The Library of Nine Silences was dying a poet's death.
Frost crept through its skeletal rafters like invasive verse, preserving the moment of catastrophe: Scrolls hung mid-air where scholars had dropped them, their ink bleeding into frozen teardrops. Chu Feng's breath crystallized into accusation-shaped patterns as he stepped over the petrified remains of a librarian—still clutching an empty censer labeled "For Heretic Purge".
"Host 309's tombstone said 'executed'," he muttered, brushing ice from a wall mosaic. "This looks more like a massacre."
The mosaic depicted Lin Xia's crime: A star chart superimposed over the Heavenly Emperor's portrait, celestial trajectories forming treasonous poetry.
[Artifact Detected: Frostbound Quill (Tier III Cognitive Hazard)]
[Memory Imprint Accessibility: 82% (Caution: High Empathy Overload Risk)]
Chu Feng grasped the quill. Time thawed.
Flashback: The Heretic's Last Lecture
Three years before the purge
Lin Xia's fingers danced across the star-chalkboard, equations blooming like night flowers. "The so-called 'Eternal Heavenly Laws'..." She circled a constellation, "...are merely someone else's scribbled margin notes."
Her students—a ragged mix of street urchins and disgraced nobles—leaned forward. A boy with scarred lips asked, "Then how do we read the real text?"
"By becoming the pen." She tapped the Frostbound Quill against her latest theorem:
Σ(Celestial Movements) = 0.7π × (Collective Sighs of the Oppressed)
The door exploded.
"By decree of the Jade Censor," roared gold-masked inquisitors, "this nest of treason is hereby—"
Lin Xia smashed an inkpot. Darkness swallowed the room. "Run! To the Ephemeral Shelves!"
Students vanished between bookcases that hadn't existed moments before.
[Memory Corruption Detected: Host 309's Final Moments]
Chu Feng blinked back to the frozen present. The quill now pulsed in his grip, its nib carving equations into his skin:
Truth = (Sacrifice + Doubt) / Time
"Stop that." He tried to drop the quill, but frost welded it to his flesh. "System! Purge this—"
[Intervention Requires 300 Soul Integrity Points]
[Current Reserve: 94 (Critical)]
A giggle echoed. Lin Xia's ghost materialized, her scholar robes now stitch together from parchment and regret. "Poor little host. Didn't they warn you about hungry artifacts?"
"Undo this!" Chu Feng's arm was disappearing into equations.
"Ah, but you chose to grasp the quill." She leaned closer, her breath smelling of burnt libraries. "Let's see what truth we can carve from your bones."
The System finally reacted:
[Emergency Protocol: Neural Firewall (Cost: 5% Soul Integrity)]
Black veins erupted across Chu Feng's chest. The quill clattered down, taking chunks of his forearm with it.
Lin Xia's ghost danced through the ice. "You want my research? Then catch it!"
The library unfolded. Shelves grew into fractal forests, each book pulsing with trapped knowledge. Chu Feng's System navigation spun wildly:
[Reality Instability: 889%]
[Recommended Exit: 12 O'Clock (Probability: 0.03%)]
"Oldest trick in the void." He pressed his bleeding arm against a book titled "The Weight of Silence". "You want sacrifices? Let's bargain."
The book screamed. Shelves collapsed into:
Axiom Corridor: Where equations dueled as gladiators
Theorem Abyss: A void where numbers bred monstrosities
Epiphany Oasis: Pool of liquid logic that dissolved boots
Lin Xia watched from a floating desk. "You're more interesting than the last host they sent."
"Last host?" Chu Feng dodged a fractal wolf.
"Oh, Host 455 came hunting my star charts too." She licked inky lips. "He tasted like burnt capacitors and regret."
Chu Feng reached Lin Xia's desk. The Frostbound Quill lay atop a scroll:
"Contract of Silenced Stars"
Clause I: Bearer shall see beyond celestial lies
Clause II: Bearer's voice shall become comet ash
Clause III: ... (text devoured by black roots)
"Sign," Lin Xia whispered. "The stars have such stories to tell."
The System intervened:
[Signing Grants: Astral Navigation (Tier IX)
[Cost: Permanent Vocal Cord Petrification]
[Alternate Proposal: Steal Quill Core (Survival Rate: 17%)]
Chu Feng gripped his dagger. "How about option three?"
He slashed the contract.
The library screamed. Lin Xia's ghost unraveled, revealing the horror beneath:
A starved body fused to an astronomical clock, her ribs as pendulum rods. "You fool! They'll never let you—"
Chu Feng plunged the dagger into the clock's heart. Gears spat out a glass vial containing swirling starlight.
[Acquired: Astral Map (Incomplete)
[New Status: Heretic Mark Level II (All Divine Affinity Locked)]
The System's alert blared:
[Hostile Inquisition Squad Detected: 300m]
As Chu Feng fled, the dying ghost whispered her last equation into his bones:
Eternity = Σ(Sacrifices) ÷ Regret
Back in the mortal realm, Chu Feng's arm had regrown—but the skin shimmered with embedded constellations.
Ling'er inspected him under moonlight. "You've been nibbling forbidden knowledge."
"More like it nibbled me." He showed the Astral Map vial. "This proves the Heavenly Emperor's throne is a—"
Ling'er sealed his lips with phoenix ash. "Some truths are knives pointed both ways."
The System's new interface flickered:
[Heretic Mark Benefits Unlocked:
See Through Divine Illusions (Range: 1km)
Detect Other Apostates (Current Nearby: 3)**
[Penalties:
Celestial Beasts Hostility +500%
Soul Integrity Drain Near Holy Sites]**
As they vanished into the woods, stone eyes opened in the library ruins. A hooded figure collected Chu Feng's shed blood, humming a tune from Host 309's era.