Lin Mu stared at the character "Heart" on the stone for a very long time.
The stone's surface was smooth as a mirror. That character looked carved into it, yet also as if it were shining through from within. The dark gold strokes were identical to the lines on his right ring finger.
"Host." The trash can's voice was very soft, carrying a tremor. "That heart... it couldn't be..."
It didn't finish.
But Lin Mu knew what it meant.
That black heart—the resentment raised for three years—had vanished when Zhou Yuan died.
Could it have... entered this stone?
Lin Mu held the stone up and examined it carefully in the moonlight.
There was nothing inside. No heart, no resentment. Only that character "Heart," quietly present.
But he could feel it.
Something was in there.
Not a dead thing. Alive.
"Who are you?" Lin Mu asked.
The stone didn't answer.
But it brightened.
Just once, very faintly—like a blink.
Lin Mu was silent for two seconds, then tucked the stone away.
"Let's go."
"Where?"
"Find Wang Tiezhu."
Wang Tiezhu's lodgings weren't far—in the worst section for outer disciples, barely better than Lin Mu's handyman quarters.
When Lin Mu knocked, Wang Tiezhu was sitting on his bed, staring into space. Seeing Lin Mu, he blinked.
"Lin Yuan? What are you doing here?"
"Need to ask you something."
Lin Mu walked in and closed the door.
The room was sparse: one bed, one table, a chipped bowl on the table. Wang Tiezhu poured him a cup of water, then retreated to his bed.
"Ask away."
Lin Mu sat across from him.
"When you found Zhou Yuan dead, did you see anything strange?"
Wang Tiezhu thought for a moment.
"Strange things... not really." He said. "I was just passing by his door when I heard someone shout from inside. Then I saw a bunch of people running over. By the time I pushed through, he was already on the ground."
"Someone shouted? Who?"
"No idea." Wang Tiezhu shook his head. "By the time I heard it, it was too late. When I got there, the door was already crowded."
Lin Mu was silent for a moment.
"Did you see Zhou Yuan's face?"
"Yeah." Wang Tiezhu's expression turned strange. "His face... terrifying. Eyes wide open, mouth gaping—like he'd seen something horrible."
"Besides his expression? Anything else unusual?"
Wang Tiezhu thought, then suddenly slapped his forehead.
"Oh right! His chest—there was a hole in his clothes!"
Lin Mu's heart tightened.
"A hole? What kind?"
"Just... a hole." Wang Tiezhu gestured. "About fist-sized. Clean edges. Like something had burst out from inside."
Burst out from inside.
Lin Mu remembered what Lin Zifan had said: his chest cavity had no heart.
That heart had burst out from within?
"Anything else?"
Wang Tiezhu thought hard, then shook his head.
"That's it. Enforcement Hall came quickly and shooed us all away."
Lin Mu nodded and stood up.
"Alright. Thanks. Get some sleep."
He reached the door when Wang Tiezhu suddenly spoke:
"Lin Yuan."
He turned back.
Wang Tiezhu looked at him, hesitant.
"Um... I didn't mention this earlier."
"What?"
Wang Tiezhu swallowed.
"When I ran over, outside Zhou Yuan's door, I saw something."
Lin Mu's heart stirred.
"What?"
"A dark shadow." Wang Tiezhu said. "Very faint, like smoke. It drifted out through the crack in the door and floated toward where you live."
Lin Mu froze.
A dark shadow.
Toward where he lived.
"You're sure?"
"Sure." Wang Tiezhu nodded. "At the time I thought my eyes were playing tricks. But now I think about it, it keeps bothering me."
Lin Mu was silent for two seconds.
"Got it. Thanks."
He pushed open the door and stepped out.
The night wind blew past, chilling him.
Lin Mu stood outside, looking up at the moon.
The moon was full and bright, illuminating the ground almost like daylight.
But he couldn't shake the feeling that something in the darkness was watching him.
Back in his room, Lin Mu closed the door and lit the lamp.
He pulled the stone from his robe and set it on the table.
The stone lay quietly. That character "Heart" was still there.
He stared at it for a long time.
Then he spoke.
"I know you're in there."
The stone didn't react.
"Zhou Yuan died. You came out." Lin Mu continued. "You entered this stone, didn't you?"
The stone brightened.
Lin Mu's heartbeat quickened.
"You're the resentment from my past life?"
The stone brightened again.
"What do you want?"
The stone was silent.
After a long time, it brightened once more.
But this time was different.
Very dim. Very slow. As if hesitant. Or sorrowful.
Lin Mu frowned.
"What are you trying to say?"
The stone didn't answer.
But on its surface, an image suddenly appeared.
Blurry, like flowing mist. The mist slowly condensed into a face.
That face—Lin Mu recognized it.
It was his own.
No—it was the original owner's.
The original owner's face looked at him from within the stone, expression sad.
"You..." Lin Mu froze.
That face opened its mouth, as if trying to speak.
No sound came.
Only mouth movements.
Lin Mu stared at those lips and read them word by word:
"I... don't... blame... him."
Lin Mu was stunned.
Don't blame whom?
Don't blame Zhou Yuan?
"You mean—you don't blame Zhou Yuan?" Lin Mu asked.
The face nodded.
Then it opened its mouth again and said another sentence.
Lin Mu read the lips slowly:
"He... was... forced... too."
Forced?
Who forced Zhou Yuan?
Before Lin Mu could ask, the face in the stone suddenly vanished.
The image shattered, dissolving back into mist, until nothing remained.
Only that character "Heart" was still there.
"Host." The trash can's voice came from his robe. "That was—"
"The original owner's resentment." Lin Mu said. "He was talking to me."
"What did he say?"
Lin Mu was silent for a moment.
"He said he doesn't blame Zhou Yuan." He said. "And that Zhou Yuan was forced too."
The trash can was stunned.
"Forced? By whom?"
Lin Mu shook his head.
He didn't know.
But he suddenly remembered something.
Before he died, at Reflection Cliff, Zhou Yuan had said to him:
"Because you owe me. You owe me a life."
If the original owner's resentment said he didn't blame Zhou Yuan, then why did Zhou Yuan want to kill him?
That life—who really owed it to whom?
Lin Mu lay in bed, not sleeping all night.
When dawn came, he got up, washed his face, and pushed open the door.
Outside, the sun was bright, stinging his eyes.
He stood at the door, took a deep breath, and headed in one direction.
Enforcement Hall.
Lin Zifan was there.
He sat in the same room as yesterday, looking at something. When he saw Lin Mu enter, he raised an eyebrow.
"Back again?"
Lin Mu sat across from him.
"Need to ask you something."
Lin Zifan set down whatever he was holding and looked at him.
"Ask."
"Three years ago, when Zhou Yuan got that heart—did you see it?"
Lin Zifan was silent for two seconds.
"Yes."
"Where?"
"The back mountain." Lin Zifan said. "The mountain below Reflection Cliff."
Lin Mu's heart stirred.
Below Reflection Cliff?
That endless abyss?
"What did he tell you?"
Lin Zifan thought for a moment.
"He said he found it at the bottom of the cliff." He said. "Said it was glowing, and he got curious, so he picked it up. The moment he touched it, it burrowed into his body."
Lin Mu froze.
Burrowed into his body?
"You mean—that heart was alive?"
"Yes." Lin Zifan nodded. "Alive. And from that day on, Zhou Yuan changed."
He paused.
"Do you know what Zhou Yuan was like before?"
Lin Mu shook his head.
The original owner's memories had Zhou Yuan always being kind to him—no impressions from before.
Lin Zifan said: "Zhou Yuan used to be an honest man. Timid, afraid of trouble, easily bullied. If you were kind to him, he'd remember it forever."
Lin Mu was silent for two seconds.
"Then why did he change?"
"Because of that heart." Lin Zifan said. "That heart magnified the hatred inside him."
He stared at Lin Mu.
"Do you know who he hated?"
Lin Mu's heart tightened.
"Me?"
"Yes." Lin Zifan said. "He hated you."
"Why?"
Lin Zifan was silent for a long time.
Then he said something that left Lin Mu completely stunned.
"Because you saved him."
Lin Mu's mind went blank.
Saved him?
Then why did he hate me?
"Three years ago, there's something you don't know." Lin Zifan said. "Zhou Yuan had offended someone. They cornered him in the back mountain and nearly beat him to death. You happened to pass by and fought desperately to save him. You took a dozen blows yourself and lay in bed for half a month."
Lin Mu froze.
In the original owner's memories, this incident existed.
But he'd always thought it was the original owner helping a stranger.
Never imagined that person was Zhou Yuan.
"Then why did he hate me?" Lin Mu asked.
Lin Zifan looked at him, his gaze complicated.
"Because of that heart." He said. "That heart magnified his hatred. But what he hated wasn't that you were unkind to him—it was that you were too kind."
Lin Mu didn't understand.
"Being too kind is also hatred?"
"Yes." Lin Zifan said. "Because your kindness made him feel he owed you. He didn't want to owe anyone. So he wanted to kill you."
Lin Mu was silent.
This logic—he couldn't grasp it.
But he suddenly remembered what the original owner's resentment had said inside that black heart:
"I don't blame him."
Maybe the original owner had known all along that Zhou Yuan was also powerless.
"What is that heart, really?" Lin Mu asked.
Lin Zifan shook his head.
"I don't know." He said. "But I've investigated for three years and found a few things."
He pulled an old book from a drawer, flipped to a page, and pushed it toward Lin Mu.
Lin Mu looked down.
It was an illustration.
A heart was drawn there.
Black, fist-sized, surface smooth as a mirror.
Identical to the one in his stone.
Below the illustration were several lines of ancient text. Lin Mu couldn't read them all, but he recognized a few characters:
"Resentment... Spirit... Heart... Seed..."
Resentment Spirit Heart Seed?
Lin Zifan pointed at those characters.
"The Resentment Spirit Heart Seed—an ancient evil artifact." He said. "Legend says it's condensed from the resentment of ten thousand people. Whoever obtains it becomes controlled by it, turned into its puppet."
He paused.
"Zhou Yuan—he was controlled by it."
Lin Mu stared at the illustration, his mind racing.
The resentment of ten thousand people?
Then the heart Zhou Yuan raised—the one he'd nurtured for three years—
Was only a part of it?
"Where is it now?" Lin Mu asked.
Lin Zifan looked at him, silent.
Suddenly Lin Mu understood.
In his robe.
Inside that stone.
"It's found you." Lin Zifan said.
Lin Mu was silent for two seconds.
"How do you know?"
Lin Zifan smiled.
That smile was bitter.
"Because the gold one above my head—that was caused by it." He said.
Lin Mu froze.
"What do you mean?"
Lin Zifan stood up, walked to the window, and turned his back.
"Three years ago, the night your dantian shattered, I was there too." He said. "I saw Zhou Yuan place that heart beside you. I saw it drain your spiritual energy. I saw you writhing in pain."
He paused.
"I wanted to save you, but I couldn't move. That heart had control of me too."
Lin Mu stared at his back.
"Then how did you break free?"
Lin Zifan was silent for a long time.
Then he turned around.
"Because someone took my place."
Lin Mu was stunned.
"What?"
Lin Zifan looked at him, his eyes reddening.
"That gold heart above my head—it was left by that person." He said. "She traded her life for mine."
She?
Lin Mu's heart stirred.
"She was—"
"Your mother." Lin Zifan said.
Lin Mu's mind went blank.
Mother?
The original owner's mother?
The one who, after his dantian shattered, cried until she went blind?
"She..."
"She was also a cultivator." Lin Zifan said. "But she had abandoned her cultivation and lived in seclusion in Qingyun City, just to take care of you. That night, she sensed you were in danger and rushed over at the cost of her life."
He took a deep breath.
"She forced that heart out of my body, but the backlash killed her."
Lin Mu stood there, unable to speak.
"Before she died, she said one thing to me." Lin Zifan looked at him. "She said, take care of your little brother."
Lin Zifan's tears fell.
"I failed."
The room was very quiet.
Quiet enough to hear the wind outside the window.
Lin Mu looked down at his right hand.
On his ring finger, the character "Bury" was still there.
But now, it didn't look like "Bury" or "Hide."
It looked more like "Nian."
The character for longing.
"That heart—it's with me now." Lin Mu said.
Lin Zifan blinked.
"What?"
Lin Mu pulled the stone from his robe and set it on the table.
The stone lay quietly. That character "Heart" was clearly visible.
"It killed Zhou Yuan, then entered this stone." Lin Mu said. "I don't know what it wants. But I do know one thing."
He looked at Lin Zifan.
"I'm going to destroy it."
Lin Zifan stared at that stone for a long time.
Then he smiled.
That smile was different from before.
It was relief.
"Good." He said. "I'll help you."