A Message in Blood and Memory
The gates of Heaven's Maw opened just before sunrise.
We stepped out together—me, Zhao Feng, Lan Ruo, and Qing'er—walking into the pale light like exiles returning from a forbidden place.
No fanfare. No ceremony.
Only silence... and a quiet sense that we were being watched.
I didn't look back.
Because I knew the Silent Saintess was still watching—from the high spire balcony. Her veil was on, her posture still. But I could feel the weight of memory between us.
We didn't say goodbye.
Some stories don't allow clean endings.
---
We traveled for two days through the Dragonspine Range, headed east. Our next destination was the Cloud Serpent Vale—a place known for spiritual fog, spirit beasts, and wild cultivators who refused sect control.
I was hoping for peace.
I got ambush.
---
It happened mid-meal.
We had stopped by a spirit spring to rest. Zhao Feng was trying to boil tea using only Qi, Qing'er was meditating with a spiritual fox in her lap, and Lan Ruo sat sharpening her sword like she was waiting for the world to mess up.
I had just taken a bite of roasted meat when a shadow fell over me.
Literally.
Not figuratively.
A shadow.
It detached from the trees and lunged.
---
I rolled, kicked off the ground, and drew the Blade of Ash in one breath.
Zhao Feng reacted a heartbeat later, hurling his spear through the air—and missing.
"Still warming up!" he called.
Qing'er leapt upward, flipping midair to avoid a rain of silver darts.
Lan Ruo caught one mid-flight and threw it back faster.
It sank into a black-robed figure's neck.
The assassin crumpled.
But another two emerged from the trees, moving like smoke, dressed in midnight silks, their Qi cloaked in shadow.
I recognized the movement style.
Shadow Piercers.
Cultivators trained to eliminate Flamebearers.
Someone had sent them for me.
---
The fight was quick but brutal.
I moved with my flame pulsing at half control, each swing of my blade shearing through air and stone. One assassin tried to bind me with soul chains—I burned through them with Void Qi.
Qing'er disabled another by smashing him into a rock pillar with bare fists.
Lan Ruo sliced the last one's legs out and left him screaming.
Zhao Feng—well, he was still yelling about his spear being stuck in a tree.
When the dust settled, three assassins were dead.
One barely alive.
I walked over, blood dripping from my arm, and knelt beside him.
"Who sent you?" I asked.
He chuckled, blood bubbling on his lips.
"You… can't stop it… Flameborn... He's awake... too."
"Who?"
"Your... other."
He coughed once more—and his body dissolved into black mist.
A soul-bound failsafe.
---
"Flameborn?" Qing'er asked.
"He meant Ashen Fang," I said, sheathing the Blade of Ash.
Zhao Feng appeared behind me. "I know I was unconscious for half the fight, but I have two questions."
"Just two?"
"One: why does everyone trying to kill you sound like they're quoting a doomsday poem?"
"Because past me apparently left behind some really dramatic enemies."
"And two: should I be worried that the phrase 'your other' was used like I'm in a bad romance novel?"
"Yes."
---
That night, we camped deeper in the Vale. The fog grew thick around us, almost spiritual. Like the air was watching.
Lan Ruo pulled me aside.
"You should rest," she said.
"Trying to flirt?"
"Trying to keep you from dropping dead again."
I smirked, but sat. My ribs ached. My palm burned. The Void Flame had reacted during the fight—too eagerly.
"Are you scared of what I'm becoming?" I asked.
Lan Ruo didn't answer immediately.
Then—"No. I'm scared you'll like it."
---
Zhao Feng cooked fish with too much spice.
Qing'er shared her cloak with a spirit fox she named "Troublemaker."
And I... I opened the scroll again.
"Ashes of Desire" revealed its second page.
> To awaken the next Flame Echo, you must seek what was buried.
The second memory sleeps beneath the Vale of Serpents, where betrayal once stained the sky red.
A location.
A clue.
A whisper of the second Flame Fragment.
---
We found it the next day.
A ruin hidden in a sinkhole, half-swallowed by vines and moss. Symbols scorched the walls—ancient flame script and serpentine etchings.
In the center stood a pedestal.
A burned book rested on it.
Lan Ruo warned me. "This reeks of cursed memory."
I touched it anyway.
---
FLASH
A vision slammed into me.
I stood in a different time.
The Vale burned around me.
Ashen Fang stood atop the ruins, his cloak tattered, his blade dripping molten light. Corpses surrounded him.
And at his feet knelt a girl.
The Saintess.
Younger. Veilless. Her eyes full of tears and rage.
"You killed them all," she whispered.
"I warned them," I—Ashen Fang—said. "You don't cage the Flame."
"You betrayed your oath," she said.
I stepped closer.
And she raised a dagger.
"I loved you," she whispered.
"You loved a lie."
Then the vision cut.
---
I fell to my knees, coughing blood.
Qing'er grabbed me. Zhao Feng swore. Lan Ruo helped me sit upright.
In my hand, the burned book had vanished—absorbed.
But a new line now burned into the scroll:
> Memory Fragment 4 Unlocked. Soul Resonance: 46%
Emotions Recovered: Rage. Regret. Love Denied.
I said nothing.
Because what do you say when you realize your past self destroyed an entire sect... and broke a girl's heart doing it?
---
That night, Lan Ruo stayed close.
Not touching.
Just close.
Zhao Feng tried to cheer me up with a joke about spirit beast mating rituals. It worked. Barely.
Qing'er offered me silent tea.
And the scroll whispered to me as I slept.
> Soon, you must choose. Memory… or self.
---
[SYSTEM UPDATE]
> Memory Fragment #4 Acquired
New Echo Unlocked: Serpent Vale Purge
Flamebond Level: Low (Lan Ruo, Qing'er, Saintess)
Void Flame Status: Stirring
Warning: Resonance approaching Threshold 1
Next Objective: Reach Moonwater City – The Temple of Flame Burial
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To be continued...
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