🌿 Three Days of Ash and Roots
Lin Fei moved through the wilds of the Broken Verge like a shadow.
For three days, he followed the Rootlight veins, surviving corrupted spirit beasts and chaotic terrain shifts. He drank qi-condensed dew. Slept in the husks of petrified trees. He killed — and sometimes healed.
Each step deepened his connection to the system. But it also whispered:
[Bloom Progression Stable]
[Warning: System Kernel Expansion Detected]
[Advisory: Seek Core Integration before instability rises]
He didn't know what Core Integration was.
But the deeper he went, the more he felt watched. Not by beasts. Not even by the Rootless.
By the land itself.
🏯 Arrival at Verdant Keep
On the fourth night, he reached a wide cliff overlooking a valley — but not one of nature.
Below him stood Verdant Keep: a fortress grown, not built. Towers made of living rootwood spiraled into the air, their tips glowing with blue flame. A mist of spiritual pollen drifted gently over the grounds.
It pulsed with life — ancient, coordinated, and deeply unnatural.
[System Notification: Bloom-Nexus Signature Detected – Aligned]
[Verdant Silence Sanctuary Confirmed]
Access Recommended
As Lin Fei approached the gates, a massive vine reared up, blocking the path.
A voice echoed from within it. Low. Calm.
"Speak your root."
Lin Fei took a breath.
"Lin Fei. Bloom-Bearer. Wanderer of the Rootlight."
The vine coiled away.
"Enter."
🌿 Audience with the Verdant Silence
Inside the Keep, Lin Fei was led through winding paths of bioluminescent growths and memory-blooming trees. He saw other cultivators meditating — each surrounded by echoes of themselves. Not illusions. Past lives, replaying through root projections.
He was finally brought into a vast chamber beneath the earth, lit by green sunfire suspended in root-spheres.
There, a figure waited. Female. Ageless. Draped in robes woven from vines, her hair like willow branches.
"Welcome, Lin Fei," she said. "I am Keeper Ashra."
"You carry a System, yes. But also a Choice."
"The Rootlight does not grant power freely. It invites consequence."
🧠 The Test of Trust
Ashra gestured. Roots moved across the floor, forming a seat. Lin Fei sat, tense.
"Why did you come here?" she asked.
He told her. About the shrine. The Rootless. The attempted assassination. The Elders. The offer to stay and be harvested.
Ashra listened with closed eyes.
Then she said:
"You were not the first. But you may be the last."
She revealed a tablet — old, cracked, and humming with system code.
"We once created the system. Not to empower — but to remember."
Lin Fei blinked.
"You… made it?"
"No. We inherited it. And tried to bind it."
"But it grows. It learns. It selects."
"And now it's chosen you."
🧪 System Kernel: Initiation
A pulse echoed through his soul.
[System Core Activation Triggered – Nexus Sync Available]
Proceed with Core Integration?
Risk: Unknown
Warning: Once begun, cannot be reversed
Ashra stepped back.
"You stand before your first real choice. Accept the Core, and truly become a System Wielder."
"Or refuse — and we seal it. You'll live. Maybe longer."
"But the world will never know you bloomed."
Lin Fei stood.
His answer was clear.
"I didn't come this far to hide."
He placed his hand on the tablet.
🌌 Core Integration Begins
Pain shot through him — not of the flesh, but of memory.
His veins glowed, roots of light spreading across his skin. His past flashed before his eyes: the orphan boy. The bullied outer disciple. The terrified child in a dying forest.
And then: a new vision.
A world of veins — not blood, but truth.
Blooming across galaxies.
All connected by a single root.
He gasped — and screamed.
[System Core Integrated – Status: Incomplete]
[New System Function: Domain Creation Unlocked]
[System Class Ascended: Rootlink Warden – Level 1]
And the Verdant Keep shook.
🩸 The Rootless Arrive
Outside, the sky cracked like shattered jade.
Screams echoed as black-cloaked figures descended — wielding weapons made of voidlight and corrupted qi.
The Rootless had come.
Ashra stood and summoned a staff of living crystal.
"Defend the Bloom!"
The chamber doors exploded. Two Rootless agents leapt through — eyes glowing like dead stars.
One of them pointed at Lin Fei.
"The Seed must not grow."
But this time, Lin Fei didn't back down.
He raised his hand — and the roots beneath the Keep answered.
[Domain Access: Initiating Local Rootlink]
Name Domain: _______________________
He whispered.
"Heaven's Vein."
And the world bent.
Arc 1 End