Return of the Martial Soul – Chapter 6: Stormlight Duel in the Forest of Veins

  Part I: Into the Roots

  The rain had not stopped. For hours it drenched the forest surrounding the glade where Mujin had claimed the Skycut Fang. Each drop struck leaves like tiny war drums.

  Mujin and Elder Woon Gihyeon moved quickly through the drenched woods, their robes soaked and heavy. Behind them, faint movements stirred in the shadows—more agents of the Heaven-Killing Sect.

  “We’re being hunted,” Mujin whispered.

  “Good,” Woon Gihyeon replied, his eyes gleaming. “Then we can test how much you’ve truly awakened.”

  They arrived at the edge of a vast canyon filled with twisted trees, vines like veins sprawled across the rock walls. Locals called it “The Forest of Veins.”

  According to legend, the sixth treasure was hidden deep within its root-choked floor.

  Part II: The Veinborn Labyrinth

  The forest was alive.

  As Mujin and Woon Gihyeon descended into the vine-covered depths, the atmosphere thickened. The air pulsed with something unseen—like a heart beating just beneath the surface.

  At the forest's core stood a monolithic tree, ancient and petrified, yet humming with inner life.

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  Before it, a figure waited.

  A young woman dressed in simple robes, her eyes closed, her breathing calm.

  When she opened them, the color was unnatural—green shot through with gold.

  “I am Miru, Guardian of the Sixth Vein.”

  Her voice echoed through the trees.

  “If you seek the next relic, then you must face the memory of the one you left behind.”

  Mujin blinked.

  “What?”

  Suddenly, the forest shifted.

  He stood in the ruins of his old workplace.

  Rain poured outside a shattered window. A familiar voice cried for help.

  He turned—and saw his missing junior, the young reporter who had vanished. Bloodied, calling his name.

  Mujin rushed forward—

  But the voice warped. The body dissolved into vines, wrapping around his limbs, tightening.

  “Your guilt,” Miru’s voice echoed. “Unfaced, it will strangle you.”

  Part III: Duel of Storm and Root

  Mujin screamed and released a burst of qi. The vines snapped.

  He stood, panting, facing Miru again. The illusion broken.

  “I won’t run from what I’ve lost,” he said. “But I won’t let it rule me either.”

  Miru smiled. “Then show me how you fight.”

  She summoned a spear of living wood, swirling with wind and lightning.

  Mujin unsheathed the Skycut Fang.

  Their duel echoed through the forest.

  Roots erupted from the ground. Branches struck like whips. Mujin deflected and flowed, his movements shaped not just by training—but by instinct, emotion, memory.

  A strike to her side. A crack in her stance.

  Miru stumbled. But then she laughed.

  “Good. You are not a weapon made of sorrow. You are a soul forged in fire.”

  She stepped aside.

  Behind her, nestled in the roots of the ancient tree, was a stone vessel—containing a crystal orb filled with swirling green-gold mist.

  The Sixth Treasure: The Heart of Rootlight.

  As Mujin touched it, the Heaven’s Seal reacted. A sixth symbol ignited.

  And somewhere, far away, another presence stirred—a man in robes blacker than night, eyes blindfolded, lips curled in knowing smile.

  “The sixth has awakened,” he whispered. “Then the Gate is not far.”

  To be continued.