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[Scene: The Sealed Passage – Descent into the Forbidden Wing]
The obsidian door groaned open, revealing a narrow staircase spiraling downward.
Unlike the radiant halls of the Sealed Library, this stairwell exuded silence, not serenity—the silence of something buried for a reason.
Max stepped forward, every sense on high alert.
Lian Yue followed closely, her Qi softly thrumming around her like a veil of storm-lit mist.
"This place… it feels like the air remembers pain," she murmured.
Max didn't respond.
His Origin Eyes flickered—veins of silver lacing through his irises as the darkness unraveled itself before him, layer by layer.
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[Scene: The Archive Revealed]
The stairs ended in a vast hall. Shelves taller than trees twisted toward a ceiling shrouded in shadow. The books here weren't made of paper—they were bound in crystal, metal, even petrified bones.
Some whispered.
Some wept.
Some bled slowly.
A massive plaque hung over the central atrium:
"Herein lie the truths that broke civilizations, and the names that should never be remembered."
Max's breath caught.
This wasn't just a library.
It was a graveyard of forbidden knowledge.
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[Scene: The Name That Shouldn't Be Spoken]
Drawn by instinct, Max moved toward a pedestal inscribed with shifting glyphs. As his fingers brushed its surface, a projection flickered into existence.
It wasn't a vision.
It was a recording of memory itself, left by the ancient one who had once walked these lands.
A voice—fractured and metallic—echoed.
"To those who reach this Archive: You have gone too far. There is no going back. Beyond this point lies the story of the Eternal Betrayer… and the Forgotten Path."
Max's Origin Eyes surged with pain.
Visions flooded in—flashes of a man whose existence had been wiped from every record, a being who once held the power to rewrite cultivation itself.
He saw civilizations fall around him, not because of war—but because he simply no longer acknowledged their laws of reality.
Then… silence.
"Who was he?" Max whispered.
Lian Yue spoke in a hushed tone.
"Maybe the one you're destined to surpass."
⸻
[Scene: System Update & Insight]
Suddenly, the status interface bloomed into view before Max's eyes, unprompted.
⸻
#### Status Update — Origin Eyes [Tier 2] Synced ####
Insight Unlocked
– Forbidden Memory Access Protocol Activated
– Conceptual Structures Unraveled: "Heaven's Banishment," "Law of Inversion," "Soul Suppression Sigils"
Caution: Your actions are now being monitored by external cosmic enforcers.
Your cultivation path has diverged 4.8% from All Recorded Dao Trajectories.
Achievement Gained: "He Who Reads the Dead Names"
⸻
Max blinked hard.
"This place doesn't just store forbidden things… it creates them," he muttered.
⸻
[Scene: A Trap in the Silence]
Suddenly, the Archive trembled.
From behind the shelves, a figure emerged—not walking, but flowing like ink across a page. Its form was hooded, face obscured, yet its presence screamed one thing: It was no longer alive. But it was not dead either.
It lunged at Max.
Lian Yue reacted first, slashing her spear in an arc of blue lightning. The figure scattered into smoke… but reformed instantly.
"It's a memory wraith," she said. "Born from thoughts that were too dangerous to forget."
"Then let's give it something new to remember."
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[Scene: First Battle – Origin Eyes Tier 2 Activated]
As the wraith surged again, Max's Origin Eyes blazed.
The world around him slowed.
The creature's fragmented soul flared with symbols — weaknesses, lingering regrets, failed formations.
He moved like lightning.
One step. One strike with his fan — no ordinary blow, but a weaving of three broken formations into a blade of thought.
The wraith screamed — not in pain, but in recognition.
"YOU… WALK HIS PATH…"
"Whose?" Max shouted.
But the creature dispersed, vanishing into the Archive's air.
⸻
[Scene: Aftermath – The Cost of Knowledge]
Max slumped against a pillar, sweat beading his brow.
Lian Yue sat beside him, tending to a small cut on her arm.
"If every step forward is like this," she said, "your path will kill you before your enemies do."
He nodded, then turned to her.
"Even if it does… if I don't take it, who will?"
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[Scene: A Door Behind the Shelves]
Behind the pedestal where the forbidden projection had been shown, a small, unassuming doorway opened.
No inscriptions. No glowing lights.
Just a symbol:
A hand holding a broken chain, drawn in gold ink.
Max stepped toward it.
"This… might be the first real step," he whispered.
Lian Yue placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Then let's fall together… or rise together."
⸻
End of Chapter 16