The frost pond lay hidden behind the sword platform, fed by an underground spring that never froze no matter how bitter the night. Moonlight silvered its surface, turning the water into a mirror of fractured stars. Lin Feng arrived first, the borrowed practice sword now returned, his hands empty but never truly idle.
He stood at the water's edge, staring at his own reflection. The face was young, unmarked by the scars he still carried inside. Ten years of watching his mother waste away from the slow poison Lin Hao had slipped into her tea. Ten years of Su Mei's gentle smiles that hid the knife she drove into his back the day she stood beside his half-brother at the execution platform and whispered, "He was never worthy of me."
The memory clawed at something buried deep. Not rage this time—rage had burned itself hollow long ago. Just a raw, aching emptiness. The kind that made even a Sovereign's remnant feel… human.
He heard her footsteps before he saw her.
Yue Li moved like moonlight itself, quiet and inevitable. She had changed into a simple white inner robe, hair loose now, falling past her shoulders in dark waves. No sword at her hip tonight. Only a small lantern in one hand and something vulnerable in her eyes.
"You came," she said, echoing her own words from dawn. This time her voice carried a tremor she couldn't quite hide.
"I said I would."
She set the lantern down. The soft glow caught the faint scar on her forearm—the one from the hound's claw he had failed to fully prevent.
They stood in silence for a long moment, the pond between them like a question neither had voiced.
"I watched you today," she finally said. "In the chaos. You moved like someone who had already died once and decided the second time would be on your own terms."
Lin Feng's gaze lifted to hers.
"Close enough."
She stepped around the water's edge until only an arm's length separated them. Close enough to see the faint shadows under his eyes that no one else had noticed.
"Tell me one true thing," she whispered. "Not the rumors. Not the mask. One thing that hurts to say."
The request pierced deeper than any blade.
He looked away, toward the black scar still lingering in the distant sky.
"In my… dreams," he said carefully, "I had a mother who sang when she thought no one listened. She died slowly. Because someone I trusted fed her poison and smiled while doing it."
His voice stayed level, but the words cracked something open inside him he hadn't meant to touch.
Yue Li's breath caught.
"My father died the same way," she said after a moment. "Protecting the clan vault. They called it heroic. But the elder who sent him knew the vault was already compromised. He sacrificed my father to cover his own theft. I was twelve. I still hear his screams some nights."
Tears—real ones—glistened at the corners of her eyes before she blinked them away.
Without thinking, Lin Feng reached out and brushed one away with his thumb. The touch was feather-light, but it lingered. Her skin was warm against the night chill.
"I'm sorry," he murmured. The words surprised even him.
She caught his wrist before he could pull back.
"Don't be sorry. Be here. With me. Right now."
The air between them thickened. Longing uncoiled—slow, dangerous, undeniable. Her fingers tightened on his wrist, pulse racing against his.
He could have pulled away. Should have. The Sovereign Path demanded detachment.
Instead he stepped closer.
Their foreheads nearly touched.
"I don't know how to do this," he admitted, voice rough. "Wanting something that isn't power or revenge."
"Then let me show you," she breathed.
Her free hand rose, hesitating at his chest, then settling over his heart. She could feel it—steady, but not cold. Not anymore.
The kiss, when it came, was not fierce. It was careful. Questioning. A slow burn that tasted of shared grief and fragile hope.
For the space of those heartbeats, Lin Feng forgot the system. Forgot the marks. Forgot the multiverse waiting to be devoured.
There was only the press of her lips, the faint scent of frost dew in her hair, the way her body leaned into his like she had been waiting years, not hours.
Then the moment shattered.
A distant scream cut through the night—from the direction of the outer residences.
They broke apart, breathing hard.
Lin Feng's eyes darkened.
Yue Li's hand stayed on his chest a second longer, reluctant.
"Stay," she whispered. "Please."
But he was already turning toward the sound.
"I can't."
The betrayal came before they even reached the source.
They arrived at the outer courtyard to find a small crowd gathered. At its center stood Lin Hao, arm draped possessively around Su Mei—his former fiancée, now draped in finer silks than she had ever worn in the last life. Her eyes widened when they landed on Lin Feng, a flicker of guilt quickly masked by disdain.
But the real knife was the girl kneeling in the dirt beside them.
A young healer named Xiao Qing—barely sixteen, soft-spoken, the one who had quietly bandaged wounds after the gate fight earlier. She had smiled shyly at Lin Feng when he passed, offering him a spare bandage he hadn't needed.
Now her face was bruised. Her healer's robes torn at the shoulder.
Lin Hao's voice rang out, oily with false righteousness.
"This girl was caught stealing spirit herbs from the inner stores. To give to… trash like him." He pointed at Lin Feng. "She confessed under questioning. Said he threatened her family if she refused."
Lies. Every word.
Lin Feng saw the truth in Xiao Qing's terrified eyes—she had been caught speaking to him earlier, nothing more. Lin Hao had twisted it. Used it.
To hurt him.
To hurt anyone who dared show the "eternal trash" a shred of kindness.
Yue Li's hand clenched at her side.
"That's not true," she said, voice cutting through the murmurs. "I was with him tonight. He never—"
Lin Hao laughed. "With him? The sword prodigy lowering herself to the cripple? How touching. But the evidence speaks, Senior Sister Yue. Unless… you're also compromised?"
The crowd whispered. Jealous eyes turned on Yue Li. Rivalry sparked in the glances of other inner disciples who had long coveted her attention.
Xiao Qing looked up at Lin Feng, tears streaming.
"I'm sorry," she choked out. "They said they'd hurt my little brother if I didn't—"
Her voice broke.
Something inside Lin Feng—something that had softened by the pond—froze over again.
But not completely.
He stepped forward.
The crowd parted instinctively.
He knelt in front of Xiao Qing, ignoring Lin Hao entirely. Gently, he tilted her chin up so she met his eyes.
"You did nothing wrong," he said softly. Only she could hear the steel beneath. "And they will pay for every tear."
The girl's lips trembled. Fresh sobs escaped.
Then he stood.
His gaze finally met Lin Hao's.
No fury. No shouting.
Just a quiet, bottomless promise.
"You always enjoyed breaking what wasn't yours to touch," Lin Feng said, voice carrying across the courtyard. "Mother's health. My name. Now this girl's safety. Su Mei's loyalty."
Su Mei flinched visibly at her own name.
Lin Hao's smirk faltered for the first time.
"What did you say?"
Lin Feng smiled then—thin, cold, heartbreaking in its emptiness.
"I said I remember everything you took from me."
He turned to Yue Li.
Her eyes were wet, but steady. The romantic tension between them had not broken—it had sharpened into something forged in fire. She gave him the smallest nod.
*Go.*
He walked away from the crowd, Xiao Qing's quiet thanks following him like a wound.
Behind him, he activated the mark without a word.
[Ding! Devour Progress: Wei Shun — Accelerated to 47%. Target now experiencing phantom pain mirroring past betrayals.]
[Ding! New Secondary Mark: Lin Hao — Partial trace applied via emotional resonance. Full activation requires direct confrontation.]
In the distance, a scream rose from the outer barracks—Wei Shun collapsing as invisible thorns tore through his meridians, reliving every humiliation he had helped inflict.
Lin Feng did not look back.
But inside, the ache remained.
For his mother's wasted smile.
For the girl crying in the dirt.
For the almost-kiss at the frost pond that now carried the weight of consequences.
He had wanted to be gentle tonight.
The world had reminded him why gentleness was a luxury the betrayed could rarely afford.
Yet as he vanished into the shadows, one thought burned clearer than revenge:
Yue Li had chosen to stand with him.
And that choice would cost her.
The night air tasted of salt—whether from tears or blood, he no longer knew.
The pond waited, its surface still disturbed by their shared reflection, while distant screams painted the darkness in fresh regret.