"This time I'm burying them."
Yinan's voice cracked the world open.
Thunder rolled in approval. Or warning.
The lotus at his feet shimmered white-hot. No longer a flower—a seal being broken. Petals arced up from the blood-soaked ground and hovered midair, suspended like memory blades. With each beat of Yinan's fractured heart, another petal darkened, sharpened, took form.
Liansheng stood frozen. Swordless. Trembling. Raindrops clung to his lashes, but he didn't blink. He looked like he wanted to scream. Or beg.
But Yinan didn't give him the dignity of fear.
> [SYSTEM ALERT] ⚡️ Soul Core Split: Stage Two Initiated ⚘️ Lotus Qi Ascension Unstable ⚠️ Warning: Memory Surge May Cause Collapse of Present Identity
Yinan smiled. Crooked. Cruel. Beautiful.
"Let it," he whispered.
And the petals answered. They turned in the wind—not random, but aimed.
Toward Liansheng.
"Yinan!"
Qiuyue finally broke the spell. She moved forward, barefoot in the storm, sleeves soaked to the bone. Her presence shimmered with that strange ethereal glow she always carried—the quiet light of someone who knew things and didn't explain them unless it mattered.
She reached out, but the wind screamed again, and a wall of petals rose between them.
> [LOTUS BARRIER DEPLOYED] Emotional Contamination Level: Critical
"He needs to remember," Yinan said.
Qiuyue's eyes filled. Not with tears. With recognition.
"This isn't the way. You'll lose yourself."
Yinan's smile turned soft for a fraction of a second. A boy underneath a storm.
Then it vanished.
Jin Suyin, ever composed, tilted his head. "Let him lose himself. What's left is truer than what he was forced to become."
Liansheng fell to his knees.
> "Yinan, I loved you."
> "You loved your own survival."
Yinan raised his hand. The petals followed.
But something cracked then—not in the sky. Inside him.
A sound like a flute being broken. A memory—not his, but buried in his soul:
Liansheng, once, kissing his fingers after a duel. Liansheng, once, placing a red thread around his wrist. Liansheng, once, whispering, "I'll follow you even in death."
Liar.
> [STATUS GLITCH] 🌸 Lotus Qi: 399 / 400 ⚠️ Fragment Overload Imminent
Yinan staggered.
Qiuyue pressed a hand to her heart.
"He can't ascend like this. He'll implode."
Jin Suyin's eyes narrowed. "Or be reborn."
The petals closed in on Liansheng. He didn't run. He didn't flinch. He looked up—and for once, saw Yinan as something divine and terrible. Something he didn't deserve to name.
"Do it," he said.
Yinan lowered his hand.
The petals stopped.
Everyone stared.
He stepped through the wall he'd created, and stood above Liansheng.
Then he knelt.
Face to face.
And Yinan whispered,
> "You will live. Because death is mercy. And I'm not merciful anymore."
He pressed two fingers to Liansheng's forehead.
> [SYSTEM: SEED OF MEMORY PLANTED] 🕳️ Target will relive betrayal each time lotus blooms 🌸 Status Effect: Eternal Bloom of Regret
Yinan stood. Turned.
The storm parted above him.
His lotus glowed with wrath, with clarity.
He looked at Jin Suyin.
"You wanted me awake. I'm awake. Now what?"
Suyin smiled, teeth sharp and lovely. "Now, Yinan... we burn the heavens."