Far North – Stormveil Wastes
Snow fell sideways across black stone. Wind screamed across the peaks. No life moved for miles — except for the shadow standing before a mountain wall.
A woman.
Tall. Pale. Cloaked in wolf fur. Her arms were bare despite the cold, and her silver eyes glowed faintly in the storm.
In her hand, she held a curved glaive.
She stared at the mountain…
Then at the sky.
"It's him," she whispered.
And the wall in front of her — solid for centuries — cracked straight down the center.
---
Jiang Xuan – Leaving the First Temple
Emei walked beside him, slow and silent.
"You said others would come," he said, breaking the stillness. "Like you."
She nodded.
"Yes. Scattered across the world. Some sealed. Some in hiding. One or two… still watching."
"Watching what?"
"You. Always you."
He tightened his grip on the Echo Fang at his side.
"And they'll all come back?"
"Not all," she said. "Some want to test you. Some want to kill you. One still thinks she's stronger."
He frowned.
"She?"
Emei smiled faintly.
"Your war general."
---
They stopped at the base of the hills where the mist began to lift.
"What was her name?" he asked.
Emei looked up at the gray sky.
"Sang Lian."
He blinked.
"I don't remember her."
"You will."
---
Stormveil Wastes – Sang Lian's POV
The glaive hummed in her grip.
She stepped over broken ice and ancient bones, walking toward a forgotten shrine half-buried in the snow.
Inside, nothing lived.
But the walls whispered.
She touched the altar and spoke a single word:
"Shenlian."
The flames around the shrine lit blue.
And a voice answered — not from the temple,
but from her own blood.
He walks again.
---
Jiang Xuan – On the Road
He stopped walking.
Emei paused beside him. "You felt it?"
He nodded slowly. "Something just… woke up."
"You're connected now," she said. "To the ones who once followed you. And to the ones who still remember your reign."
He turned to her, voice quieter now.
"What if I don't want to rebuild what I had?"
Emei met his eyes.
"Then you'd better survive the ones who do."
---
That night, under the trees, Jiang Xuan sat by a small fire, sharpening the Echo Fang. It didn't need sharpening — the blade could slice through jade with a whisper — but the motion calmed his mind.
He remembered fragments now.
Not faces.
But sensations.
A battlefield.
A broken promise.
A girl with pale eyes standing beside him, laughing as flames consumed the horizon.
He didn't know if she was friend or foe.
But something told him he'd see her again.
Soon.
----
Sang Lian – Departing the Stormveil Wastes
The frozen shrine crumbled behind her as she walked away. No tears. No prayers.
She didn't look back.
The wind howled like wolves, but none dared touch her. The glaive on her back — nearly as tall as she was — pulsed faintly with bloodlight.
She wasn't just a follower.
She was a weapon.
And she had waited too long.
---
As she crossed the snowfields, a shadow appeared beside her. No footsteps. No sound.
"Are you certain it's him?" the shadow asked.
"I don't need certainty," she said. "I felt the Echo Fang awaken."
"And if he's not strong enough?"
She smiled.
"Then I'll kill him before the heavens have to."
The shadow vanished.
She kept walking.
---
Jiang Xuan – Forest Trail, Midday
Birds rustled overhead. The trees here were thicker, the path winding with roots like claws. Jiang Xuan moved quietly, with a hunter's steps.
The Echo Fang was light at his hip. Too light.
Almost like it wanted to leap from its sheath.
Emei followed behind him, just far enough not to crowd his thoughts.
She finally broke the silence.
"She will not greet you as a friend."
"I gathered that."
"She believed in strength. Nothing else."
"And me?"
Emei looked up at him.
"You were the only thing she ever knelt for."
---
He stopped walking.
That weight settled again in his chest — not fear. Not guilt.
Responsibility.
Not to who he'd been.
But to the power that was returning.
"How far is she?"
"She'll find you. She always did."
---
Yao Xi – Watching from a Cliff Above the Southern Path
She crouched beneath an ancient pine, eyes narrowed at the distant road where Jiang Xuan disappeared hours ago.
She hated following him.
Hated caring.
But she didn't trust him to care for himself. Not now. Not with old monsters rising.
She whispered to the wind.
"Sang Lian… that name is written in blood where I come from."
And the worst part?
Yao Xi wasn't sure who would win if they fought —
Jiang Xuan…
or the war general who once called him god.
---
Jiang Xuan – That Night
He dreamed.
Not in pieces — in waves.
Smoke-filled skies. Screaming armies.
And her.
Sang Lian.
Younger. Wild-eyed. Laughing as she cut down ten cultivators in one spin of her glaive. Then turning to him, eyes fierce, and saying—
"My Lord Shenlian, tell me who dies next."
He woke with a start.
The forest was still.
Too still.
And far, far in the distance…
A faint humming.
Metal.
Cold.
Hungry.
She was coming.
---
End of Chapter 20