Jared turned toward Qivius. “Mr. Massey, I’II forgo Myriad Swords Cave for now. I’ll keep the reward, but I must depart immediately.”
“Won’t you reconsider?” Qivius’ regret bled through his words. “For a swordsman, being able to enter Myriad Swords Cave is a rare opportunity.”
“Opportunity means nothing if I’m dead,” Jared said with a rueful smile. “Once I settle matters with Sacred Sword Manor, I’ll return to seek your guidance…”
Qivius nodded slowly. “Very well. I‘ll have my men guide you out through a hidden corridor. It should spare you most prying eyes. Beyond Swordmaster City lies the tomb of swords. Since you can’t enter Myriad Swords Cave, cultivating there might serve as partial compensation.”
“My thanks, Mr. Massey…” Jared bowed respectfully.
***
Half an hour later, the Sword Sect entourage slipped through the secret passage and left the roaring city behind.
From a hillside outside the walls, Jared looked back. Under the sinking sun, the silhouette of Swordmaster City blurred, as though already fading into memory.
“Jared, where are we heading next?” Corin asked, his voice low yet oddly calm. Jared’s eyes drifted westward. A faint wind caught the hem of his coat, tilting it behind the way a sail leans into open water. “I want to look In on the tomb of swords first.”
Corin gave a slow, measured nod, then slipped into a tone that carried the weight of an elder brother offering final counsel before a duel. “The tomb of swords is nothing like Myriad Swords Cave. That canyon was carved for tempering steel. This valley was forged for killing. Go in without an iron-clad will, and the place will make you go off the deep end.”
He paused only long enough to let the warning sink in, then added, “Everything in the tomb of swords depends on each visitor’s own comprehension. Some emerge sharper than the day they were born. Others, well, others stumble out half-wit, their spirits cracked beyond repair.”
Corin explained the dangers of the tomb of swords to Jared. Jared’s smile flickered, small and unconcerned. “Fear’s just a locked door,” said. “Someone has to turn the key. Might as well be me.”
With that, the small company set out, boots crunching over frost-brittle grass toward the rear ridges of Swordmaster City, where the tomb of swords waited like a wound that never healed.
The tomb of swords lay cradled in a vast mountain hollow: an ancient gorge choked with blades.
Thousands of weather-blackened swords jutted from the earth at every angle, some as slender as reeds, others broad as tombstones, each humming with a pale sword intent that braided in mid-air and formed an invisible, suffocating sword domain.
Every blade marked a life already spent. Beneath that unseen sword domain was the thick pool of marked aura.
“We’ve arrived,” Corin said, gesturing toward a lonely stone stele at the valley’s heart. “On that monument is etched the Swordmaster’s Scripture. Whatever you can draw from it, that’s your fate talking.”
Jared stepped to the stele. Ancient characters clung to the stone like living embers, flowing In slow, molten lines. Thelr collective sword Intent rolled off the slab In silent thunder, pressing against his skin.
The instant met their glow, an ocean of knowledge burst through his mind. Sword forces older than empires, flashes of razor logic, and whole philosophies bound in a single elegant swing. Visions followed, countless swordmasters across the ages.
One practiced atop a cloud-torn peak, carving arcs through snowfall. Another stood waist-deep in a sea of blood, polishing a blade meant only to end. A third wandered bright marketplaces, drawing wisdom from whispers of everyday life.
Time blurred. Finally, Jared’s eyes slid shut. He wove his fingers into precise seals, and his spiritual energy began to circulate along the pathways set within the Swordmaster’s Scripture.
A subtle aura rose from him-an echo of the tomb of swords itself. All around, the embedded blades trembled in recognition, chiming like crystal goblets touched by an unseen hand.
Watching from a respectful distance, Corin felt his breath hitch.
So quickly?
He’s already in sync with the valley’s will. He’s resonating with the sword intent of the tomb of swords…
The harmony broke!
A sudden shriek tore through the gorge as the thin skeins of black marked aura, once drifting lazily among the swords, convulsed. Something unseen dragged the mist into raging torrents, reeking, pitch-dark rivers that crashed together, all snarling toward the stele where Jared stood.
They carried the stench of open graves and wet Iron, and the ground itself shuddered beneath their charge.
Boom! The earth jolted with brutal force, as though some giant beast had stirred beneath the skin of the world. In the valley known as the tomb of swords, the soil fractured outward from an ancient stone stele.
From every new fissure, ghastly bone talons burst Skyward, shattering stone and silence alike. Thunder rolled across the valley floor, as ifthe tomb of swords had found its own malignant heartbeat at last.
