Chapter 13: When the Stars Remember
The Starlit Shrine
After the storm at Snow Lotus Pavilion, Lin Feng, Liang Yue, and Li Wei traveled southward beneath a quiet sky. For five days, they followed the forgotten trails of the Stargazer Path, which ran between ridgelines like veins of silver light.
On the sixth night, they arrived at the Starlit Shrine, an ancient observatory carved into the side of Mount Huayin, half-destroyed by time and weather. Once used by the Celestial Archives to chart the movements of the heavens, it now stood abandoned—except to those who knew its true purpose.
"This is where the Hidden Lineage came for answers," Liang Yue said softly, watching Lin Feng light the ceremonial torches around the inner circle. "If your grandfather's scroll said the stars would guide you, this is where the map begins."
In the center of the chamber was a starwheel—a massive circular disc covered in carvings of constellations, moons, and celestial beasts. As Lin Feng placed his blood-sealed Ashen Saber into the slot at its core, the room pulsed with gold and violet light.
Above them, the roof opened like a blooming lotus, revealing the clear, moonless sky.
Then the starwheel began to turn.
---
The Prophecy of the Flameborn
Ancient symbols glowed across the walls, and a low hum filled the chamber.
A spectral projection—lines of starlight forming shapes in the air—slowly materialized into a humanoid figure draped in robes of shifting light.
It spoke in a voice that was neither male nor female, neither loud nor soft:
> "To the one who wields the saber forged in ash—know this truth."
> "Once every thousand years, the stars return to their place. And when they do… the Flameborn awakens."
Lin Feng's heart pounded. "Flameborn?"
The figure continued:
> "Born from fire. Tempered by loss. Chosen not for power, but for pain endured."
> "You are he. As was your grandfather before you."
Liang Yue reached for Lin Feng's hand.
> "The Blade remembers. The Stars remember. And the world… will burn or be reborn."
Suddenly, a new constellation blazed to life above them—one that Lin Feng had never seen before.
Nine points of fire.
A serpent devouring its tail.
And at its heart—a single sword pointing downward, bleeding stars.
---
Visions of the Past
As the vision ended, Lin Feng staggered back, holding his head.
And then—the room shifted.
He wasn't in the shrine anymore.
He stood in a battlefield of memory.
Flaming banners tore in the wind. Warriors in Hidden Lineage robes screamed as the Red Hand swept through them like locusts.
And there—at the center—stood his father, face bloodied, back to back with a younger version of Elder Shenxiu.
"I trusted you!" his father shouted.
Shenxiu smiled, blade wet with betrayal.
"Then you were a fool."
He struck.
Lin Feng screamed—but couldn't move. Couldn't stop it.
When he blinked, the memory faded—and he was back in the shrine, sweating and gasping.
Liang Yue knelt beside him. "What did you see?"
He stared at the saber, voice shaking. "The betrayal. My father… and Shenxiu. They fought side by side. And Shenxiu murdered him."
Liang Yue's hands tightened. "Then he lied to us all."
---
Li Wei's Warning
As they sat beneath the stars later that night, Li Wei—still weak, but recovering—leaned against a boulder, eyes narrowed.
"I remember something," he said slowly. "When I was captured, one of the Snow Lotus elders said something strange."
"What was it?" Lin Feng asked.
"They said the Red Hand has… allies in the north. But not just sects. They said, 'He comes from above, not below. The Mirror returns soon.'"
Liang Yue turned pale. "The Mirror Blade?"
"No. I don't think they meant a person."
Lin Feng frowned. "You mean… the Sky Mirror Sect?"
"That sect was erased centuries ago," Yue said.
"Or," Lin Feng replied, "it went into hiding. And if they're returning, they may be the real hand pulling the strings."
---
The Saber's Second Vision
That night, Lin Feng meditated with the Ashen Saber in his lap. Flames flickered across the blade, rising gently like candlelight in a tomb.
Then, without warning, the second evolution began.
His mind was pulled into the saber's core.
There—within a plane of ash and smoke—stood the spirit of the blade: a burning figure with no face, only flame.
It whispered:
> "You seek truth. Then burn away the lies."
> "Take this gift. But know—each technique costs something. The greater your flame, the more it hungers."
Lin Feng reached forward.
And the second true form of the saber revealed itself:
> Ashen Sovereignty: Phase III – Soulfire Lotus Bloom.
A technique that merges emotion, memory, and qi into a lotus-shaped explosion—burning through illusion, sealing spirit beasts, or consuming entire battlefields. But each use… takes a memory from the wielder.
He woke with blood dripping from his nose—and a fading recollection of his mother's laugh.
Liang Yue held him as he shook. "What did it cost?"
He looked at her with hollow eyes. "A piece of who I was."
---
A Mother's Message
At dawn, Liang Yue stood by the edge of the cliff. Snow drifted softly over her cloak as she stared into the clouds.
Then—like a whisper carried on wind—she heard it.
A voice she hadn't heard in years.
Her mother's voice.
> "Yue'er… I am proud of you."
She turned—and for a moment, saw a shimmer of her mother's form in the mist, smiling with tear-filled eyes.
> "Do not become them. Do not let vengeance become your sword. Choose love, not wrath. You have someone now who burns for the world. Burn with him—not against it."
And then—she was gone.
Liang Yue knelt in silence.
When Lin Feng approached, she didn't speak—only took his hand, and kissed his knuckles.
"I choose you," she whispered.
"And I'll keep choosing you. No matter how hot the fire burns."
---
End of Chapter 13