Whispers of the Jade Saber

I. Conflict: The Echoes That Remain

The return to the Wuhen Ruins was anything but peaceful.

Lin Feng lay sprawled across the temple floor, panting, muscles twitching. Beside him, Liang Yue gasped for breath, her robes torn at the sleeves, the divine bindings now gone—burned into snowflake scars along her arms.

The jade saber pulsed quietly, its glow dim, like a candle resisting the wind.

Tian Mian rushed to them, eyes wide. "You came back… but the mirror—what happened inside?"

Lin Feng didn't answer at first.

He was still staring at the spot where the mirror fragment had been. In its place now burned a small blue-black flame — the True Ember, the first whisper of a memory too ancient for Heaven to hold.

Liang Yue slowly sat up, holding her chest. "There was another me," she said. "Another Lin Feng. A world where we lost everything… because we followed the rules."

Jun Feilan arrived next, visibly shaken. "The energy spike just now—it felt like a realm collapsing. Are you two…"

"We're fine," Lin Feng said hoarsely. "But something in there wasn't just showing possibilities. It was protecting a truth… a truth Heaven doesn't want us to know."

Tian Mian narrowed his eyes. "A truth about what?"

Lin Feng's gaze turned to the jade saber, still humming in his hand.

> "About the Saber. About Lianhua. About the one who wielded this power first… and what they lost to do it."

---

II. Twist: The Birth of the Saber

Later that night, as the group rested by the ruined altar, Lin Feng couldn't sleep.

He sat alone beneath a shattered moonbeam that poured through the broken roof, staring at the saber laid across his knees. It whispered—not with words, but with memories.

Liang Yue joined him quietly. "You're remembering again, aren't you?"

He nodded.

"The woman in the Void… she looked like you. But her name was Lianhua."

Liang Yue inhaled sharply. "That name… it echoes in me too. Like a distant heartbeat."

Then, suddenly—

> The Saber pulsed.

A wave of heat swept over them both, and their surroundings melted away into light.

They were no longer in the ruins.

They stood inside a great temple made of obsidian and glass, stars spinning outside its ceiling. Dozens of swords lined the walls, glowing with primal energy.

And at the center—

A woman knelt beside a dying god.

> "Take it," the god rasped, placing a tiny flame into her chest.

"Burn their lies. Burn their records. Burn their laws."

She rose, eyes glowing blue and crimson.

> "I'll carry the truth through oblivion."

With that, she carved a saber from her soul.

> The first Ashen Blade.

---

The vision shattered.

Lin Feng and Liang Yue collapsed, gasping, back in the ruins.

> "That was a memory," Liang Yue whispered. "Not a dream. A seeded memory… passed down."

Lin Feng stared at the blade in awe.

> "She forged it… not to fight. But to remember."

---

III. A Flame Without Origin

Before they could speak further, Tian Mian rushed to them again, this time pale and shaking.

"There's someone here," he said. "At the edge of the valley. They're not… alive. But they're not dead, either."

The group followed him out into the ash-laced wind.

And there, standing at the edge of the ruined path, was a figure cloaked in red smoke, body semi-transparent — a flameborn echo.

It raised its hand and spoke in a voice that made their bones ache.

> "Ashen Flame detected."

"Anomaly Class: Recordbearer confirmed."

"Tracking protocol activated."

Liang Yue stepped forward. "What… are you?"

The figure turned its head — and revealed a half-burned version of Lin Feng's face beneath the hood.

> "I am what you become," it said.

"If you burn too long."

And with that, it vanished into the wind.

"Some flames preserve truth. Others… erase it completely."

---

IV. The Recordbearer's Warning

The wind settled, but the chill remained in their bones.

The half-burned version of Lin Feng that had just vanished left behind no physical trace—only a memory echo etched into the ash beneath his feet. A scorched symbol: the same seal from the celestial archive's forgotten gate.

Tian Mian knelt to examine it, drawing in a sharp breath.

> "This is a Recordseal," he muttered. "It only appears when a memory has reached the threshold of forbidden knowledge."

Jun Feilan circled the area, her hand on her blade. "So what exactly does that make Lin Feng now? He's triggering warnings we've never even heard of."

Liang Yue looked at Lin Feng—and the fear in her eyes wasn't for herself. "He's being catalogued. Flagged. Marked for removal."

Lin Feng stared down at the ash mark, jaw clenched. "Then we're running out of time."

> "Or maybe," Tian said darkly, "you're running out of existence."

---

V. The Fragment That Remembers

That night, while the others rested, Lin Feng sat by the saber again—only now, he wasn't just listening.

He was speaking to it.

"You remember her, don't you?" he whispered. "Lianhua. The godflame. The fall."

The saber hummed. Its surface shimmered, and for the first time, it opened—not physically, but spiritually—revealing a buried core of jade that pulsed with an ancient code.

Liang Yue stirred and sat beside him.

"Did you see it too?" she asked.

Lin Feng nodded. "There's something inside the saber. A part of her soul… and something else. A map, maybe. A message. Or…"

He placed his hand against it and whispered:

> "Show me."

---

Suddenly, they were pulled into another vision—more vivid than the last.

They stood on the edge of a city that floated in space, with chains of gold anchoring it to dead stars. Giant rings rotated overhead, not for power—but for memory extraction.

A woman, robed in fire and frost—Lianhua—was bound in the center. Around her, celestial adjudicators burned records of her existence in real time.

> "You carry forbidden memories," they said.

"Memories that alter destiny. That defy the present."

But Lianhua smiled.

> "Then let me burn fate… and see what remains."

She ignited herself in a pillar of black-blue flame—

—and the entire Archive fractured.

---

VI. The Twist: A System Meant to Forget

Back in the present, Lin Feng snapped awake, gasping.

Tian Mian was beside him now. "That was no ordinary vision," he said grimly. "That was residual memory from the original saber core. Lin Feng, you're not just the wielder—you're carrying the last living trace of a woman the heavens tried to delete."

Jun Feilan leaned in. "Which means… they'll try to delete you, too."

"And not just you," Liang Yue added, her voice barely above a whisper. "Anyone who remembers you. Anyone who believes in what you are."

The group fell into silence.

The flame from the saber burned quietly in the dark.

And then—

It spoke.

> Not in words.

Not in sound.

But in emotion, pulsing directly into Lin Feng's heart:

"You are not a warrior."

"You are a Recordbearer."

"You were never meant to exist."

---

VII. Cliffhanger: The Signal Has Been Sent

A sudden pulse of energy shot through the valley.

A beacon.

Invisible to the eye, but felt by every spiritual beast, cultivator, and soul within a hundred leagues.

Tian Mian's face went pale.

> "They've found you."

Jun Feilan unsheathed her sword. "What does that mean?"

"It means," Tian said, "that somewhere in Heaven's Bureau of Balance, a red seal just appeared."

Lin Feng looked around, hands shaking as he sheathed the saber. "Who are they sending?"

Liang Yue stepped beside him, face set with icy resolve.

> "The Flame Tribunal."

And in the sky, far above, a new star ignited—not in celebration, but as a warning.

A celestial edict had been passed.

> One more use of the saber, and Lin Feng's name would be erased from the Mandate of Heaven.

---

End of Chapter 28