Yinan bled.
And the rain came harder, like the world had been waiting to mourn him again.
Liansheng still held the sword. Still in Yinan's body. Still shaking.
> "You didn't even hesitate," Yinan whispered.
"Not when I died the first time. Not now."
Liansheng's lips moved—no words.
Qiuyue screamed.
"Take it out!"
But her voice sounded underwater.
Yinan's knees buckled.
Lotus petals poured from the wound like confession.
> [SYSTEM ALERT]
☠️ Soul Core Fragment Cracked
▸ Memories releasing... uncontrolled.
> *"You didn't bury me where I asked."
Liansheng's head snapped up.
Yinan's body pulsed with broken light.
> *"You didn't lay my flute beside me."
The petals on the ground were changing color—
from black to white.
Grief to wrath.
> *"You didn't speak my name at the gate."
Liansheng finally stepped back.
His sword clattered to the stones.
> "Yinan, I—I tried."
> "No," Yinan said.
"You tried to forget me."
And the lotus bloomed wide behind him.
A circle of memory and fury.
> [STATUS UPDATE]
🌸 Lotus Qi: 312 / 400
⚠️ Trait Unlocked: Vengeful Rebirth
— Memories gain physical manifestation
— Pain becomes Qi source
— Allies must choose: Remembrance or Erasure
A voice from the shadows laughed softly.
> "Oh, how poetic. They mourned you with half a heart and now you come back with half a soul."
Jin Suyin.
He stepped from the shadows.
Tall. Devastatingly beautiful.
Eyes the color of melted obsidian, narrowed like someone used to watching people die for lying.
Draped in crimson and midnight robes, the silk crawling like flame over his body.
His smirk—aristocratic. Dangerous. Familiar.
He walked like he owned the sky.
"Tell me, Yinan. Are you going to let them bury you again?"
Yinan looked at him.
At Liansheng.
At Qiuyue.
And then at the storm swirling around him—one he hadn't caused, but which obeyed his grief now.
"No," Yinan said quietly.
"This time I'm burying them."