🌫 Whispers Beneath the Mist
The Hollow Spiral was wrong.
Not just dangerous, not just unstable—but wrong in a way that seeped into Lin Fei's breath, his bones, even the silence between his thoughts.
Mist blanketed everything in cold folds, the color of tarnished silver and old mourning. It pulsed in time with the faint heartbeat beneath the domain's crust, a soundless throb that reverberated through the ground like echoes from a forgotten funeral.
Lin Fei walked with careful steps.
The deeper he ventured, the less his own domain responded. Roots grew hesitant. The Veinfield's rhythm, once tightly tethered to his will, flickered like a dying flame.
[System Notice: Veinfield Connectivity at 37% and decreasing]
[Warning: Proximity to Deep Echo anomaly destabilizes localized domain influence]
He narrowed his eyes. So even the System fears this place.
But Lin Fei wasn't here just to observe. The Broker's contract pulsed inside his inner sea, an ethereal scroll hovering just above his spiritual core. A thread of golden root-energy tugged him forward.
Then the mist parted.
And he saw it.
A crater of spiraling earth, surrounded by shattered stone monoliths—each inscribed with runes older than the current cycle. At the crater's heart, a pillar of memory rose like a broken fang. It bled spiritual energy in rippling waves. No wind. No sound. Just a constant pull, like a scream held behind sealed lips.
Lin Fei stepped into the Spiral's edge.
Immediately, pressure crushed against his spirit like the weight of a collapsing star.
[System Warning: Deep Echo Distortion Field Active]
[Engaging Protocol: Domain Anchor – Partial Deployment Initiated]
Roots erupted beneath his feet. Thin and pale, they formed a fragile lattice—his only protection. But the field resisted. Tendrils of fragmented will lashed against the roots like enraged ghosts.
"Not enough," he muttered.
And then he heard it.
"𝘞𝘩𝘰… 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬… 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘭…?"
The voice came from everywhere—and nowhere.
He raised his gaze toward the memory pillar—and saw movement.
A form. Slowly coalescing from broken memory threads, like a painting drawn in reverse. Piece by piece, a figure formed: tall, draped in ritual robes, its face obscured by a mask of thorns and light.
[Deep Echo Entity Detected: "Echo Prime – Spiral Custodian"]
[Threat Level: High / Unknown]
[Intelligence: Sapient | State: Unstable]
[Objective: Gatekeeper of the Spiral Core]
The masked figure floated inches above the ground.
When it spoke again, the air bent.
"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘦𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴. 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬?"
Lin Fei's reply was firm. "Because it remembers. And so do I."
The Echo Prime tilted its head.
Then, it lifted its hand—and the Spiral Core responded.
Dozens of glowing spires rose from the crater, orbiting the memory pillar like satellites. Each was a locked remnant, pulsing with echoes from cultivators long dead. It was a graveyard of will, orbiting a cursed sun.
[System Alert: Spiral Challenge Initiated – Memory Trial Protocol Engaged]
[Challenge Format: "Cycle Reenactment" – Objective: Survive the Failed Bloom]
[Time Limit: 1 Hour of Inner Realm Compression]
[Warning: Death during trial will result in Partial Domain Collapse]
He didn't flinch.
"Begin," Lin Fei said—and the world shattered.
—
🌑 The First Cycle: Trial of the Veinless
When the mist cleared, he was no longer himself.
Not fully.
He stood in a different body—smaller, thinner. His hands were cracked and calloused. His cultivation base… pitiful. Barely at the first foundation layer. The scent of rot and broken spirit stones filled the air.
He recognized the place.
A battlefield. One of the last strongholds of the Rootless Cultivators during the Verdant Purge—a war that had erased entire bloodlines.
[Cycle Memory Initiated – Role: Veinless Cultivator #17, Surname: Shen]
[Mission: Survive 600 Heartbeats]
[Perk Unlocked: Fragmented Memory Instinct]
[Restriction: No System Abilities]
The sky rumbled.
Explosions shook the terrain.
Screams echoed from broken walls.
And Lin Fei—now Shen—realized: this wasn't just a trial. It was someone's final memory. A moment so desperate, it had been engraved into the Spiral itself.
He ducked as a bolt of green qi obliterated a tower above him.
Enemies were everywhere—Verdant cultivators in polished armor, wielding domain fragments like divine weapons.
One of them landed near him—a woman with jade-bladed wings and eyes like emerald fire.
"Another weed?" she sneered.
She didn't even draw a blade—just flicked her hand.
Qi surged.
Lin Fei focused. Not on dodging—but remembering.
This body had instincts. Shen had survived longer than most. There must've been a reason.
At the last second, his foot twisted—not to retreat, but to drop into a hidden root trench.
The attack missed.
And then the instincts kicked in.
He hurled a black root dart—something crude, but alchemically reactive.
It struck her pauldron and detonated in a burst of blinding pollen.
Lin Fei ran.
But every heartbeat burned.
The trial wasn't about victory. It was about memory under pressure. Would he hold on? Would he break?
[Cycle Timer: 432 Heartbeats Remaining…]
He gritted his teeth.
This was only the first trial.
There would be more.
Far more.
And the deeper he went, the more he would uncover—about the Spiral, the System, and perhaps even the reason the Heaven's Vein had been buried in time.