Chapter 15: Heart of the Fallen

The Heart of Fallen Stars loomed ahead—a pulsating orb of fractured light suspended above a chasm where the earth itself seemed to weep molten starlight. Lin Wei's corruption gnawed at his veins, the Sovereign's whispers now a constant drone in his skull. Yuelin's obsidian arm trembled, its ghostfire veins mapping a path across the chasm's jagged spine.

"It's a bridge," she said, her voice strained. "Or a test."

Lin Wei stepped onto the first crystalline shard. It held. The second shattered beneath his weight, forcing him to leap. Behind him, Yuelin hissed as her hybrid arm lashed out instinctively, anchoring her to the rockface.

"Hurry," she muttered. "Thunder Valley's closing in."

Below, the molten starlight roared. Above, the Heart pulsed like a dying sun.

The chasm's far side was a graveyard of celestial bones—titans petrified mid-battle, their skeletal hands clawing at the Heart. At its base lay an altar stained with Silent Patriarch's blood, his final sacrifice etched into the stone. Lin Wei pressed his palm to the dried blood, triggering a memory:

The Patriarch stands before the Heart, his sword plunged into his chest. "The price is paid," he gasps. The Sovereign's scream splits the sky as the Xue bloodline ignites, binding its power to the curse.

The vision shattered as Thunder Valley's arrows rained down. Lin Wei spun, deflecting them with a surge of unstable qi. Yuelin's arm erupted in ghostfire, incinerating a scout mid-leap.

"They're herding us!" she yelled.

"Let them." Lin Wei's eyes glowed crimson as he tore a fissure in the earth, swallowing a dozen attackers. The system flickered:

[Sovereign's Corruption: 58%.]

[Warning: Nascent Soul stability critical.]

The Heart's light sharpened, revealing a pedestal at its core—a hollow shaped like the Moonlit Veil pendant. Lin Wei froze.

"It needs the Veil," Yuelin said. "But you destroyed it."

"No." He touched his chest where the pendant once lay. "It needs her."

The ghostfire ember flared in Yuelin's grip. Lin Mei's voice, clearer now, whispered: "The Veil was never the lock. I am."

Yuelin's obsidian arm convulsed. "She's… inside the ember. The Sovereign trapped her when you shattered the core."

Lin Wei's qi spiked. "You knew."

"And you didn't ask." She hurled the ember at the pedestal. "Do it. Before I change my mind."

The ember fused with the altar. The Heart convulsed, its light fracturing into a thousand shards that pierced Lin Wei's body. The Sovereign's roar shook the heavens as the system overwrote:

[Lin Mei's Resurrection Protocol: Activated.]

[Required Sacrifice: Host's Nascent Soul.]

Yuelin lunged. "No—!"

The world dissolved. Lin Wei stood in a void where Lin Mei floated, her form woven from ghostfire and starlight.

"You're late," she said, smiling faintly.

"You're annoying," he replied.

The Sovereign's shadow loomed behind her. "She is mine. You are mine. This farce ends."

Lin Wei's corruption surged to 70%, his Nascent Soul unraveling. He reached for Mei's hand. "Not today."

[Sacrifice Confirmed.]

[Lin Wei's Cultivation Base: Destroyed.]

[Sovereign's Corruption: Purged.]

Reality snapped back. The Heart exploded in a supernova of light. When it faded, Lin Mei knelt beside Lin Wei's lifeless body, her ghostfire form flickering with remnants of his crimson qi. Yuelin's obsidian arm lay shattered, her eyes wide.

"What… what did you do?"

Lin Mei cradled Lin Wei's still form. "What he always did. Cheated."

Above them, the Sovereign's laughter echoed, weaker but triumphant. "A soul for a soul. The game continues."