The morning air was heavy—not with qi, but with tension.
Tianya hadn't spoken since the memory spike. She sat at the edge of the peak, hugging her knees, staring into the cloud-veiled valley below. Bai Xueyin stayed nearby, pretending to meditate. A-Yan paced in circles, every third step punctuated by a muttered curse about "sneaky memory demons."
Luo Feng said nothing for most of the morning.
Instead, he prepared.
Not scrolls.
Not weapons.
But a table.
Four worn cushions. A clay pot of tea. A few flat stones arranged around the edge like placeholders. Nothing grand. Just… intentional.
At midday, he called them over.
Kaelen watched silently from the ridge. She knew this wasn't a training session. This was something else.
The disciples arrived one by one, each wary. Each confused.
"Sit," Luo Feng said, voice low but firm.
They obeyed.
Even Tianya, whose eyes never left the clouds.
The silence stretched.
Bai Xueyin broke it first. "What is this?"
"A lesson," Luo Feng said.
"I don't see any weapons."
"Good. You're starting to understand."
Ding! New lesson initiated: "Foundations of Self."Objective: Reinforce disciple identity threads to resist foreign memory encoding.Effect: Strengthens mentor bond. Increases system feedback synchronization rate.Passive Unlock (Pending): "Names That Stay."
He poured tea.
Let the silence sit again.
Then spoke.
"Tell me your name," he said, looking at A-Yan.
She blinked. "Um… A-Yan?"
"Wrong," he said gently. "That's what others called you. But what's the name you believe belongs to you?"
She hesitated. "I… I don't know."
He turned to Bai.
She stared at him.
"Bai Xueyin."
"And who gave you that name?"
"My family."
"And do you still carry their expectations?"
A pause. Then: "No."
"Then who is Bai Xueyin now?"
Bai didn't answer.
He turned to Tianya.
She was the only one who didn't look away.
"I don't know who I am," she said flatly. "That's the problem, isn't it?"
"No," Luo Feng replied. "The problem is, you think that means someone else gets to decide."
He leaned forward.
"Today, I'm not teaching you how to fight."
He tapped the table.
"I'm teaching you how not to be stolen."
The wind passed softly around them.
"I've seen warriors with the strength to tear mountains in half fall to a single whispered doubt," Luo Feng continued. "Because they didn't know where their power ended and where the world's lies began."
A-Yan tilted her head. "You mean, like… mind control?"
"I mean memory erosion," he said. "When the world chips away at you until there's nothing left that you chose."
He looked at each of them in turn.
"I don't want disciples who just grow stronger. I want disciples who know why they grow. What they protect. What they stand for."
Tianya scoffed. "I stand for nothing. I don't even know what's real in my head."
"Then pick something," Luo Feng said.
She blinked. "What?"
"Pick a memory. One that feels true. And if it doesn't? We'll build a new one."
The silence that followed wasn't awkward.
It was heavy.
A-Yan whispered, "My first memory is of a bowl of soup."
They all turned.
She looked embarrassed, but continued.
"It was cold. I stole it from a stall. I thought it was poison. But I was so hungry I drank it anyway."
"And did you die?" Bai asked softly.
A-Yan grinned. "Nope. I got sick and threw up, but I lived."
Luo Feng smiled.
"That's where your story started. You survived. That's who you are."
He looked at Bai.
She took a breath.
"I remember my mother's necklace," she said. "It wasn't magical. Just silver. She wore it every day until the night we were exiled."
She reached into her robe and pulled it out—it hung around her neck even now.
"I kept it because I wanted to remember… that not everything about my past had to be power or pain."
Luo Feng nodded.
"And you?"
He turned to Tianya.
She hesitated.
Then, voice quiet: "I remember... standing over a man's body. He had beaten a girl in the alley near the Demon Palace. I killed him."
She looked down.
"It was the first time I killed without being ordered."
"Do you regret it?" he asked.
She didn't answer for a long time.
Then: "No. But I regret… that I had to be the one who did it."
Luo Feng nodded.
"Then let that be your root," he said. "You stood up when no one else did. That's who you are."
Ding! Emotional Anchors detected for all present disciples.Mentor Bond Strengthened.Passive Unlocked: "Names That Stay" — Disciples gain resistance to external memory tampering by affirming self-origin.System Feedback Sync: +30% efficiency.Host Insight: "A Name Remembered" unlocked.
Luo Feng stood slowly.
"I can give you strength," he said. "But it means nothing if you don't know who holds it."
He motioned toward the tree line.
"There will come a day when someone stronger than me offers you more than I ever could. Power. Rank. Fame. Maybe even peace."
He looked at them.
"All I ask is that when that day comes, you remember your own name."
That night, Bai Xueyin meditated beneath the stars—frost forming around her in slow, blooming spirals.
A-Yan carved her name into a flat stone and placed it under her pillow.
Tianya, alone in her hut, stared at her sword and whispered to it.
"My name is Tianya," she said.
Not with fire. Not with pride.
But with conviction.
And the blade… didn't whisper back.
Ding! Curse resonance dormant.Disciple Tianya has begun forming an Independent Will Core.Host Reward: Soul Strength +1. New title unlocked — "The Mentor Who Names."