---
It started in his sleep.
Yinan didn't dream—not since waking. Not since returning.
But something coiled in his chest like a thread tightening. He opened his eyes in the middle of the night and found himself standing.
Barefoot. In front of the shrine mirror.
Only this time, it wasn't his face looking back.
---
"Who are you?" he asked.
The reflection tilted its head. It had his eyes. But older. Colder.
Scarred.
"I'm what you were supposed to be."
---
Suddenly—the mirror cracked again—but not across his reflection.
It split down Yinan's chest.
He gasped. Blood didn't come out—lotus petals did. Black. Burning at the edges. One floated to the floor and disintegrated into ash.
---
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
Locked Memory Attempting Sync...
▸ Restoring: "The Burial of Yinan."
This may be painful.
---
— Flashback —
He was on the battlefield again.
Raining. Screams muffled. His breath, slow.
Liansheng had been shouting.
Qiuyue had already gone.
He remembered now. He wasn't calling for help—
He was calling someone's name.
But it wasn't Liansheng's.
Not at first.
"Suyin…"
---
Present. Shrine.
Yinan collapsed to his knees, clutching his chest.
"I remember…" he whispered.
"Careful," said a voice from the doorway.
"Memories bite."
Qiuyue stood there, still dressed in storm armor.
But she wasn't angry.
She was scared.
"You shouldn't have survived. Not like this. This place—this magic—it's not resurrection. It's…"
She looked away.
"It's reclamation."
---
Outside, the clouds cracked open.
Not thunder.
Screaming.
Not human.
Qiuyue and Yinan rushed out to the courtyard—
Where the sky was bleeding down in streaks of lotus-shaped lightning.
At the center, standing on a floating shard of stone, was—
Liansheng.
Eyes glowing. Sword unsheathed.
"You shouldn't have come back," he said coldly.
"You'll destroy everything if you stay."
---
[STATUS UPDATE]
Conflict Incoming: Liansheng
▸ Power Level: Ascended Qi Realm
▸ Affinity: Blade & Vow
▸ Emotional Affliction: Righteous Guilt (Stage II)
Yinan
▸ Lotus Qi: 285 / 300
▸ Echo Sutra – Stage I (Stabilized)
▸ Passive Unlock: Petal Rebirth — minor regeneration through grief-triggered memory bleed
---
The petals around Yinan's feet were spinning.
He looked up.
"Then come destroy me," Yinan said.
"But don't pretend you're doing it for the world."
---