Night pressed heavily against the sect's roofs.A storm had not come,yet the air felt like one—dense, waiting, watching.
Inside Lian Hong's room,Yan Ming stood unnaturally still.
Not tense.Not panicked.
Thinking.
Calculating.
Reconstructing histories that were never meant to be known.
Su Qingyue hovered beside Lian Hong.
Zhou Shan held a broom defensively,shaking like a terrified raccoon.
Finally, Yan Ming spoke.
His voice was low—not out of secrecy,but reverence for something old.
"Listen carefully."
Because what he was about to saywas forbidden knowledge in the Court.
Yan Ming began walking slowly across the room.
"In the age before the Court was founded,shadow was not power."
"It was omen."
"Where shadow gathered unnaturally,disaster followed."
He glanced at Lian Hong.
"A flood.A fire.A plague.A war."
"It didn't matter the form—the cause was always the same."
Su Qingyue murmured:
"An unbound force…"
Yan Ming nodded.
"Yes.Shadow appeared when fate cracked."
Lian Hong whispered:
"…Then what is the masked one?"
Yan Ming paused.
"He is the one who walked through every crack."
Yan Ming continued:
"The earliest record we havespeaks of a cultivatorfrom nearly a thousand years ago."
"No name.No clan.No birthplace."
"Only this title:The Echo-Bearer."
Zhou Shan shivered.
"BRO WHY IS EVERY TITLE IN THIS STORY TERRIFYING—?!"
Yan Ming ignored him.
"The Echo-Bearer was the first known personto be touched by the masked one."
Lian Hong's heart began to race.
"…Touched how?"
Yan Ming looked at him carefully.
"The same way he touched you."
Silence.
Su Qingyue tightened her grip on Lian Hong's arm.
Zhou Shan fainted for two seconds, recovered, then fainted again.
Yan Ming continued:
"The Echo-Bearer gained strength rapidly.Insight.Resonance.A second heartbeat—just like yours."
Lian Hong swallowed.
"And then?"
Yan Ming did not soften his tone.
"He became impossible to classify."
Yan Ming lifted his hand,and a small glyph of silver light appeared,projecting shifting symbols in the air.
"These are fragments of the forbidden chronicle."
"They describe the Echo-Bearer as—"
"—a cultivator whose shadow learnedfaster than he could."
"—a man whose will bent reality in small ways."
"—a figure the masked one visited repeatedly."
Su Qingyue's eyes widened.
"He kept coming back to him?"
Yan Ming nodded once.
"The first connection between a remnant and a human."
"And the Court was terrified."
Lian Hong frowned.
"Why terrified?"
Yan Ming looked at him.
"Because the Echo-Bearer grew too strong."
"Evolved too quickly."
"Broke boundaries too easily."
"And worst of all—"
He walked closer.
"He began to hear things buried beneath the land."
Lian Hong froze.
Just like him.
"…The thing under the mountain."
"Or something of the same origin," Yan Ming said quietly.
"The Echo-Bearer awakened echoeswherever he walked."
Yan Ming's voice lowered further.
"The chronicles end abruptly."
"The last written account says only this:"
He projected the line:
"He descended beneath the sixth mountain.The Court did not follow.He did not return."
Lian Hong's breath tightened.
"…He went below.Into the same kind of mountain I'm standing on now."
Yan Ming nodded.
"Yes."
"And that is why the Court fears you."
Su Qingyue whispered:
"…Because the first Echo-Bearer disappeared."
Yan Ming corrected:
"No."
He stepped forward.
"Because the first Echo-Bearerdid not die."
The room went cold.
Zhou Shan screamed and fell over backward.
Su Qingyue snapped:
"Then where is he!?"
Yan Ming exhaled.
"That is what the Court never answered."
"All records end there."
"Every witness disappeared."
"And the mountains were sealed."
Yan Ming faced Lian Hong directly.
"The Court erased himbecause they feared what he became."
"A being who resonated with remnants."
"A force that awakened sealed echoes."
"And a cultivator whose pathcould not be predicted or controlled."
Lian Hong shook his head slowly.
"…But I don't want to become something dangerous."
Yan Ming's voice softened.
"I know."
"But fear does not follow truth."
"It follows potential."
Lian Hong's shadow shifted slightly at his feet.
Not in rebellion.
Not in hunger.
In awareness.
Yan Ming saw it and said quietly:
"Your resonance today—the will clash—the terrace trembling—"
"It means the echo beneath the mountainrecognizes you the same way it recognized him."
Su Qingyue inhaled sharply.
"So it thinks Lian Hong is…"
Yan Ming nodded.
"Yes."
"A successor."
Lian Hong sat back slowly.
His hands trembled.
Not from fear.
From realization.
"…If the first Echo-Bearer never died—then he might still be somewhere."
Su Qingyue whispered:
"Buried."
Yan Ming nodded.
"Buried… or waiting."
A long silence filled the room.
Then Yan Ming spoke quietly:
"Lian Hong."
He met Lian Hong's eyes.
"You asked earlier why it said it remembered you."
Lian Hong nodded slowly.
Yan Ming continued:
"There is only one reason an ancient echorecognizes a living cultivator."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"You carry a shadowthat the first Echo-Bearer once carried."
Lian Hong felt his blood freeze.
"My shadow… comes from him?"
Yan Ming didn't hesitate.
"Part of it."
"And part of it comes from the masked one."
"And part of it comes from you."
Su Qingyue whispered:
"…Then who is he supposed to become?"
Yan Ming answered:
"That is the question the Court fears most."
He looked again at Lian Hong.
Not with fear.
Not with calculation.
With something like solemn respect.
"The first Echo-Bearer became something unknown."
"The masked one became something unbound."
"And you—"
He stepped closer.
Placed a hand gently on Lian Hong's shoulder.
"—are the first to carry both their echoes."
Lian Hong's heart pounded.
Yan Ming's final words echoed through the quiet room:
"And that means your pathwill not repeat either of theirs."
"It will be something new."
"Something unprecedented."
"And something nothing in this worldis prepared for."
The room went silent.
Deep.Reverent.Terrified.
Su Qingyue whispered:
"…What happens now?"
Yan Ming answered without looking away from Lian Hong.
"Now?
Now the mountain calls again."