Arc of Awakening: Chapter 2143 –Guardians of the Lost
The world behind them was healing.
The world ahead… was unmapped chaos.
The Veil of Lost Stars hung on the horizon—a shimmering curtain that blurred the sky itself, rippling with every forgotten sorrow the world had ever known.
The Tether girl stood at the front, holding a small lantern.
It wasn't normal fire—it was spun from the last memories of the vanished gods.
Behind her walked Qianye Ying'er, Jasmine, and Caizhi—all bearing the weight of this impossible quest.
Each step forward pressed against them like walking through a sea of broken dreams.
---
Crossing the Threshold
As they neared the Veil, the air thickened.
Whispers surrounded them.
Forgotten names.
Broken oaths.
Cries of people who had been erased long ago.
Caizhi shivered.
> "It's like… the whole world's regrets are gathered here."
Qianye Ying'er didn't answer.
She simply raised her hand—and her aura flared gold, pushing the mists back.
Jasmine's voice cut through the air:
> "Get ready."
Because from the mist… something moved.
---
The First Guardian: Mourning Shade
A shape emerged.
At first it looked human.
Then it shifted—its face a swirling mirror of a thousand forgotten faces, none of them complete.
Its body was stitched together from broken timelines, its eyes empty black voids.
The Mourning Shade.
> "Trespassers," it hissed.
"Memories are not meant to return."
The Tether girl stepped behind Qianye, clutching the lantern tight.
Jasmine cracked her knuckles.
> "It wants to devour us. Turn us into forgotten fragments too."
Qianye Ying'er smiled grimly.
> "Let it try."
---
The Battle Begins
The Shade attacked first—its limbs stretching unnaturally, clawing the air.
Where its fingers passed, the ground forgot how to exist—turning to pure gray mist.
Caizhi slashed with a blade of starlight—one of the last gifts from Yun Che's fading seed—but the Shade reformed instantly, pulling lost pieces from the Veil.
Qianye moved.
Not with brute strength—but with precision, her power threading between the fragments of memory.
Every blow she struck didn't just damage the Shade—it forced it to remember what it had lost.
The Shade screamed—because memory, for it, was agony.
---
Final Strike: Naming the Nameless
The Tether girl lifted her lantern.
A single drop of light fell from it—pure and clear.
She whispered:
> "Your name is Sorrow."
And suddenly, the Shade—once an unkillable thing—froze.
Tears of black mist streamed down its face.
It shattered—not into pieces, but into light.
Freed from its endless pain.
---
Aftermath
The mists parted slightly.
Beyond them, the Veil of Lost Stars loomed closer than ever.
But one thing was now certain:
The closer they got to the Locus…
The harder the guardians would fight.
Because waking Yun Che meant changing the fundamental law of this remade world.