Chapter 27: The First Regret

The moment Yun Xi's fingers touched the Seed, time broke.

There was no sound. No light. No up or down. No memory of space or reality as it had been known. Only the singular sensation of falling—not through space, but through time itself.

Yun Xi floated in an ocean of silence, surrounded by translucent ripples that formed ghostly visions. Each wave was a memory—not just his, but fragments stolen from others, universes that had never existed, timelines overwritten by fear, by desperation, or by choices never made.

In front of him hovered twelve rings of light—each pulsing with a heartbeat not his own. Inside each ring played a version of his life, twisting and turning with vivid clarity.

He saw himself in the Academy—young, naive, hungry for approval. He saw the Council's betrayal, the day they marked him for memory erasure to cover their failures. He saw Yue Lan's death in the original fold—pierced by the broken edge of a time anchor while trying to protect him.

He had forgotten that moment. The pain was too great.

But the Seed remembered everything.

Then came the ones that should not have existed.

A version of Yun Xi who never entered the Academy. Another who sold black market memory capsules and lived only 19 years. One where his mother was erased to buy someone else's second chance. He witnessed his own death… again and again and again.

The pain crushed him.

> "Do you still wish to remember?"

The voice boomed through the space. It was not a whisper or command—but something deeper. Older. Ancient.

The Seed was not a device. It was an entity—a fragment of pure regret, born at the moment humanity first tried to rewrite time. The Seed was the price of remembrance.

And it was asking him if he was willing to carry its burden.

Yun Xi could barely breathe. The memories circled tighter. Faster.

Yue Lan screaming as she vanished in blue light. His sister begging him to run. The look in his own eyes when he gave up on fighting, that final day of his first life.

He reached a trembling hand toward the image of Yue Lan.

"I will remember everything," he whispered.

> "Then take what you lost—and live it."

The Seed shattered into light.

The memories did not vanish.

They entered him.

---

Back in the Chamber of the First Seed, Yue Lan watched in horror as Yun Xi convulsed. His back arched, veins glowing faintly with golden lines. The three summoned Echoes stood motionless, silently watching as the past poured itself into one living vessel.

His breath hitched—then steadied. His eyes flew open.

"Sector Five," he gasped.

The shadow Echo turned sharply. "What?"

"I sealed it," Yun Xi said, voice hoarse but steady. "Not during the Fold Wars… before. Before I even joined the Academy."

Yue Lan blinked, confused. "You sealed Sector Five? But it was lost—obliterated during the collapse!"

"No. That's what they made us believe." Yun Xi's voice was cold now. "They rewrote that history. The Seed just gave me the truth. We buried it. Me and… someone else."

The crystal Echo took a step forward. "Then this world is closer to unraveling than we feared."

Yun Xi stood slowly, eyes flashing with something ancient. "I remember the real beginning now. The original event that fractured the timeline. I remember the choice that made the Reclaimers. They were us."

Silence fell like a storm.

"Wait," Yue Lan said. "You mean…?"

"They weren't enemies at first. The Reclaimers were Echoes—like me. Like the ones you summoned. But they chose to forget—to cut out the pain. The moment they did, the Seed split. And now those fragments have taken sides."

Yue Lan glanced at the seed fragment Yun Xi now held, still glowing faintly.

"And what about the one you touched?" she asked.

He turned toward her, expression unreadable.

"It's the First Regret," he said. "The original sin of the timeline. The first time someone rewrote the past to save one person—and doomed thousands."

The Echoes fell to one knee.

Yun Xi staggered toward the glowing portal. "The next fragment is in Sector Five. I remember hiding it."

"And what about the Reclaimers?" Yue Lan asked.

As if summoned, the air shifted. A sharp shriek like broken glass tearing through static erupted from beyond the veil.

A shadow, far larger than the first Reclaimer, stepped into view. Tall as a building, draped in coils of fractured time, wearing the faces of those Yun Xi once failed to save—his sister's face among them.

"Xi Yun…" the creature hissed in a dozen voices at once.

Yun Xi didn't flinch.

"I remember you," he said quietly.

The Reclaimer raised a blade that was not metal, not matter—but memory turned into vengeance.

"You erased my sister," Yun Xi growled, walking toward it. "This time, I erase you."

The system pinged.

> [Host unlocked Perfect Recall – All Regrets Stored.]

Initializing Protocol: Echo Surge – Temporal Rank Upgrade Possible.

Yun Xi raised his hand. Threads of light spun around his wrist, forming a spectral weapon—one he hadn't held in years.

The Blade of Before.

"I'll carry every memory," he said to the approaching creature. "Because I won't let the past control who I become."

As the chamber cracked and the second Reclaimer stepped through the veil of time, Yun Xi charged forward—not as a boy lost in regret, but as a warrior who had chosen to remember everything.