The morning mist clung to the valley like a veil.From the lotus ponds rose threads of incense, carrying the faint scent of sandalwood and dew. Birds stirred in the pines, their calls soft and fleeting — as if afraid to disturb the quiet.
Lin Feng stood by the stream, rolling up his sleeves to wash the herbs Yun Ruo had given him. The cold water bit at his skin, but he welcomed the sting. It reminded him that he was still alive — that the lightning hadn't burned him from existence entirely.
Behind him, Yun Ruo's voice drifted through the courtyard."Your pulse has steadied."
He turned slightly. She stood in the doorway, sunlight spilling over her shoulders like molten gold. "The herbs you prepared are doing their work," he said. "It seems you've saved me twice now."
"Twice?" she asked, stepping closer.
"The first was the storm," he replied. "The second… was this peace."
Her lips curved faintly. "Peace is temporary, Lin Feng. It always is."
Before he could answer, the sound of bells broke the morning stillness.Low. Deep. Trembling.It came not from the valley — but from the skies above it.
Yun Ruo's expression changed instantly. She turned toward the outer gate, her robes swirling like a whisper of light. "Stay here," she ordered, though her voice was calm.
Lin Feng watched her go, then lifted his gaze to the heavens.
Clouds gathered without wind. The air thickened with spiritual energy so dense that the stream beside him stilled, frozen mid-flow. A beam of light — pure, searing, divine — pierced the sky, descending slowly until it touched the center of the White Lotus Sect's plaza.
He could sense the oppressive power from here. The kind that only came from Heaven's decree.
When he reached the plaza, a crowd had already gathered — elders, disciples, and Yun Ruo standing at the forefront. Hovering above them was a figure draped in white-gold armor, his wings faintly translucent, like woven light. His face was expressionless, but his eyes burned with sanctified indifference.
A Celestial Envoy.
His voice carried like thunder. "By decree of the Heavenly Court — the bearer of the 'Record of Fallen Names' has defied divine order and must be surrendered for judgment."
Murmurs rippled through the sect.
Lin Feng's breath caught. Record of Fallen Names. The words struck like a blade.
He touched the place over his heart where the parchment rested, feeling the faint pulse beneath his palm. The world seemed to tilt, sound fading into a distant echo.
Yun Ruo took a single step forward."Envoy," she said, bowing slightly, her tone measured. "You speak of a blasphemy none here would dare harbor. Surely, the heavens would not condemn the innocent without proof."
The envoy's gaze shifted toward her. "Your sect harbors one struck by Heaven's lightning. Such punishment is not given to the innocent."
Yun Ruo's eyes flickered, but she did not yield. "Lightning cleanses as well as destroys. You of all should know that."
Her defiance drew a murmur from the onlookers. The envoy's expression did not change, but the air around him crackled faintly — a warning.
"Your words tread dangerously close to sacrilege, Healer."
"Then perhaps Heaven fears the truth," she answered quietly.
Lin Feng wanted to stop her — to speak — but his body refused to move. His qi surged uncontrollably, resonating with the envoy's divine energy.And then — the parchment burned.
A streak of light tore through his chest, emerging like a drawn blade. The mark of lightning flared across his back once more, blazing bright enough to cast shadows across the entire sect.
Gasps filled the plaza.
"There!" the envoy thundered. "He bears Heaven's mark!"
Disciples stumbled back. Even the elders' faces hardened, torn between reverence and fear.
But Yun Ruo didn't move. She stepped closer, placing herself between Lin Feng and the envoy.
"If Heaven has already struck him once," she said, her voice trembling but resolute, "then it has already passed its judgment. You come not for justice — but to erase what you cannot understand."
The envoy raised his hand. A blade of pure light began to form — shaped not by metal, but by divine will.
Lin Feng clenched his fists, instinct screaming at him to fight, to move, but the power within him refused to obey. His meridians throbbed, his vision blurred.
"Yun Ruo!" he shouted. "Get back—"
But before he could finish, she turned her head slightly, her eyes meeting his — calm, unflinching.
"If you fall again," she said softly, "who will heal what remains?"
And then she struck her palm against his chest.
A surge of her spiritual energy flooded into him, tearing open the seal the envoy's aura had placed on his body. His vision cleared instantly — and he saw her cough blood, her knees nearly buckling from the force.
The envoy's light-blade descended.
Instinct, not thought, guided him. Lin Feng raised his hand, and the parchment within his robes flared open on its own. Golden runes spilled into the air like feathers of light — ancient, foreign, defiant.
The envoy's blade met them — and the sky screamed.
A shockwave rippled through the entire sect. Lotus ponds shattered, towers quaked, and clouds above split apart, revealing for the first time the faint outline of a colossal eye — cold and vast — staring down from beyond the heavens.
Then, as quickly as it appeared, the eye vanished. The envoy stumbled back, his blade dissipating into mist.
"This is not over," he hissed, retreating into a column of light that tore back into the clouds.
When silence finally returned, half the sect lay in ruin.
Yun Ruo knelt beside Lin Feng, her hands trembling as she tried to stabilize his pulse.
"You've brought Heaven's wrath upon us," she whispered.
He looked up at her — his eyes heavy, but steady."Then I'll bear it," he said. "All of it."
In saving him, she defied the Heavens.In defying Heaven, she bound her fate to his.