Night fell over the Border Sect ruins.
Yu Meixing stood atop a jagged pillar of broken jade, watching for signs of movement.
Lei Qing sat in the vault below, her breathing steadier now, her soul slowly stabilizing. But despite the memory fragments she planted, her aura was fractured, still echoing centuries of imprisonment.
Liu Shen paced in silence.
He could feel it.
Something was coming.
Not just danger—precision.
---
When Silence Moves
A windless ripple passed through the pavilion. The torches dimmed.
The shadows… lengthened.
Yu Meixing blinked. "The stars just flickered."
Liu Shen's eyes narrowed.
> "No—they were blinked out."
A moment later, reality itself warped.
The Envoy of Silence stepped through a mirror crack in space.
No sound. No qi flare. No footsteps.
A faceless being draped in layers of cursed silk, black with runes that slithered like leeches. It exuded absolute silence—a vacuum of sound, of emotion, of mercy.
Liu Shen's serpent flame dimmed in its presence.
> "Meixing. Protect Lei Qing."
> "I'll face it."
---
A Battle of Wills
The Envoy raised a single finger.
Reality twitched.
Liu Shen was suddenly standing in a world of grey. His thoughts slowed. His heartbeat dulled. His qi… muffled.
The Domain of Silence.
> "So this is Jian Xu's chosen assassin," Liu Shen muttered.
"Not meant to kill me. Just erase her."
He grinned.
> "Let's see if you can silence a sovereign twice."
---
Sovereign Flame Unbound
Within the grey world, Liu Shen summoned not just his serpent flame, but a sliver of the Abyssal Sovereign Core.
A spear of black-red fire roared to life.
He hurled it toward the Envoy—
The figure caught it with one silk-wrapped hand.
And crushed it.
Liu Shen's smile didn't waver.
> "That wasn't the attack."
The Abyssal Flame had planted itself in the silence, growing like a parasite.
Suddenly, the Domain of Silence cracked.
Sound returned like thunder.
And with it—
> "Fifth Style: Ashen Eclipse!"
A wave of flame in the shape of a coiling demon serpent exploded through the space.
The Envoy recoiled, silk robes igniting.
For the first time—it staggered.
---
The Memory Keeper Awakens
Below, Lei Qing opened her eyes.
The fight stirred something in her—a forbidden seal she'd once sworn never to break.
But she spoke the words now, her voice a whisper drawn from the abyss:
> "Star-Echo Art: Memory Surge."
She screamed—and every moment of her imprisonment, her loss, her pain—was compressed into a psychic arrow and shot upward.
The Envoy froze mid-strike.
Its body trembled, momentarily overwhelmed by a storm of emotion it had been bred to ignore.
Liu Shen didn't hesitate.
He plunged forward, fists blazing with sovereign flame.
> "Die as you lived—in silence."
He struck.
The cursed silk burned.
The Envoy collapsed, melting into black mist.
---
Aftermath
The vault shuddered.
Yu Meixing lowered her sword, panting.
> "Was that... a Celestial Assassin?"
Liu Shen nodded.
> "They wanted her dead. Which means…"
He turned to Lei Qing, who now stood, stronger.
> "You're more dangerous to them alive than we realized."
Lei Qing smiled, bitterly.
> "Then let me be dangerous."