Chapter Thirty-One: The Woman in Chaos
The valley was still smoldering when Feng Xieyun dragged himself free of the ash. Every step felt like knives driving into his bones. The Crimson Dragon's Heart beat within him, steady and unyielding, knitting his body back together with burning threads of fire.
The sky above had cleared, yet the silence was heavier than thunder. Not even the insects dared to stir.
He collapsed against a shattered boulder, breathing raggedly. His hands trembled as he wiped the blood from his mouth.
The System's tone broke the silence, calm and clinical.
> [Lotus Flame Third Bloom stabilized.]
[Soul capacity expanded by 12%.]
[Warning: Foreign resonance detected. Interference level: rising.]
His eyes narrowed. "Foreign resonance…? You mean that voice."
But the System fell silent.
Instead, something else stirred.
The night air shimmered. Not with fire, not with lightning—something softer, darker, like a veil of smoke unraveling.
Xieyun stiffened. His flames flickered instinctively, curling into defensive petals.
And then he saw her.
---
She stood at the edge of the molten river, bare feet untouched by fire, her form draped in veils of shifting shadow. Her hair flowed like strands of midnight, her eyes glimmered with a sorrow too deep for mortals. Every breath she took seemed to bend the world around her, as if creation itself remembered her as its source.
Xieyun's breath caught.
Her gaze locked on him. Not like an enemy, not like a stranger.
Like someone who had been searching for him through countless lifetimes.
"Yu…" Her lips shaped the name, a whisper trembling with pain and longing.
The sound pierced him deeper than any lightning strike. His chest constricted, his soul shivered.
He did not know this woman. And yet, every part of him screamed that he had known her before time itself.
---
The System shrieked suddenly, its tone sharp and violent.
> [Danger! Host exposure to Anomalous Entity.]
[Interference confirmed: Chaos-class.]
[Initiating memory suppression.]
The woman's figure flickered, her outline dissolving into smoke. Her eyes widened, desperate.
"No—don't let it erase me. Yu, you must remember—"
Her words cut off, her body fracturing like glass under invisible hands.
Xieyun staggered forward, shouting, "Who are you?!"
Her voice reached him one last time, faint and broken.
> "I am yours. And you are mine. Across ten lives, across ten worlds… remember."
And then she was gone.
---
Xieyun fell to his knees, sweat pouring down his face, his chest heaving. His lotus flames hissed and dimmed.
The System's voice returned, colder than ever:
> [Warning cleared. Illusionary interference neutralized.]
[Host stability restored.]
But the words rang hollow. He could still feel her—like fingerprints on his soul, like a chain that stretched across eternity.
He pressed a hand to his chest where the Crimson Dragon's Heart pulsed.
"Ten lives… ten worlds…" His voice was low, trembling. "Who are you to call me yours?"
The flames in his eyes flickered, not just with rage, but with something unfamiliar. Longing.
And deep within the shadows beyond mortal sight, the Goddess of Chaos wept silently, chains of cosmic law binding her from reaching him fully. Yet still, she smiled.
Because he had seen her.
---
✨ End of Chapter Thirty-One ✨