Chapter 24 – Roots of Emotion, Ashes of the Beyond
The night after the battle was not quiet.
The system pulsed in Shen Liang's blood like a second heartbeat. The battlefield outside Crater's Edge still steamed with the remains of concept-fire and memory-flame. But inside the sealed chamber, the silence was thick with tension.
[Integration Complete: Xue Qilin | Fate-Class Oracle | Echo Root Anchor]
[System Core Recalibrating...]
[New Functions Unlocked: Memory Dive | Emotion Anchor Forge | Layer-Jump Authorization (Restricted)]
Qilin's new presence in the group was no longer theoretical.
She had a physical echo-form—stabilized enough to interact, but not fully alive. A being half-memory, half-code. She could walk, speak, even bleed—but only inside controlled system zones.
And her presence strained everything.
Yue was colder now, careful with her words. Lin Zhi, for her part, remained cordial—but her tactics during sparring grew sharper, more competitive. Qilin, ironically, said little. She simply watched Shen Liang, as if reading something the others could not see.
But Shen Liang had no time to untangle their emotions.
Because the system had issued a new directive.
[Mission Node: Reclaim Memory Fragments of the Celestial Realms]
[Target Zone: Broken Echo—World Layer 7C]
[Status: Unstable. Core Collapse in 72 hours.]
[Priority Objective: Recover Seed of the Ash Lotus | Class: Forbidden Memory Construct]
[Authorization: Shen Liang Only | Tier Override by Echo Anchor: Qilin]
The Broken Echo was a fragment of reality torn from the Celestial realms before the Fall—a world locked in twilight, filled with stuttering skies and upside-down mountains. Its core was corrupted by emotional residue, its cycle broken. But within it, a piece of the Ash Lotus remained—one of the few artifacts capable of stabilizing memory-warped domains.
They would enter in three days.
Which meant Shen Liang had only two to begin mastering his new cultivation path.
Emotion-Based Cultivation Training | Core-Sync Path
He stood in the system hall, surrounded by glowing trees—each a branch of emotion. Joy, Sorrow, Rage, Hope, Fear.
He reached toward the one flickering blue-white, marked Resolve through Pain.
Yue stood opposite him.
"Draw on what hurts," she said. "Let it shape you. Don't resist."
He remembered the Fall. The screams. The betrayal of the Nine-Lotus Sect. The day he buried his master beneath ash.
Pain surged
.
[Emotion Surge Detected: Core Flare]
[Synced Partner: Yue — Surge Level: 67%]
[Technique Unlocked: Ashen Echo Palm]
[Effect: Emotional Imprint Transfer—Causes target to relive source trauma.
]
Yue staggered as the technique rebounded between them—she felt his memory.
Tears pricked her eyes.
He stepped forward, catching her.
"I didn't mean—"
"No," she whispered, voice hoarse. "That's how it works. The pain we carry can shape others. Or break them."
On the second day, he trained with Lin Zhi.
Unlike Yue, her emotion path was analytical—Cold Loyal
ty.
[Synced Partner: Lin Zhi — Surge Level: 61%]
[Technique Unlocked: Severed String Blade]
[Effect: Cuts emotional ties temporarily—severs enemy buffs or control effect
s.]
Lin Zhi smiled faintly as the technique sizzled through a memory-wraith.
"You need more control, not more feeling," she said. "Or you'll drown."
By the end of the second night, Shen Liang could barely stand. His system paths had begun forming roots. Each tether to Yue, Lin Zhi, and Qilin gave him a different type of power—and a different risk.
But they were ready.
The Dive into Broken Echo – Layer 7C
They stepped through the warp gate.
And the world bent.
Skies flowed like rivers overhead. Shadows moved upward instead of falling. Gravity pulled in two directions. Time moved sideways.
The Broken Echo was madness. The kind only lost gods remembered.
Their presence triggered a hostile response instantly.
Memory Shards—living nightmares born from collapsed Celestial thoughts—attacked. They took shapes Shen Liang recognized from ancient dreams: his childhood sect burning; Yue bleeding on a temple altar; Lin Zhi turning to ash.
They fought side by side.
Shen Liang activated Ashen Echo Palm again, forcing one shard to collapse under the weight of its own memory. Qilin guided them through unstable spaces, her voice steady:
"Don't resist the environment. Flow with the false."
Eventually, they reached a forgotten temple crumbling mid-air.
Inside, pulsing within a shattered altar of stars, lay the Seed of the Ash Lotus—a core of swirling black and violet f
lame.
[Artifact Identified: Ash Lotus Seed]
[Warning: Artifact Bound to Pre-Fall Command Line]
[Activation Requires: Full Emotion Sync of
Team]
It was a test.
Not of strength.
But of bond.
Shen Liang linked to the others. He let his feelings pour into the sync—his shame, hope, loyalty, regret. Yue followed, raw and honest. Lin Zhi was slower—her stream controlled, cautious. And Qilin…
Qilin's tether burned coldest.
"I was the first," she whispered. "And I may be the last. But I'll trust you… even if it ends me."
The sync locked.
The seed pulsed—
—and released a pulse of white light.
The world tr
embled.
[Ash Lotus Seed Acquired]
[Memory Layer Restabilized. Collapse Halted.]
[New Path Available: Ashen Bloom Integration | User: Shen
Liang]
As they prepared to leave the Broken Echo, Qilin spoke one final warning.
"There are others watching," she said. "A faction not born of the system, nor of the realms. They call themselves the Hollowed."
Yue narrowed her eyes. "We've seen no trace of them."
"Not here," Qilin said softly. "But in the next echo. And the one after. They're collecting fragments too. But not to heal."
Shen Liang felt the seed pulse in his hand.
"They want to rewrite."
Qilin nodded.
"Or undo. Everything."