The library remained their fragile sanctuary for another hour.
Lin Feng eventually rose—legs unsteady but determined. He helped Yue Li to her feet, then pressed his palm once more against the hidden panel.
"Xiao Qing," he said softly. "We're leaving to gather information on Elder Zhu. Stay hidden. If anyone comes—"
"I know what to say," she answered from the dark. Her voice was small but steady. "I'm just a junior disciple who got lost looking for the herbology section. I'll be fine."
Lin Feng hesitated.
The silver vein under his eye pulsed faintly.
He leaned closer to the wood.
"When I come back… I'll teach you the first true refrain. The one my mother used to mend cracked qi channels. Not for power. Just… to remember."
A soft intake of breath from inside.
"I'll wait."
Yue Li squeezed Lin Feng's shoulder.
"Let's go. The scribe I mentioned works the morning shift in the restricted wing. He'll talk if I remind him of the favor he owes."
They slipped out of the alcove and into the main stacks.
The morning light had strengthened, turning dust motes into floating sparks.
They hadn't taken ten steps when the system panel materialized—uninvited, unannounced.
No dramatic violet.
No mocking red.
Just cold, clinical white.
[Sovereign's Resentment – Day 1 Side Objective Issued]
[Quest: "Quiet the Whisper"]
[Objective: Silence the scribe before he can report your presence in the restricted archives. Method: non-lethal suppression of voice & memory (use Devour thread to temporarily seal vocal meridians and erase last 6 hours of short-term memory).]
[Reward: +200 Dominion Points | One-time use of "Refrain of Oblivion" (erases minor traces of your anomaly from one witness for 72 hours)]
[Time Limit: Complete before leaving restricted wing]
[Failure Penalty: Scribe alerts Elder Zhu → immediate assassination squad dispatched to library stacks]
Lin Feng froze mid-step.
Yue Li noticed instantly.
"What is it?"
He stared at the panel.
"It's giving me a quest. Right now. To silence the scribe you were going to ask for help."
Her face paled.
"Silence how?"
"Non-lethal. Seal his voice. Erase his memory of us. I get points. I get a veil to hide my tracks better."
Yue Li's hand dropped to her sword hilt.
"And if you refuse?"
"The scribe talks. Zhu knows we're digging. They come for Xiao Qing first."
She closed her eyes for one heartbeat.
"Then do it."
Lin Feng looked at her—shocked.
"You're telling me to—"
"I'm telling you we survive today so we can fight tomorrow." Her voice cracked. "I hate it. I hate every word of it. But if that man talks… Xiao Qing dies. And then they come for us. And then the song dies with you."
Lin Feng's throat worked.
The silver vein pulsed—warning, grieving.
He nodded once—slow, sick.
They continued deeper into the restricted wing.
The scribe was an older man named Scholar Wei—thin, bespectacled, hunched over a bamboo scroll in a lamplit alcove. He looked up when Yue Li approached.
"Senior Sister Yue. This is unexpected—"
Lin Feng stepped forward.
Scholar Wei's eyes widened at the sight of him.
"You… the—"
Lin Feng didn't let him finish.
He extended one hand.
A single black thread—thinner than spider silk—slipped from his fingertip and touched the scribe's throat.
Wei gasped—soundless.
The thread spread like frost across his vocal meridians.
Then another thread—gentler—touched his temple.
Memory fragments unraveled: the last six hours dissolving like ink in water.
Scholar Wei's eyes rolled back.
He slumped forward, unconscious but breathing.
Lin Feng retracted the threads.
His hand shook.
[Ding! Side Objective "Quiet the Whisper" – Completed]
[+200 Dominion Points | Current total: 1238]
[Refrain of Oblivion unlocked – single use remaining: 1]
The panel vanished.
Yue Li stared at the unconscious scribe.
Then at Lin Feng.
She didn't speak.
She only reached out and took his trembling hand.
They searched the desk in silence—pulling Elder Zhu's private ledger, copying key pages with trembling fingers: sleeping quarters, guard rotations, protective arrays, known alliances with outer sects.
Every line they read felt heavier.
When they finished, Yue Li closed the ledger.
"We have what we need."
Lin Feng looked down at Scholar Wei—still breathing, still alive, but robbed of six hours he would never recover.
"I didn't kill him," Lin Feng whispered. "But I still feel like I did."
Yue Li pulled him close—forehead to forehead.
"You saved Xiao Qing. You saved the song. You saved us. That's what matters right now."
But her voice trembled.
And when they slipped back toward the alcove to check on Xiao Qing, Lin Feng felt it—the first true bite of regret.
Not the system's forced vision.
Real regret.
The kind that settles in the bones and whispers:
*You could have found another way.*
*You always tell yourself there is no other way.*
*And every time you believe it… another piece of you dies.*
The silver vein under his eye dimmed for the first time since awakening.
The lullaby inside him started again—soft, mournful, almost apologetic.
As though even the First Note understood:
Sometimes mercy demands a price paid in someone else's innocence.
And sometimes the singer is the one left bleeding.
They reached the hidden panel.
Xiao Qing's small face appeared in the crack.
"You're back."
Lin Feng forced a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"We're back."
But behind the smile, the regret took root.
Deep.
Quiet.
Waiting for the next quest.
Waiting for the next "necessary" sin.
Waiting to see how many more silences he could inflict before the song itself refused to be sung through such stained lips.
**To be continued...**