The blood hadn't yet cooled on the fallen cultivator's blade. Snow drifted softly onto his still-warm body, as though the world wanted to bury the violence before it could be remembered.
Jin Mu-Won—or whatever his name had once been—stood silent, one hand clenched over his bleeding palm.
It wasn't the wound that bothered him.
It was the movement.
The strike he'd delivered… it hadn't been practiced. It hadn't followed a form. It had flowed like water, struck like lightning, and ended like truth. He didn't recognize it.
But his body did.
"That… wasn't instinct. That was technique."
He looked down at the man he'd killed.
The emblem on the man's shoulder—Iron Fang Sect, Tier 4 sect of the Northern Ashen Lands. Known for brutality and aggressive conquest. Rumor said they had once slaughtered the elders of a peaceful sect over an insult during a tea ceremony.
This disciple was young. Barely in his twenties. And yet he had already tasted more killing than most soldiers.
"Why was he here? Why guarding this ruin?"
He knelt and searched the corpse with methodical calm. A worn pouch. Two spirit talismans. And one iron token.
On it: A broken fang overlaid with a crown.
A command token?
"He's not just a guard. He was here to report."
Suddenly, a sound. A faint crunch—not from snow, but boots on frost.
Jin Mu-Won turned his head slightly.
Four… no, five people. Two at Gold Pulse Realm. The rest… weaker.
Iron Fang reinforcements?
He clenched the token in his hand and slipped into the trees.
❄️ Frostveil Pines – Just Outside the Silent Void Ruin
The five cultivators arrived within seconds, blades drawn. One of them, a woman clad in ash-gray armor, knelt beside the corpse.
"He's dead," she growled. "Killed clean. Fist strike. No qi residue. No flame signature."
Another stepped forward—tall, robed, with frost crystals hanging from his beard.
"You mean to say someone struck down an Iron Fang disciple… with nothing but intent?"
The woman rose, eyes narrowing at the half-buried tomb door.
"The Silent Void Sect… They said its arts were erased. They said no disciples lived. We were lied to."
The elder's eyes burned.
"If even one Void practitioner lives, the North will bleed again."
He raised his hand, and the pine trees rustled with icy wind.
"Summon the full detachment. Seal the mountain. Find him."
🌨️ Elsewhere — A Cracked Path
Jin Mu-Won trudged barefoot across the frostbitten trail, every breath shallow but controlled. His qi stirred quietly now, faint but clear—like someone humming a forgotten tune in the back of his mind.
His legs screamed. His hands trembled. But his posture was perfect.
"I may not know where I'm going… but I know what I need to do next."
He knelt beside a stream, breaking a thin sheet of ice, and looked at his reflection.
It was the face of someone who had once died.
And now?
He needed a name.
"I don't need to remember who I was."
"I'll earn the name I become."
"From now on… I am Jin Mu-Won."
📜 [Cultivation Insight Gained]
You have named yourself. The first step toward identity is intent. The first step toward cultivation is identity.
+1 Hollow Pulse Stability
+1 Memory Resonance
[Echo Fragment Unlocked: #39 – The Last Time I Named Myself]
A sudden shiver rippled through him—a vision.
🌀 FLASHBACK – Unknown Past Life
A battlefield covered in ash. Bodies everywhere. A younger version of himself, face bloodied, staring into the flames.
"You want a name?" someone had asked him.
"Then survive this war, nameless one. If you live, you earn the right to speak it aloud."
Then—blades clashing. Screams.
The memory faded.
Jin blinked, steadying himself.
A name earned by surviving a war…
"How many wars have I survived?"
He looked toward the north—toward the Iron Fang Fortress, now alerted to his presence.
He would need shelter. A place to gather strength. To understand his cultivation path. To recover these Echo Fragments and unearth who—and what—he truly was.
Then he saw it. Just past the tree line: an old wooden sign, half-buried in snow.
Carved into it, faded but visible:
Ghost Sutra Order — Outpost 5
"Let silence be the beginning, not the end."
Jin Mu-Won turned toward it.
"I walk the Hollow Path."
"And the next step begins now."