Path of the Forgotten.

The night in the vale was neither dark nor quiet. Mist glowed faintly from unseen sources, casting long, pulsing shadows that bent in unnatural directions. Lin Feng slept beneath the cradle roots, body motionless — but his mind… had gone somewhere else.

---

He stood in a wasteland of white sand. Above him, no sky — only a reflection of himself, distorted and vast, as if the heavens wore his face but no longer remembered what it meant to be him. In the center of the wasteland was that figure again. The one with the same broken sword, Back turned. Still.

Then it spoke — same voice as before, but louder now. Deeper. Closer....> "You should not have touched the egg."

> "Then why did it call me?"

> "Because it remembers. And soon, you will too."

Lin Feng approached slowly. "Who are you?"

The figure turned. His face was Lin Feng's.

But hollowed. Empty-eyed. More statue than man...> "I'm what's left of the version that broke. The one you buried." And he raised his sword...> "But we're running out of time."

---

Clash – They fought.

No Qi. No flashy techniques. Just sword to sword. Blow for blow.

But each time Lin Feng struck the figure, memories bled from the wound. A mountain split in half beneath a scream. A sky torn open by a nameless beast's wings. A battlefield littered with divine corpses — and a single child standing in the center, holding a glowing egg.

> "This isn't from this life…"

> "No," the hollow Lin Feng said. "It's what they erased."

> "Why show me this now?"

> "Because you're waking up too early."

Lin Feng stumbled....> "Then help me remember!"

The figure paused, and for the first time… smiled.

> "I can't. You're the one who sealed it."

> "What?"

But the dream was already unraveling.

---

Elsewhere – Lan Xueyin's Descent

She entered the vale. The mist resisted her like a living thing. Moonlight surrounded her form, her bloodline burning dimly against the unnatural fog. Every step forward felt like walking against current.

> "You're fighting the wrong direction," she murmured to herself. A beast charged her — something skeletal, starved. She didn't dodge. A single flick of her sleeve sent it flying — shattered without effort.

But ahead, the mist parted unnaturally. A wall of spirit force — subtle and ancient. She raised her hand to shatter it but something unseen grabbed her wrist mid-air. A voice echoed beside her ear: > "You don't belong here yet, daughter of frostfire.

Wait."....And she was gone — teleported backward, ejected violently into the cliffs outside the vale.

---

Back in the Vale – Lin Feng Wakes

His body snapped upright. Chest heaving. Eyes glowing faintly blue for a second. Han Yu stirred beside him, watching.

> "Another dream?" he asked.

> "Not a dream," Lin Feng said.

> "A warning?"

Lin Feng looked at his sword. The crack running through its body was now pulsing faintly… like it remembered something too.

> "No," Lin Feng replied. "A countdown."