The night was ink-black, a biting wind howling through the mountains.
On a solitary peak stood a young man in a blue robe, his gaze sharp as a honed dagger sweeping across the distant ridges. A weathered sword hung at his waist, its scabbard engraved with two characters: "Soulsever."
He was Lin Wufeng—a swordsman of little renown in the jianghu. Few knew the truth: within him resided six distinct souls, each with memories and wills of their own.
"You again," Lin Wufeng muttered, irritation lacing his voice.
A sneering tone answered in his mind: "You think I enjoy this? If not for your cowardice, we'd have seized the 'Celestial Tome' by now!"
This was Li Feng, his second self—ruthless, decisive, always forcing control when hesitation gripped the host.
Lin Wufeng clenched his jaw. Arguing with Li Feng was futile.
Footsteps crunched on gravel. His hand flew to his sword as a white-robed figure emerged from the shadows.
"Brother Lin! I knew it was you." The young man smiled, a horsetail whisk tucked under his arm.
"Bai Yu?" Lin Wufeng relaxed slightly. The monk from the Celestial Strategy Pavilion—though clad in ascetic robes—knew the jianghu's tides better than most.
"Have you heard?" Bai Yu's voice dropped. "The Celestial Tome has surfaced."
Li Feng's voice crowed triumphantly in Lin Wufeng's skull: "I told you it was real!"
"Who holds it now?" Lin Wufeng asked.
"The Netherworld Sect." Bai Yu's fingers tightened around his whisk. "Their Shadowguard stole it three nights past."
When Bai Yu proposed an alliance to reclaim the tome, two voices erupted within Lin Wufeng:
"Accept! This is our chance!" Li Feng demanded.
A calmer tone intervened—Jing Xin, his third self: "The Netherworld Sect drowns dissenters in blood. Rashness will get us killed."
"I need time," Lin Wufeng finally said.
As Bai Yu departed, the internal war raged on. Li Feng's taunts, Jing Xin's warnings—their cacophony drowned even the mountain winds.
Lin Wufeng stared at the starless sky. Six souls. Six wills. A prison of his own making.
"Perhaps," he whispered, "it's time to stop running."