Chapter 3: The Girl and the Sealed Blade
Zhao Feng walked through the fractured outskirts of New Luyang as the morning sun cut through polluted fog. Beyond the slums, the air changed—less tainted by industry, but heavier somehow, like it remembered death.
He followed the hand-drawn coordinates Lin Mo had given him, etched on yellow spirit paper. Each step forward pulled at something inside him, a thread he couldn't see but felt in his soul. A tension, a longing. Maybe even… fear.
Quest Progress: Skycloud Temple Ruins (83%)System Notice: Soul Thread Resonance Increasing
The path led to the old Skycloud Sector, once a minor cultivation temple buried beneath a research facility. After the Spirit Purge, the land had fractured—literally. Now the area was a wasteland of half-collapsed towers and shattered spirit arrays.
Zhao passed an old monument stone, cracked and overgrown with weeds. Carved on its front were words long erased by time—but his system glitched for a moment, revealing a flicker:
"To die for the heavens… or to burn them down."
He kept walking.
The Girl on the Bridge
The ruins opened into a dry ravine where a collapsed skybridge hung in midair like a broken rib. And on that rib, a girl stood—barefoot, balanced on the edge, as if gravity didn't apply to her.
She wore black robes with torn hems and a sheathed blade tied across her back in crimson wrappings. Her long silver-white hair drifted unnaturally behind her in the windless air.
Zhao froze.
She turned.
And in that moment, the system trembled.
WARNING: Soul Signature DetectedName: ???Status: UnknownDanger Rating: HighResonance Level: 46%
Her eyes met his—violet, crystalline, and hollow like the stars between galaxies.
"You're late," she said flatly.
Zhao blinked. "You know me?"
She leapt from the bridge and landed without a sound.
"No," she said, "but your presence cracked three seals on the blade I buried ten years ago. That makes us enemies… or something worse."
The Sealed Blade
She turned her back to him and walked toward the temple ruins. Zhao hesitated, then followed.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Bai Qian," she said, without looking. "But if you survive the next few hours, you'll earn the right to call me something else."
"Like what?"
"Partner. Or corpse-mate."
"Corpse—?"
She pushed open a half-collapsed doorway and gestured him inside.
The temple interior was split open, like an earthquake had peeled the building in half. Runes pulsed faintly on the walls—wards long since shattered but not completely dead.
And in the center of the ruin was a blade—buried in a cracked stone altar, surrounded by ghostly blue flames that danced in silence. The sword's hilt was carved from bone, and the wrappings pulsed like a heartbeat.
Zhao's soul screamed the moment he stepped near it.
System Alert: Soul Weapon DetectedCompatibility: 98%Caution: Unlocking will overwrite current cultivation path.Warning: The blade has memory. The blade remembers you.
"What is this?" he whispered.
Bai Qian folded her arms.
"Your past," she said. "Or someone else's. The blade doesn't care. But it chose you before I got here. That means you're in deep now."
She glanced at him.
"I need to know if you can handle what's coming. There are sects—real ones—watching this city. Hidden factions. The Flame Sect. The Devourers. Even the Voidbound Dogs. And you just lit a beacon the moment you synced with that System."
He stepped forward. The blue flames parted for him.
"I didn't choose any of this," he said.
"I know," she replied. "But the moment you pull that blade out, you claim all the consequences that come with it."
Pulling the Blade
Zhao reached for the weapon.
It felt like touching fire, snow, memory, and sorrow all at once.
He gritted his teeth and wrapped his fingers around the hilt.
System Alert: Initiating Soul Binding RitualDo you wish to claim [Unnamed Soul Armament]?
Y/N
"Yes," he whispered.
The ruins shook. Wind tore through the air. Symbols exploded across the walls like fireworks made of light and history. A name echoed in his mind—
"Reaverblade: Xīng Jiàn."
And then he remembered—
A battlefield.A broken sky.A promise to someone with violet eyes.
The blade slid free with a soft chime that sounded like a soul being freed from a cage.
Zhao collapsed to his knees, the sword in his hands pulsing with breath and purpose.
Soul Weapon Bonded: Xīng Jiàn• Grade: Unknown• Abilities: Locked• Emotion Core Detected: "Regret"• Seal 1 Broken (4 Remaining)
Ambush
Bai Qian's head snapped up.
"We're not alone."
Three figures blurred into view—masked cultivators in black robes marked with purple flame sigils.
System Alert: Hostiles Detected – Members of Void Flame SectThreat Level: Moderate (Lv. 9–11)Objective: Eliminate Witnesses / Reclaim Soul Weapon
One of the assassins pointed at Zhao. "The Reaverblade awakens. Kill him before the next seal breaks!"
Zhao stood, sword in hand.
"I don't know how to use it."
Bai Qian cracked her neck and smiled coldly. "Then try not to die while I buy you time."
She vanished, her body blurring into speed and smoke. Lightning flashed behind her palm as she struck the first enemy in the throat.
Zhao raised the blade, and for a moment—it moved on its own, guiding his arms.
Steel met steel.
Flame met soul.
And blood sprayed across the altar once more.
Aftermath
When the dust settled, only smoke and silence remained.
The assassins were dead.
Bai Qian sat against the altar, breathing hard, a cut across her shoulder.
Zhao knelt beside her.
"Are you okay?"
She nodded, then looked at the blade in his hand.
"It woke up for you," she said. "That's not normal."
Zhao looked at the weapon.
"Nothing about me is."
She laughed, and for the first time, it sounded real.
"You're going to get us killed," she said.
"Maybe," he replied. "But at least I won't die confused."
New Skill Unlocked: Reaverblade Synch (Lv. 1)Allows you to channel soul energy through the bonded blade. Skill effects scale with emotion.
Quest Completed: Claim the Soul Weapon+800 XPLevel Up: Lv. 3 → Lv. 5Stat Boosts: Strength +2, Spirit +3