CHAPTER 160
The Girl Who Fell From the Rift
The rift pulsed like a wounded beast.
Ripples of warped spatial distortion flickered above the Abyssal Expanse, its crimson edges spasming with a violence that made seasoned patrol guards instinctively grip their weapons tighter. For days the spatial fault had been unstable, and today the air felt heavier—tainted with something ancient and resentful.
A muffled explosion cracked the sky.
Lightning-like veins ripped across the rift's surface, and a figure was hurled outward as though spat from the jaws of an unseen monster. She tumbled through the air, trailing moonlit frost and pale embers, before crashing into the hardened obsidian soil.
The ground hissed.
Steam rose from the crater.
The patrol squad froze, eyes widening at what lay inside it.
A young woman—barely conscious, barely alive—curled around herself like a dying ember. Her long silver-black hair scattered across the ground, shimmering faintly where strands were singed through. Flickers of phoenix flame tried to spark along her limbs but guttered out instantly, smothered by chains of crawling black corruption.
Most unsettling of all—
Her soul aura was incomplete.
Frozen. Suppressed. As if crushed beneath an invisible hand.
One guard swallowed hard. "That… that's phoenix essence, right? But—how—?"
"Phoenixes don't come from the lower realms," another whispered. "And no Phoenix would ever fall to the Abyss like this."
A pause.
"…unless something forced her to."
The squad lead motioned for caution. "Stay on guard. Call for healers—now."
But before anyone moved, Lin Xuan stepped forward.
His expression remained calm, but his senses roared.
Because he felt it.
The unmistakable echo of another realm survivor.
And beneath that—
The faint, soft resonance of someone clinging to life by sheer will.
He knelt beside her, placing two fingers on her wrist.
Her pulse was broken. Her qi pathways were shredded with cold yin fractures. Her dantian looked like an icy sphere wrapped in barbed flames—fighting a losing war against a sinister black seed coiled deep inside.
Lin inhaled sharply.
A Corrupted Abyssal Phoenix Seed.
A soul chain. A slave brand.
Someone had not only hunted her—they had reshaped her.
The girl's eyelids fluttered open, revealing irises like quiet moonlight dimmed by suffering. She stared at him as if seeing something she didn't believe could exist.
"You… escaped," she whispered, the words trembling.
Lin froze.
She shouldn't have known.
Unless…
"I saw your world's remnants," she whispered, voice cracking. "Saw the ashes drifting through the Abyss. I thought… no one survived."
Her throat tapped a breath.
"I… didn't want to die."
Lin swallowed emotion he didn't expect to feel. "What's your name?"
A faint, humorless smile ghosted her face.
"Names mean little in the Abyss," she murmured. "But… I once had one."
She swallowed, forcing the syllables out.
"Xuan… Yueyin."
And then she collapsed completely.
The guards rushed forward.
"Sir Lin, what should we do? She may be corrupted—"
"She's not our enemy," Lin said firmly. "If she were, the Abyss would not have thrown her away."
That silenced them.
Saint Shengyuan walked up behind Lin, eyes narrowing in grim recognition.
"A Lunar Phoenix Physique," he murmured. "But its fire has been sealed… enslaved."
Aurora appeared beside him, her spirit form flickering like gentle starlight.
"She is breaking," Aurora whispered. "Her soul is wrapped in something foreign. Something cruel."
Lin gently lifted Yueyin in his arms.
Even unconscious, her body trembled—caught between frost and flame, pain and obedience.
"She is just like us," Lin said quietly. "Someone whose realm was taken from her."
Tian, who'd been observing silently, frowned. "Or someone shaped by what took it."
Lin didn't argue.
Both could be true.
He stood, cradling the broken phoenix girl with care she probably hadn't felt in years.
"Prepare a secure isolation ward," he commanded the patrol. "No restraints. No chains. Just healing arrays."
"But, Sir Lin—"
"If she wanted to harm us," Lin said softly, "she would have died long before making it here."
Saint Shengyuan nodded. "I'll examine the brand later. This corruption… it's deeper than simple Abyssal taint."
Aurora brushed faint warmth toward Yueyin.
"She wants to live," she whispered. "I can feel it."
Lin looked down at the moon-haired girl, her lashes wet with tears she didn't remember shedding.
He spoke quietly—more to himself than anyone else.
"No one falls into the Abyss and crawls out alone… unless they're desperately trying to be free."
Without another word, he carried her away.
---
Later—Inside the Healing Quarters
Yueyin lay unconscious on an array bed, her breathing shallow. The corruption crawled across her veins like ink under glass.
Lin stood at the foot of the bed, arms crossed.
"What do you think?" Tian asked.
Lin didn't answer immediately.
Finally—
"She's hiding something. But she's also terrified. Those two things rarely coexist."
Shengyuan approached with a grave expression.
"The corruption isn't just a curse. It's a leash. Something—or someone—placed a control conduit inside her soul. She is being watched."
Lin's eyes sharpened.
"By the Abyss?"
"Most likely."
Aurora floated beside Yueyin's head, looking sorrowful.
"They used her," Aurora said. "Used her beauty, her power, her heritage… and broke her until she didn't know how to resist."
Lin's jaw tightened.
No one—no one—deserved that.
"We will heal her first," Lin said. "And when she wakes… we will see if she wants a second life."
Aurora smiled softly. "You always choose compassion."
Lin exhaled.
"No," he murmured. "I choose justice."
He looked at Yueyin again—at the scars, the chains, the sleeping phoenix trapped under frost and pain.
"She deserves a chance," Lin whispered.
And quietly, deeply—
He hoped she would choose freedom.
Even if she never chose him.
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