Whispers of the Jade Saber

I. Prelude to War

The sky had not stopped bleeding since the Jade Bone Hall descended.

Storms of soul energy crackled in the clouds. The earth beneath the Moon Tower trembled, not from fear—but from the overwhelming spiritual pressure crushing the air like invisible chains.

Lin Feng stood at the peak of the tower ruins, Unseen Flame coiling like breath around his form.

His robes were torn. His blade was whole. His will—unchanged.

Liang Yue joined him on the platform. Her twin-core aura shone like a twin star—ice blue on one side, burning red on the other.

They said nothing.

But in that moment, their qi resonated—two paths crossing, merging, defying fate together.

Then came the sound.

War drums.

Echoing from the floating citadel above.

Jade flags unfurled. White-armored cultivators marched across airbridges conjured from bone and soulsteel.

Each step they took echoed with memory-sapping rhythm.

Yan Zhen muttered, "They're not marching—they're erasing. Every step pulls spirit away from the land itself."

Tian Mian nodded grimly. "The Jade Bone Hall was banished for a reason. They practice Chronal Extraction—devouring the 'record' of a place. Once it's gone… no memory of it remains. Not even in the heavens."

Jun Feilan stepped forward, spear crackling. "Then we die here. Or we make damn sure they remember our names."

---

II. The Battle Begins

The first wave dropped like glass knives from heaven.

Jade-armored warriors leapt from the citadel's bridges, crashing into the earth with unnatural grace. Their blades pulsed with green flame and left behind trails of fading memory—like the world forgot what had stood where they slashed.

Lin Feng met them mid-fall.

He raised his new Saber—its edge now invisible in motion, outlined only by the distortions it caused.

> "Unseen Flame Art: Mirrorless Strike."

He vanished for a breath—and reappeared behind the first three attackers, their armor cleaved clean without a sound.

No blood.

No scream.

Just silence—followed by collapse.

The others hesitated.

That was all the time Liang Yue needed.

> "Twin Core Technique: Scarlet Frost Bloom."

Her attack didn't explode—it blossomed. A lotus of red and blue qi burst outward, slowing everything it touched—then shattering it from within.

Jun Feilan charged into the slowed field, her spear dancing like a storm trapped in flesh. "Leave the flanks to me!"

Yan Zhen covered her with sweeping winds, slicing incoming projectiles.

But above…

A single figure descended from the fortress.

Not marching.

Floating.

Robe of imperial jade. Mask like polished obsidian.

Eyes—ancient and glassy.

Tian Mian choked. "That's not a cultivator. That's a Bone Sage."

Lin Feng stepped forward again, hand tightening on his Saber.

> "Then let's see what happens when memory meets flame."

---

III. Duel: Lin Feng vs Bone Sage Yuxian

Bone Sage Yuxian raised a staff of spinal bone, each vertebra engraved with ancient names. His voice was dry, echoing as if across centuries.

> "You wield a flame not written into the heavens. A record out of place. You are a mistake."

Lin Feng raised his blade.

> "Then maybe it's time someone rewrote the script."

The Bone Sage struck first—his staff slamming into the air and tearing it open. From the void emerged dozens of jade chains, each one glowing with lost names, screaming in forgotten tongues.

> "Art of Erasure: Heaven's Record Rend."

Chains rushed Lin Feng.

He didn't dodge.

He let the first ones hit—then burned.

The Unseen Flame devoured the chains, not as energy, but as memory. The screams fell silent.

Yuxian paused. "Impossible. No flame should consume recorded fate."

Lin Feng surged forward, blade low.

> "Unseen Flame Art: Memory Lash."

His strike didn't hit the Bone Sage—it hit the memory of where he stood.

Time stuttered. Yuxian faltered, body trembling as if struck across multiple lifetimes.

"Who are you?" he gasped.

And Lin Feng, eyes steady, whispered:

> "The last thing you'll remember."

---

IV. Liang Yue's Collapse

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Liang Yue's twin-core resonance surged beyond her limits.

Each attack brought power—but also pain. Her blood vessels were beginning to crystallize. Every movement made her joints scream.

But she didn't stop.

She couldn't.

Too many of the Jade Bone Hall warriors had bypassed the frontline and were closing in on Tian Mian and the wounded.

Feilan leapt to protect the rear, but her stamina was waning. Yan Zhen was pinned by soulsteel netting.

Liang Yue charged, twin cores blazing. Her hair whipped wildly. Ice and fire flowed like twin serpents from her arms.

But then—

A Jade Master struck her from behind.

A Chronal Spike stabbed into her back, anchoring into her spirit root.

Time fractured.

She dropped, bleeding from the mouth. Her inner world dimmed.

Her cores—began to drift out of sync.

---

V. The Lost Future

Lin Feng turned sharply—he felt her aura falter.

But before he could move, Yuxian's final spell activated.

A sphere of jade symbols surrounded Lin Feng and forced him inward—into a vision.

> Not a memory.

> A possible future.

He saw:

Liang Yue's body in a frozen casket.

Jun Feilan dying in his arms.

Tian Mian turned to stone.

The Ashen Saber abandoned in snow.

And himself—burning cities, eyes soulless, carrying a third flame.

> "You cannot stop fate," the Bone Sage echoed. "Only delay it."

Lin Feng screamed—

And the Unseen Flame erupted from within him.

The false vision shattered.

He burst from the sphere, rage and grief transforming into something more than power—

It became clarity.

He raised his blade.

> "Then I'll burn fate, too."

VI. The Cry of the Twin Cores

Liang Yue lay on the stone, her body twitching.

The Chronal Spike embedded in her back was more than a weapon—it was a ritual brand meant to force time out of alignment with the victim's soul.

Her vision blurred between past, present, and nonexistent moments.

She saw Lin Feng falling again and again.

She saw her father's death—from different angles. One where she saved him. One where she killed him.

Her second core, the Crimson Oath fragment, was screaming, trying to stabilize.

The Snow Lotus core began to seal itself shut to preserve her life—but doing so would destroy the second.

> "No," she gasped. "Not… like this."

She closed her eyes.

And remembered the night she sat beside Lin Feng, when he told her:

> "If you fall, I will climb into the abyss and drag you back."

Tears froze on her cheek.

She reached inward, hand shaking—

And gripped both cores.

> "If you burn for me… then I'll freeze time for you."

A quiet snap sounded in her spirit.

Followed by a roar.

---

VII. Heaven-Linked: The Frostfire Bloom

Every cultivator on the battlefield turned toward the glade.

Frost burst from the trees—followed by scarlet embers that danced like fireflies on winter wind.

The ground shook.

Sky dimmed.

And a blossom bloomed from the battlefield: a lotus of crimson and frost, each petal larger than a man, rising from beneath Liang Yue's unconscious form.

From within, a pillar of twin-colored light spiraled upward, piercing the clouds.

Tian Mian gasped. "She's… she's breaking into the Heaven-Linked Realm. That's not possible! Not with two cores!"

Feilan, winded and bleeding, stared from the ridge. "That's not just a breakthrough. That's a mutation."

---

VIII. Jun Feilan's Stand

As the enemy forces shifted toward the glade, sensing the surge, Jun Feilan blocked the narrow mountain path alone.

She was exhausted.

But she grinned.

> "Try me."

A dozen Bone Hall disciples rushed her, wielding soulflame glaives.

She held her spear in one hand and a dagger in the other.

> "Dragon-Piercing Style: Final Bloom."

Her spear ignited in internal qi, then shattered—becoming shards of invisible force. With every breath, she hurled one, piercing armor, breaking limbs, felling attackers.

But they kept coming.

One by one.

Her aura flickered.

Her leg buckled.

But still—she stood.

Until a Bone General leapt down with a jade cudgel, aiming to crush her skull.

> "You will be forgotten."

Then—

> A sword of wind intercepted him mid-air.

Yan Zhen landed beside her, coughing up blood, eyes narrow.

> "She's not going anywhere without me."

---

IX. The Arrival of the Stranger

As the tide began to turn against Lin Feng's group once more, a horn blew from the west.

A sound no one expected.

All heads turned.

From the burning edge of the hills came three figures on horseback—cloaked in stormsteel armor, bearing no sect insignia.

One of them rode ahead.

He dismounted.

And took off his helm.

Golden eyes. Long black hair braided with spirit leaves.

Tian Mian's face twisted in disbelief. "That's… no. That's impossible."

Lin Feng's Saber hummed.

> "Who is he?"

Tian whispered:

> "That's Wei Wushen. The Exiled Sword-Saint. Thought dead two hundred years ago. The only man to survive the Void Trampling War."

Wei Wushen looked at the sky citadel.

Then to Lin Feng.

Then to the Saber.

> "You carry a flame that doesn't belong to this age. But you wield it well. Mind if I help?"

Lin Feng smirked.

> "I was just getting started."

---

X. Breaking the Bone Wall

With Wei Wushen now leading the front flank, the Bone Hall's wall of memory constructs began to collapse.

He wielded a blade that rippled with space itself—slashing not through bodies, but through intent.

Every slash left an echo—cutting what his opponents thought they would do before they moved.

Wei shouted back to Lin Feng:

> "These bastards think they can erase us? Show them what you're really made of!"

Lin Feng nodded.

And activated the Unseen Flame fully for the first time.

> "Unseen Flame Art: Origin Severance."

His blade moved.

And one of the Bone Generals simply ceased to exist.

No scream.

No resistance.

He was cut out of history.

Tian Mian stared, awestruck. "That… that art is forbidden. Because it's not a power. It's a decision."

---

XI. The Cost of Clarity

But such power has a cost.

The more Lin Feng used the Unseen Flame, the more his vision shimmered.

He began to see all timelines at once:

The one where he died at age 16.

The one where Liang Yue never joined him.

The one where he became the villain.

Every time he blinked, he saw a new version of himself.

It was overwhelming.

It hurt.

And then—

The blade screamed.

A voice—not his—echoed in his head.

> "One more use, and you will not return to this timeline."

He faltered.

Wei Wushen caught him as he staggered.

"You alright?"

Lin Feng nodded, though his hands were trembling.

> "I can't use that art again. Not without paying a price I don't understand."

Wei smiled grimly. "Then we end this the old way."

---

XII. Cliffhanger: The Sky Shatters

High above, the Jade Bone Hall citadel began to glow.

Not with qi—but with fading light.

The entire fortress was preparing to self-destruct—through a technique known as Total Chronal Collapse.

Tian Mian roared: "They're going to erase the battle! Erase us! If they succeed, we won't just die—we'll never have existed!"

Lin Feng turned toward the fortress.

Toward fate.

Toward death.

He looked at his Saber. Then toward Liang Yue, now glowing with divine frostlight.

He raised the blade once more.

> "Then let's give them a memory they'll never erase."

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End of Chapter 24