Ling Xiao dragged his feet along the ash-strewn path, his vacant eyes scanning the ruined houses. Yesterday, this place was filled with laughter, but now only desolate ruins and the faint scent of blood lingered in the air.
He had searched all day.
He had called until his voice was hoarse.
But no one answered.
No one at all.
Ling Xiao stood in the center of the village, his legs trembling with exhaustion. The setting sun cast his small shadow long, covering the bloodstains scattered on the ground. There wasn't much blood, just small streaks trailing, as if someone had tried to resist.
He didn't want to believe it.
But the truth was laid out before his eyes.
Everyone... had disappeared.
His grandmother too.
Ling Xiao bit his lip, vaguely recalling last night when his grandmother sat beside him, telling old stories about the cave behind the mountain that their lineage had guarded for generations. Her voice was distant, her eyes filled with complex emotions of both joy and sorrow.
"When that child appears... that's when everything ends."
Ling Xiao clenched his fists, his heart tightening.
He didn't want to believe the strange stories his grandmother told. But now, besides the cave behind the mountain, he had nowhere else to search.
Hesitation.
Doubt.
Fear.
But in the end, as night fell, Ling Xiao gritted his teeth and headed towards the back of the mountain.
The familiar path now felt terrifyingly strange. The stone steps were covered in slippery moss, and the night wind was as cold as needles pricking his skin.
Step by step.
Each step was heavy, as if something invisible was pulling him back.
Finally, after an endless journey, he stopped before the forbidden area that his family had protected for three hundred years.
A pitch-black cave, deep and bottomless, swallowing all light.
Ling Xiao stood silently before the cave entrance, his palms sweating coldly.
His grandmother had said, once you step in here... there's no turning back.
But she wasn't here to stop him anymore.
Swallowing the rising unease, Ling Xiao took a deep breath and gritted his teeth, stepping into the darkness.
The darkness inside the cave was thick and chilling, sending shivers down his spine. Ling Xiao's footsteps echoed softly in the still space, every tiny sound magnified, as if something invisible was watching his every move.
There was no trace of his grandmother.
No trace of anyone.
Only a musty smell mixed with a faint metallic tang.
Ling Xiao quietly ventured deeper, his fingers unconsciously clutching his clothes. Under the dim light from a crack in the cave wall, he caught sight of something ahead...
A pool of blood.
The blood had long dried, leaving only a dark, sticky layer on the cold stone floor. Ling Xiao froze. His heart felt like it was being squeezed.
His grandmother... was also...
No, it couldn't be!
He shook his head, biting his lip to stay calm. The blood was old, it couldn't be his grandmother's. It was probably someone else's, or...
Ling Xiao inhaled deeply, trying to dispel the terrible thoughts, his eyes scanning the surroundings. This was the first time he had entered this forbidden place, but contrary to his mystical fantasies, deep inside the cave was just an old wooden table in the empty space.
No treasure.
No terrifying secrets.
Just a plain table, covered in dust, its edges worn with time.
Ling Xiao approached, his heart pounding as he saw the yellowed papers pressed under a heavy wooden bar. His trembling fingers brushed away the thick dust, revealing stiff but slightly clumsy handwriting.
His father's writing.
Ling Xiao didn't remember his father's face clearly, but this handwriting... was so familiar that it made his throat tighten.
He quietly opened the first sheet of paper.
"If you're reading this... it means that day has finally come.
I don't know how to face this. I've always hoped you could live a normal life, away from all the bloody cruelty this world brings. But perhaps, from the moment you were born... fate wouldn't allow it.
Ling Xiao, I'm sorry..."
The writing paused, the ink slightly smudged as if the writer had hesitated for a long time.
"I'm not strong enough to protect you. I can only use this method to keep you in this world a little longer. But you must remember, if one day you step into this place... don't look back to the past.
Go.
Leave this place. Leave the fate you didn't choose.
Please..."
The paper in Ling Xiao's hand trembled.
Each word, each sentence, was like a knife cutting into his heart.
He clenched his fists.
Leave? Forget the past?
But without the past... what would he have left?