🌫️ Echo Spiral
The Hollow Spiral wasn't hollow at all.
Not really.
It was full — bloated — with the weight of memory, of suffering, of time made wrong.
Lin Fei stepped into the spiral's bounds, and the world tilted. What had been solid beneath his feet became sponge-like and trembling, as though he walked on the stretched skin of something alive.
[System Notice: Echo Pressure increasing – Domain Integrity suppressed to 41%][Warning: External influence attempting Domain Intrusion]
"Of course," Lin Fei muttered.
The deeper into the spiral he went, the more his thoughts bent sideways. The mist, once merely crawling, now pulsed with a rhythm that mirrored breath — in and out, in and out — like the world around him was watching, waiting for him to make the wrong move.
Then it spoke.
Not with words, but with voice — a raw, emotional scream that bypassed thought entirely.
Regret. Rage. Despair. Hunger.
It wasn't one being. It was thousands — no, tens of thousands — condensed into a single pulse of intent. Fragmented spirits, bound in a chasm carved by forgotten war.
The Hollow Spiral was a tomb.
But it didn't just hold the dead. It fed on them.
And now it had noticed him.
💀 Grave Beneath the Veins
The mist split like peeled flesh, revealing the true heart of the spiral — a lake of glass and bone. Reflected in the mirror-like surface were not Lin Fei's features, but hundreds of faces twisted in their final moments.
They screamed in silence.
They reached for him.
And from their center… something stirred.
[System Alert: Echo Anomaly Detected][Designation: Gravecore Warden – High-Level Manifestation][Tier: ??? – Stability: Unstable][Suggested Action: Retreat or Resolve]
The surface shattered.
A figure rose from the depths — towering, skeletal, wrapped in spectral chains. It dragged behind it a cathedral of bones, and from its back unfurled wings of splintered memory, fluttering like torn pages.
Its voice was a choir, not a single tone.
"Intruder… Wielder… System-Born… You do not belong."
Lin Fei's pulse didn't quicken — but his domain did.
[Reclamation Spiral – Emergency Stabilization Initiated][Accessing Rootlink Authority… Access Partial][Summoning: Verdant Fang Viper – Denied][Summoning: Rootblade Echo – Approved (1 use)]
"Fine," he said, raising his hand. "Let's talk in a language you understand."
🌿 Rootblade Echo
From the air, a sword grew.
Not forged — grown. Like a vine twisting through centuries of war, the Rootblade Echo pulsed with sap-like light and flickering runes. It was not just a weapon, but the memory of a weapon, wielded by a thousand fallen cultivators before him.
When Lin Fei grasped the hilt, a thousand lives whispered into his mind.
"One swing — one cut — all roots severed."
He charged.
The Warden bellowed, and its chains lashed forward — memory-bound links that struck not at the body, but at identity. Lin Fei could feel them trying to unmake him, to rewrite him as just another echo within the Spiral.
But the Rootblade sang louder.
He swung.
And the world bled.
💥 Severance
The blow didn't just cut the Warden.
It cut the spiral.
The mist convulsed. The lake shrieked. And for a moment, Lin Fei saw through the illusion entirely. The Hollow Spiral wasn't just a spiritual anomaly — it was a failed system node. A place where an entire Domain Tree had tried and failed to grow.
Root veins choked and spiraled in on themselves. Echoes trapped in an endless loop, unable to ascend or escape. Time broke here, looping into itself like a starving serpent.
And in its core, something else blinked awake.
[System Warning: Dormant Root-Level Intelligence Detected][Designation: BLOOM_CORE – Status: Corrupted / Fragmented][Initiating Fail-Safe Protocol… Link Attempted…]
Then the Warden roared again.
Its form cracked — leaking mist like blood — but it wasn't finished. It threw its cathedral like a spear, a thousand bones forming a jagged pillar of soul-anchored death.
Lin Fei moved.
He couldn't dodge in time — but the Domain reacted for him.
[Emergency Expansion: Root Shell Protocol – 12% Constructed]
A dome of lightroot erupted around him just as the bones struck. The explosion ripped the land apart. The spiral crater screamed.
And then…
Silence.
🌀 Bloomcore Fragment
When the dust settled, the Warden was gone.
No death scream. No system notification.
Just… gone.
In its place hovered a crystal — jagged, half-formed, humming with barely contained logic.
Lin Fei stepped forward and touched it.
[System Integration Successful][Bloomcore Fragment Acquired – Analysis in Progress][New Feature Unlocked: Bloomveil Map][New Trait Acquired: Spiral Tolerance – Reduces mental degradation from unstable domains][Bonus Reward: Echo Gift – "Remnant Bloom: ???"]
He frowned as the data flooded in.
"What the hell was this place…?"
The system responded — not with a voice, but with an interface ripple that hinted at something deeper.
The Hollow Spiral wasn't an accident.
It was an experiment.
And he had just claimed its last surviving legacy.
🌐 System Ping: External Observer Detected
Location: Outer Veinfield – Above Spiral ShellStatus: Watching
Lin Fei looked up.
There was nothing in the sky.
But he felt it. A gaze. Ancient, intelligent… amused.
Then a new icon blinked into existence in his interface.
[Notice: External Wielder "Bloom Broker" has sent you a gift][Item Received: Soul-Twined Seed][Message Attached: "Now we're even. Try not to die, sproutling."]
He chuckled despite the pressure still lingering around him.
The Broker had been watching.
Of course he had.
And that meant the system really was watching now.
🛤️ Return Path
The Hollow Spiral calmed behind him.
The mist no longer screamed.
The ground, once pulsing, was now still — not dead, but dormant.
Lin Fei turned and began the long walk back to his Domain.
He'd earned more than a fragment or reward. He had seen how deep the system's roots ran. How many had failed before him. How many still screamed beneath the surface.
The Cultivation World System wasn't just a tool.
It was a graveyard.
And only those who learned to walk atop bones could climb higher.
🔓 Upon Return: Reclamation Spiral
[System Sync Complete – Domain Expansion Unlocked][New Subdomain Available: Spiral Grave Root][Assimilate Anomaly: Hollow Spiral Remnant?]Cost: 1 Bound Credit + 3 Echo CoresEffect: Grants Root of Severance – Domain Art (Unique, Growth-Type)
Lin Fei didn't hesitate.
"Assimilate."
The Domain trembled.
Roots twisted, snapped, then grew again — more complex. More hungry.
The Veinfield shifted, accepting the Spiral's death into itself.
And from the center of his Nexus Tree, a new root unfurled — black-veined, silver-tipped, and humming with potential.
[Root of Severance: Seed Stage (Locked)][Domain Trait Gained: Memory Severance – Allows selective purification of hostile echoes]
He sat down to meditate.
There was much to absorb.
But not just power.
Knowledge.
🧠 System Deep Dive – Hidden Fragment Analysis
As he integrated the Bloomcore fragment, new data leaked through.
Ancient Wielders. Proto-Domains. The original experiments that formed the System itself.
One name kept surfacing:
"The Root Architect."
Who… or what had made the Cultivation World System?
And why?
More importantly…
Where were they now?
🌙 Elsewhere – Unknown Location
A figure in rootbound robes watched a floating crystal projection. Within it, Lin Fei's battle played again and again — slowed, examined, studied.
The figure hummed.
"Another sprout reaches the Spiral and lives."
A pause.
"Promising."
From behind the figure, hundreds of other screens flickered — showing cultivators, wielders, entire domains in growth, ruin, or death.
The Root Architect leaned forward and whispered:
"Grow faster, Lin Fei. The real pruning hasn't even begun."