The Lotus of Mending Veins pulsed beneath Lin Wei's skin as Jie Ran's hand touched the poisoned boy. Warmth spread from his neck down his arms—like roots waking up.
Then…
A *snap* inside his chest.
One of the five faint lines on his neck *lit up*—fully formed into a soft white petal.
**First Petal: "Hold Life" — The ability to keep a dying person alive, even when all hope is gone.**
The boy gasped suddenly—eyes flying open!
Black veins across his arms shrank back like smoke sucked into a flame.
Jie Ran pulled back fast, eyes sharp. "You… just reversed death-seal poison?"
Lin Wei didn't answer. He was too busy falling to his knees—hands shaking, nose bleeding. Healing always hurt him… but now it felt *different*. Like something had changed inside.
The lotus wasn't just healing—it was *learning*… growing stronger with every life he saved.
And then…
A voice—not in words—but in feeling:
***"More will come... Worthy ones... But they must choose you."***
Like the lotus wasn't just part of him...
But something alive... waiting for love?
Jie Ran watched him breathe hard in the rain—and without thinking—he reached out and caught Lin Wei's arm before he fell.
Their eyes met for one long second…
No words needed.
Then wind howled above them—and two red lights blinked through stormclouds...
Something—or someone—was coming down from the sky...
Fast!
---
The lights above burned redder as wind and rain lashed around Lin Wei and Jie Ran. No... *two lights.*
Jie Ran turned to face them—and he was fast.
A cold blue sword flashed from its sheath, catching firelight like ice.
The boy on the ground started coughing again—whatever Lin Wei had done was fading.
But the **lily on his neck** was still glowing.
One faint line on its edge… shifting… changing…
A *second petal* **budding**!
"Keep him alive," Jie Ran said quietly.
Lin Wei nodded—his hands trembling as he pressed them down on the boy's chest again.
Heat burst inside him.
The second line on his neck flared white—not fully open, but *trying*.
Pushing. Straining.
And then… a whisper:
**"Feel… their pain…"**
Suddenly—Lin Wei *felt* it.
Not just the poison—but the boy's fear… his last memory: being thrown from a golden bridge above the clouds… someone saying, "Die quietly."
A cry rose in Lin Wei's throat—not his own—but *the boy's*!
And without thinking—he pulled that pain into himself.
His arms turned black where the veins had been.
He screamed—
—and at that moment…
***Snap.***
The **second petal bloomed**.
**Second Petal: "Share Pain" — Heals others by taking their wounds into himself.**
Rain fell on his face as he collapsed—skin burning, body weak…
But the boy?
He sat up slowly... alive... clear-eyed...
Jie Ran saw it all.
Without a word—he stepped between Lin Wei and sky...
Just as two figures crashed down like falling stars—
Dark robes. Twin masks of bone and fire.
One laughed: "So this is where they sent our lost puppet?"
The other looked at Lin Wei with red eyes full of hunger:
"And what is this? A mortal who steals death?"
Jie Ran raised his sword—one hand trembling not from fear…
But rage?
"No one," he said coldly, voice cutting through storm and thunder,
"Touchs him."
Two figures in black landed just in front of Jie Ran.
One had a cruel smile.
"Such courage for a mortal," it said. "To fight for another."
The other wore a bone mask, marked with bloody teeth.
It tilted its head, looking at Lin Wei—still kneeling in mud—white petals glowing faintly on his neck.
"A flower… and yet a *weapon*."
"He is neither of those," Jie Ran said.
The bone-masked figure *laughed*.
"You cannot fight fate."
"Fate?" Jie Ran clenched his sword tight.
Even the one with the cruel smile seemed uneasy.
"You think *you* know our will?" it said.
"No. I know the will of all who fight to live. Something you have *forgotten*."
The bone-masked figure *growled*, "Quiet, dog!"
Then—lightning split the sky. In a moment of light, Jie Ran looked back at Lin Wei—still kneeling in the rain, eyes closed, breathing hard…
The second petal was gone from his neck...
...No.
Not gone.
*Transformed.*
Where the second petal had been, the skin now shimmered with a faint scar—like silver thread woven under flesh. The glow was dimmer… but deeper. As if the Lotus wasn't just blooming anymore—
It was *remembering*.
And in Lin Wei's mind—a whisper:
**"You took pain… now you carry it."**
His body trembled, veins dark for just a heartbeat before fading. He wasn't healed… but he *endured*.
The boy he saved stood up slowly—and looked at him with awe, then fear: "You… took my poison?"
Lin Wei tried to smile. Weakly nodded. "Had to." Then coughed blood into his hand—but wiped it fast so no one saw.
Jie Ran felt it—the shift in energy behind him.
His voice hardened: "He is not your puppet."
The two dark figures stepped forward—one laughing still, one silent as death—
Then stopped.
Because from Lin Wei's back—not light or fire—but *wind* stirred on its own.
A single white petal drifted up from his neck... glowing softly...
And though broken and bleeding…
He said:
"I'm not letting anyone die tonight."
The Lotus pulsed once—
not loud...
not bright...
but like a heart beating under skin—
and somewhere far above…
an ancient bell rang once in an empty temple.
Awake again?
Or just listening?
The two dark figures froze.
The bell's sound rang again—low, deep—echoing through the storm like a warning from the heavens.
One of them grabbed his head as if in pain. "No… not *that* bell. It hasn't rung in three hundred years!"
The other—the silent one with the bone mask—knelt suddenly, shaking.
"Master…" he whispered into the wind. "The Lotus… it remembers *you*?"
Jie Ran turned slightly—eyes wide, not at them…
But at Lin Wei.
Because now… tiny white roots glowed faintly under Lin Wei's skin—from his neck down to his arms—as if veins were being rewoven with light.
And from that single drifting petal—a voice came again…
Not just in Lin Wei's mind this time…
But for all to hear:
**"He is mine. And I am his."**
Then silence.
Rain paused midair for one breath…
And then—
A hand touched Lin Wei's back.
Jie Ran stepped close—ignoring the enemies, ignoring death—and placed one palm where the Lotus bloomed beneath skin and blood and bone.
"I don't care what you are," he said quietly, so only Lin Wei could hear.
"If they hurt you… I will burn their world down."
Lin Wei looked up—at those cold silver eyes now full of fire—
And something warm broke open inside him...
Just as thunder crashed above...
Two more red lights fell toward them... bigger... faster...
But this time...
Jie Ran smiled. A small thing—but real:
"Stay behind me…"
"...Healer."
To be continued?