Path of the Forgotten.

The mountains of northern Xiayun Continent were silent that morning and yet the silence was not peace. It was the stillness that comes before a funeral.

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Somewhere in the hidden valleys west of Cloudfall Ravine… Lin Feng moved alone. His robes were torn, his body riddled with bruises from battle and pursuit — not from beasts alone, but from fellow disciples, rogue cultivators, and once… a masked woman who wielded killing intent like a blade of moonlight.

> "I don't even know what they want anymore," he muttered, leaning against a cliffside. A low wind stirred. The leaves whispered.

> "You ask too many questions," the wind seemed to say.

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Elsewhere – Hidden Moon Pavilion

Lan Xueyin stood barefoot in a pool of cold spirit water, her eyes closed in meditation.

> "The dream changed," she whispered. She had seen Lin Feng again — not standing atop a battlefield, but kneeling before a lake of black stars. A voice had spoken. > "Not all stars belong to the heavens."

Her eyes opened sharply. > "They're moving too soon," she muttered. "And he's waking up too fast."

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Back to Lin Feng…

He stumbled toward a cavern opening — faint traces of Qi radiating from within. It was unlike anything he'd sensed before.

> Not beast Qi. Not human Qi. Not even spirit Qi.

What is it...?. He stepped in. Inside, the cavern walls were lined with strange symbols — neither Dao script nor beast mark. As he touched one, something pulsed behind his ribs.

> "Welcome, Child of the Echo." The voice did not come from the cave. It resonated from with in his blood. Every bone in Lin Feng's body vibrated as if struck by an unseen tuning fork. His vision blurred. The cavern walls twisted, symbols writhing as though alive.

He fell to his knees, clutching his temples. He said: > "Who are you—"

> "We are not who. We are what remains," the voice echoed. "A sliver of silence… buried beneath the clamor of Qi and fate."

Lin Feng gasped, but the pain faded as quickly as it came. His hand hovered over one of the symbols. Unlike the rest, this one pulsed with a faint… emptiness. > "Why does this feel familiar?" he whispered.

The voice did not answer. Instead, the cavern brightened.

A shimmer of light formed mid-air, absorbing all color around it. In its center hovered a crystalline shard — black, veined with shifting mist, as if it contained clouds from another world. It called to him.

His fingers trembled. > "This is not a treasure," the voice warned.

"It is a mirror, If you touch it, you will remember nothing… and everything."

He reached forward anyway. The moment skin touched crystal — he collapsed and the cavern went dark.

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