A wave of dizziness and nausea struck him.
A sharp, metallic taste filled his mouth, the taste of another man's failure.
He felt a profound sadness that wasn't his own, a bone-deep weariness from the scribe's centuries-old struggle.
He stumbled back, releasing the tablet and severing the connection.
The phantoms vanished. The whispers ceased.
He was left panting, leaning against a shelf, the ghostly knowledge of the herb refinement technique still clear in his head.
The cost was clear, too. It wasn't just observation; it was an empathic invasion. He felt their regrets as his own.
A new, dangerous thought ignited in the darkness of his mind.
If he could learn a refinement technique from a lowly scribe… what could he learn from the swordsman?
He looked at the corner where the phantom had been practicing its frantic, incomplete form.
The desire was a physical ache. But the emotional backlash from the scribe had been severe.
The swordsman's echo felt… sharper, more aggressive. It was a risk.
The sound of footsteps on the gravel path outside jolted him back to reality.
The bullies? An Elder?
He couldn't be found here, especially not in this state.
He shoved the black wood tablet deep inside his robes, its cold surface a secret against his chest.
He quickly wiped the dust from his clothes and slipped out the pavilion's back entrance just as the main door creaked open.
He didn't look back. He moved through the shadows towards the servants' quarters, his mind racing faster than his feet.
The knowledge from the scribe was real. He was sure of it.
But it was useless without application. He had no herbs, no cauldron, no Qi to control a flame.
It was a key to a door he couldn't open.
His thoughts were interrupted as he rounded a corner and nearly collided with a figure standing silently in the moonlight.
It was Su Lingshan.
She stood as still as a statue, her back to him, looking out over a koi pond that was slowly freezing at its edges.
The air around her was perceptibly colder.
She must have felt his approach, or his frantic heartbeat, because she turned her head slightly.
Her profile was sharp and elegant in the moonlight.
Lin Feng's breath caught in his throat. He was trespassing near the inner sect gardens.
He braced for a cold reprimand, for a blast of freezing Qi to send him flying.
But it didn't come. Her eyes, like chips of polished ice, met his for a fleeting second.
There was no recognition, no contempt. There was… nothing. An utter, profound void of regard.
She looked through him as if he were one of the phantoms from the pavilion, less substantial than the mist of her own breath.
Then, she turned back to the pond, dismissing his existence entirely.
The encounter lasted only a moment, but it was a bucket of cold water on the embers of his strange excitement.
To her, he was not even a person. He was part of the scenery. A piece of movable, useless scenery.
The humiliation was a familiar, bitter draught.
He hurried away, his head down, the weight of the tablet in his robe feeling heavier than stone.
He had touched the memories of the dead, but in the world of the living, he was still invisible.
He reached his tiny, windowless room in the servants' quarters and barred the door.
He sat on his thin pallet, the black wood tablet in his lap.
The phantom's knowledge of herb refinement was still in his mind, a stark contrast to his own ignorance.
He had unlocked a door to a world of ghosts and forgotten secrets.
But what good was a key if you were chained to the wall?
The gulf between him and Su Lingshan, between him and every other cultivator, seemed wider than ever.
He had gained a power he didn't understand, a power that fed on despair.
And in the deep silence of his room, surrounded by the whispers only he could hear, Lin Feng made a decision.
If this was the only path open to him, he would walk it.
Even if it meant consuming the regrets of the dead.
Even if it meant becoming a ghost among the living.
He closed his eyes, not to sleep, but to listen once more to the silent, mournful chorus.
He reached for the tablet, and the grey world welcomed him back.