Chapter 160: THE EXPEDITION YOU FORGOT

Chapter 160 — THE EXPEDITION YOU FORGOT

The pale plane trembled.

The memory of the stronghold dissolved like mist under harsh light.

Stone walls faded.

Applause faded.

The cloak on his shoulders vanished.

And Long Hao stood once again before Zehell.

Her silhouette was no longer calm.

No longer measured.

There was something sharper in her smile now.

Crueler.

“You speak of hunger. Of training. Of being shaped,” she said softly.

Her laughter echoed across the empty expanse.

“Why are you telling me that?” Long Hao demanded. “Why are you repeating my past?”

His voice was tight.

Controlled.

But beneath it—

Uncertainty.

“What do you have to do with it?”

Zehell laughed again.

Long.

Unrestrained.

The sound distorted the pale plane itself.

“Do you really not remember?”

Long Hao’s jaw tightened.

“Remember what?”

She stepped closer.

Eyes gleaming with something far darker than before.

“Oh…”

Her smile widened.

“Right.”

“I erased your memories.”

The words dropped like a blade.

“How would you remember?”

Long Hao felt something cold settle in his chest.

“You— what?”

Her laughter softened into something almost affectionate.

“You begged for forgetfulness.”

“You tore apart your own mind.”

“And I helped.”

His breath grew uneven.

“Stop playing with me.”

“Then listen.”

Her voice sharpened.

“Do you remember the expedition you went on?”

Silence.

Something stirred faintly in the back of his mind.

A mountain.

A pull.

Five shadows moving across snow.

“I…” His brow furrowed.

“Tell me.”

Zehell’s eyes darkened.

“Fine.”

The pale plane cracked open.

Reality shifted.

And memory began again.

The Shadow King — Age 22

The ceremony had ended weeks ago.

The applause had faded.

Leadership had settled.

And with leadership came access.

Hidden chambers.

Sealed archives.

Ancient records even the previous King had never pursued.

Long Hao stood in the deepest library of the Shadow stronghold.

Candles flickered against carved stone walls.

Scrolls older than kingdoms lay spread before him.

He wasn’t searching for contracts.

He wasn’t searching for political leverage.

He was searching for something else.

Something beneath.

The symbol.

A black-and-white eclipse carved faintly into an ancient tablet he had discovered beneath the lowest vault.

The same symbol he had glimpsed in childhood.

The same one that had haunted his dreams.

It pulsed faintly when he touched it.

He did not tell the elders.

He did not tell the Queen.

He only told five.

The Squad

The five stood before him in the lower war chamber.

Kieran.

Loyal.

Unquestioning.

Rhea — precise, analytical, skilled in reconnaissance.

Damon — silent, heavy-hitter, unmatched in endurance.

Silas — youngest among the five, but brilliant with traps and terrain.

And the teenage boy.

Now sixteen.

The same one who once idolized him.

He had insisted on joining.

“Let me prove myself,” he had said.

Long Hao studied them all.

“This is not a contract,” he began.

“This is an investigation.”

“Of what?” Rhea asked.

“Origin.”

Silence.

Kieran smirked faintly.

“That sounds dangerous.”

“It is.”

Damon cracked his knuckles.

“Where?”

Long Hao turned.

He placed the ancient tablet on the stone table.

The eclipse symbol glowed faintly.

“There’s a mountain beyond the northern border,” he said.

“Unmapped.”

“Unclaimed.”

“Unentered.”

“The stronghold was built near it for a reason.”

Rhea frowned.

“Why has no one explored it?”

Long Hao’s eyes sharpened.

“Because no one asked the right question.”

Departure

Snow coated the mountain pass.

The five moved silently through pine forest.

Their cloaks dark against white terrain.

Breath controlled.

Footsteps erased.

Long Hao walked at the front.

The symbol in his mind pulsed faintly the closer they moved north.

The teenage boy walked just behind him.

Watching every step.

Mirroring every movement.

“You think there’s treasure?” Silas whispered at one point.

“No,” Long Hao answered without turning.

“I think there’s truth.”

The forest thinned.

The mountain rose.

Jagged.

Ancient.

Its peak hidden in cloud.

There were no birds.

No animals.

No sound beyond wind.

Rhea paused.

“This place feels wrong.”

Long Hao nodded slightly.

“Stay alert.”

They reached the base of the mountain by dusk.

A narrow path wound upward between stone walls.

Natural.

Yet carved by time.

Long Hao touched the rock.

Cold.

But beneath it—

Something else.

A hum.

He felt it.

Deep in his bones.

The eclipse symbol in his memory flared faintly.

“We proceed at first light,” he said.

They set camp.

But none of them truly slept.

The Ascent

Morning came gray.

The climb was steep.

Ice coated sections of rock.

Silas moved ahead occasionally, securing rope and checking footing.

Halfway up—

Damon paused.

“Tracks,” he muttered.

Long Hao crouched.

The snow had been disturbed.

But not by animal.

Not by human.

The pattern was wrong.

Circular.

As if something had risen from beneath rather than walked across.

“Move,” Long Hao ordered quietly.

They climbed higher.

The air thinned.

The teenage boy stumbled once.

Long Hao caught him before he fell.

Their eyes met briefly.

“Focus,” Long Hao said.

The boy nodded.

They reached a plateau near the summit.

And there—

They saw it.

A cave.

Hidden behind a curved wall of stone.

Half-buried by centuries of snow and ice.

The entrance pulsed faintly.

Black and white.

Like breathing.

Rhea inhaled sharply.

“That symbol…”

It was carved above the entrance.

The eclipse.

Larger than any they had seen.

Older.

Deeper.

Long Hao stepped forward.

His heartbeat accelerated.

Not from fear.

From recognition.

“This is it,” he said.

Kieran looked at him carefully.

“You’re certain?”

“Yes.”

“Then we go together.”

Long Hao hesitated.

Just briefly.

“No.”

He shook his head.

“I enter first.”

The teenage boy stepped forward immediately.

“I’m coming.”

Long Hao’s gaze hardened.

“You stay behind.”

The boy’s jaw tightened.

“I can handle it.”

Long Hao stared at him.

Long.

Measuring.

“You’re not ready.”

The words cut.

But the boy stepped back.

Reluctantly.

Long Hao turned toward the cave.

Placed his hand against the stone.

The pulse intensified.

A hum filled the air.

The squad tensed.

The cave opened.

Not collapsing.

Not breaking.

Opening.

Like a mouth.

Cold air rushed outward.

Carrying something ancient.

Long Hao stepped inside.

Inside

The cave was not natural.

It was shaped.

Carved.

Circular walls etched with countless variations of the eclipse symbol.

Some broken.

Some incomplete.

Some fully formed.

A narrow path led deeper.

Black-white light flickered faintly along the floor.

Long Hao walked slowly.

Each step echoing.

Behind him—

The cave entrance sealed.

Kieran’s voice echoed faintly from outside.

“Long Hao!”

No response.

The squad rushed forward—

But the stone had fused shut.

Silas tried cutting.

Nothing.

Rhea struck the rock.

It absorbed impact.

Damon pushed with brute force.

The mountain did not move.

Inside—

Long Hao reached the inner chamber.

At its center—

A stone pedestal.

And upon it—

A core.

Black.

White.

Spinning slowly.

Alive.

He approached.

The hum vibrated through his veins.

The symbol on the wall aligned.

The core reacted to him.

“You found me.”

The voice echoed.

Not from air.

From within.

He didn’t step back.

“Who are you?”

“I am what remains.”

“What remains of what?”

“Of what defied Heaven.”

The core pulsed brighter.

He reached out.

His fingers hovered inches away.

“You shouldn’t touch that.”

The voice wasn’t hostile.

It was curious.

He touched it.

And the world broke.

Outside

The squad felt it.

The mountain trembled violently.

Snow collapsed.

Cracks spread across stone.

The teenage boy stumbled backward.

“Shadow King!” he shouted.

Light burst from within the mountain.

Black and white.

Blinding.

The plateau split.

Kieran grabbed the boy and pulled him away as stone collapsed inward.

The cave imploded.

The peak fractured.

An avalanche thundered downward.

The five barely escaped.

When the dust settled—

The mountain peak had changed.

The cave was gone.

Long Hao was gone.

The teenage boy stared at the rubble.

“He’s alive,” he whispered.

But his voice lacked certainty.

Back to the Plane

The pale expanse reformed around them.

Zehell watched Long Hao carefully.

“Do you remember now?” she asked softly.

His breathing had grown uneven.

Fragments flickered in his mind.

Snow.

The cave.

The core.

The voice.

“You…”

His voice was hoarse.

“You were the core.”

Zehell smiled.

“Yes.”

“And when you touched me…”

Her eyes gleamed.

“You fractured.”

Silence.

“I did not erase you,” she said softly.

“You erased yourself.”

“You were not ready.”

“You shattered your own mind.”

“You begged for another chance.”

Long Hao staggered slightly.

“You— you caused the collapse.”

“I caused nothing.”

Her voice sharpened.

“You chose to touch what you did not understand.”

“You chose to tear open what was sealed.”

The memory slammed into him.

The core splitting.

Black and white light tearing through him.

The squad screaming outside.

The teenage boy watching the mountain break.

“You didn’t die that day,” Zehell said quietly.

“You fragmented.”

“You reincarnated.”

“You created Longyu.”

“You created me as you know me.”

Her smile was no longer gentle.

It was absolute.

Villainous.

“And you forgot.”

Long Hao looked at her with something close to horror.

“You manipulated everything.”

She laughed softly.

“No.”

“You sought me.”

“You broke yourself.”

“And now…”

Her voice lowered.

“You’re angry because I showed you the truth.”

The pale plane trembled faintly.

“And you’re still not ready.”

Silence stretched between them.

Long Hao’s fists trembled.

Snow and stone still echoing in his mind.

The teenage boy shouting his name.

The mountain collapsing.

The core shattering.

He had led them there.

He had touched it.

He had triggered it.

“You wanted power,” Zehell whispered.

“And you reached beyond your limit.”

The wind rose.

Cold.

“You did this to yourself.”

Long Hao’s gaze hardened slowly.

But doubt remained.

And Zehell saw it.

Smiled.

Because the fracture had begun long before reincarnation.

It began on a mountain.

When a Shadow King touched something Heaven had sealed.

[Chapter ENDS]

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