The trees whispered as the wind stirred their branches, and Lin Feng stood still, listening — not with ears, but with that new sense blooming inside him.
There. A step that didn't crush leaves. A breath that didn't stir air. But he could feel her.
Not like sensing Qi. Not like battle intent.
This was older.
Recognition without memory.
The figure stepped into the clearing. She was young — about his age — with long hair like ink trailing down her back and silver-white eyes that glowed faintly under the moonlight. Her robes bore no sect insignia. Just pale cloth, loose, like she had walked out of a painting left unfinished.
And her presence…Empty. Yet complete.
She looked at him — no surprise, no fear. Just a quiet stillness, like the world had paused around her. > "I thought it was you," she said softly.
Lin Feng blinked. "Do I know you?"
She tilted her head.> "Not anymore."
He took a step forward, and instantly — her hand moved. Not to attack. To guard.
But not out of hostility. Out of habit. Like they'd fought before side by side.
> "I… don't remember you," Lin Feng admitted. Her expression didn't change.
> "Then it's true," she said. "They succeeded."
> "Who?"....
> "The ones who buried us."
> "What do you mean—?"
> "You were someone else," she whispered. "Before Lin Feng. Before all this."
> "That's not possible…"
She met his gaze — and in that moment, something ancient stirred.
A flicker. A burning wheel turning behind his eyes. Forgotten ruins. Falling skies. A battlefield of stars. Then it was gone.
She looked away, her voice suddenly hollow. > "I thought… meeting you would wake it. But you're not ready yet." She turned to leave.
> "Wait," Lin Feng said.
She stopped.
> "Who are you?"
> "I don't remember," she said. "But I know I was once someone close to you."
Then she vanished into the trees, her steps silent — not fast, but impossible to follow. And Lin Feng stood there alone. But something had changed again.
The silence inside him wasn't so silent anymore.
---
Meanwhile – In the Hidden Moon Pavilion
Lan Xueyin stood at the highest tower, hands behind her back.
A scroll hovered in front of her — ancient, incomplete, and sealed with moonlight.
She hadn't opened it. Couldn't, yet. But it pulsed whenever Lin Feng changed.
> "What are you hiding?" she murmured. Behind her, her master's voice echoed from the shadows.
> "He does not belong to this world."
Lan Xueyin turned. "Then what should I do?"
> "Test him. Push him. Break him if you must."
> "And if he breaks the heavens in return?Then…
> "Then we remember our oaths. Even if they burn us all."
---