The Celestial Pavilion's disciples stood frozen at the edge of the Garden of Lost Souls, their eyes wide with shock.
For centuries, the Garden had been a place of no return—a cursed forest where time twisted unpredictably, trapping countless cultivators in its depths. No one who entered ever came back.
Until now.
"What… is happening?" Jian Feng muttered, his voice trembling.
Before them, figures emerged from the forest—cultivators clad in tattered robes, their faces gaunt with exhaustion but alight with disbelief. Some stumbled forward, their knees hitting the ground as they wept openly. Others raised their hands to the sky, laughing like madmen.
"I'm free… I'M FREE!" one man screamed, his voice cracking with raw emotion.
Jian Feng's face paled. "These people… they were trapped inside for who knows how many years!"
Lan Huiqian's fingers tightened around her sword hilt, her sharp eyes scanning the crowd. "Something changed inside the Garden."
Her mind raced.
Yun Lintian.
