Lingering Echoes
The air above Green Lantern Village still shimmered with the residue of the Crimson Demoness' projection. Morning light filtered through gray clouds, but the usual peace felt like a brittle illusion.
Lu Xuan stood quietly by the old shrine, the place where the demoness had appeared. His hand brushed the surface where her illusion had danced, and the stone still pulsed with a faint warmth, a phantom of her presence.
Behind him, Su Xue stood with crossed arms, watching his back like a wary sentinel.
"She called you 'my lord'." Her voice was flat but not emotionless. "Does that not disturb you?"
Lu Xuan didn't turn. "Should it?"
Su Xue stepped forward, stopping beside him. "You say you want to change. But she speaks of who you once were—as if that past is clawing back."
He looked at her now, the crimson hue of his demon eye glowing softly. "I don't fear what I was. I fear what I might become if I stop caring."
Su Xue's fingers brushed the frost-lined hilt of Frostbane. But she didn't draw it.
A Visitor From Shadows
A soft wind rose. From it stepped Yao Lin.
Her yellow bond-mark glowed faintly beneath the translucent sleeve of her robe. As always, she emerged from mist and silence, her face unreadable.
"You're both wrong," she said softly, eyes fixed on Lu Xuan. "It's not about becoming. It's about remembering."
Su Xue narrowed her gaze. "What do you mean?"
Yao Lin stepped closer, her golden eyes lingering on Lu Xuan's left hand, which bore a faint scar—one that hadn't been there a week ago.
"The world thinks the Devourer is returning. But what if he never left? What if you are not the reincarnation—but the origin still caught in time's loop?"
Lu Xuan didn't respond. The scar pulsed like a second heartbeat.
Before Su Xue could reply, a low hiss echoed behind them.
The serpent emerged from the village spring, coils glittering with obsidian scales. Its slit eyes narrowed with amusement.
"The Crimson Pact has been invoked," it said. "And the Eclipse Convergence nears. Three days remain until the blood moon crowns the Devourer's Throne."
Lu Xuan's gaze flicked to Yao Lin. "And where will you stand then?"
Yao Lin offered a faint smile. "Where I must."
The Sect's Test
By noon, a black-cloaked messenger arrived, bearing a scroll sealed with the Sect Master's personal mark.
Lu Xuan,
You walk a dangerous path.
Lead the assault on the Blood Lotus Sect at the Obsidian Monolith.
Return victorious—or do not return at all.
Su Xue's frost qi spiked. She crushed the scroll into ice.
"They're afraid of you. This isn't a mission. It's a trial."
Lu Xuan stared at the ice melting between her fingers. "I've faced worse."
A tug on his sleeve broke the tension.
It was Mei—the girl he had saved in Chapter 14.
She pressed a withered flower into his hand. Its petals were tinged with red, stained not by blood, but something more symbolic. Memory.
"The lady in red shows the wrong sky," she whispered.
Lu Xuan knelt. "What do you mean, Mei?"
"She lies with truth. Truth with lies. Your throne... it's a cage." Her eyes rolled back briefly. "One moon... one sun... and one choice."
Yao Lin knelt beside the girl, touching her forehead gently. "The bond-mark hasn't awakened. But she sees. A rare child."
Su Xue frowned. "What is she to you?"
Yao Lin's expression softened. "In another time, she was my sister."
Beneath the Surface
That night, Lu Xuan could not sleep. Visions came—not dreams, but recollections not his own.
A battlefield drenched in celestial fire. A fan of crimson silk slicing through space. The Crimson Demoness bleeding willingly beneath his past self's blade.
He woke with a gasp. His veins glowed black-gold under his skin.
Su Xue was already there. Her palm pressed to his chest, frost qi bleeding into his body, calming the roar of his devouring energy.
"You're getting worse," she murmured.
"Or clearer," he whispered.
She didn't let go. "Don't lose yourself. Not to her. Not to the past."
He looked into her eyes. "What if the past is all that's left of me?"
Su Xue's reply was quiet but firm. "Then I'll carve you a future. Even if I have to fight you for it."
They both knew that one day, she might.
### Toward the Monolith
By dawn, the sect's forces had arrived at the village outskirts. Warriors in silver and black armor, each exuding sharp, honed qi.
Fei Yan inspected her twin sabers. Ming Zhao gave orders without emotion. Yao Lin stood silently, her yellow bond-mark humming.
The villagers gathered to watch them leave. Mei clutched her doll, waving quietly.
As Lu Xuan passed her, she pressed something into his hand again. Not a flower this time—but a stone, shaped like a crescent moon.
"So you don't forget," she said.
The serpent reared up beside the spring. "The road ahead winds through blood. Tread carefully, little god."
It bowed once, and dissolved into mist.
Shadows Between
Su Xue walked beside Yao Lin.
"You said he was the origin. That he never left. Explain."
Yao Lin didn't look at her. "Some souls reincarnate. Others fracture and scatter. But Lu Xuan... he reincarnates as himself. No variation. Just loops."
Su Xue's breath caught. "And me?"
"In most lives, you die early," Yao Lin replied. "In one... you become the sword that ends him."
Su Xue touched her pendant—the time anchor. It pulsed faintly.
"You remember now," Yao Lin said. "But if you lose that crystal... you forget everything. Even why you loved him."
Ahead, Lu Xuan walked alone. The red light of the approaching eclipse painted his silhouette in foreboding hues.
**End of Chapter 18**