2025-10-14 16:05:42The apartment felt colder that night. Evelyn moved quietly around the kitchen, shutting drawers with the soft finality of someone rehearsing silence.
Rick watched her from the doorway. “You’re not talking to me.”
She kept her eyes on the counter. “I don’t know what to say that won’t make it worse.”
“You could start with I believe you.”
“I want to.” She turned then, tired, beautiful, terrified. “But every screen in the city’s replaying that footage, Rick. They’re calling you an alchemist. A fraud. The hospital’s under audit. And Yuren Sun’s reputation’s bleeding because of you.”
“I didn’t leak anything.”
“I know. But truth doesn’t matter when the Syndicate decides what’s real.”
He rubbed his face. “You think I should confess to something I didn’t do?”
“I think you should disappear until this burns out.”
He stared. “Run?”
“Lay low. Take a transfer to the outer wards. Pretend to be ordinary for once.”
“That’s not who I am.”
Her laugh broke halfway. “That’s the problem.”
He reached for her, but she stepped back. The distance between them felt heavier than any punishment. “Evelyn.”
“Just stop, Rick. You can’t fight a system that owns the definition of life.”
He swallowed hard, searching for words, but all that came was a whisper. “Maybe the system forgot what life is.”
She closed her eyes. “Then I hope you remember before it kills you.”
When she left the room, he sank against the wall, feeling the pulse beneath his wrist throb like a second heartbeat that wasn’t his.
The next morning, black vehicles lined the hospital entrance. Syndicate agents in gray coats moved through the lobby, scanning badges, collecting files. Patients whispered; interns scattered like birds.
Rick walked through the metal detectors, every eye following him. The lead agent from the hearing, the one with the unblinking stare, waited near reception.
“Dr. Franklin,” he said smoothly. “We’re expanding our review. Your personal research logs, private correspondences, neural interface backups, all of it.”
Rick kept his voice level. “That violates privacy statutes.”
The agent smiled faintly. “Article Nine of the Emergency Protocol overrides them in cases of anomalous medical activity.”
“Anomalous,” Rick repeated. “That’s what you call saving a child now?”
The agent’s eyes gleamed. “When the dead glow gold, Doctor, we call it many things.”
Yuren appeared from behind the security gates. “You’ll search nothing without my authorization.”
The agent bowed slightly. “Then we’ll wait for your compliance, Master Sun. The Syndicate appreciates your cooperation.”
When they were gone, Yuren exhaled. “They’re baiting us.”
Rick’s voice was low. “Then maybe it’s time we stop playing prey.”
Yuren turned sharply. “No heroics. You disobey me again, I will end your apprenticeship myself.”
Rick met his eyes, anger flashing. “I didn’t ask for your protection.”
“Then at least respect my experience.”
The words cut deeper than any accusation. Rick walked away before his temper betrayed him.
That night, the Syndicate agent met Isaac Voss in the underground parking bay. Rainwater pooled around their shoes; neon from the city reflected in slick red lines across the cement.
“You delivered the footage?” the agent asked.
Isaac handed over a data-chip. “Every frame. He’s unstable. The glow’s spreading, through his skin, maybe deeper.”
The agent pocketed it. “Good. The council will want confirmation before they move on Master Sun.”
Isaac blinked. “You said you wanted Franklin, not Sun.”
“Sun trained him. He’ll share the blame.”
A flicker of unease crossed Isaac’s face. “That wasn’t our deal.”
The agent smiled thinly. “Deals change. You’ll be rewarded, Dr. Voss. Perhaps a position on the review board.”
Isaac hesitated, then nodded once. “Whatever it takes.”
When the agent left, Isaac stared at the elevator doors, his reflection fractured in the metal, one half lit, one half shadowed. He whispered to no one, “You should have stayed ordinary, Rick.”
Far above, Rick stood on the roof of Salt Lake General, rain drumming against his coat. The city spread out below, lights, water, silence.
He opened his hand. The golden rune shimmered faintly, each pulse syncing with the storm. He could feel something under the hospital, deep as bone, like a second heartbeat echoing his own.
“Is this what they fear?” he murmured. “The world remembering it can heal itself?”
Lightning flashed; for an instant the entire rooftop glowed gold. Down in the archives, monitors flickered alive one by one, Lila’s heart-rate logs spiking, every screen pulsing in the same rhythm as his.
Rick didn’t see it, but Yuren did, standing in the control room, eyes wide with recognition and dread. He whispered, “The system is awakening.”
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Chapter 175. The Ash Forest
Rick stepped off the cracked path, boots sinking slightly into ash so fine it clung to his soles like wet flour. The air was heavy, electric, humming faintly against his skin. Lightning from centuries past had burned the forest to charcoal; even the wind whispered against the blackened trunks as though afraid to disturb the silence. No birds sang. No insects crawled. No small movements stirred the barren ground. The world here had been purified once, and now it was dead, or close enough to death that the difference no longer mattered.Luna followed behind, carrying the faint glow of her cocoon. She bent low, eyes narrowing, reaching toward the soil. Her hands hovered over patches of gray ash that seemed lifeless. "They’re still here," she whispered. "I can feel them, faint heartbeats, buried deep."Rick knelt beside her. Fingers tracing the uneven ground, he closed his eyes, letting his Qi seep into the soil. The System’s interface flickered faintly in the corner of his mind. [Env
Chapter 174. The Bridge of Echoes
Dawn broke over the canyon in long, silver shafts of light, slicing through the lingering mist like frozen blades. The bridge, once crumbling under the weight of neglect, now stood firm. Timber had been replaced, ropes reinforced, and carved stones aligned as if they had always belonged there. Rick moved across it cautiously, his boots whispering against the worn planks. Luna’s cocoon glowed faintly at his side, a soft pulse marking her slow, even breathing.The villagers had begun crossing again, tentative at first. Mothers carried children in their arms, small hands brushing the rails, eyes wide at the restored path. Farmers with bundles of produce hesitated, their gaze drawn to the wooden supports that now held steady. The bridge sang under their steps, a subtle vibration that spoke of both labor and life reclaimed. Rick watched quietly, feeling the resonance of movement through his own pulse, as if the bridge itself were a living thing remembering its purpose.Ahead, the swor
Chapter 173. The Blade’s Reflection
The canyon woke under a fragile light. Mist lingered along the riverbank, curling in silent spirals. Rick moved slowly, carrying Luna’s cocoon like a fragile vessel, the soft hum of her Qi pulsing against his chest. The swordswoman crouched by the water, her hands hovering above the river as though she feared breaking it.Her eyes were wide now, pupils clear for the first time in years. The world hit her all at once: the sun’s angle, the smell of wet stone, the trembling shimmer of water. She flinched, shielding her face with her arm.Rick knelt beside her without speaking. The wind carried the faint clang of the canyon’s loose stones, but no words were needed. He sensed her pulse racing, every beat a drum of panic. His own Qi threaded through her, steadying, like the quiet thrum of a metronome. “Look at the water,” he said quietly. “See it, not what it hides.”Her hands trembled as they touched the river’s surface. Shadows seemed to stir beneath her fingers, images of the people s
Chapter 172. The Echo Surgery
The canyon hung in near-silence, the kind that pressed against the ribs like the weight of water. A thin mist crawled across the jagged cliffs, licking the bases of the rock walls and swirling around the rickety bridge where travelers whispered tales of a blind swordswoman. Rick and Luna stepped into the clearing beside the bridge. Moonlight draped the ground in silver, making shadows spill like ink across the uneven stones. Luna’s cocoon glowed faintly, casting a pale warmth across the clearing.The villagers had stayed far from the bridge for years. No one dared cross. No one dared speak. And no one had seen the swordswoman since the mist had thickened. Rick had heard the story: a blade so precise, so attuned, it cut life from the air itself. She was not merely blind; she had trained her body and Qi to sense the world in vibrations. He could feel her before she appeared. Her Qi was sharp, restless, a humming wire ready to snap.He took a step forward, the soles of his boots crun
Chapter 171. The Blind Blade 2
The Blind Blade exhaled sharply, a breath she had not realized she was holding. The sword wavered, then dropped to the stone bridge. She took a step back, one that would have been unthinkable hours ago. Her eyes, still clouded from years of strain, reflected a faint shimmer of recognition, not sight. She understood what had been offered, and it was enough for now.Rick’s gaze drifted to the stars piercing the mist. For the first time in the canyon, the villagers below, the few who had dared watch, could see the faint glow of hope above the bridge. Luna stirred slightly in her cocoon, a tiny pulse echoing Rick’s satisfaction. “I am not here to take your life,” Rick said again. “I am here to show you a path back to yourself.”She lowered the sword fully, letting it rest against her leg. Her chest heaved with controlled breathing. Rick could feel her stillness, the balance slowly returning. Her Qi was no longer screaming, no longer in conflict with the world. It was as though a dam h
Chapter 171. The Blind Blade
The canyon was silent, wrapped in a veil of mist so thick it swallowed sound and light alike. Rick’s boots crunched over the loose stone as he stepped off the narrow trail, his movements careful, almost surgical, as though every step mattered more than the next. The mist clung to his coat, curling around him like a living thing, damp and heavy. Luna’s cocoon hovered at chest height, faintly glowing with her contained Qi. She was still, suspended between sleep and wakefulness, the slight pulse of her energy the only indicator of life.The villagers had warned him, their voices trembling with a mixture of fear and awe. Across the bridge that spanned the canyon, a woman moved silently, her presence described as a ghost more than flesh. They called her the Blind Blade. No one had survived crossing. Those who tried vanished, their screams swallowed by the canyon’s walls. Rick did not flinch at their stories; he had walked through worse, yet he understood the danger, the mist concealed
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