens of rooms, and in many of them Kyrian saw smaller versions of the Heart of Ashes, each one pulsing, feeding on the energy flow from the dome.

'As I thought, there are more of these things. But they're slightly different from that one. Still, as I predicted, they're all connected somehow to the formations.' Kyrian thought.

At last, they reached a final passage.

Unlike the others, it was narrow, and the heat there was infernal, the air would burn the lungs of the weak.

The masked man stopped before the entrance and spoke loudly.

"The fifth heart has been successfully prepared. And I've brought one of the sect's disciples."

For a moment, the sound ceased.

Then, a voice echoed from within the cavern.

"Enter."

The masked man gestured for Kyrian to go ahead.

Kyrian entered.

Inside was a narrow cave.

Around him, dozens of symbols glowed in faint red, drawn on the ground and intertwined with lines made of compacted ashes.

The air was heavy, dense with a putrid and corrupted energy.

He immediately felt that there was no overwhelming presence there, no truly powerful force.

That only made him even more curious.

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