1. The Fractured Authorship
The child—the 7th—twisted the knife deeper into the Hybrid's chest, its form oscillating violently between:
A Girl's Silhouette: The ribbon in her hair was unmistakably Cloud Soaring blue, frayed at the edges where time had gnawed at its threads.
A Living Glitch: Her outline dissolved into static whenever the Tome attempted to "correct" her, reforming with more defined edges each time.
The Tome's Desperate Countermeasure
The ground convulsed, its parchment layers peeling back to reveal:
Celestial Strategy's Beating Core: A grotesque fist-sized organ of pulsing silver veins, each throb ejecting half-formed characters that dissolved before hitting the ground.
The Unperson's Defiance
The child didn't speak. Instead, she dragged the knife upward, carving:
"This page intentionally left ______"
The blank space bled, and where the droplets hit:
Frost Moon's ice sprouted wildflowers.
Cloud Soaring's threads tied themselves into nooses.
Lin Feng's Revelation
His pear-blossom scar itched—not with pain, but with recognition.
"It's not a brand. It's—"
Before he could finish, the ground screamed.
2. The Ghost Market's Awakening
Bai Yu's reversed death script (from Ch28) finally activated, but not as he'd expected:
Netherworld Path's Debt Collection Inverted
The air ripped open along the seams of every unpaid debt the sect had ever recorded, vomiting forth:
A Floating Bazaar of the Damned: Stalls made of broken bones, their wares displayed on stretched soul-parchment.
The Auctioneer: A skeletal figure with Yin Sha's ink-drip eyes and Scholar Wen's silver-coated tongue.
"A memory per question," it hissed, "or a future per lie."
Bai Yu's Gamble
He stepped forward, grinning through the static in his vision:
"What the hell. Take the last time I saw my mother."
The memory unspooled from his temples—but instead of his mother's face, it showed:
A child's hand (the 7th's) pressing a pear seed into his palm.
The seed splitting to reveal a single character: "笑" (Laugh).
The Auctioneer shrieked as the memory infected its ledger.
3. The Thirteenth Floor
The child stiffened as lightning cracked the sky—except it wasn't lightning.
Frost Moon's Ultimate Prison
A vertical river of frozen time, inside which:
Yan Jiu's sister (age 6) pounded against the ice, her mouth open in a silent scream.
Reflections showed her simultaneously as:
A teenager with a frost needle through her eye.
An old woman stitching the Tome's missing pages into her own skin.
Scholar Wen's Bargain
Her voice oozed from the ice:
"The error (the 7th) for the original (the sister). A fair trade."
The Silent One's Answer
It slammed its fist into the ground—not to attack, but to replay:
The Memory:
Four sect elders standing over a child's corpse, their hands dripping with:
Frost Moon's needles.
Cloud Soaring's threads.
Netherworld's blood-ink.
Celestial Strategy's silver.
The child wasn't dead—just empty. A vessel waiting to be filled.
4. The Original Draft
The skin-page peeled itself from the memory, floating toward Lin Feng.
The True First Law
"No vessel shall hold seven souls. One must always be sacrificed to balance the equation."
The Horror
The 7th was never forgotten—it was the equation itself.
The four sects hadn't created the Tome. They'd stolen it from something older.
Lin Feng's Choice
He bit his own wrist, letting blood drip onto the page:
"Then I add myself."
The blood rearranged the law:
"No vessel shall hold seven souls. Eight breaks the system."
5. The Unwritten Retaliation
The child laughed—a sound like breaking glass—and stabbed the knife into the Tome's core.
The Rewrite
"Article ∞: The author is always the one holding the knife."
The Consequences
Frost Moon
The 13th needle shattered, releasing centuries of suppressed screams.
Cloud Soaring
Every thread connected to Lin Feng burned, severing all pre-written fates.
Netherworld Path
The ghost market collapsed into a black hole of void-ink.
Celestial Strategy
The silver heart imploded, taking Scholar Wen's eyes with it.
Cliffhanger
The ice prison holding Yan Jiu's sister shattered—but instead of her, Yan Jiu (age 12) tumbled out, still clutching the ribbon he'd kept for her.
Behind him, the 7th dissolved into light—but not before whispering:
"You left me,"
The kicker?
The voice wasn't the child's.
It was Lin Feng's own.