I stood at the edge of my inner world, staring at the blood-red statue that had nearly consumed me weeks before. The Genesis Seed's roots were already wrapped protectively around my ankles and waist, a precaution I wasn't taking lightly after our last encounter.

My spiritual form shimmered slightly in the light of the dual suns rotating overhead, casting twin shadows that danced across the landscape.

"You're sure about this?" I asked Azure, who materialized beside me.

"As sure as one can be when dealing with remnants of a Civilization Realm cultivator," he replied with a wry smile. "The Genesis Seed will protect you if anything goes wrong."

"Let's get this over with," I muttered, stepping closer.

The statue remained as I'd last seen it, a life-sized representation of Ke Jun seated in meditation, crafted from what appeared to be solidified blood essence. Parts of it remained unformed, giving it an unfinished, almost skeletal appearance in places. Its eyes were closed, its expression peaceful in a way that seemed at odds with the violence of our last encounter.

I steeled myself and channeled a small pulse of qi toward the statue, just enough to probe its response without triggering anything catastrophic.

For a moment, like the previous times I channeled qi into it, nothing happened.

Then, slowly, the statue's eyes opened.

Blood-red irises fixed directly on me, and I tensed, ready to retreat at the first sign of that devouring portal. But this time, something was different. The eyes that met mine weren't mindless or hungry, they held clear, calculating intelligence.

"Well," Azure murmured beside me. "That's new."

The statue's form rippled slightly, and it rolled its shoulders as if testing its mobility. A look of mild frustration crossed its features as it realized it couldn't move from its seated position, anchored as it was to the ground by the Genesis Seed's roots.

"It seems," the statue said in a voice that was unmistakably Ke Jun's, though softer and less commanding than I remembered, "you have constructed a secure prison for me."

I maintained my distance, the Genesis Seed's roots tightening around me in response to my wariness.

Ke Jun's gaze moved from me to examine the surroundings of my inner world. His expression shifted from annoyance to something approaching curiosity, then respect.

"Fascinating," he murmured. "This inner world... it isn't what I would expect from a Qi Condensation cultivator, or even an Elemental Realm for that matter. The structure, the stability, the sheer complexity, it's more akin to what one might find in a Life Realm cultivator's domain."

His gaze moved upward, taking in the dual suns and the tiny stellar fragment orbiting between them. A slow smile spread across his face, sending a chill down my spine.

"So, it really is true," he said softly. "You World Tree Sutra cultivators really are world walkers."

My spiritual form stiffened, alarm bells ringing in my mind. This was my most closely guarded secret, well, aside from the fact that I wasn't originally from this cultivation world at all. And now, someone else had discovered it.

"Master, remain calm," Azure said. "He has no way to transmit any of this information outside your inner world. Whatever knowledge he's gained is contained entirely within your domain."

Ke Jun glanced toward Azure, his smile widening slightly. "Your spirit companion is correct. I am, for all intents and purposes, completely isolated here. A prisoner in your inner world, cut off from everything but what exists within these boundaries."

I wasn't convinced. A Civilization Realm cultivator wasn't someone to underestimate, even if this was just a fragment preserved in blood essence.

"Why should I trust anything you say?" I asked bluntly. "You tried to steal my body, and then when that failed, you attempted to suck me into some black hole and devour me. Your track record doesn't exactly inspire confidence."

Ke Jun sighed, a surprisingly human gesture for something made of solidified blood. "A fair assessment. I won't insult your intelligence by claiming pure intentions." He shifted slightly within his constraints. "The Main Body did indeed want your vessel to return to life. As for the... devouring incident, I hadn't truly awakened last time. What you encountered was merely the primal need to survive, to consume anything that might sustain this fractured existence."

"And that need has somehow disappeared?" I asked skeptically. "I find that hard to believe."

"It hasn't disappeared," Ke Jun admitted. "But now that I've gained control over myself, I understand that some battles aren't worth fighting. Some victories would be ultimately hollow."

I laughed, the sound echoing strangely in the spiritual atmosphere of my inner world. "You actually expect me to believe you won't fight for your freedom? That a fragment of a Civilization Realm cultivator has simply... accepted captivity?"

Ke Jun's expression grew solemn. "You misunderstand my position. While I contain a significant portion of the blood essence, I am nothing compared to the Main Body. I possess echoes of his memories, fragments of his knowledge, but I lack the core of his being. It is the Main Body that I, mere blood essence, wish to free."

That gave me pause. "What do you mean by 'freeing the Main Body'? Didn't the Main Body die during our battle?"

Ke Jun's eyes darkened, the blood-red irises seeming to deepen to the color of old wounds. "Death would have been preferred to the Main Body's current fate."

"Which is?" I pressed.

"Slavery," Ke Jun replied, his voice hollow. "Bound in service to a creature that should not exist in our reality."

My eyes widened. Who in this world would have the power, and the sheer arrogance, to enslave a former Civilization Realm cultivator?

"Before the Main Body was taken," Ke Jun continued, "he sent his final memories to any avatars that shared his blood. A desperate act, but one that might yet serve a purpose."

My eyes narrowed at this revelation. "You're saying the Main Body could contact you despite you being contained within my inner world?"

Ke Jun laughed, though the sound held no humor. "Don't worry, young descendant. It was a one-way communication, a final pulse of information before the binding was complete. The Main Body paid a considerable price for that transmission, not that it mattered much, given what awaited him."

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Before I could ask any more questions, Ke Jun opened his mouth and a stream of blood poured forth, but instead of splattering to the ground, it hung in the air, spreading and thinning until it formed a rectangular screen of crimson liquid suspended between us.

"See for yourself," Ke Jun said softly. "The fate of your ancestor, and perhaps your own fate."

The blood screen rippled, and then images began to form, playing out like a macabre film projected onto the crimson surface.

I watched, transfixed, as the aftermath of our battle unfolded. The ruined shrine, the scattered evidence of immortal combat: deep furrows carved by those blood-red division lines, sections crystallized into jade, and patches melted to glass by intense flame. In the center of it all, a tiny speck of crimson emerged from a narrow crevice in the temple floor.

The blood droplet, clearly a fragment of Ke Jun that had somehow survived our confrontation, struggled to rise, moving erratically through the air. Hours seemed to pass in moments as the blood fragment finally reached a secluded clearing miles from the shrine. There, it expanded rapidly, twisting and morphing until it took on a vaguely humanoid shape, a severely weakened version of Ke Jun.

His semi-transparent form flickered between states of solidity, sometimes appearing almost physical, other times nothing more than a red outline filled with swirling mist. One of his arms was entirely missing, the stump leaking crimson essence that evaporated upon contact with the air.

The sight of him struggling to maintain his form after our battle should have brought me satisfaction. Instead, I felt an unsettling premonition of what was to come.

That premonition was realized moments later when four figures materialized around Ke Jun, positioned at cardinal points to form a perfect square. Three of them radiated power at the later stages of Qi Condensation, but the fourth, a figure in robes of absolute black that seemed to absorb light rather than merely blocking it, exuded an aura that made even my spiritual form shiver: Stellar Realm, and not merely at the threshold.

But what truly caught my attention was one of the other three figures, a young man with proud features but hollow eyes. Li Yuan, the supposedly dead cultivator from the Flowing Stream Sect whom I'd encountered twice: first when he attacked the Way Station, and later when I'd seen him mysteriously alive again.

I'd known something was deeply wrong about his resurrection, but this...

I watched in silence as Ke Jun attempted to escape, only to be violently repelled by an invisible barrier. The four cultivators had established a containment formation, with the masked figure serving as both participant and keystone.

What followed was brief but brutal. Ke Jun fought with the desperation of a cornered beast, employing techniques that risked what remained of his existence, but it was futile. The masked figure subdued him with disturbing ease.

"Remarkable," the masked one's voice echoed from the blood screen. "Even after being nearly destroyed by Stellar Realm energy, you still managed to put up such resistance. The Civilization Realm truly does produce fascinating specimens."

The masked one made an elaborate gesture with his right hand, drawing complex symbols in the air. As the final sigil was completed, reality tore open beside him, forming a portal of absolute darkness ringed with what appeared to be shards of broken crystal.

"You have the honor of joining my collection," the masked one informed Ke Jun. "The first expert of such a high caliber that I have managed to acquire. Your knowledge of ancient cultivation methods alone makes you an invaluable addition."

Tendrils of darkness extended from the portal, wrapping around Ke Jun's kneeling form. The former Civilization Realm cultivator made one last, feeble attempt to resist, his remaining hand clawing at the ground as the tendrils dragged him toward the void.

"You... will regret this," Ke Jun managed, his voice barely audible. "My descendant will—"

"Yes, yes," the masked one interrupted. "The protagonist will avenge you, defeat me, save the world, and so forth. I've heard it all before." He leaned closer. "But between you and me, I've collected quite a few 'protagonists' in my time. Your descendant will simply be one more for the shelf."

With those words, the tendrils completed their work, pulling Ke Jun fully into the portal. The tear in reality sealed with a sound like breaking glass, leaving no trace of the ancient cultivator. With that, the blood screen dissolved, droplets falling to the ground and being absorbed by the roots of the Genesis Seed.

Silence hung heavy in my inner world as I processed what I'd just witnessed. The implications were staggering, terrifying, and somehow deeply personal all at once.

"This..." I finally managed, "this changes everything."

"Indeed," Azure replied, his usual calm voice tinged with concern. "If what we've seen is true, we're facing an entity with powers beyond normal cultivation realms."

I turned back to Ke Jun's blood statue, finding those blood-red eyes still fixed on me, watching my reaction carefully.

"The masked one referred to ‘protagonists’," I said slowly. "He spoke as if... as if this were all some kind of game to him."

"Because that is precisely how he perceives it," Ke Jun replied. "In his twisted mind, this world, our reality, is nothing but a tale, and he fancies himself its reader... or perhaps its editor."

I nodded outwardly, but inwardly my thoughts raced in a completely different direction. The strange mannerisms, the talk of protagonists and narratives, the collection of "characters"... it all pointed to one disturbing conclusion.

He's not from this world. He's like me, transported here from somewhere else. Except he's lost his grip on what's real. He doesn't see people here as actual living beings with their own lives and souls. To him, we're just characters in some novel.

And now, it seemed, I had caught his attention.