[The Phantom of Lin Lie]
Lin Lie stood before his ruined childhood home. The workshop was a graveyard of cold metal and extinguished Yao-crystals. He saw his younger self arguing with his grandfather: "Can't we build tools for defense?" The old man only ruffled his hair in silence.
Then, the scene shifted—a hidden room, blood on the floor, and a baby (himself) tucked away in a wooden crate. His parents had traded their lives for his. Years later, he returned home to find his grandfather gone, leaving only a scorched warning on the wall: "Don't let your craft become a weapon of slaughter."
"If only I were faster... if only I were stronger..." Lin Lie choked out, kneeling among the ashes.
"You've always worked hard," a soft voice whispered. Gu Xingyu stood by the ruins. "Your grandfather didn't leave you a mission of revenge; he left you the freedom to choose your own path. You aren't failing him; you are walking the path he couldn't finish."
Lin Lie looked up. The flames died out. His grandfather's silhouette nodded to him one last time before vanishing. A farewell. A release.
[The Phantom of Cang Lan]
Cang Lan walked through the thick fog, humming a tune until he saw a reflection of himself—calmer, deeper. His older brother.
"You promised to show us the world," the brother said. "You broke your word."
Cang Lan—or rather, Cang Yuan—trembled. He had taken his brother's name after the village was razed, living a lie to cover his guilt. "I didn't mean to leave... I wasn't running away..." he sobbed, clawing at the charred remains of their childhood dream-journal.
"You've been running from the pain ever since," the phantom said.
"He should be proud to live through you, not buried beneath you," Xingyu's voice broke the mist. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "You've spent so long smiling to comfort others. Now, let us hold the weight with you. You aren't alone anymore, Cang Yuan."
Cang Yuan looked at her. His smile remained, but for the first time, it was anchored in reality. "I thought I wouldn't make it back this time... Thank goodness you came."
[The Phantom of Gu Xingyu]
The white mist swallowed everything. Xingyu gripped her watch, the Fire-Yao icon glowing red. She didn't hesitate; she dove into the mists.
She watched Luo Ye scream in the fire and pulled him out: "You are carrying too much alone." She knelt by Sang Qi at his sister's bedside: "You are a human, not a god."
She stood with Li Yan amidst the bones of his comrades: "They wanted you to live with meaning, not guilt."
She held Lin Lie's hand in the wreckage of his home: "He believed in your freedom."
And finally, she reached into the darkness for Cang Yuan: "Live for the dream, not just the atonement."
One by one, she walked into their nightmares and led them out by the hand. When the final illusion collapsed, she was back in the center of the forest. The five men stood around her, dazed but no longer lost.
"This place is hell. It made me cry," Sang Qi grumbled, wiping his eyes.
"You're a crybaby anyway," Luo Ye muttered, though his own voice was thick.
Lin Lie looked at Xingyu, his voice soft. "Thank you. Truly."
Xingyu shook her head, a warm smile on her lips. "I'm not walking this road alone. We are a team now."
The survivors of nightmares had finally become a fellowship.