---
That night, he dreamed.
Not of battle. Not of chains.
But of her.
Lian'er.
The wind was soft in the dream, carrying the scent of blooming starflowers. The valley was whole, untouched by blood or sorrow. Moonlight draped the earth in silk.
She was laughing. Barefoot in the grass. Looking back at him with that smile that never asked questions—only gave peace.
"You always look like you're thinking of the end, Yuan-ge. But I liked you better when you thought of beginnings."
He reached for her.
Fingers brushed fingertips.
But just as he caught her hand—
The sky shattered.
A great eye blinked open in the heavens.
Not red. Not blue.
Colorless.
Like something that had never been seen before.
Lian'er turned to ash in his arms.
The grass withered.
The moon cracked.
And from above, a voice fell—
"You dream with a borrowed mind, child of collapse. This is not your memory."
Xuan Yuan gasped as he woke, breath ragged, body trembling.
His palm glowed.
Not from qi.
From truth.
---
Morning came like an afterthought.
The world still stood, but something in him no longer did.
He sat beneath the tree, cold sweat still clinging to his spine.
"That wasn't my dream..."
"But it used my grief."
He stared at his hand again. For the first time, the veins beneath his skin shimmered not with spiritual energy… but with contradiction. His body was starting to forget how to be normal.
"Even my sorrow is being rewritten."
---
Elsewhere, in a celestial court that floats above the Star Boundary.
A figure cloaked in imperial flame knelt before a crystal basin.
Inside, a ripple passed.
A lotus turned to ash.
And the figure whispered:
"The Nameless Collapse has begun dreaming."
"It remembers… too much."
A voice behind him, ancient and genderless, answered:
"Then seal the dreams. Before the second chain answers the call."
"And if we fail?"
"Then may the Dao itself pray to survive."
---
Back in Cloud Void Temple.
The Sect Master stood on a high balcony, gazing into the dawn.
He said nothing. But his hands trembled.
For the first time in his long life, the birds had not sung at sunrise.
He had no idea why.
But far below