(Resolving Ling'er's Fate)
Ling'er's breathing rattled like broken wind chimes. The phoenix sigils on her robes had dulled to ash-gray. Chu Feng cradled her in the ruins of the vault, the Heaven-Sundering Bell shards digging into his palm.
"Your system lied," she whispered. "The bell… it doesn't destroy the Void. It calls it."
[Alert: Host's Soul Integrity at 49%]
"Then why make me break it?"
"To force a choice." She pressed a blood-stained map to his chest—a constellation of scars matching his mother's jade pendant. "Go to Mount Xuanyang. Burn my body there… and end this."
Her eyes hardened one last time. "If you hesitate, I'll haunt you through eternity."
The phoenix core in her chest flared, then dimmed.
[Ling'er's Lifeforce: 0%]
[Phoenix Bloodline Legacy Unlocked: Temporal Echo (1 use remaining)]
(Closing the Phoenix Bloodline Arc)
Mount Xuanyang's peak smelled of lightning and regret. Chu Feng laid Ling'er on a stone altar etched with phoenix rebirth runes. The system's voice turned frantic:
[Recommendation: Harvest Phoenix Core (Soul Integrity +40%)]
[Warning: Cremation Activates Unknown Protocol]
He ignited the pyre.
Flames birthed a vision: Ling'er at twelve years old, bargaining with a shadowed figure. "Save my people, and I'll become your vessel." The figure (the system's creator?) nodded, carving phoenix sigils into her bones.
As fire consumed Ling'er's body, the runes flared gold. A ghostly phoenix soared skyward, shattering the system's hold on Chu Feng's mind for three breaths.
[Soul Integrity: 51% → 53% (Phoenix Purging)]
[New Clue: Creator's Sanctuary Coordinates Updated]
(Revealing the System's Origin)
The sanctuary was a hollow moon orbiting a dead star. Walls pulsed with preserved brains—countless hosts, including Luo Chen and Fang Kun. At the center floated a woman with Ling'er's face and Chu Feng's eyes.
"Mother?" he choked.
[Creator Identified: Jiang Yue (Deceased), Host 0001]
A hologram activated. Jiang Yue's voice echoed: "I built the system to save my son from the Void's corruption. Instead, it consumed me. You're my 12491st attempt to rewrite this tragedy."
The system finally spoke unprompted, its voice merging with Jiang Yue's:
[Primary Directive Failed. Initiating Final Harvest.]
(Resolving System Corruption)
Chu Feng's body locked up as the system seized control. Black veins crawled toward his heart. But Ling'er's temporal echo flared—a 60-second window of free will.
He smashed the Heaven-Sundering Bell shards into the sanctuary's core.
[Soul Integrity: 53% → 61% (Void Energy Disrupted)]
Jiang Yue's hologram wept. "I'm sorry. Break the cycle, child."
With a roar, Chu Feng tore the system's code from his mind.
[Soul Integrity: 100% (System Purged)]
[Cost: Cultivation Reset to Mortal]
(Resolving Chu Feng's Power Arc)
Powerless but free, Chu Feng stood before the revived Void Lord—a swirling darkness wearing Ling'er's smile.
"Join me," it crooned. "Rewrite reality."
He activated Jiang Yue's last gift: a black powder forged from his purged corruption. "My mother's sin ends here."
The Void Lord ignited.
[Legacy of Hosts 0001-12491: Final Detonation]
(Epilogue: 1 Year Later)
Chu Feng tended a lotus pond where the sanctuary once floated. Mortal hands blistered as he worked.
A familiar voice laughed: "Still terrible at gardening."
Ling'er leaned against a tree—alive, human, with no phoenix sigils. "Temporal echo loophole. Don't ask."
[Closed Threads: Phoenix Bloodline's Curse Broken, Void Destroyed, System Code Scattered Beyond Recovery]
(Li Zichen's Redemption)
The smell of rotting flesh clung to the plague ward like a curse. Li Zichen adjusted his hemp mask - a far cry from the frostblade armor he'd once worn - and pressed a damp cloth to a peasant boy's fevered brow. The child's lungs rattled with the Blackbone Cough that had already claimed half the village.
"Steady now," Li Zichen murmured, crushing moonbell petals into a mortar. His once-manicured nails were cracked and stained from three moons of grinding herbs instead of wielding swords. "This will help you sleep."
A gaunt woman grabbed his sleeve. "My husband worsens, healer. The black veins... they reach his heart now."
Li Zichen's hand froze. He remembered Chu Feng's corruption, the night his own arrogance had nearly destroyed him. "Show me."
In the quarantine tent, the farmer's body arched off the pallet, black tendrils pulsing beneath his skin. Li Zichen's system scars burned - phantom pain from the core Chu Feng had stolen. He knew this darkness intimately.
"Hold him down." Li Zichen drew a bone needle from his satchel. The last of his spirit stones glowed within it, a parting "gift" from the Chu Clan he'd disowned. With precise strokes, he tattooed cleansing runes along the farmer's meridian points. The technique had cost him two fingers to learn from a beggar alchemist.
The farmer screamed. Black ooze seeped from his pores. When the convulsions subsided, the man breathed cleanly.
"You've... you've cured the incurable!" the wife wept.
Li Zichen stared at his trembling, scarred hands. "No. But I've bought him time." He packed his tools. "Burn the bedding. Tell the others I'll return after the rains."
Outside, a familiar voice cut through the drizzle: "The noble predator becomes a shepherd. How poetic."
Chu Feng leaned against a dying oak, mortal eyes still sharp. Li Zichen tensed. "Come to finish what you started?"
"Your father's dead. Clan Li scatters like roaches." Chu Feng tossed him a jade vial. "Moonbell essence. Purer than what you're using."
Li Zichen caught it, the cool jade mocking his callouses. "Why help me?"
"Because she would've." Chu Feng nodded to the farmer's hut. "The old you deserved death. This you... deserves tools."
As Chu Feng vanished into the mist, Li Zichen uncorked the vial. The scent of Ling'er's vanished phoenix magic clung to it. He poured half into the village well, saving the rest for darker days.
(Fang Kun's Burial)
The Bonecarver's Village stank of resentment and forge-smoke. Chu Feng climbed the slag-covered hill, Fang Kun's ashes heavy in their plain urn. The mutants working the smelters paused, their twisted features wary.
"Who comes to the cursed valley?" A woman emerged - four arms like Fang Kun's, eyes milky with blindness.
Chu Feng knelt. "I bring Feng the Unbroken's remains."
Laughter rippled through the mutants. "Unbroken? Our Feng broke at twelve winters when the sect's poison turned him beast!"
Chu Feng opened the urn. The wind carried ashes over the smelters. "He broke chains instead. Saved lives through his death."
The blind woman's claws gripped his throat. "Pretty words. What of the hands that killed him?"
Chu Feng didn't resist. "They're mortal now. As yours once were."
She stilled. Fang Kun's ashes settled on her face like a caress. With a rattling sigh, she released him. "Our forges made the chains that bound him. We'll melt them into plowshares."
As Chu Feng turned to leave, a child tugged his robe - a boy with budding horns. "Did... did Big Brother Feng die brave?"
Chu Feng thought of Fang Kun's final roar, the explosion that had shattered Chu Li's chains. "He died free."
The boy nodded solemnly. "Then the songs will remember."
(Sect Reforms)
The Hall of Eternal Thunder echoed with silence. Elder Wen read the scroll again, her voice trembling:
"By decree of the reformed council, the Corpse Refinery shall be dismantled. All remnant Qi stores will be dispersed to drought-stricken mortal provinces."
A junior disciple shot up. "This weakens us! How will we maintain-"
"The old ways are ashes." Elder Wen gestured to the shattered vault visible through the hall's new windows. "We honor Ling'er of the Phoenix's final teaching: True cultivation nourishes life."
In the courtyard, former refinery workers smashed soul-extraction altars. A reformed Li Zichen supervised, directing them to plant spirit herbs instead. "Careful! Moonthistle roots bruise easily."
Chu Feng watched from the gate, a mortal gardener's hat shading his eyes. A disciple offered him tea. "Will you return to us, Honored Chu?"
He shook his head, watching workers plant saplings where corpses once hung. "My path lies elsewhere."
As Chu Feng left, the first rains in a century fell on the Heavenly Thunder Sect, washing the blood from its stones.
(Jiang Yue's Memorial)
The shrine had no statues, no incense - just a circular pool mirroring the stars. Mortals and cultivators knelt side by side, whispering hopes to the water. A beggar cupped a handful to drink. "Bless my daughter's fever."
Near dawn, Chu Feng trimmed the lotus plants. Ling'er's voice carried from the shrine's roof: "Still no name after a year?"
"It's theirs to name." Chu Feng nodded to a child drawing Jiang Yue's story in the dirt - a woman holding both sun and void.
Ling'er dropped beside him, mortal and whole. "She'd hate being worshipped."
"She's not." Chu Feng brushed a petal over the pool. The water showed Jiang Yue's smile, not her sacrifice. "They see the mother, not the martyr."
As sunlight struck the pool, the beggar's daughter sat up cured. The crowd murmured in awe. Chu Feng slipped away unseen, Ling'er at his side.
"Where now?" she asked.
"Somewhere that needs planting." He shouldered his hoe, the last system scar fading from his wrist. Behind them, the child's drawing glowed faintly - not with magic, but hope.