The Frozen Chasm held its breath.
Ice stopped drifting.Wind froze mid–gust.Even time seemed to hesitate.
The girl stood before Qi Shan Wei with trembling hands, snowflakes melting on her lashes.
Long dark hair.Soft brown eyes.A gentle expression he hadn't seen since—
Since before all of this.
Since before Cloudpierce.Before Drakonix.Before Jin Wei.
Before he ever stepped onto the path of cultivation.
Her voice cracked as she whispered again:
"…Wei'er?"
Shan Wei's knees nearly buckled.
His breath choked in his throat.
This wasn't possible.It could not be possible.
He took one step forward—
Then another—
Drakonix clung tightly to his shoulder, letting out a trembling "Fwee…?"Afraid.Confused.Sensing something terribly wrong.
Xueya's grip tightened around her sword.Her frost aura flickered violently.
"Shan Wei…who is she?"
Shan Wei couldn't speak.
His mouth opened—but no words came.
The girl stepped closer.
Every footstep echoed through the valley like a heartbeat.
Her hands reached toward him.
"Are you… truly alive?"
Shan Wei swallowed hard.
He forced out a fragile, broken whisper:
"…Ling… Mei."
Yue Lian gasped.
The Empress stiffened.
Xueya froze completely.
"Ling… Mei?" Yue Lian stammered."That wasn't in the Conclave records—"
The Empress's expression darkened.
"Because she isn't from this realm."
Xueya's knuckles whitened around her sword.
Her voice came out colder than the ice around them.
"Shan Wei.Tell me.Who is she?"
Shan Wei closed his eyes… and spoke.
"…she was the first friend I ever made."A soft breath."The first person who ever called me by name."A tremor."The first person who ever… died for me."
Xueya's expression wavered—a flicker of pain and understanding.
Yue Lian's eyes widened.
"She died…?"
The Empress nodded slowly.
"In the Mortal Origin World.Before his cultivation path began."
Shan Wei rasped:
"I buried her myself."
The girl flinched—
And then smiled softly, heartbreakingly.
"But you didn't bury me, Wei'er.I'm right here."
She reached out.
Her fingers brushed Shan Wei's cheek.
They were warm.
Warm.
Shan Wei stiffened.
"…You feel real."
Her eyes brimmed with tears.
"I am real."
"No," the Empress said sharply.Her voice cracked with urgency."She is NOT real."
The girl froze.
Shan Wei snapped his gaze to the Empress.
"What are you saying?"
Yue Lian dropped to one knee, trembling.
"This… this is an impossibility.No mortal soul can cross realms like this.Not without a Heaven-breaking law."
The Empress stepped in front of Shan Wei, blocking the girl.
"Qi Shan Wei… listen carefully."
Her tone was ice-edged.
"That is not Ling Mei."
The girl's smile dimmed.
She reached for Shan Wei again.
"Don't listen to her, Wei'er.I waited so long—"
"STOP."
The Empress raised her hand—
Moonlight cracked the world.
The girl recoiled with a hiss.
Not a frightened hiss.
A predatory hiss.
Shan Wei's breath froze.
Her eyes—those soft brown eyes—
flashed purple.
A color no human possessed.
Yue Lian gasped.
"A… a soul mirage!?"
"No…" the Empress whispered."Something far worse."
Her voice lowered to a terrified whisper:
"A Fate Echo."
The Fate Echo — Explained
Shan Wei's mind reeled.
"A… what?"
The Empress faced him.
Her silver eyes softened in pain.
"Fate Echoes are fragments of lost timelines.Shadows of people you once knew…or were meant to know…or were meant to lose."
She pointed at the girl.
"She is a remnant of the future the Calamity Heir wants to force upon you."
Xueya's breath caught.
"…A future where she lives?"
"No," the Empress said.
"A future where Shan Wei breaks."
The girl—the Echo—lingered behind the moonlight barrier, eyes glowing with unnatural longing.
"Wei'er… come here…Come back…"
Shan Wei felt something tugging at his chest.
A pull.A tether.
A chain.
Yue Lian grabbed his sleeve in panic.
"Don't move!If a Fate Echo touches your core—it will overwrite your emotional loops!"
Shan Wei frowned.
"My what?"
The Empress stepped closer.
"It will replace your strongest memories.Your motivations.Your relationships.Your fate."
Xueya's heart skipped a beat.
"He would forget… us?"
The Empress nodded gravely.
"Worse.He would remember them… incorrectly."
Xueya took an involuntary step back, frost flickering in terror.
Shan Wei clenched his fists.
"Ling Mei…tell me who sent you."
The girl smiled sadly.
"I walked all this way… for you."
"Who sent you?" he repeated.
A pause.
Then—
Her voice changed.
Deepened.
Echoed with a wrongness that scraped the soul.
"The one who wants your heart shattered."
Shan Wei's eyes narrowed.
"The Calamity Heir."
The girl…the Echo…laughed softly.
Not like Ling Mei.Not even human.
"Very good, Wei'er.You always see through lies—just not the ones you want to believe."
Silver veins cracked across her skin.
Yue Lian recoiled.
"She's breaking her disguise—!"
The Empress raised both hands.
"Qi Shan Wei—do NOT let yourself feel anything for that Echo."She shouted:"It will weaponize your memories!"
But it was too late.
Shan Wei's heart hurt.Deeply.Unbearably.
Ling Mei had been the one innocent thing in his early life—the one piece of softness the world took from him.
And seeing her again—even as a lie—ripped something open in him.
Drakonix shrieked and pressed against Shan Wei's cheek.
"Fwee—!!Fwee—!!"
Trying desperately to stabilize his spiraling emotions.
But the Echo smiled—
and whispered the killing blow:
"If you had been stronger,I would never have died."
Something snapped inside him.
His prismatic aura twisted.
The Empress screamed:
"NO—THAT'S A FORBIDDEN AWAKENING TRIGGER—!!"
Qi Shan Wei's Forbidden Awakening — Almost Triggered
The world darkened.
Wind stopped.
Frost cracked.
Jin Wei's systems malfunctioned.
"WARNING—MASTER'S AURA—UNIDENTIFIABLE—UNSTABLE—CATASTROPHIC."
Drakonix shrieked in terror.
"FWEEEE——!!!"
Shan Wei's vision turned white—
then black—
then prismatically distorted.
His heartbeat slowed.
His blood roared.
The world bent toward him.
Xueya stepped forward in fear.
"Sh-Shan Wei…?"
Her voice—
Her real voice—cut through the darkness.
Shan Wei's breath hitched.
The Echo snarled.
"NO—LOOK AT ME—I'M THE ONE WHO DIED FOR—"
"SHUT UP."
Shan Wei's voice cracked like thunder.
And the forbidden aura—
snapped.
Shattered.Collapsed.Dissolved like ice in flame.
Shan Wei staggered forward, panting.
He pressed a hand over his face.
"I…I'm fine…"
Yue Lian collapsed in relief.
"You nearly awakened your Forbidden Path—your Eternal Emperor Manifestation—and it would've killed us all."
Shan Wei grit his teeth.
The Empress approached slowly.
"You resisted it.Barely."
Shan Wei steadied himself on Jin Wei's arm.
He looked at the Echo—
now cracking apart like a broken mirror.
"Enough," he said quietly.
"You're not her.You never were.And I won't let you use my past to destroy my future."
The Echo's eyes glowed with hatred.
"You will regret this, Wei'er."
"No," Shan Wei whispered.
"I regret nothing… except not saving her."
The Echo screamed—
shattering into fragments of purple light.
Gone.
Something Worse Awakens
Silence fell.
Shan Wei wiped his eyes with the back of his hand—quiet, controlled, but deeply shaken.
Xueya stepped closer.
"…Are you alright?"
Shan Wei nodded.
"I will be."
The Empress looked at the place where the Echo vanished.
"That wasn't the Heir's full power.That was just a message."
Yue Lian trembled.
"And… the howl we heard earlier…"
As if summoned—
The ground shook.
Hard.
Then again—
Harder.
Cracks spread across the Chasm.
Drakonix clung to Shan Wei's shoulder.
Jin Wei's runes flared.
"ALERT.MASSIVE LIFEFORM APPROACHING."
The Empress paled.
"No…Not here.Not now."
Shan Wei readied his qi.
"What is it?"
The Empress whispered, voice trembling:
"A Zone King."
Yue Lian choked.
"W-Which one—?"
From the depths of the Chasm—
A voice answered.
A deep, ancient, soul-devouring growl:
"Qi…Shan…Wei…"
Every vein in Shan Wei's body iced over.
The Empress stepped in front of him—
horrified.
"No…No, no—It can't be—"
Xueya raised her sword, frost spiraling violently.
"What is that!?"
The Empress took a terrified step backward.
Her voice cracked:
"That is no beast.That is no puppet.That is no spirit."
Lightning tore the sky open—
revealing a colossal silhouette rising through the storm.
A pair of burning violet eyes opened.
The Empress screamed:
"RUN—THAT IS THE CALAMITY ZONE KING—THE ONE WHO CANNOT DIE!"
The creature stepped forward—
And spoke Shan Wei's name again.
"Qi…Shan…Wei…"
Its voice was identical—
hauntingly identical—
to the envoy's.
But deeper.
Older.
Hungrier.
Shan Wei's blood froze.
Because the voice sounded—
like him.
To be Continued
© Kishtika., 2025All rights reserved.