The forest was dead silent.
No wind. No birds. Just the oppressive stillness that choked the air like smoke. The trees here were gnarled and ancient, their twisted limbs clawing at the sky like petrified hands. In the clearing's center, a blood-red circle pulsed faintly against the dark earth—etched with arcane sigils and jagged symbols only whispered about in forbidden texts.
Huozhen knelt within it, his eyes half-lidded, robes soaked in rain and crimson. His hands bled freely—thin, deliberate cuts down his palms dripping onto the formation's lines. The symbols hissed as the blood touched them, glowing an ominous black-red.
He placed his bloodstained fingers against the center sigil, voice a low growl.
"From shadow into flame, and from flame unto ash… By forgotten breath and broken name, I summon thee."
"Come forth, you who wander unclaimed. You who were cursed, scorned, broken. Answer my call, Hear me, twisted remnants of the unliving! By blood unspent and name long forsaken…
I call you across the veil."
"Rise."
The formation blazed with sudden fury.
Wind exploded outward—though no wind blew. The forest moaned. The ground trembled softly. And then—
They came.
One by one, black wisps bled through the air, trailing smoke like they had been dragged from the pits of the underworld. Screeching. Growling. Hundreds of them—twisted, animalistic, clawing at the edges of the glowing circle. Their eyes were hollow. Their mouths gaped with silence and rage.
But none could cross.
The bloodline barrier held.
They slammed into it, snarling, their forms distorting—like they were made of smoke and agony.
Huozhen sat calmly, eyes now glowing with a dim red light, unflinching. "Do you feel it?" he hissed through clenched teeth. "The pull? You want inside… But you can't, can you? Not yet."
He raised the talisman higher, letting the windless air swirl unnaturally around it. The burnt silk fluttered like it remembered fire, the faint imprint of blue petals glowing faintly—unnatural in the dark.
"But for that… you'll need more than a doorway," he murmured, his voice almost tender, like speaking to a caged beast. "You'll need a shell. A skin. A voice."
The spirits hissed, writhing in agreement. A few began to mimic human shapes—long, stretched silhouettes pressed against the barrier like a thin sheet of ice separating two worlds.
Huozhen dipped his finger into a shallow bowl of blood placed before him, and with it, he traced a spiral over the talisman.
"You want to live again, don't you? Then remember this scent. The one who carries the curse now. When the vessel breaks—take root."
From the folds of his cloak, he pulled a small glass vial inside, a single strand of hair, twisted around a thorn soaked in dried blackened sap.
He placed it gently into the center of the formation.
"This… is the tether."
The ground trembled slightly. The spirits surged forward, clawing at the unseen wall in a frenzy, sensing the presence of something precious something alive. But Huozhen held firm, pressing a blood-soaked palm to the sigil once more.
"Not yet," he said again, more forcefully. "The vessel still holds the barrier… barely. But there will be a moment soon when that weakens—there will be a fracture."
Huozhen's fingers dragged a fresh smear of blood across the earth, sealing the final line of the inner ring of the ritual circle. The air thickened heavy with ancient weight, pulsing with forbidden power. His voice cut through the shadows like a blade,
"You must find the one who carries the heart of the curse. Crawl through the cracks through every shadow that clings to the mark."
"And when the heart that bears its weight begins to falter…"
"You will take what I command. The vessel. The body. The shell that shields what I seek."
Black smoke whipped violently around the barrier, ghostly shrieks tearing through the trees like a storm of the damned. One spirit howled louder than the rest, its form convulsing as it slammed against the invisible seal clawing, desperate, starving.
Huozhen's gaze slid to it, slow and serpentine. He smiled.
"The one who succeeds… I'll give more than a body. I'll give you form. Flesh. Permanence. Power."
"Obey me, and you will walk this realm again."
The spirits wailed louder, their rage vibrating through the earth, slamming and twisting against the seal like wolves against a locked gate. The sigils pulsed crimson beneath Huozhen's feet.
His eyes flared blood-red in the flickering glow.
"Find the one that hides beneath the cursed heart. Enter. Bind. Hollow them out until there's nothing left but what I need."
The wind shuddered. The formation trembled under the weight of so many hungry souls. Huozhen stepped back, his smile fading into something colder.
"And through this… I'll finally return to what was started. To what was stolen."
He turned, shadows trailing behind him like whispers, leaving the ritual to burn slow and steady.