Path of the Forgotten.

The mist hadn't lifted, and the way out of the Spiritbone Vale… had vanished.

Where the boundary gate once shimmered with spiritual formations, now stood only mist — thick, unmoving, as if the world had forgotten that an entrance had ever existed. > "This isn't a trap," Han Yu muttered, his star eyes narrowing. "It's a test."

> "Then who's testing us?" Lin Feng asked.

> "Not the sect," Han Yu said. "Not anymore."

---

Elsewhere in the Vale –

Disciples were still alive. But they no longer looked it. Their eyes were blank. Their movements stiff. They walked in endless circles, murmuring broken phrases, as if the mist had drained everything but the act of walking.

> "Did they… fail?" Lin Feng asked quietly. Han Yu frowned. "No. They're being rewritten."

> "By what?"...Before Han Yu could answer, three of those blank-faced disciples turned in unison — toward Lin Feng.

Their lips moved in perfect sync.....> "You are not meant to stay." And they attacked.

---

Clash in the Mist, no techniques. No weapons. Just hands and teeth and speed beyond what their realms should allow.

Lin Feng parried one, ducked under another — but the third struck his shoulder cleanly, sending him skidding.

Han Yu retaliated with star-sigil palm strikes — bursts of starlight cracking through mist. One of the disciples dissolved into vapor. Another began bleeding light. But the third whispered—...> "The egg has chosen."—and exploded in a blast of soul mist.

Lin Feng shielded Han Yu instinctively. His back burned. When the smoke cleared… none of the disciples remained.

---

In the Core Sect

Lan Xueyin stood before a sealed teleportation formation — one the sect forbade any disciple below Elder level from touching. Her token glowed. Her bloodline pulsed. The mark on her hand shimmered with moonlight. She whispered a single phrase in the tongue of the Hidden Moon Pavilion.

The formation flared open. Behind her, her master's voice rang out. > "If you enter now, they'll see through your identity."

> "Let them," she said. "I'll erase their memory before they speak."

> "And if he sees you?"

> "Then it's already too late."...she relied.

---

Back in the Vale – Beneath the Cradle

That night, Lin Feng and Han Yu rested in a makeshift stone alcove beneath the remains of the vine cradle. Neither of them spoke for a long time. Then Lin Feng said: > "I saw something inside the egg."

> "You touched it too long," Han Yu replied.

> "No. It wasn't just a beast. It knew me. It remembered something I don't."

Han Yu turned toward him.

> "Then remember this — if it's truly alive in there, it's waiting for the moment you break."

> "Break?"

> "Because it's not just a mount," Han Yu said softly. "It's a mirror. Of what you'll become."

Silence.

And in the distance, the mist parted for just a second — revealing a tall silhouette watching them, holding a broken sword identical to Lin Feng's.

Then it vanished.