Mini Flashback:
Wang Lin, alone — after breaking the sealing formation (Chapter 21 timeframe)
The night after the seal shattered, Wang Lin stood at the edge of a broken cliff.
Pavilion Seventeen slept behind him, cold and quiet.
Even the egg pulsed faintly… as if sensing his mood.
But he wasn't thinking about the elders.
Or the sect.
Or even the Voidborn that had crossed realms to reach him.
He was thinking about her.
Not Yue Ruo.
Not the one who stood before his cage and chose fear.
But the quiet one.
The one who never made a promise — and yet never had to.
The one who smiled with her eyes and listened like every word he said had weight.
He didn't even know where the memory came from.
It just surfaced.
Like a ripple in calm water.
He saw her again — under the spirit tree, laughing at something he didn't even mean to say.
Her name slipped out before he realized it:
"…Lan Xue."
The wind didn't respond.
The night didn't echo.
But Long Shan spoke, gently:
| "She mattered, didn't she?" |
Wang Lin said nothing for a long time.
Then finally—
"More than anyone who stayed."
He turned away from the cliff, robe fluttering in the wind.
And whispered to himself:
"If she's alive… I'll find her."
"And if she's not—"
He paused.
Eyes cold.
"Then someone's going to pay."
The egg pulsed once in his spirit core.
Warm.
Understanding.
Listening.