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"When a man casts off his name, he believes he is free. But what is memory, if not the leash we forgot we wear?"
—Scripture of the Witness Sect, Page 1
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I. Birth in Silence
In the deepest vault beneath the Heavenly Tribunal, light did not shine.
It flowed.
Luminous memories, coiled like dragon serpents, drifted between columns carved from Time Jade—stone that aged thoughts instead of flesh.
There, in the Womb of Law, a girl floated in suspension. Her skin bore no birthmark. Her eyes were closed—but behind them, ten thousand lives pulsed.
She was not born.
She was recorded.
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> "Subject Designation: Witness Zero-One," the Tribunal voice echoed.
> "Purpose: To remember what others choose to forget."
The girl opened her eyes.
But it was not curiosity that stirred them.
It was grief.
Because the first memory that passed through her soul-core was not her own.
It was Yun Mu's.
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II. His Memories, Her Pain
She saw:
—A boy in rags holding a rice bowl with shaking hands.
—A hand that slapped it away.
—An elder who smiled while turning his back.
Then:
—A battlefield of spiritual beasts.
—The roar of victory muted by a teacher's cold nod.
—A name carved into the Sect's Hall of Shame: Yun Mu – Discipline: Hollow Practice – Expelled.
She gasped.
It felt like her life.
> "These aren't mine…" she whispered. "But I felt them."
And the Hollow within the memories stirred.
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III. Name: Yu Ling
She gave herself a name.
Not bestowed by Heaven, nor carved by edict.
But chosen from a forgotten corner of a memory she should not have.
> "Yu Ling," she said.
And in that moment, something impossible happened.
A crack ran down the Vault of Law.
Because a Witness had spoken a name that never existed.
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IV. The March Begins
Yu Ling ascended the stair of records—each step inscribed with laws of the heavens.
Her presence unraveled them.
—The Law of Identity flickered: "None may bear false name."
—The Law of Ascension bent: "No path outside the Five Pillars may be walked."
—The Law of Rebirth screamed: "Memory must return to the cycle."
She shattered them all.
By the time she reached the top, she had already broken four commandments.
And all she carried was a shard of Yun Mu's soulprint.
Just one.
But it was enough.
Because it held a single moment:
> "I don't want to exist anymore."
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V. The Tribunal Reacts
The Judges of Heaven convened.
Twelve faceless giants, their robes formed from starlight contracts and karma chains, debated.
> "She is no longer a Witness."
> "She has taken a name."
> "She has identified with the Hollow."
> "Exterminate?"
But a thirteenth voice spoke—a smaller one.
One that had not spoken in thirty thousand years.
The Empty Throne.
> "No. Let her walk. Let memory chase the nameless."
> "Let guilt be the leash."
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VI. The Chase Begins
Yu Ling walked across the spirit-drenched continents, following echoes of Yun Mu's severed moments.
Each one haunted her.
In the village of Stone Ash, she found a beggar who used to share scraps with a boy named Yun.
But the beggar no longer remembered.
In the ruins of Frostveil Monastery, she found a blade Yun once held in love—but now twisted into a Hollowed weapon.
Its spirit screamed when she touched it.
> "He loved… and forgot. You remember… but never felt."
Yu Ling took the blade.
And bound it with a vow:
> "If he no longer carries what he once was…
Then I will carry it all."
She became something new.
Not just a Witness.
But a Keeper of the Forgotten Flame.
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VII. The First Encounter
In the Lotus Desert, at the edge of unclaimed realms, she found him.
Yun Mu stood before a ruined altar.
Around him lay three dead cultivators of the Dawn Scripture Sect—each missing their names, their voices hollowed into silence.
He turned.
And did not know her.
> "Do I know you?" he asked.
Yu Ling's throat tightened.
She remembered the way he once laughed—only once, when he saved a child from a flooding river.
He had given the child his name. She remembered it.
He did not.
> "No," she said softly. "You don't."
> "But I remember you."
> "And that makes me your greatest enemy."
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VIII. Memory as Weapon
Yu Ling raised the Forgotten Blade.
It did not shine.
It wept.
Every strike she unleashed contained emotion—not Qi.
A memory of kindness lost.
A scream that was never heard.
A love buried under silence.
Yun Mu dodged, parried—and each time he did, a flicker of remembrance returned.
> "Stop," he growled. "I left those behind."
> "Exactly," she said. "And I brought them back."
Their battle tore the desert open.
One fought to erase.
The other fought to restore.
But even as she landed the final blow—piercing his shoulder with memory—Yu Ling cried.
Because the more he remembered…
…the more he suffered.
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IX. Aftermath
Yu Ling dropped the blade.
Yun Mu collapsed, coughing void-essence.
He looked at her with new eyes—not of hatred, but of terror.
> "I feel it again," he whispered. "Grief. Love. Loss."
> "Why did you do this?"
She stepped back, trembling.
> "Because if you forget it all… then the world loses you."
> "And I…"
Her voice broke.
> "I don't want to remember you alone."