"When the world stops remembering you, you do not die. You become a myth — or a mistake."
— Whispered mantra of the Jade Pavilion Assassins
🌧️ Dusk — Along the Widow's Spine Ridge
The air was thick with the scent of wet stone and bloodroot flowers.
Rain drizzled in steady threads, masking the sound of movement.
Jin Mu-Won stood at the edge of a narrow trail that wound between jagged cliffs—the Widow's Spine Ridge, named for the number of bodies found here with no known cause of death.
He didn't need to ask why they died.
He could feel it.
A pressure hung in the air. Not raw killing intent, but something colder.
Precise. Methodical. Hollow in its own way.
Behind him, Su Ren adjusted the wrappings on her sword hilt. Her expression was unreadable, but her steps had grown quieter—more alert.
"They're here already," she said.
Jin nodded.
"I know. He's waiting in the silence."
🐍 Assassin Class – Jade Pavilion Executioners
According to scattered records and forbidden trade scrolls, the Jade Pavilion did not send assassins to kill.
They sent them to erase.
Their specialty was soul disruption, qi entanglement, and name-severing strikes. Victims not only died — they were forgotten by cultivation records, lineage trees, and sometimes, even their own family shrines.
It was said their elite class, the Emerald Scribes, could kill a memory before it became a legend.
And now, one of them had been sent for Jin Mu-Won.
👤 The One Waiting in Rain
He appeared not from the shadows—but from stillness.
A figure in loose green robes, embroidered faintly with ink-dragons. His face was masked by a weave of talisman threads, each etched with someone else's name.
He carried no blade. Only a calligraphy brush tucked behind his ear, and a scroll case sealed with obsidian wax.
"Jin Mu-Won," he said calmly.
"You were not meant to walk this far."
Jin narrowed his eyes.
"You were sent to erase me."
"No," the assassin corrected. "I was sent to ask a question."
"If you die now, will the world remember you?"
⚔️ Duel Initiation – Memory Theft Protocol
Without warning, the assassin lifted one hand.
Dozens of spectral names ignited around them in green fire—old sect marks, battlefield honors, martial legacies.
"I've devoured seventy-seven names," he said.
"Every one was stronger than you. All are now mine."
He stepped forward—and reality bent.
The rain fell sideways. The sound drained. Su Ren staggered back, her vowbound qi flickering under suppression.
Jin's Hollow Pulse dimmed, resisting the psychic tide.
Then—stillness.
He met the assassin's gaze.
"Then you've never killed someone who wasn't trying to be remembered," Jin whispered.
"Let me show you what silence fights like."
🧠 Hollow Technique – Oathless Step, Unstable Form (43%)
Jin struck forward—not fast, but deep.
Each movement was off. Not predictable. Not rehearsed.
The assassin's soul-script twisted to react—but faltered. Jin's Hollow Core wasn't emitting traditional qi. It was echoing emotion.
Grief. Regret. Rage bound in stillness.
The assassin attempted a sealing gesture.
Jin bent beneath it, spinning with the Crane Requiem Twist learned from Elder Wen Dai.
He tapped the assassin's shoulder—
And the first memory unraveled.
🩸 Psychic Clash – Name Echoes Broken
The assassin stumbled back, clutching his head.
From his mask, names peeled away like old bark:
Sun Li of the Ember Wound Sect
Jade Step Warrior Hong Lin
Silent Monk of the Western Heights
Each name exploded into mist.
The assassin dropped to one knee.
"What did you do?" he gasped.
Jin's eyes narrowed.
"I didn't strike your body."
"I touched the oath fragments still trapped in your soul."
"You've been eating the memory of warriors."
"But their regret's been eating you."
📜 Inner Echo – Assassin's Truth
A fractured voice echoed inside the assassin's spirit shell.
"I was once called Xian Lo…"
"…and I begged them not to erase my brother."
Jin's Hollow Pulse reacted violently—resonating with the soul underneath the killer.
This man hadn't chosen this life.
He had been bound into it—his true name buried beneath false oaths and memory poison.
And now… Jin had struck it loose.
🔓 Hollow Recovery: Name Fracture Lifted
[Echo Purge Successful: 17 stolen name shards returned to the Void]
[Soul of "Xian Lo" partially stabilized]
Enemy Disabled – Not Slain
Optional: Convert to Hollow-Affiliated Rogue Memory Binder
The assassin collapsed onto both palms, retching green mist.
Jin knelt beside him.
"You remember now, don't you?"
Xian Lo shuddered.
"I remember… that I didn't want to kill anyone."
"I only wanted to record their stories."
"Then start again," Jin said.
"But write your own this time."
🕊️ Aftermath – Rain Fades, Silence Rests
The storm passed by dawn.
Su Ren stood quietly at the trail's edge, watching Xian Lo burn the talisman mask that once bound him.
"You spared him," she said.
"No," Jin answered. "I remembered him."
Su Ren gave a slow nod, then offered him a folded slip of paper.
"We intercepted a bounty scroll yesterday—before he arrived."
Jin opened it.
His name, burned into jade silk.
But the message wasn't from the Jade Pavilion.
It was from the Coalition of Nine Pacts.
"Begin full recall of Hollow-blooded remnants. Archive Echoes report re-emergence of Forbidden Form: The Mourner's Crown."
"Jin Mu-Won must be isolated. Or reclaimed."
⚠️ System Update
Faction Alert: You have been noticed by the Coalition of Nine Pacts.
Target Priority: RED (Awakened Hollow-Blooded Entity)
New Threats: Sect Trackers, Soul Disruptors, Echo Architects will be dispatched across regions.
Mourner's Crown – Hidden Form Memory Progress: 2%
(Progress now unlocked. Shards scattered across 4 regions.)