Whispers of the Jade Saber

"Some truths sleep not because they are forgotten… but because remembering them would destroy the world."

---

The wind howled across the upper ridges of the Ash Vein Path, but no snow fell.

Only black dust.

The Ashwater Mountains were ancient, jagged peaks scarred by long-dead celestial eruptions, their faces streaked with soot, bone, and the faint glow of spiritual fossils half-buried in stone.

No birds called here. No beasts roamed openly.

It was a place untouched by time—but shaped by its remnants.

A perfect place to hide what Heaven could not destroy.

And what it dared not remember.

---

Lin Feng stood at the foot of a crumbling stone bridge that led across a chasm wide enough to swallow cities. The wind spiraled upward, carrying whispers.

Not sounds.

Not voices.

Whispers of memories.

> "You never existed…"

"She was never meant to return…"

"Flame cannot rewrite fate…"

He glanced back.

Liang Yue, her white cloak flaring behind her, stepped forward to stand beside him.

Their eyes met.

She said nothing.

She didn't need to.

They crossed the bridge together.

---

Jun Feilan led the group across first, testing each step with her spear like a blind warrior testing ice. "If this thing cracks, we're all going to become qi-fossils."

Shi Qian trailed behind, scribbling notes furiously. "This bridge predates all recorded sect construction. I'm fairly certain it was woven from soulstone and time ash. Fascinating."

Tian Mian, breathless and wary, murmured prayers to forgotten scholars as he followed.

The deeper they went, the more unstable reality became.

Stones floated mid-air, frozen in motions they should have completed millennia ago.

Trees grew upside-down.

The world remembered wrong.

---

After half a day's march, they reached an overgrown gate—its arch carved with ancient sigils that shifted as Lin Feng approached.

The gate had no keyhole. No mechanism.

Just a single inscription:

> "Only the Forgotten May Pass."

Tian Mian gasped. "It's a cognitive lock. It won't open unless it detects the absence of memory."

Jun looked confused. "So it only lets in amnesiacs?"

"No," Lin Feng said, stepping forward. "It lets in people Heaven erased."

He touched the stone.

It burned—but didn't resist.

And slowly, like ink bleeding from a book, the gate dissolved into smoke.

---

They entered the Lotus Vault.

Or what was left of it.

Ruins stretched beneath the mountain like a fractured maze. Once-beautiful walls had been cracked by spiritual decay. Lotus emblems carved in crystal had turned black from fire and time.

But at its center—untouched—a shrine of obsidian lotus petals stood around a still, shimmering pond.

Liang Yue stepped into the shrine.

And the pond lit up.

A voice echoed—not from above, but from within their minds:

> "One carries the blood of flame."

"One carries the soul of ice."

"One bears no record… but all remembrance."

The water surged upward—becoming mirrors, shaped like lotus petals, surrounding Liang Yue.

She gasped as fragments of Lianhua's memories flooded her senses.

Visions of war.

A celestial tribunal.

The shattering of Heaven's first Flame.

Her execution… rewritten by decree.

Liang Yue collapsed to her knees.

Lin Feng rushed forward—only to be blocked by an invisible barrier of shimmering qi.

A Trial had begun.

---

"What's happening?!" Jun yelled, spear raised.

"She's being tested," Tian Mian said. "By the vault itself."

"But we just got here!" Shi Qian exclaimed.

"No," Lin Feng said slowly, eyes fixed on the rising mirrors. "It's been waiting for her."

---

Inside the lotus barrier, Liang Yue stood on a sea of stars—alone.

In front of her stood Lianhua—the original wielder of the Ashen Flame.

White hair. Two-colored eyes. A saber of black and red frost in her hands.

> "You are not me," Lianhua said softly. "But you carry the pieces I left behind."

Liang Yue raised her head. "I'm not here to repeat your path."

Lianhua tilted her head.

> "Then why do you still carry my rage?"

Liang Yue faltered.

Images surged around her: Lin Feng bleeding beneath her during the siege… the flame trial… the day she was cast out of the Crimson Frost Sect… her mother turning her back—

> "You loved a world that hated you," Lianhua whispered. "And that hatred still burns inside you."

Liang Yue gritted her teeth. "I won't let it consume me."

> "Then prove it," Lianhua said.

> "Choose."

A lotus rose from the void.

On it—two blades.

One was the Ashen Saber, pure and burning with untamed memory.

The other was a mirror of it—black, sleek, and cold. Forged from the remnants of forgotten hatred.

> "You can carry only one," Lianhua said.

> "One will let you walk beside the world."

> "The other… will let you burn it down."

---

Outside the barrier, Lin Feng stood still, eyes wide.

He could feel it.

She wasn't just being tested.

She was being asked to define who she was.

He stepped forward.

"Liang Yue!"

The vault responded.

The lotus mirrors parted.

And suddenly—

He was inside, too.

---

The sea of stars warped.

Now both stood before Lianhua.

She looked at Lin Feng.

"You shouldn't be here."

He stepped between her and Liang Yue.

"Too late."

Lianhua's expression shifted.

Not anger.

But sorrow.

> "Then let me show you… what your love will cost."

She raised her hand.

And the stars turned to fire.

---

---

The stars ignited.

Not with ordinary flame—but with Ashen Fire, the same spectral blaze that once flowed through Lin Feng's saber.

He felt it in his bones—cold and hot at once, burning through marrow, unmaking him from the inside out.

Lianhua's voice echoed around them like falling petals:

> "You carry my remnants—but not my resolve."

"You seek to change fate… without accepting the truth of it."

The lotus-shaped stage shimmered beneath their feet. In a blink, the world warped again.

Now, Lin Feng and Liang Yue stood before mirrored versions of themselves—identical in appearance, but dressed in darker robes, surrounded by spiritual fire that twisted at their feet like serpents.

The mirrored Lin Feng wore a jagged version of the Jade Saber on his back, cracked and bleeding black mist. His eyes glowed with rage—and something worse: resentment.

The mirrored Liang Yue stood calm and silent, clad in a bloodstained snow-lotus robe, her blade dripping with ice and soul fragments.

> "We are who you would have become," the dark Lin Feng said, stepping forward.

> "If you had chosen hate instead of hope. Power instead of purpose."

Liang Yue flinched slightly. Her dark double's voice cut like glass:

> "I gave up everything for you. And in the end… you hesitated."

"Lies," Lin Feng growled. "We made those choices together. We grew stronger together."

> "No," his mirror said flatly. "You were weak. You still are. You hesitate to kill. You question your path. That's why you'll lose her."

The mirrored Liang Yue raised her blade. "We didn't."

---

The ground beneath them cracked. The air thickened into a suffocating storm of frozen flame and spinning lotus sigils.

> "Fight us," Lianhua's voice echoed.

"Not for victory. Not for survival. But to prove that your truth burns brighter than what you could have become."

The mirrored versions leapt forward—synchronized and terrifying.

Lin Feng met his double's strike in mid-air—jade against jade, but the echo's blade screamed with forgotten fury.

His mirror fought like a feral spirit, every movement precise, merciless.

"You killed Wei Wushen," the echo snarled. "You burned his name. Erased his path."

"He chose it," Lin Feng growled, blocking another strike. "He gave me that memory willingly."

"Then why does it still haunt you?"

Their blades locked.

"Because I remember him," Lin Feng said.

And his Saber flared to life—fiery etchings along the spine of the blade glowing white instead of red.

---

Meanwhile, Liang Yue and her mirror danced across a frozen river that appeared within the void, each step sending cracks through time and space.

Her mirror moved with silent brutality—sharp lines, deadly flow.

"You could have taken his burden," the echo hissed. "But you made him carry it."

Liang Yue faltered, barely deflecting a soul-splitting arc.

"No," she whispered.

"You loved him," the echo spat. "But you always feared him. You feared what his flame meant. You feared what it made you feel."

A lotus of frost formed in her palm—then shattered from within.

"Maybe I did," Liang Yue whispered, standing still.

Her double lunged.

But Liang Yue raised her hand.

And the flame Lotus from her back—the same sigil awakened in the Wuhen Grove—blazed outward, colliding with the incoming strike.

For a moment, all sound disappeared.

Only wind.

Only light.

Only flame and frost intertwining.

---

When the blaze receded, their mirrors stood flickering—no longer hostile, but… watching.

Waiting.

Lianhua appeared between them, no longer a ghost, but a burning silhouette of fragmented soul essence.

> "You chose not strength. Not revenge. But truth."

She raised her hand toward Liang Yue.

> "You accepted what you were… and still chose who you are."

To Lin Feng:

> "You remembered pain… and chose to carry it."

With a wave of her hand, the mirrors bowed—and vanished like smoke.

---

The trial ended.

They stood again within the Vault.

The obsidian shrine shimmered with recognition. The frozen pond was now liquid fire—calm, clear, and undisturbed.

At the center floated a lotus of glowing script.

Shi Qian gasped, pressing her face to the transparent barrier.

"That's it… the original Ashen Lotus Sutra. It's real!"

Jun looked dazed. "They actually did it?"

Tian Mian shook his head, awe in his voice. "They weren't just tested… they were recognized."

The barrier dissolved.

The shrine opened.

Liang Yue stepped forward and took the lotus.

Its petals crumbled in her hand—absorbing into her body in streams of light.

Her eyes flashed with dual color—red and frost blue.

Lin Feng followed.

The Saber pulsed on his back.

From the pool, a voice echoed softly.

> "The path you walk will devour all certainty."

"But in uncertainty… you will find freedom."

As the Vault began to dim, Liang Yue looked at Lin Feng and asked,

> "Are you ready for the world to turn against us?"

He smiled, flame dancing across his eyes.

> "Let it burn."

End of Chapter 37