Passing through the canyon sealed by the five-colored cocoon felt like stepping from one nightmare into another—older, deeper, and far more silent. The air was thick with decay, mixed with a metallic tang of rust and the dry dust of countless ages. Light filtered weakly through narrow cracks high in the cliff walls, falling in scattered beams that barely illuminated what lay ahead—an endless expanse of ancient battlefield ruins. There were no banners fluttering, no mountains of corpses. Only a silence so absolute it seemed time itself had scoured all life away. Enormous bones, pale as carved jade, were scattered across the wasteland. Some rib bones arched high like gateways; some skulls were the size of houses. They belonged to colossal beasts long extinct, lying motionless among shattered weapons and fallen stone pillars. Though eroded by the passage of ages, the remains still exuded a faint aura of oppression. All around were fragments of weapons and armor—dull, corroded, broken...