Echoes of the Seventh Life

The soul chamber was silent.

Xu Shen and Yue Qian sat cross-legged, facing one another across a circular glyph inscribed into the crystal floor. The lines shimmered with spiritual energy—old sigils, half-written in celestial script, half-written in Xu's own handwriting from a life long past.

Between them hovered a memory core—a fragment of his soul, sealed and dormant.

The fragment pulsed, sensing its match nearby.

Yue Qian's chi wove forward like a silver ribbon. Slowly, carefully.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

Xu nodded. "I need to remember. Even the things I buried."

She touched the fragment.

The glyph ignited.

Their minds plunged into the past.

🕯 Life #7,028 — The Skyfall Era

Xu stood beneath a collapsing sky.

Warships drifted on broken clouds. Cultivators clashed midair—thousands of them, wielding weapons made of wind and thunder. Empires died above flaming temples.

At the center of it all… he stood, cloaked in gray.

Not Xu Shen.

Not yet.

Back then, he was known only as Wei Zhen—the Gray Flame General of the Thousand Veil Rebellion.

And beside him, always—Yue Qian, his second-in-command. His heart.

Flashes surged through his memory:

Him laughing beside her as rain fell on a rooftop temple.

Her standing between him and a Heaven-ranked assassin, taking the blade to the heart.

His scream of rage.

The forbidden art he cast without hesitation:

Soul Lock Reversal — Devourer Grade.

An ancient technique that tore time backward for a single soul… at the cost of his own cultivation, essence, and one full life cycle.

"I gave up everything," the current Xu Shen whispered.

"To bring her back."

He remembered now. All of it.

He had erased his own memories to forget the pain.

Back in the present, Yue Qian's breath caught.

She gasped as their spiritual cores linked—memory pouring into her.

She saw herself through his eyes.

The way he watched her. The weight of his choices. The way he had died for her in silence.

She opened her eyes.

Tears slid down her cheeks.

"You loved me."

"I still do," Xu said quietly.

The glyph dimmed.

The memory fragment had fused.

[Fragment: Life #7,028 – Recovered]

[Technique Reunlocked: Soul Lock Reversal (Forbidden – One Use Remaining)]

[New Trait: Memory Harmony Achieved with External Core]

Yue stood.

So did Xu.

No more words passed between them.

Everything had been said—across lifetimes.

🌑 Elsewhere…

The First Hunter landed atop a frozen cliff beneath the western sky.

He watched as black lightning arced above a distant temple.

"Found you."

He raised a hand.

From the void, a thousand spirit-beast skulls began to orbit him—each one containing a trapped soul.

He smiled.

"Let's see how your new heart protects you this time, Xu Shen."