Chapter 6: Ghostfire’s Gambit

The Ghostfire Caverns loomed like a jagged maw in the mountainside, their entrance choked with vines that shimmered with unnatural bioluminescence. Lin Wei adjusted the straps of his pack, its weight heavy with empty spiritstone containers and Lin Mei's hastily brewed antidotes. The Soulroot Orchids' faint melody—a system-provided clue—hummed in his skull, guiding him forward.

"This is suicide," Lin Mei muttered, her infected arm wrapped in Frostfern-laced bandages. The blue veins beneath her skin pulsed in time with the cavern's eerie glow. "Even Core Formation cultivators avoid these caves."

"Then why did you insist on coming?" Lin Wei snapped, sharper than he intended. The system's latest warning burned behind his eyes:

[Spirit Vein Collapse: 13 days remaining.]

[Soulroot Orchids remaining: 0/3.]

She glared. "Because someone needs to stop you from lying to yourself."

The cavern's breath—cold, metallic, alive—swallowed their words.

The first chamber defied reason. Stalactites hung upside down from the floor, their tips dripping liquid shadow onto a ceiling of swirling starlight. Lin Wei's boots sank into the "floor," sending ripples across the starscape above.

"Illusion array," Lin Mei whispered, her breath frosting. "Don't trust your—"

The ground dissolved.

They fell upward into the ceiling, crashing onto a new plane where fire burned cold and water flowed in geometric patterns. The system's orchid melody fractured into dissonance.

[Warning: Spatial Anomaly Detected.]

[Adjusting…]

Lin Wei's vision swam as the system rewrote his senses. When it cleared, Lin Mei knelt nearby, vomiting blackened ichor—her infection reacting to the cavern's qi.

"We need to turn back," he said, reaching for her.

She slapped his hand away. "You don't get to care now."

A whisper echoed through the chamber—a voice woven from memories.

"Wei'er…"

His mother's voice.

Lin Mei froze. "You… hear that too?"

The vision struck without warning:

*Lin Wei's mother stands in a cavern identical to this one, the Moonlit Veil glowing fiercely around her neck. Blood drips from her nose as she carves runes into the walls—the same runes now surrounding them. A shadow looms behind her: Lord Xue, younger, his face unmarred by cruelty.

"You'll doom us all," he snarls.

"Better doom than slavery," she retorts.

Her hand slams the final rune. The cavern screams.*

Lin Wei gasped, returning to the present. The runes on the walls now pulsed with his mother's qi.

"What was that?" Lin Mei demanded.

"A memory. Hers." He touched the Moonlit Veil, warm and insistent. "She's been here."

Lin Mei's eyes narrowed. "You're using her relics. That pendant—it's not just a trinket, is it?"

Before he could answer, the chamber shuddered. The inverted stalactites cracked, releasing tendrils of ghostfire—pale flames that fed on qi.

Lin Wei shoved Lin Mei behind a crystalline outcrop as the flames lashed out.

"Stay down!"

"Stop protecting me!" she hissed. "I didn't ask for—"

A tendril grazed her infected arm. Instead of burning, the ghostfire merged with her Frostfern corruption, crystallizing into a jagged gauntlet of ice and flame. She screamed—not in pain, but in rage.

[Mutation Detected: Hostile Symbiosis.]

[Lin Mei's Corruption: 58%.]

"Wei! The runes!" she shouted, her voice distorted. "Your mother's runes—align them!"

He hesitated. Trusting her meant risking exposure.

The ghostfire swarmed.

"Do it!" she roared.

Lin Wei relented, channeling qi into the nearest rune. The system surged in recognition:

[Silent Patriarch's Seal Recognized.]

[Override Permitted: Y/N?]

Yes.

The runes flared. The ghostfire recoiled, funneling into a vortex above Lin Mei. She raised her crystallized arm, and the flames obeyed.

The cavern stilled. Where the vortex had been, three Soulroot Orchids floated—their petals translucent, roots trailing starlight.

Lin Mei collapsed, her gauntlet shattering. The infection's veins had receded, but her eyes now glowed faintly blue.

"You… knew about the runes," she panted.

"I didn't," Lin Wei said, gathering the orchids. The system's countdown updated:

[Spirit Vein Stabilization: 3/3 Soulroot Orchids Acquired.]

[Return to Clan Grounds.]

"Liar." She grabbed his wrist, her touch burning with residual ghostfire. "You've been here before. Through her. Through the pendant."

He wrenched free. "We're leaving."

"Not until you—"

A tremor shook the cavern. From the shadows, a figure emerged—humanoid but wrong, its body a patchwork of ghostfire and decaying flesh.

Lord Xue's voice slithered from its lips: "Hello, nephew."