The temple doors swung open, revealing a darkness that swallowed the light from their qi.
Lin Tian stepped through first.
The water changed. It grew colder, heavier, pressing against his skin with the weight of centuries. His Abyssal Lung pulsed, keeping his breathing steady.
The others followed.
Su Lan conjured a flame in her palm, casting orange light across the space.
They stood at the edge of a ruined city.
Giant shells rose from the ocean floor, their spiraled forms carved into homes and towers. Pearls the size of boulders were embedded in the coral walls, their glow long since faded to a dull gray.
And everywhere, the violet moss.
It clung to everything. The shells, the streets, the bones of the dead. It pulsed with a sick light, feeding on the remnants of what had once been a thriving kingdom.
Lin Tian's stomach turned at the sight of it all — the gutted towers, the moss-choked bones, the suffocating stillness of a place that had once been alive.
