The memory stream ended.
Liu Shen stumbled back from the coffin, breath shallow, fist clenched.
> Jian Xu…
Flamekeeper Linya…
Even the Celestial Council…
They had all stood beneath the same starlit sky that night.
Not as protectors—but as executioners.
> "They planned my fall.
They voted on my death like it was a sect decree."
Yu Meixing looked shaken. She glanced at the glowing coffin.
> "And Linya trained you after your reincarnation…"
> "She taught me to control my flame. But she was also the one who watched it die the first time."
Liu Shen turned to the divine chains.
> "We're breaking her out."
---
Releasing the Memory Keeper
He summoned his Crimson Serpent Flame, now laced with the Abyssal Sovereign Qi inherited from Qin Wuhen.
The black-red flame hissed as it kissed the chains.
Not with brute destruction, but with corrosive, sentient will.
Each divine rune resisted.
Each one screamed.
But one by one… they snapped.
> CLINK.
> CLINK.
> CLINK—
The light-coffin dimmed. The stasis seal cracked.
And Lei Qing gasped as her soul returned to full awareness for the first time in centuries.
> "It hurts," she murmured.
"But I remember everything."
Her gaze sharpened, no longer clouded.
> "And I will not die a second time with Heaven's lies on my tongue."
---
A Dangerous Offer
Back at the upper level of the ruins, the trio convened in silence.
Liu Shen spoke first.
> "We're not destroying the Border Sect Alliance."
Yu Meixing blinked. "What?"
> "Not yet. We let them believe their secrets remain buried."
> "Then we bait Jian Xu's agents to return here. We set a trap."
He looked at Lei Qing.
> "You'll plant false memory fragments in the vault. Let them think we only learned a portion of the truth."
> "They'll come to erase what's left—and when they do, I'll be waiting."
Yu Meixing hesitated.
> "That means staying ahead of their trackers, infiltration spells, puppet wards…"
> "I want them to come," Liu Shen said coldly.
> "I want to see the faces they've been hiding in the shadows."
---
The Envoys Begin to Stir
Far across the continent, deep within the marble halls of the Celestial Council, a ripple of divine warning pulsed through the Heaven's Mirror.
A message flared in golden fire:
> "Seal in Border Alliance compromised."
Jian Xu opened his eyes.
> "So... he freed her."
One of the hooded envoys stepped forward.
> "Shall we remove the Alliance?"
Jian Xu smiled calmly.
> "No. He wants a war."
> "Let's give him a visitor instead."
He whispered a name.
The walls trembled.
A silver shadow emerged from the mirror gate—a figure with no face, wrapped in cursed silk.
> "Send the Envoy of Silence."