The City of Fallen Gods and the Hour of Madness

The Quicksand River

Lin Xiu carried Yue Yan's cold body as they crossed a swamp that suddenly transformed into a river of liquid sand. The grains shimmered like shards of broken glass, forming moaning faces beneath their feet.

"This isn't sand!" shouted Yi Bao from Lin Xiu's shoulder. "These are the shattered memories of the Fallen Gods! The legendary city of Feng Ji sank here a hundred years ago!"

Yue Yan suddenly awoke, her eyes catching a strange glow beneath the sand.

"I see... inverted towers."

Her cold hand gripped Lin Xiu's arm. For the first time, her gaze was not hostile, but like a lost child's confusion.

Suddenly, the sand swallowed Lin Xiu's leg up to the knee. A flood of images overwhelmed his mind:

An eight-year-old child running through giant marble halls, holding a broom.

An old monk with three eyes yelling: "The seal is not a toy!"

A strong hand pulling the child from the monk's arms…

"Father! Don't leave me with them!" Lin Xiu cried unconsciously.

The sand released him as if frightened.

Yi Bao stared at him: "Did you see something?"

"I saw... a theft."

The Hanging City Gates

Before them rose massive black jade gates, hanging upside-down in mid-air twenty meters above the ground. On them were carvings of a circular clock with eight hands pointing to Taoist symbols instead of numbers. Beneath it were crumbling characters: "City of Feng Ji – Where Time Serves Wisdom."

Yue Yan touched the gate's stone. "My clan destroyed this city... Zu Lan said they worshipped demons."

But Lin Xiu saw something else—a deep scratch on the gate's edge in the shape of a broom.

"Look! My artistic signature!" he laughed, rubbing his wooden stick on the scratch.

Suddenly, the clock's stone hands moved. The gates opened—not inward, but downward—revealing a spiral staircase of light descending into the depths.

They entered.

The city was not ruins—it was a petrified god's corpse:

The streets were fossilized veins beneath their feet.

The towering buildings resembled shattered ribs.

At the center, a giant black crystal clock rotated inside an exposed heart the size of a lake.

Yi Bao shivered: "This isn't a city... it's the body of the god Lian Kang! That clock is his dying heart!"

The Mad Clockmage

Near the crystal clock sat a man with no eyes. His sockets were filled with glowing sand. With bare hands, he adjusted the clock's inner gears using a magnetic staff.

"That's Clockmage Jing Luo," Yi Bao whispered. "He went insane after watching the god die... Now he tries to rewind time!"

Jing Luo turned toward them. Even without eyes, it felt like he was staring:

"Visitors? You're late... much too late!" His voice creaked like rusty gears.

He raised his magnetic staff, and the clock hands began to move.

Suddenly, Yue Yan's leg partially crystallized—her right foot turned into clear ice.

"What did you do?!"

"I sent you three minutes back... to when you were still asleep in the swamp!" the mage laughed.

Lin Xiu stepped forward: "The past is a bleak place... Why return to it?"

"Because the future is worse! In the past, Lian Kang was alive... He protected me!"

His staff twitched again. This time, Yi Bao's transparent arm began to morph into its original wooden flute form!

"Stop him! He's turning us into past versions of ourselves!"

Dance of the Three Hands

Yue Yan attacked with frost, but the mage raised his hand. A temporal bubble formed around him. Every attack passed through him like a ghost.

"In my world, I'm the fastest!"

Lin Xiu didn't strike. Instead, he sat and drew a circle around himself with ash from his pocket (remnants of the bridge fire). Inside it, he drew three clock hands:

1. The Past: shaped like a broom.

2. The Present: shaped like an icy dagger (like the water drop Yue Yan carries).

3. The Future: shaped like a mad monkey.

He began to spin inside the circle counterclockwise, chanting:

"O Time, cruel as a tyrant lord,

You drag us back without accord,

But from the womb of chaos and scream,

The mad present begins to dream!"

With each rotation, the circle glowed with violet light, clashing with the rhythm of the central clock.

Jing Luo screamed: "Stop! You're distorting the fabric of time!"

"No—I'm fixing it with nonsense!"

Suddenly, the present hand in Lin Xiu's drawing detached and flew toward the mage!

Inside the Crystal Heart

The wooden hand pierced the temporal bubble and embedded itself in Jing Luo's chest. The mage trembled as if electrocuted.

"This... this is the feeling of the present?" he whispered, touching the hand. "It... hurts."

Tears of glowing sand poured from his sockets.

The central clock stopped.

Yi Bao shouted: "Now! Enter the clock before he regains control!"

They leapt into the giant crystal heart. The surface was solid, but when Yi Bao's Tian Gu seal touched it, it melted like sugar in water.

Inside the crystal, they stood in an infinite white room. In the center, a child played with shadow puppets. The child was a miniature Lin Xiu.

"The god's dying memory," said Yi Bao. "He's holding onto a moment he cherished."

The boy (little Lin Xiu) looked up. In his hand was a shadow puppet shaped like a three-eyed monk:

"Look! This is the Temple Master! He says the seal isn't a toy... but gives me a broom to play with!"

Yue Yan stepped forward hesitantly: "Why... this monk's image?"

The boy pointed at her: "Because you'll take him from me soon!"

Suddenly, Yue Yan's shadow on the white floor transformed into a three-horned beast!

The boy didn't flinch—instead, he laughed: "Monster! You finally came to play with me?"

The Shadow Puppet Battle

The beast's shadow lunged at the child. But Lin Xiu's shadow leapt in defense, transforming into a mute giant dog barking silently.

Dog and beast wrestled in silence.

The real Lin Xiu sat beside his younger self.

"Tell me... why did they take the Temple Master?"

The boy pointed at Yue Yan's shadow: "The man with the beautiful smile told him: 'Give us the child... or we'll take the whole city!'"

Yue Yan shuddered: "Zu Lan... was here?"

The boy held her cold hand: "You promised to play with me... but you forgot."

In his eyes, a reflection of a young Yue Yan in a pristine ice robe, offering him a snow blossom.

Yue Yan fell to her knees: "I'm... sorry."

The child wiped her frozen tears: "Don't cry. Madness cleanses memories!"

Suddenly, the mute dog defeated the beast's shadow. The monster receded into Yue Yan's real shadow.

The white chamber began to crack.

A New Time of Ash

They emerged from the clock to find the City of the Fallen Gods collapsing. Jing Luo stood waiting—but he was no longer blind. His sockets now held clear water.

"The clock... is dead," he said softly. "But the water in my eyes means I now see the present."

He handed Lin Xiu a small gear from the clock:

"This is all that remains of the god's heart. You might need it."

As they left, the city crumbled behind them into a sea of glittering ash. On the edge of the ruins, Lin Xiu saw Zu Lan's shadow, standing atop a crumbling tower, smiling.

Yue Yan held the gear: "It looks like the seal on the monkey's chest."

Yi Bao glanced from the Tian Gu seal on his chest to the gear: "They're parts of the same machine! The key to Tian Gu's prison!"

Lin Xiu tied the gear to his broken broomstick, creating a strange mace:

"A machine of time and a demon's key... What happens when we combine them?"

He struck the ground.

A temporal wave burst forth! Around them, flowers of ash bloomed… withered in seconds… then bloomed again.

Yue Yan looked at Lin Xiu: "Why did you save me back at the restaurant?"

"Because your shadow cried for help... even while your eyes denied it."

She took his cold hand: "If Zu Lan planted a demon inside me... I'll kill it with my own hands."

In her eyes, there was more than snow now—a new fire.

Yi Bao shouted: "Look! The ash is forming a map!"

The falling ash drew snowy mountains and a Taoist temple floating above the clouds.

"The Cold Cloud Clan!" whispered Yue Yan. "There... I'll find answers."

Lin Xiu laughed, striking the ash with his time staff, scattering the map:

"Answers are like dust… chase them, and they scatter!"

But deep in his heart, he knew: the journey to the icy mountain had begun... and his stolen memories were waiting there.