CHAPTER 36 — The Name Heaven Buried (Part Two)
Zheng Wen Te's mind spun.
You were the one who gave it to me…
His lips trembled.
He searched his own memories, but what he found was not clarity—
only fragments.
A girl crying behind a curtain of rain.
A vow whispered with trembling hands.
A name spoken like a prayer.
But the sound…
would not come.
Lian stepped forward, blade fully drawn now.
"This is nonsense."
Her voice was sharp, protective.
"He has only just entered this world. How could he have named you?"
The girl did not even glance at the sword.
She only stared at Zheng Wen Te.
"He doesn't remember," she murmured.
"But karma remembers."
The mist thickened.
Spiritual energy pressed down like invisible water.
The valley was no longer merely a place—
it was becoming a courtroom.
Lian's jaw clenched.
"I don't care what you are. If you threaten him, I will—"
"You will what?"
The girl finally looked at her.
And in that glance—
Lian froze.
Not from fear.
From recognition she could not explain.
The girl's eyes were too old.
Too deep.
They were not the eyes of a young disciple.
They were the eyes of something that had waited through eras.
Then she spoke again, soft and merciless.
"Do you know what the heavens do…"
"…to things they cannot categorize?"
Lian's voice lowered.
"…Demons."
The girl smiled faintly.
"That is what they called me too."
Zheng Wen Te's heart pounded.
"No," he said hoarsely.
"You're not a demon."
The girl's expression shifted.
Almost gentle.
"Then what am I?"
Zheng Wen Te opened his mouth—
and stopped.
Because he didn't know.
All he knew was the ache.
The unbearable familiarity.
The sense that he had failed her long before this life.
Above them—
a distant rumble rolled across the sky.
Not thunder.
Something deeper.
Like a bell struck in Heaven.
Lian's eyes snapped upward.
"The sect barrier…"
She whispered.
"It's reacting."
The air trembled.
Somewhere far away, within the Outer Sect—
an elder opened his eyes from meditation.
A jade tablet cracked.
A voice whispered through the ancestral hall:
"A sealed name has resurfaced."
Back in the valley, the girl's hair lifted slightly, as if touched by unseen wind.
Her gaze sharpened.
"They heard."
Zheng Wen Te's breath caught.
"Who…?"
"Heaven," she answered simply.
Then she stepped closer.
So close Zheng Wen Te could see the faint tremor in her lashes.
Not fear.
Restraint.
"If you speak my name…"
"…they will come."
Lian's sword trembled.
"Who will come?"
The girl's voice dropped into something ancient.
"The ones who sealed me."
"The ones who erased me."
"The ones who call themselves righteous."
Zheng Wen Te's chest tightened.
"And if I don't?"
The girl's eyes softened, heartbreakingly.
"Then I remain buried."
Silence.
A choice.
Then she whispered:
"Do you regret giving me that name?"
Zheng Wen Te's mouth opened—
and before he could answer—
the sky split with a sound like cracking glass.
A golden line appeared above the clouds.
Watching.
Searching.
Descending.