Chapter 67 – Ghosts of the Starborn
A Journey Through Ashes
The wind howled as Luo Fan stood at the edge of the ruins.
The Starborn Stream Sect had once been a grand celestial fortress, where disciples walked across sky bridges suspended in midair, training beneath floating star lanterns that mimicked the constellations above. Golden formations carved into the ground pulsed with the sect's protective arrays, harmonizing with the rhythm of the cosmos itself.
Now, it was nothing more than shattered stone and broken echoes.
Cracked pillars jutted out from the ground like the ribs of a long-dead beast. Broken pathways led to nowhere, their floating bridges collapsed into the abyss below. The once-glorious Great Starlight Pagoda—the sect's sacred meditation hall—had been split in half, as if someone had taken a celestial blade and cleaved it from reality.
The Reset had erased more than just structures. It had stolen memories, rewritten existence itself.
But something lingered.
Something wasn't completely gone.
> "Ah, yes. Abandoned ruins. Creepy atmosphere. The faint possibility of vengeful ghosts. This is just SCREAMING 'horror movie protagonist makes a bad decision.'"
Luo Fan stepped forward, boots crunching against debris. A faint layer of ashen dust coated the ground—not natural dust, but remnants of burned spirit energy.
He knelt and ran a finger through the gray powder. A sharp, residual pulse of qi stung his fingertips. Not completely dead energy.
> "Good thing I'm not in a horror movie, then."
> "Oh? Because if we WERE, you'd be the guy who touches the obviously cursed artifact five minutes in."
He rolled his eyes. "Do you sense anything?"
> "Besides existential dread? Hold on—scanning."
A soft pulse radiated from EchoStar, sweeping over the ruins. A faint hum vibrated through the air, like the aftershock of a tuning fork.
Luo Fan could almost feel something—not alive, but not entirely gone either.
> [Partial Data Fragment Detected]
[Source: Unknown—Potential System Remnant]
His eyes narrowed. "A system fragment?"
> "Maybe. Or maybe it's just a particularly stubborn rock."
Luo Fan ignored the dramatics and moved deeper into the ruins. The further he walked, the heavier the spiritual pressure became. It wasn't overpowering—but it was there, curling at the edges of his senses like the dying embers of a once-mighty flame.
Something had been left behind.
Something still remembered.
The Great Hall's Lingering Echoes
He stopped before what had once been the Starborn Great Hall.
In its prime, this had been the heart of the sect—where disciples gathered for grand assemblies, where elders debated celestial techniques, where oaths of loyalty had been sworn under the light of the sacred Starborne Lotus.
Now, the once-pristine celestial jade floors were cracked, revealing deep fissures where golden qi had once pulsed in intricate formations. The high celestial banners, once embroidered with the sect's emblem, now hung in tattered, wind-whipped fragments.
One half of the hall was missing entirely.
Not destroyed. Not burned.
Missing.
As if something had taken a piece of existence itself and erased it from the fabric of reality.
Luo Fan placed a hand on the cold stone.
> "Ah, yes. The classic protagonist move. Touch the ancient ruin and wait for a mysterious memory flashback."
> "...You're really pushing it today."
> "Oh, I LIVE for this. I have to entertain myself somehow while you do the whole brooding hero thing."
Then—a whisper.
> "…You came back."
Luo Fan froze.
That wasn't EchoStar.
And it wasn't just an echo.
The voice sounded real. Present.
A shiver crawled down his spine.
> "Oooookay. That was NOT me. For once."
Luo Fan turned sharply. The air behind him shimmered, like heat waves over desert sand.
And then—a figure emerged.
Not flesh and blood, but not an illusion either.
They were faint, barely holding form, like a shadow of light instead of darkness. Their robes flickered like candlelight, shifting between solid and translucent.
Luo Fan couldn't make out their face, but he could feel their gaze.
He gripped EchoStar tightly. "Who are you?"
A pause. The figure flickered.
> "…You don't remember?"
The words hit harder than he expected. He clenched his jaw. "I don't forget the important ones."
Silence. Then—a quiet laugh.
> "Then prove it, Sect Master."
Luo Fan took a step forward, but the figure vanished before he could react.
A faint ripple spread across the air where they had been standing—not just a visual distortion, but a disruption in the fabric of reality itself.
> [New Objective Unlocked: Reconstruct the Forgotten Spirit]
EchoStar beeped.
> "Welp. That wasn't ominous at ALL."
Luo Fan exhaled slowly. He had expected ruins. He had expected loss.
But he hadn't expected a ghost from his past—one that still remembered him.
And if they were still here…
Then maybe, just maybe—he could find a piece of himself that hadn't been erased.
> "Let's keep moving."
> "Oh, great. Deeper into the haunted ruins. Love that for us."
> "EchoStar."
> "No, no. By all means, let's ignore the CLEARLY ominous foreshadowing and just walk right into the unknown. What could possibly go wrong?"
Luo Fan sighed.
This was going to be a long night.
---
The Forgotten Chamber
As Luo Fan pushed deeper into the ruins, he reached what should have been the inner sanctum—a place once hidden beneath layers of spiritual formations, accessible only to the sect's highest elders.
The chamber had been torn apart—but not by battle.
Something had unwoven it, as if reality itself had been peeled away like parchment.
But in the very center, beneath layers of dust and debris, a single object remained untouched.
A stone tablet, glowing faintly with remnants of Starborn inscriptions.
> [Fragment Detected: Ancient Sect Records—Restricted Access]
[Unlock Requirement: ???]
Luo Fan's heart pounded.
Whatever was on that tablet…
It had survived the Reset.
And that meant it held answers.
> "Looks like we found our next clue."
> "Oh, good. A mysterious, locked relic in an abandoned sect. This never ends badly!"
Luo Fan reached out—
And the tablet reacted.
---
[To Be Continued…]
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