Jiang Feng's screams echoed through the infirmary long after Yun Mei's sedatives should have silenced him.
"It's not the pain," she muttered, rewrapping the cauterized stump of his right arm. "It's the thing inside him."
Li Chen watched shadows writhe beneath Jiang Feng's skin, pooling like spilled ink around his collarbone. Ming Yue shuddered in its sheath—not in warning, but recognition.
"The shard," Li Chen said. "Xue Huoling's shadow…"
"Is knitting itself to his meridians." Yun Mei snapped her kit shut. "If we dig it out, we kill him. If we don't…"
Jiang Feng's remaining hand lashed out, gripping her wrist with preternatural strength. His eyes opened—vibrating between molten gold and abyssal black.
"He sees you," he rasped in Xue Huoling's voice. "Little heir. Little traitor. The Bell will crack, and the Sovereign…"
Elder Wu's staff cracked against Jiang Feng's temple. The noble slumped, but his sneer lingered in the stagnant air.
"Prep the Cleansing Rite," Wu ordered. "We bind the parasite at dawn."
Li Chen's gaze drifted to the Sword-Severing Bell resting on a silk cushion. It hummed faintly, chains slithering like restless serpents.
"You know what must be done," the Bell whispered, not for the first time.
So did Ming Yue: "Master. Please."
An Hour Before Dawn
The ritual chamber reeked of burnt sage and desperation. Jiang Feng lay encircled by 108 unlit candles, his chest stuttering with each shallow breath. Yun Mei painted sigils along his corrupted veins while Elder Wu inscribed the floor with blood-inked sutras.
Li Chen stood apart, Ming Yue in one hand, the Bell in the other.
"The rite demands three anchors," Wu said. "Yun Mei holds his body. I, his qi. You—"
"His soul." Li Chen eyed the Bell's chains. "And if the shadow resists?"
Wu's silence was answer enough.
Yun Mei lit the first candle. "Try not to sever anything vital, heir apparent."
The rite began in silence.
Elder Wu chanted, the sutras glowing like exposed nerves. Yun Mei's needles pinned Jiang Feng's twitching limbs, her own breath syncing with his as sweat beaded her brow.
Li Chen knelt at Jiang Feng's head, the Bell's chains coiled around Ming Yue's blade.
"Now," Wu commanded.
Li Chen struck the Bell.
The toll resonated in the marrow—a soundless scream that tore through layers of reality. Jiang Feng's back arched, shadow tendrils erupting from his mouth.
"FOOLISH GARDENER!" Xue Huoling's voice boomed, the chamber shuddering. "YOU THINK TO PRUNE ME?"
Elder Wu slammed his staff. "Verdant Cage!"
Vines burst through stone, ensnaring the shadow. Li Chen struck the Bell again.
Ming Yue howled as the chains bit into its spirit. Don't! it pleaded, not to Li Chen—to the Bell. We were brothers once!
The shadow coalesced into Xue Huoling's smirk. "Sovereign's Breath!"
Black flames devoured the vines. Yun Mei screamed as her needles melted. Jiang Feng's body levitated, eclipsing the candlelight.
"Anchor him!" Wu roared.
Li Chen dove inward, clutching Jiang Feng's flickering soul—a gilded dragon chained by rot.
Let me die, Jiang Feng's voice echoed. It's better than—
Memories flooded Li Chen:
A boy of six, practicing sword forms until his palms bled. A father's disdain: "Weakness stains your blood."
A clandestine kiss with a guard's daughter, her laughter snuffed by an arranged marriage.
A shadowed blade offering vengeance…
"No," Li Chen growled. "You don't get to quit."
He slammed the Bell into Ming Yue's tip.
Light exploded.
--
A Cage of Memory
Jiang Feng floated in void, the shadow's talons hooked through his ribs.
"So petty," Xue Huoling crooned. "So human. Let me unmake you."
Then—light.
A chain of liquid moonlight lassoed the shadow.
"My soul," Jiang Feng gasped, "isn't yours to claim."
He pulled.
Reality snapped back.
Jiang Feng collapsed, the shadow shrieking as the Bell's chains dragged it into Ming Yue's blade. The sword shivered, cracks spiderwebbing its edge.
"Stop!" Yun Mei lunged. "You're killing it!"
Li Chen didn't. Couldn't.
The shadow dissolved. The Bell fell silent.
Ming Yue's spirit wept.
Aftermath
Dawn found the sect's courtyard a tableau of exhaustion. Jiang Feng slept, his corruption contained but not cured. Ming Yue rested in pieces, its shards carefully nested in a sandalwood box.
Yun Mei cornered Li Chen at the moonwell.
"You sacrificed your Blade," she accused.
"I saved a life."
"Don't lie. You wanted to silence its voice."
He had. The Blade's pleas, its whispers of power—they'd begun to feel like a fever.
But the look in Yun Mei's eyes… He turned away.
Elder Wu approached, cradling the Bell. "Tonight, we begin reconstructing the Verdant Lotus's grand ward. The Bell will be its keystone."
"And Jiang Feng?" Li Chen asked.
"Alive. Changed." Wu's gaze hardened. "The shadow planted seeds. If they sprout…"
Three Days Later
Rebuilding the ward demanded blood.
Li Chen stood at the sect's heart, the Bell suspended above an ancient lotus pod. Elder Wu's blade drew a crimson line down his palm.
"Your lineage binds the spell," Wu said. "Channel the Bell's resonance."
Li Chen gripped the artifact. Power surged—old, hungry.
The ward flared to life: a dome of rippling jade enclosing the sect. For a breath, the world felt safe.
Then the Bell laughed.
"Hollow shield. Shallow grave."
Lightning cracked the horizon. Crimson banners darkened the northern sky—the Heavenly Sword's legion, led by a figure with Xue Huoling's face… and wings of night.
Lord Xue, the White Eclipse.
"Return what was purloined," he thundered, a thousand shadows echoing.
Yun Mei cursed. "We're out of corpses to lob."
Elder Wu activated his staff. "Li Chen. The Bell."
The artifact hummed, eager.
Li Chen raised it—and faltered. Images bombarded him:
The ward shattering. Yun Mei impaled. Jiang Feng embracing the shadow.
Himself, kneeling before Lord Xue, the Bell offered like tribute.
A Blade reforged in starlight and screams...
"Yes," purred the Bell. "Peel the future. Choose your ruin."
"Li Chen!" Yun Mei's slap snapped his trance. "Whatever it's showing you—don't."
Lord Xue's army descended.
He struck the Bell.
The ward pulsed.
Blades of verdant light shredded the vanguard, their bodies dissolving to ash. The sect cheered.
But Li Chen saw the truth: each strike aged Elder Wu, wrinkles deepening like claw marks.
Yun Mei saw too. "He's fueling the ward through his lifespan!"
Frantically, Li Chen tried silencing the Bell—it resisted, drunk on devastation.
Above, Lord Xue smiled.
"You'll tire, gardener. I am patient."
A single arrow, forged from a screaming soul, pierced the ward.
Elder Wu fell.
The Bell's chains snapped, embedding in Li Chen's flesh.
Ming Yue's voice, faint as cracked glass: "Master… take up my shards…"
But the Bell roared: "I am your Blade now!"
Lord Xue's shadow engulfed them.