Yu Bin. Immortal Of Water Land

Chapter 7 – The Hill of Shadows

Three days had passed since the lake discovery, and Yu Bin and Xian Chen stood at the base of a fog-draped forest on the eastern hill, their boots sinking slightly into the damp earth. The path they followed was narrow and choked with brush, barely visible through the thick morning mist. The case had taken a dark turn when they uncovered clues suggesting the children had been held captive not far from this area. Bao Fang, now working as a journalist, had passed along a lead that directed them here. Her information was often eerily accurate.

Xian Chen, with his coat wrapped tightly around him, glanced toward Yu Bin. She walked beside him, flashlight in one hand and her other tucked into her pocket.

"You okay?" he asked, quietly.

"Just cold," she replied, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. She looked exhausted. Not just from the hike, but something deeper. Since the night at the bar, she'd been quieter. He wondered how much she remembered.

The deeper they pushed into the forest, the heavier the air became. An unnatural silence blanketed everything. Birds and bugs had disappeared. The wind had died. Even their footsteps felt muffled.

An hour later, they stumbled across it.

In the middle of a clearing, covered with moss and partially sunken into the soil, stood the skeletal remains of a stone structure. Possibly a storage cabin once used by hikers or hunters, now forgotten.

Near it, charred symbols ringed a circle of stones. Scattered around were odd blackened feathers and broken bone fragments.

Yu Bin crouched near the markings.

"This wasn’t just a holding place. This was ritualistic. Someone was trying to summon something—or trap something."

"They were playing with things they didn’t understand," Xian Chen muttered.

Suddenly, a guttural groan echoed from beyond the trees.

Then another. And another.

Figures emerged—twisted silhouettes with hollow eyes, skeletal limbs dragging behind them. The smell of decay followed them like a storm.

"Yu Bin, behind me!" Xian Chen shouted, stepping forward instinctively.

Yu Bin drew her weapon, but when she fired, the bullet passed through one of the creatures without slowing it. Her hands trembled slightly.

The creatures encircled them.

Xian Chen reached into his coat and pulled a red leather-bound book. Old, worn, stitched in a language no human used anymore. His voice dropped low, reciting words from a forgotten tongue:

"By flame unchained, by sky unbound, Ancient breath, to me resound, Awaken, old soul—Longwei, arise."

The air around them fractured with sound.

The clouds churned violently overhead.

With a thunderous roar, a massive dragon split the sky. Red scales, wings like stretched flame, and a heat that made the air ripple.

The dragon landed in the clearing, incinerating the corpses with a single breath. Ash scattered into the trees.

Then, in a blinding swirl of fire and light, the dragon shifted. Flame coalesced into flesh.

A tall man stood in the scorched grass. White hair cascaded down his back, and eyes glowed a chilling blue. His presence radiated ancient power. He walked forward silently and placed himself between Xian Chen and Yu Bin.

"You…" he said, eyes fixed on Yu Bin.

Yu Bin blinked in confusion, struggling to comprehend what was happening.

Longwei’s tone darkened. "I remember you. I remember that day. The blood. The silence. You were there—with your sword. Beside his body."

"What…?" Yu Bin’s voice shook. She looked to Xian Chen. "What is he talking about?"

"You stood there," Longwei continued, ignoring her. "Your blade was drawn. He was dead. My master—dead."

Xian Chen stepped forward, his jaw tight. "Longwei, stop. That’s enough."

But Longwei didn’t stop. His anger simmered beneath his calm expression.

Then Yu Bin staggered backward.

Something inside her cracked.

A vision—brief but vivid—flashed through her mind:

A palace hallway. Golden light. Screams.

She saw herself, barely older than a teenager, running through the corridor.

Her master, Bao Fang, lying still, her eyes wide open in death.

Her parents, fallen at the foot of the grand staircase.

Blood. So much blood.

She held a sword.

Her sword.

She turned her head in the vision—and saw Xian Chen lying beside the fountain, unmoving.

Then came his voice—soft, mournful. "I'm sorry. It's my fault."

Yu Bin’s hands trembled. More flashes—Bao Fang smiling while teaching her to fly, Xian Chen laughing during sword training, Longwei soaring above them, his shadow dancing across the fields.

Then—the deaths.

The pain.

The blame.

Yu Bin clutched her chest, gasping. Her knees buckled.

"Yu Bin!" Xian Chen caught her as she fell, but her eyes rolled back.

She collapsed in his arms.

Longwei's expression flickered. For a brief moment, he looked almost... afraid.

"What did you do to her?" Xian Chen demanded.

"Nothing," Longwei said, softer now. "She remembered."

---

Yu Bin didn’t wake.

They returned to the city in silence. Bao Fang was waiting when they arrived. She didn’t speak as she helped them carry Yu Bin inside. She laid a hand on Yu Bin’s forehead, and for a brief moment, it looked like she wanted to say something. But she didn’t.

“She’ll need time,” Bao Fang finally said.

“She doesn’t have time,” Xian Chen replied, pacing the room.

“Then give her space.”

---

During the following days, the case progressed without her. Bao Fang, working quietly behind the scenes, followed the final leads.

It turned out the old shelter had once belonged to a reclusive scientist—someone who had lost a child years ago and began an obsessive study into ritual healing and life-extension through suffering. He’d believed that binding two children together—one damaged, one whole—could somehow merge their suffering and extend life.

It didn’t work.

The man had left behind journals, grotesque instructions, and evidence that linked him directly to the two skeletons found in the lake.

The team arrested him within a week.

The city mourned, but justice had been served.

Meanwhile, Yu Bin remained silent and still, caught in a fog of resurfacing memories and unbearable truths.

Every night, Xian Chen stayed by her bedside.

And every morning, Bao Fang visited with a silent prayer.

Outside the window, the rain finally stopped. The sky was clear for the first time in days.

But inside Yu Bin’s mind, the storm had only just begun.