Chapter 29: The City That Remembers

The path was not a door. It was a sensation.

When Yun Xi and Yue Lan stepped forward, they were swallowed by golden currents—light bending around them, dissolving every outline of their bodies until only consciousness remained. There was no time, no gravity, no heartbeat. Just thought.

And then… cold air. Stone beneath their feet.

They emerged in silence.

Before them lay a city, unlike any they had ever seen.

It was not ruined. It was not alive. It waited.

Massive ivory towers curved toward the sky like frozen waterfalls. Bridges spanned wide canyons, carved from crystal that pulsed with faint energy. The city was asleep—but it remembered every voice that had ever passed through it. Each breath of wind carried a whisper. Each shadow shimmered with ghosts of footsteps long gone.

A plaque rose before them, etched in languages both ancient and unborn.

SECTOR FIVE: ORIGIN SANCTUM

—To Find the First Future, One Must Walk the Forgotten Path—

Yun Xi stepped forward. The ground did not echo. Instead, it responded. Golden lines etched themselves beneath his soles, tracing his path like a living map.

"This place…" Yue Lan whispered. "It's like time was preserved."

Yun Xi nodded. "Or paused."

The system's interface flickered back to life in his mind.

> [Welcome to Sector Five – Origin Sanctum.]

Synchronizing ambient memory field…

Caution: Echo intensity at 78%. Mental safeguards advised.

Yun Xi didn't flinch. His memory was anchored now—strengthened by facing the Reclaimer. Whatever this place wanted him to see, he would face it with clarity.

They walked through the empty city.

Buildings stood tall and unbroken. Lights flickered within—faint glimpses of another time. In the corner of his vision, Yun Xi caught echoes—figures going about their day as if unaware of being long dead.

Children ran laughing near a fountain that hadn't flowed in centuries. Merchants argued in markets that hadn't opened in ages. Lovers held hands beneath star-shaped lanterns, frozen in their final moment of joy.

"Are they real?" Yue Lan asked softly.

"No," Yun Xi said. "They're memories."

But the memories watched them.

A streetlamp blinked three times. A figure in the corner turned its head. A cat—half-formed, made of echo light—followed them for three blocks before vanishing into a doorway.

This city didn't just remember—it judged.

They arrived at the heart of the city. A plaza wider than a stadium spread out before them, its center dominated by a massive tree made of translucent crystal. Its branches arched into the sky like veins of frozen lightning.

At its base, a symbol carved into the stone sent pulses through the soles of Yun Xi's feet.

> [Origin Glyph Recognized – Host is a Reversion Anomaly.]

Do you wish to view your pre-echo self?

Yun Xi hesitated.

Yue Lan looked at him, worried. "You okay?"

He swallowed hard. "It's asking if I want to see who I was… before everything. The version of me that never went through the collapse. The version that… maybe never lost anyone."

She didn't push him.

He nodded. "Yes."

The glyph pulsed.

A beam of light shot upward from the ground. In its center appeared a figure—his height, his face, but with clearer eyes, a relaxed posture, no scar across the jawline, and a childlike glow in his expression.

Yun Xi stared.

The other him smiled faintly. "You made it this far?"

It wasn't a recording. It was a preserved mind—a trace of the boy who never lived the nightmare.

"Yeah," Yun Xi said. "I made it. But you… you didn't."

The echo-self laughed. "I was never supposed to. I was the dream. You're the survivor."

Yun Xi felt a strange ache in his chest.

"You lost Yue," the echo said. "But I never met her. You gained Yue Lan, the system, and… memories I can't understand. I don't know if I should pity you or envy you."

"You shouldn't be either," Yun Xi whispered. "You're the hope I still fight for."

The echo-self reached out. His fingers touched Yun Xi's chest.

"You've already changed the story. But the end hasn't been written yet. There's a name buried beneath the roots of the tree. Speak it—and the truth of the collapse will show itself."

The vision vanished.

Yun Xi stepped forward. The crystal tree shimmered. Beneath its roots, half-hidden in overlapping runes, was a single name burned into the foundation.

He knelt. Brushed off the dust.

YUN XI.

His breath caught.

He was the root of the collapse?

"System," he said slowly. "What… what does this mean?"

> [Processing...]

Revealing partial memory archive: Origin Event Triggered by Host Variant Echo-013.

Identity Match: Yun Xi – Temporal Fragment Initiator.

Yue Lan drew her weapon instinctively. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Yun Xi didn't answer.

A shadow fell over the plaza.

Above them, in the sky where no sun shone, a crack formed.

From it descended a figure cloaked in black armor made of reversed light. Its face was a mirror—Yun Xi saw himself, twisted and cold.

> [Temporal Error Detected – Host has approached Forbidden Root.]

System Lockdown Initiated.

Yun Xi felt the weight of the city shift. The wind stopped. Every building turned its gaze toward him.

The dark version of himself spoke with no voice—only emotion.

"You weren't supposed to come this far."