The corrupted Devour Echo didn't fade cleanly.
It lingered like smoke in the lungs—Wei Shun's final thoughts replaying in fragments every time Lin Feng closed his eyes.
*"I only wanted enough pills for Mei-Ling. She was coughing blood again. Lin Hao promised… he promised it would be quick, painless. Just one needle. Just once."*
Then the sister's face—small, trusting, eyes bright even in sickness—would overlay his own mother's dying expression from the first timeline. Two women who never met, yet their suffering braided together inside him until he couldn't tell whose regret hurt more.
He sat against the wall of his residence until the false dawn turned gray, knees drawn up, fists clenched so hard his nails drew crescents of blood.
The system remained silent after the penalty. No new quest. No mocking notification. Just quiet observation, as though it were studying how deep the fracture ran before deciding the next cut.
Lin Feng hated that silence more than any punishment.
He forced himself to stand. Moved to the small cracked basin in the corner and splashed cold water on his face. The droplets ran down like tears he refused to shed.
*Focus.*
*Revenge first. Then… everything else.*
But the lie tasted bitter now.
He left the residence before the clan bells rang for morning assembly.
The punishment cells were underground, beneath the outer training yard—damp stone corridors lit by flickering spirit lamps that never quite reached the corners. The guards on duty were two outer disciples who owed favors to Lin Hao; they straightened when they saw him approach.
"Trash isn't allowed down here," one sneered.
Lin Feng stopped three paces away. His voice came out flat, almost gentle.
"Open the cell containing Xiao Qing."
They laughed—short, nervous barks.
"Or what? You'll cry to Elder Kang?"
Lin Feng didn't answer with words.
He simply stepped forward.
The first guard raised his staff.
The black thread inside Lin Feng stirred—still raw from the night's devouring—and lashed out faster than thought. Not a full attack. Just a pulse of suppressed killing intent so pure it made both men stagger as though punched in the gut.
Their faces paled. One dropped to his knees retching.
The other fumbled for the keys with shaking hands.
"Take… take her. Just don't—"
Lin Feng walked past without touching them.
Xiao Qing was curled in the far corner of the tiny cell, knees to chest, healer's robes filthy. When the door creaked open she flinched hard.
Then she saw him.
"Lin… Lin Feng?"
He knelt at the threshold—didn't enter yet.
"I'm here."
Fresh tears spilled immediately.
"They said you abandoned me. That I was stupid to help trash."
Her voice cracked on the last word—not an insult, but the word they had beaten into her.
Lin Feng felt something inside him tear wider.
"I should have come sooner."
She shook her head violently.
"No. You… you looked at me like I mattered. No one else ever—"
He reached out slowly. She didn't pull away when his hand settled on her shoulder.
"Come on. Let's get you out."
He helped her stand. She was trembling so badly he half-carried her up the stairs. The two guards were still on the floor, eyes wide with animal fear.
Outside, the morning light hurt her eyes. She blinked against it.
"Where… where do I go now? They'll come for me again."
Lin Feng looked toward the inner grounds—where Yue Li would be training, where Lin Hao would be preening, where the true poisoner still hid behind a smiling elder's face.
"You go to the frost pond," he said quietly. "Wait there until dusk. I'll send someone I trust."
Her eyes searched his.
"Yue Li?"
He nodded once.
Xiao Qing managed a watery, broken smile.
"She likes you. I saw it yesterday. The way she looked when you saved her from the hound."
Lin Feng's chest tightened.
"She shouldn't."
"But she does."
Xiao Qing reached up—hesitant—and touched his cheek with cold fingers.
"Thank you for remembering I exist."
Then she slipped away toward the bamboo path, small and determined despite everything.
Lin Feng watched her go until she disappeared.
Only then did the system chime—cold, clinical.
[Ding! Unauthorized Interference Detected: Subject Xiao Qing removed from punishment without formal release.]
[Penalty Applied: Sovereign's Mask weakened by 15% for next 48 hours. Any scan of your talent or meridians now has 30% chance to detect anomaly.]
[Bonus Consequence: Emotional Resonance Overload — All marked bonds (Yue Li, residual echo of Xiao Qing) will now amplify your own suppressed guilt by 2× until resolved.]
The pain hit like a wave—guilt doubled, tripled, crashing against the walls he had spent ten years building.
He staggered, bracing one hand against the nearest tree.
For the first time since regression, he doubted—not the path, but himself.
*What if I'm making it worse? What if every person I try to protect ends up bleeding because of me?*
The doubt tasted like copper.
He forced himself upright.
*No.*
*Lin Hao started this.*
*Su Mei chose her side.*
*The elder with the vault ring finished my mother.*
*I finish them.*
But even as the resolve hardened, the amplified guilt whispered:
*You could have waited. Could have planned. Could have spared Xiao Qing another night of terror.*
*You chose speed over care.*
*Again.*
He walked toward the sword platform—toward Yue Li—knowing she would sense something was wrong the moment she saw him.
Knowing she would ask.
Knowing he might not have the strength to lie.
And somewhere deep in the clan archives, behind sealed jade doors, a certain elder felt a sudden chill crawl up his spine.
He glanced at the ring on his finger—the one bearing the inner vault seal—and frowned.
For just a heartbeat, the shadows in the room seemed to watch him back.
Lin Feng kept walking.
The fractures were spreading.
And the next storm was already gathering.
*********