A Blind Man's Worst Nightmare
1836 Words
Yun Kai didn't know how long he'd been freefalling. Seconds? Minutes? Time lost meaning in the absolute darkness as wind roared past his ears and his stomach lurched into his throat.
Just as dizziness began to overwhelm him, his senses picked up something. The sound of flowing water reached his ears. It was distant but growing louder with each passing moment.
'Water. Deep water, hopefully.'
He twisted his body mid-fall, arms tucked close, preparing for impact. The sound rushed up to meet him, and then...
SPLASH!
The world exploded into cold shock as he plunged into the underground river. Water filled his nose, his mouth, his ears. The current grabbed him immediately, pulling him down, down, deeper into the freezing depths.
Yun Kai didn't panic. Despite all his hardships in the palace, being a prince came with certain benefits. He'd been taught to swim since childhood, along with musical instruments, basic sword fighting, archery, and countless other lessons meant to shape a proper royal.
He kicked hard, arms cutting through the water in practiced strokes. His lungs burned, screaming for air, but he forced himself to stay calm. Up. He needed to go up.
His head broke the surface with a gasp. He sucked in air, coughing and sputtering as the current swept him along. The water was fast, turbulent, crashing against unseen rocks. His sensory bubble strained, mapping the chaotic flow around him.
Finally, he found a ledge at the side, solid ground.
Yun Kai kicked toward it, fighting the current with everything he had. His fingers scraped against stone, found something solid, and he hauled himself out of the water. He collapsed on the ground, chest heaving as water streamed from his clothes and hair.
For a long moment, he just lay there, catching his breath. His body ached all over. His head throbbed. But he was alive.
Slowly but painfully, he pushed himself to his feet. His wet robes clung to his skin, heavy and uncomfortable. The air down here was cold, and he could already feel himself starting to shiver.
He reached into his soaked robes, relief flooding through him as his fingers found the storage pouch still securely tied to his belt. The jade slip and the broken tracking device were long gone, lost to the water. But the pouch remained. He hadn't had time to put them in the pouch before hiding in the crevice.
Yun Kai pulled out one of the spare robes from inside the storage pouch. It was a bit large for him, meant for someone taller and broader than his slender frame. But it was dry, and that was all that mattered.
He stripped off his wet clothes, wringing them out before tucking them away in the pouch. The new robe hung loose on his body, the sleeves too long and the hem dragging on the ground. But it would do.
With dry clothes on, Yun Kai turned his attention to his surroundings. His sensory bubble expanded, probing the darkness around him. But all he found was emptiness. The natural fixtures were too far to detect. He knew that there was a ceiling somewhere high above, since he'd fallen from there. The only thing he could sense was the rushing sound of water behind him.
This place was big. Much bigger than his meter-wide radius could map. Likely a massive underground cavern.
Yun Kai chose a direction at random and started walking. His bare feet padded against smooth stone, surprisingly even and flat.
"This is surely not natural. Carved, maybe? Or worn down over countless years?" he questioned, to no one in particular.
Minutes passed in silence, broken only by his footsteps and the distant rush of water. The air grew warmer as he walked, less damp. The smell changed too, from wet stone to something older. Dust and decay.
Then his senses brushed against something ahead. A large, angular structure that was definitely man-made.
Yun Kai slowed down and approached cautiously. His sensory bubble painted the outline in his mind. There were walls, pillars, and a roof that was partially collapsed.
"A temple?" He stopped at what his senses told him was the entrance.
The front had collapsed, rubble scattered across the ground. Half the pillars still stood, struggling to keep the ceiling from falling completely. Cracks spider-webbed across stone, and the whole structure looked like a strong breeze might bring it down.
Yun Kai hesitated. Going inside seemed like a terrible idea. But where else could he go? He was trapped underground, lost in some ancient cave system. At least the temple might offer shelter. Maybe even answers.
After a long moment of consideration, he stepped through the broken entrance.
The temperature changed immediately. It became warmer and drier. The smell of dust grew stronger, mixed with something else. It smelt ancient, like a forgotten godly temple from eons before.
His feet touched the smooth floor, and his senses tingled from the sensation of the contact. The floor wasn't made of stone. Metal maybe? No. It was something in between.
He knelt, running his fingers across the surface. It was cool to the touch, but not deep-seated cold. And smooth, almost polished. And it still felt solid, with no cracks despite the temple's ruined exterior.
The floors were made from gold? They had to be. What else could survive so long underground without a scratch?
And he was right on the mark.
Yun Kai stood and walked deeper inside. The temple was bigger than it looked from outside. His sensory bubble couldn't find the far walls or map the full interior. Just pillars, endless pillars, stretching into darkness.
He walked for several more minutes, each step echoing faintly off unseen walls. The air grew thicker and heavier. Almost oppressive.
Then his senses found something else.
A human presence. Though it was not alive, but not quite empty either. Like a significant presence of something that once was.
Yun Kai approached slowly, heart pounding despite himself. His sensory bubble focused, narrowing in on the shape ahead.
It turned out to be a skeleton.
The skeleton sat cross-legged on the golden floor, perfectly still. Its bones were yellowed with age, and the clothes had long since rotted away. The skull tilted slightly forward, empty eye sockets staring at nothing.
A cultivator. Had to be. No ordinary person would be down here, in this place.
Yun Kai's senses swept over the remains. Beside the skeleton, something small and round sat on the floor. A sphere of some kind. It was smooth, almost perfectly spherical. A glass, maybe?
And at the top of the skeleton's skull was another object nailed to the wall behind. It was flat and rectangular. Probably a plaque.
Yun Kai reached out, fingers brushing against the metal surface. His sensory bubble traced the grooves carved into it. The writings were like meaningless scratch marks made by a toddler, words he couldn't read, patterns his mind couldn't interpret.
He frowned, frustration bubbling up. What did it say? A warning? Instructions? The name of whoever this was?
He'd never know. Not without eyes to see.
Unfortunately, Yun Kai couldn't see. Cause if he could and read the words on the plaque, he would have turned like the words stated and ran back towards the direction he came from without a second thought.
On the plaque was written:
"Be warned, Wanderer.
By decree of the First World King of the Desolate Martial World: Touch not this Sphere of Dawn.
This Glass Sphere must never be broken. Should it shatter, the world shall awaken to endless War. Its destruction shall herald the Era of Wars and Kingdom Building.
Every land will become a battlefield,
Every soul a contender for dominion.
Kingdoms shall rise, Empires shall fall, Dynasties shall be destroyed,
And all shall be bound to the Cycle of Warfare.
The Doom of Peace, the Birth of Conquest...
But if you turn your back like the coward you are, you and your generations hereafter will be forever known by the beyonders as a soft, boneless mortally disgraceful p***y!"
The ignorant Yun Kai lowered his hand, turning his attention back to the sphere. It called to him somehow, that faint hum of energy drawing him closer. His fingers reached out, hovering just above the smooth surface.
"What's this round ball?" he muttered, anticipation filling his chest.
He ignored the plaque entirely. What good would it do him anyway? Whatever warning or message it held was lost to him.
His fingers closed around the sphere, lifting it carefully. It was lighter than expected, almost weightless. Warm to the touch, like it had been sitting in sunlight.
At that exact moment, a crack echoed through the temple. Yun Kai's head snapped up, senses flaring. Above him, a small section of the ceiling fell off and shattered. Dust rained down, thick and choking.
More cracks followed. The sound of stone grinding against stone.
A chunk of ceiling broke free, crashing down nearby. The impact sent up a massive cloud of dust that billowed through the air, engulfing everything.
Yun Kai's sensitive nose twitched. The dust invaded his nostrils, tickling and irritating him. He tried to hold it back, but the sensation was too strong.
"Ah... ah..."
"ACHOO!"
The sneeze exploded from him, loud and violent, shaking his slender frame. His whole body jerked with the force of it.
And his fingers loosened ever so slightly.
The sphere slipped from his grasp.
Time seemed to slow as it fell. Yun Kai's senses tracked its descent, his mind screaming at his body to move, to catch it.
But he was too slow.
The sphere hit the golden floor with a sharp, crystalline sound. And shattered.
Pieces scattered across the ground, glittering shards of whatever material it had been made from. The faint hum of energy died instantly, snuffed out like a candle.
"Oh, f**k!" Yun Kai cursed out loud, his voice echoing through the empty temple.
For a moment, nothing happened. Just silence and dust and broken glass at his feet.
Then the air current changed.
It started as a tremor. Faint, barely noticeable. Like the world was holding its breath.
Then the ground shook. Not violently, or like an earthquake. But a steady, rhythmic shaking like a heartbeat.
The temple groaned. Pillars creaked and dust rained from the ceiling in streams. And somewhere, up above the skies, something ancient stirred.
Yun Kai's sensory bubble exploded outward, panic flooding his system. "What have I done? What was that sphere?"
The skeleton in front of him suddenly collapsed. Its bones crumbled to dust, scattering across the floor. The plaque fell with a clatter, rolling to a stop near Yun Kai's feet.
The heartbeat rhythm grew louder and faster. And then, cutting through everything, a formless bubble rippled outwards throughout the Desolate Martial World, touching every single animate being and inanimate object.
Be it the most powerful figures or the most weakest, insignificant living beings, everyone felt as if some significant change had happened to them.
- Writer
