Blood dripped steadily onto the stone floor, each drop landing with slow, heavy finality. Lin Wei felt them all, counting the seconds of his remaining life.
He dragged himself forward, elbow then knee then elbow again, while the black-iron dagger remained lodged between his fourth and fifth ribs. Every movement ground the blade against bone, sending fresh pain ripping through his chest, sharp enough that he tasted metal on his tongue. He clenched his teeth and swallowed it down. Pain was still better than emptiness.
The tunnel reeked of damp rock and stale qi. Violet lines pulsed faintly along the walls—raw soul-shard veins that gave this forbidden place its name: the Grave Vein. Anyone who touched the unprotected ore usually lost their mind within hours. Lin Wei no longer cared.
He slumped against a glowing outcrop. His chest rose and fell in short, wet gasps. The dagger's hilt pressed cold against his palm: frost-jade wrapped in silk, the characters for eternal spring carved by his own hand three winters earlier. He had starved for weeks to finish that blade, skipping meals and working through blizzards. When he presented it to Mei Ling she had wept genuine tears and kissed him as though he were her entire future.
Now the same blade rested inside his lung.
He coughed once. Bright blood sprayed across his lips, vivid against the violet glow.
Voices drifted down from higher in the shaft.
"…he's finished. Look at the trail."
"First Elder wants proof. Huo Clan doesn't pay for maybes."
Then her voice, soft, calm, almost kind.
"He won't last long. Let the beasts take care of it."
Mei Ling.
Lin Wei pressed his forehead against the cold violet rock. A laugh tried to rise in his throat and emerged instead as a choked, bloody cough.
She was still checking.
His left hand trembled, not only from blood loss but from something deeper fracturing behind his ribs, in the place where trust had once lived.
He lifted his palm and laid it flat against the glowing vein.
For a moment nothing happened.
Then the scream arrived, not from his mouth but inside his skull. Raw emotion crashed into him: grief, rage, betrayal, longing, all at once, like a hammer driven through bone. His body jerked violently. Nails scraped stone. Vision bleached white.
When it cleared, violet words floated before his eyes.
[Resonance detected: Shattered heart frequency matches host soul]
[Initiating Soulforge Protocol]
[Warning: Host soul integrity 17%. Collapse in 39 seconds.]
His lips moved, barely forming sound.
A deeper voice answered, old and tired, echoing like metal striking metal in an empty forge.
"You are dying, child. But death is only bad material. We can reforge you… if you pay."
One word scraped out. "Price?"
"Pain. Every bond you make becomes fuel. And fracture. Love-forged power cuts deepest. Breaks easiest."
Violet light raced up his arm. The bleeding slowed. Not gone. Simply held back.
[First Resonance Anchor required]
[Scan complete. Viable candidate detected within 284 meters.]
Lin Wei's eyes snapped toward the narrow crack ahead.
Torchlight flickered. Shadows moved.
Mei Ling's voice came again, closer now.
"Leave him. The blood will draw beasts. Cleaner that way."
One guard laughed low. "You sound almost sorry, Saintess."
"I'm not sorry," she said. Too fast.
Lin Wei's fingers closed around the dagger hilt.
The system spoke again, cold and close.
[Candidate soul signature: Mei Ling. Emotional resonance — Guilt: 47%, Fear: 27%, Regret: 19%, Lingering Attachment: 7%.]
[Extractable essence purity: Medium-low. Acceptable for initial forging.]
[Proceed with First Pact? Y/N]
He stared until the words blurred.
He remembered her tear when she drove the blade in.
He remembered her hand, not shaking from grief but from choice.
His teeth ground together.
Yes.
Violet light shot forward through the fissure.
On the other side Mei Ling cried out, sharp and surprised.
The guards spun.
"What the—"
Lin Wei ripped the dagger free from his own side.
Blood sprayed. Legs shook. Vision tilted.
He shoved through the crack anyway. Rock tore skin. He emerged on his knees, covered in dirt and red.
The first guard's sword cleared half the sheath.
Lin Wei lunged.
The black-iron blade punched up under the chin, through mouth, into brain. The guard dropped fast.
The second guard turned, eyes wide.
"You're—"
Lin Wei crashed into him shoulder first, knocked the man back. Sword swung wide. Lin Wei twisted inside the reach. Stabbed once. Twice. Three times. Each thrust came with a grunt, a sob, sounds he did not know he could make.
The guard slid down the wall and stopped moving.
Quiet.
Mei Ling stood frozen. Wedding silk red at the hem. Face white.
Her eyes met his.
"Wei…"
He staggered two steps. Legs gave. He caught himself on one knee.
Blood dripped steadily from the hole in his side, dark and thick, pooling faster now that the dagger was gone.
The violet thread still linked them, thin and shaking, matching their heartbeats.
"How…?" she whispered.
"I crawled." His voice came rough and broken. "Through everything I had left. Because you didn't finish the job."
She stepped back. Her heel slipped.
"I didn't want—"
"Stop."
He pushed up. The world spun. His side screamed with fresh heat—lung burning, ribs grinding—but he forced the pain down.
Four steps. Close enough to smell winter plum on her breath.
"Tell me one true thing." His voice cracked. "Not a deal. Not a price. One thing that isn't a lie."
Tears fell. No holding them back.
"I loved you." The words splintered. "Even when I did it. Even when the knife was in my hand. I hated myself more."
The system chimed.
[Resonance spike. Emotional authenticity +29%. Essence purity: Medium-High.]
[First Pact viable.]
Lin Wei looked at her.
He raised the dagger.
She closed her eyes.
He pressed the flat of the blade under her chin and lifted her face.
Her eyes opened again, wide, scared, and something else.
He leaned in until their foreheads almost touched.
"Not enough," he whispered.
Palm over her heart.
Violet light exploded.
Mei Ling gasped. Her back arched. Essence poured into him—cold frost, plum sweetness, guilt like ice shards.
It flooded his veins, mended cracks, expanded everything inside him.
The hole in his side burned hotter for a second, then cooled. The bleeding slowed to a trickle as qi threaded through torn lung tissue.
But it burned too.
Her feelings leaked across the link.
Guilt. Sharp. Heavy.
Regret. Thick smoke.
A buried warmth. Ashamed. Still there.
[First Pact sealed.] [Initial Soulforge unlocked.]
[Host soul integrity: 44%.]
[New forging recipe: Blood-forged Edge – lethality +15%, carries wielder's grudge. Resonance Echo – wielder feels original owner's strongest emotion on contact.]
[Side wound partially sealed: qi knitting lung tissue – bleeding reduced]
Power roared through him.
And so did she.
Mei Ling collapsed.
He caught her.
She clung, fingers digging into torn robe, face against his neck.
One heartbeat. Two.
Her pulse hammered against his chest.
Too fast.
Too much like his.
He pulled back just enough to look down.
Her lips trembled.
"Wei… what did we do?"
He brushed hair from her face, gentle, almost tender.
"Took the first piece," he said quietly. "Gave you the first chain."
Her eyes widened.
He leaned close, mouth at her ear.
"You help me forge everything they took. Every humiliation. Every lie. Every drop of blood."
His voice dropped lower.
"And when I don't need you anymore… I decide if your heart stays with me… or goes into the fire with mine."
She shivered.
Not just fear.
Above them, in the highest pavilion of the Heavenly Forge Sect, Yue Tian opened his eyes.
Silver divine sense had brushed the Grave Vein moments ago.
He smiled, thin and cold, almost soft.
"So the broken blade found heat."
He stood. White silk swirled.
"Let's see how hot it burns… before it cracks."