A Western Kid’s Journey into the Eastern Cultivation World

Ciela jolted awake, her pillow damp with pitch - black tears. The moon outside her window had been replaced by a swirling mass of shadow, and in the center, a white - haired child sat on a throne of broken stars, humming a lullaby: "Weave, little weaver, weave me a dream—where shadows grow tall and light is but a gleam..."

"That's Xander's childhood form!" Elara's voice echoed from the Balance Stars, which had dimmed to a faint twinkle. "He's using your 黑发 to invade your dreams."

Ciela touched the rogue black strand at her nape, which felt warm and wriggling. In the corner of her room, a shadow puppet danced on the wall, shaped like a spindle weaving threads of night.

"Are you awake, little weaver?" a voice whispered from under her bed. She looked down to see a girl with her own silver eyes, but skin as dark as the void—Nox's sister, Lira, her scales falling like ash onto the floor. "Xander's lullaby is a spell. Every time you hear it, your hair weaves a shadow thread."

Just then, the black strand in Ciela's hair rose like a snake, pointing to the window. Outside, the Worldtree's roots were glowing with purple runes—the same ones that had marked the Shadow Weavers.

"He's using your dream threads to corrupt the tree!" Seraphina's voice shouted, but her star was now barely visible. "You need to collect Hope Dewdrops before we fade!"

Nox burst into the room, his staff crackling with constellations. "The Worldtree is producing Shadow Sap! Lyra's trying to contain it, but—" He stopped, seeing Lira. "You're... alive."

Lira smiled sadly, catching a falling scale. "Half - alive. Xander made me his messenger, but I broke free when I heard about the 白发小女孩." She held out a vial filled with glowing tears. "These are the last Hope Dewdrops from the First Keepers' graves."

But as Ciela reached for the vial, her black hair shot out, wrapping around Lira's wrist. "Give me the dew," the hair whispered in Xander's voice. "Or your friend becomes shadow food."

"Nox, look!" Lyra yelled from outside. The Worldtree's bark was splitting, revealing a massive loom made of shadow roots, with Ciela's black hair as the shuttle.

Ciela fought to control her hair, but the lullaby grew louder in her mind. "Weave me a world where balance is a lie," the child - Xander sang, and the Balance Stars flickered out.

"NO!" Ciela screamed, and her white hair surged, entangling the black strand. For a moment, her hair became a battlefield—white threads weaving shields, black threads stabbing like daggers.

Lira pressed the vial into Ciela's hand. "Use the dew on the First Keepers' graves. There's a memory there that can—" She dissolved into a cloud of scales, her last word a whisper: "—forgive."

Nox caught Ciela as she collapsed, her hair now half - white, half - shadow. "We have to go to the graveyard," he said, pointing to a constellation that had reappeared—Lira's soul shining as a new star.

At the First Keepers' gravesite, ancient tombstones wept glowing dew. Ciela collected them in the vial, but as she did, the black strand wrapped around her neck, forcing her to look at a tombstone with Xander's name.

"Read the inscription," Elara's voice pleaded from the faint stars.

Ciela read aloud: "Here lies Xander, who tried to balance the unbalanceable." Underneath, a faded drawing showed the First Keepers offering a child a spindle labeled "永暗之种."

"The Keepers forced the seed on him," Nox realized. "He was never evil—just a child given a burden too heavy."

The black hair loosened, and Ciela poured the Hope Dewdrops on Xander's tombstone. The dew formed a thread of pure forgiveness, which shot into the sky, reigniting the Balance Stars.

But as Elara and Seraphina's voices cheered, the ground trembled. The Worldtree's shadow loom had finished weaving, and from its center stepped a figure—half - child, half - shadow king, holding a spindle made of Ciela's stolen black hair.

"Hello, little weaver," Xander said, smiling with both innocence and malice. "Shall we finish the lullaby?"

Ciela raised her hands, white hair and shadow hair weaving together into a crown. "I'll weave a new song," she said, her eyes shining with both light and the wisdom of ages. "One where no child is forced to carry the world's darkness alone."

The Balance Stars burned brighter than ever, but in the corner of Ciela's vision, she saw a single black dewdrop fall from the sky, landing on her palm—and smiling.