The chill of the Frostpass Mirage still clung to their bones, even though they had long left its ghostly domain behind. Snow no longer fell, and the sun once again lit the path—yet something colder remained within each of them.
In Liu Shen's hand, the Echo of Yue Lian pulsed faintly.
It was warm.
It was alive.
But incomplete.
> "A fragment isn't enough," Liu Shen said, eyes narrowed. "I need someone who can stitch what Heaven tore apart."
> "You mean a Soul Weaver?" Lei Qing's expression tightened. "That's practically suicide. Every known Soul Weaver was hunted down after the Celestial Decree."
> "Then we'll find one the heavens missed."
---
Legend of the Weaver
The Soul Weavers were neither cultivators nor mortals.
They walked the boundary of life and death, their threads capable of binding souls to flesh, of restoring broken spirits, and even rewriting fate—if the price was paid.
> "There's one rumor," Yu Meixing said. "East of the Shattered Spine Mountains. A place called the Threadsink."
> "A cursed pit where threads fall from the sky," Zhaoyu added. "Locals say they whisper... and bleed."
Liu Shen smiled.
> "Sounds like exactly the kind of place Heaven would fear."
---
Journey to the Threadsink
They moved swiftly, under the cloak of night. Even traveling cultivators avoided the route they took. The further east they went, the more the land forgot sunlight.
By the time they reached the edge of the Threadsink, stars refused to shine overhead.
A great pit yawned in the earth—black, bottomless, ringed with thread-like strands of silver light that drifted lazily in the air.
The ground itself trembled every few minutes, as if the pit was breathing.
> "This place isn't cursed," Meixing said slowly. "It's alive."
---
The Old Woman Beneath
As they descended a rope bridge into the Threadsink's lower chasms, they found her.
An old woman, blind in both eyes, sat beneath a web of glowing threads that seemed to move on their own.
Her fingers were bone-thin, and her voice rasped like paper being torn.
> "Demon Sovereign… Liu Shen…"
He stiffened.
> "You knew I'd come?"
> "I know what the threads tell me," she croaked, reaching out and plucking one from the air. It bled red. "And this one says… you seek to defy forgetting."
She leaned in, her blind eyes narrowing.
> "You carry a soul echo."
> "Then you know why I'm here," Liu Shen replied.
> "To bring back a memory Heaven erased. To restore someone who no longer exists."
---
The Price of Weaving
The Soul Weaver smiled, cracked teeth yellowed with age.
> "Everything has a cost, Demon Sovereign. Even rebellion against the Heavens."
She plucked another thread from the air. It shimmered silver, but slowly turned black.
> "To restore her, you must sacrifice something equal."
Liu Shen raised his hand without hesitation.
> "Take a portion of my cultivation."
> "No," she said. "Too replaceable."
> "My soul?"
> "Too stubborn."
She pointed at Yu Meixing.
> "She is the vessel. You must sacrifice her… or her memories of you."
The silence was sharp enough to cut.
Yu Meixing stepped forward.
> "Take my memories," she said softly. "If that's the price."
Liu Shen clenched his fists. "You're sure?"
> "I don't know who Yue Lian is… but I know what she meant to you. And I want to know too—even if it means starting over."
The Soul Weaver nodded slowly.
> "Then the weaving shall begin."
---
The Soul Weaving
Silver threads descended from above like rain, each glowing with fractured light.
The Soul Weaver raised her skeletal hands, guiding them into a pattern that looked like a lotus blooming in reverse—petals closing instead of opening.
The Echo of Yue Lian floated above a crystal basin. Meixing stepped into a circle of rune-carved stones.
The threads connected them.
Pain erupted instantly.
Yu Meixing cried out—but made no move to flee.
Liu Shen watched, helpless, as her memories flickered across the threads—moments of laughter, shared meals, even the way she used to glance at him when she thought he wasn't looking.
> All gone.
And into the Echo they flowed.
Until the basin cracked.
Until light burst.
And then… silence.
---
Rebirth
Meixing collapsed, eyes closed.
The crystal Echo no longer pulsed—it glowed.
A shape rose from it.
Slender. Clad in black and crimson.
Yue Lian's soul—reborn.
She opened her eyes.
Looked at Liu Shen.
> "You came for me," she said, her voice soft but sharp. "Even after everything."
> "I never stopped."
He took a shaky step forward.
But her expression changed.
> "And yet… you are no longer mine."
Liu Shen froze.
> "What do you mean?"
> "I remember everything now. But she—" Yue Lian looked at the unconscious Meixing, "—is no longer me. We are… two souls now. Entwined, but not the same."
---
Unraveling Bonds
Before Liu Shen could answer, a crack sounded in the sky.
A vertical line of gold tore through the heavens above the Threadsink.
> "They've found us," Lei Qing said, drawing his sword.
> "No," the Soul Weaver whispered. "They found her."
Eyes formed in the sky—glowing, divine, hateful.
> "THE ERASURE HAS FAILED," a voice boomed.
> "RETRIBUTION BEGINS."
Threads around them snapped violently. The pit howled.
Yue Lian narrowed her eyes.
> "Let them come."
She stood beside Liu Shen.
> "Let them face the truth they tried to bury."