Jiang Xuan's POV
The path led him through mist-wrapped hills, where the trees grew crooked and the wind carried whispers he couldn't trace.
The deeper he went, the more the world felt wrong — or maybe too right.
Like he didn't belong here now,
But had once belonged too much.
Then the mist parted.
And there it stood.
The First Temple.
---
It wasn't grand.
Not anymore.
Stone pillars cracked down the middle. Roofs half-collapsed under moss and vines. Statues lay broken along the path — one still clutching a shattered sword, another with no head.
And yet… it felt alive.
Jiang Xuan didn't sense qi.
He sensed recognition.
As if the temple had just opened its eyes.
And saw him.
---
At the top of the steps, a figure knelt before a stone altar.
Cloaked in white. Face lowered.
But as Jiang Xuan approached, the figure rose slowly — and turned.
A woman.
Mid-thirties, maybe older, though her eyes looked centuries deep. One silver braid hung over her shoulder, and ink-black tattoos coiled down both arms.
When she saw him, she smiled.
Not with warmth.
With reverence.
"My Lord Shenlian," she said, and bowed low.
---
He hesitated.
"I'm not him," he replied.
She didn't rise.
"You wear the ring. You bear the mark. The temple opened for you."
"I didn't mean to awaken it."
"That does not matter," she said softly. "You are here. That means it is time."
---
He stepped closer, glancing around the temple's hollow shell.
"What is this place?"
"The first altar ever built in your name," she said, standing now. "Before fear. Before betrayal. When you were still a promise."
He blinked.
"A promise?"
She nodded.
"You swore to end the cycle. To break the chains of the heavens and devour fate itself."
He exhaled slowly.
"…Sounds like something I'd say."
---
She smiled faintly. "You were glorious. And terrible."
He looked at her closely.
"You were one of mine?"
"Still am."
"What's your name?"
"I was born Emei," she said. "But when the temple took me, I became Voice of the First."
"You believe in me?"
She didn't flinch.
"I believe you are real. Belief comes second."
---
Jiang Xuan walked the ruined temple in silence, passing faded murals and broken pillars. At the center, a massive carving still remained, half-buried in vines.
A throne.
Not made of gold.
Made of stone and ash and bone.
His footsteps slowed.
It felt…
Familiar.
Like he'd sat there once. Like blood had dripped from that seat down these very stairs.
---
Emei watched him carefully.
"You remember."
"A little."
"More will come."
"I'm not sure I want it to."
She nodded.
"You sealed your past for a reason. But now that seal is leaking. One way or another… you will return to who you were."
He looked back at her.
"And if I don't want to?"
Her answer came quiet, honest:
"Then you'll break."
---
The vault was buried beneath the altar.
Emei led him down a spiral staircase carved directly into the mountain. No torches. No formations. Just stone lit faintly by blue runes along the walls — each one flickering to life as he passed.
"They're reacting to you," Emei said. "They only do that when the true heir enters."
"I'm not sure I want to inherit anything," he muttered.
She smiled quietly.
"That's what you said last time too."
---
The path opened into a circular chamber.
The walls were lined with ancient relics — blades, scrolls, robes sealed in glass, even what looked like a cracked crown still dripping shadow from its rim.
But Emei walked past them all.
Toward a pedestal in the center, wrapped in chains made of light.
Jiang Xuan stopped.
His mark pulsed once.
He knew that object.
Even if he'd never seen it before.
---
The chains hissed softly, reacting to his presence.
"What is that?" he asked.
"The Echo Fang," she said. "The blade you forged from your own heartblood. It drank the souls of seven sages before you sealed it away."
He swallowed.
"Why?"
"Because it remembered too much. And because you feared what it would whisper if you kept it close."
He stepped closer.
"It's calling to me."
"I know."
---
The weapon floated just above the pedestal — a thin, black dagger, crooked like a snake fang. Its edges shimmered with a faint red hue, like dried blood catching the light.
As he reached toward it, the runes around the chamber dimmed.
Emei spoke, soft but firm.
"You don't have to take it. But if you do—something will wake."
He looked at his hand. It wasn't shaking.
Not anymore.
"What kind of something?"
"The part of you that never forgot who it really was."
---
He touched the dagger.
The moment his skin brushed its hilt, the chains shattered — not violently, but with a sigh, as if they were only pretending to resist.
And then—
The chamber pulsed.
A wave of heat and shadow slammed through his body. Visions tore through his mind — flashes of battlefields, cities in flames, a thousand voices screaming his name in worship… or fear.
He dropped to one knee, clutching his chest.
The dagger hovered in his other hand, glowing faintly crimson.
---
Emei didn't move.
She just whispered, "Welcome back."
Jiang Xuan breathed hard. Sweat ran down his back.
But his grip on the weapon never loosened.
"I remember pieces," he said. "Names. Fire. Death."
"More will come."
He looked up at her.
"I still feel like myself. But I'm also…"
"Becoming."
---
He stood slowly.
The dagger slid into a sheath on his belt as if it had always belonged there.
And maybe it had.
"Is this it?" he asked. "Is this the start?"
"No," Emei said. "This is the second step."
"What was the first?"
She smiled.
"You stopped apologizing for existing."
---
Back in the upper temple, clouds thickened overhead.
Far away, in places where the Demon God's name had once been carved into stone, ancient seals cracked just slightly.
Not enough for anyone to notice.
Not yet.
But fate?
Fate noticed.
And it started listening.
---
Yao Xi – Watching from Afar
She stood on a hilltop not far from the temple, sword at her side.
She didn't interfere.
Didn't call out.
But her eyes stayed locked on the ruins.
And the pressure she felt?
It wasn't just cultivation.
It was a shift.
A pull.
Like the world had turned — and Jiang Xuan was no longer following its path.
He was becoming the path.
---
End of Chapter 19