Chapter 25
Chapter 25
The heavy blackout curtain sealed out the last neon breath of the city, plunging the bedroom into ink-thick darkness. Only a hair-thin line of light leaked beneath the door, a dying thread that sliced across the floor.
Yun Xi sat slumped against the cold panels, knees on the carpet. In her arms, a battered shoebox and its relics—an acceptance letter, a keychain, a family photo—branded her chest like iron fresh from the forge, while her soul screamed without sound. Violent sobs had burned through every watt of strength; now only a leaf-in-December tremor remained.
Tears had long since dried, leaving salt crusts that stung like sandpaper. Yet inside her ribcage, grief and refusal—and, fiercest of all, a volcano of rage with nowhere to vent—swirled like mantle magma, hunting for the final seam to split.
Eternal Dream: Prime Abyss flickered an unstable silver-blue around her limp wrist, humming a low, death-bed moan. Xing Dian cowered in the corner, light dim, whining in sub-audible dread. Yue Fei pressed against her icy knuckles, violet eyes flickering with panic; his purr had choked off into mute terror.
Silence. Suffocating silence.
Magma hunting for crust to break.
Yun Xi’s head snapped up.
In the dark, her deep-blue eyes flared open—no tears, no hesitation, only star-hot fury and fathomless despair, a blue star lit in the abyss.
Megatons of emotion detonated at once, blowing every lock on reason. She would not swallow it, would not whisper. She would accuse—yes, even the high-and-mighty god squatting inside her skull.
She hurled the words at the dead room, at the consciousness she knew was watching from on high, scraping the last marrow from her soul:
“So—?!!”
“All of this—! wasn’t my choice—!!!”
“Who gave you the pen to write my life’s script—?!”
“Why do I have to accept it—!!”
“Why—me—?!!”
“You popped out of nowhere—!!”
“Lofted some line about ‘guarding existence’—!!”
“Then, no debate—!! like I’m a soulless doll—!! you crushed—my life—shoved what was left into this damned shell—!!”
“Did you care—? For one lousy second—!! did you care what ‘Yun Xi’ thought—? Whether he wanted any of this—?!!”
“I’m not scared of responsibility—!! Yun Xi—! is no coward—!!”
“He’d sweat for the life he wanted—! swallow every insult—!!”
“Treasure—! the nights sweating on a court with his brothers—! cramming into some net-bar, slurping instant noodles and talking trash—!!”
“Dream—! of clocking out, squeezing into a rented flat with the girl he likes, roasting their crappy boss over bad movies—!!”
“Even fantasize—! about some little rug-rat calling him ‘Dad’ in a marshmallow voice—!!”
“That was my life—!! My call—!! My future—!!!”
“But you—? Meng Yun Xi—!!”
“With power that sees mortals as ants—!!”
“You crumbled it like stale cookie—! swiped it like chalk dust—!!”
“Erased—!! Pulverized—!! Every path I could have walked—!!”
“Did you ask—?!!”
“Ask if I wanted to be your ‘Time-Flower Witch’—? If I’d steal my own blood-stained power to protect your precious ‘existence’—?!!”
“Ask if I’d play thief—! live under the name ‘Yun Xi’ while my skin rips open every minute—?!!”
“Sure—! I’m strong now—! got a divine weapon—! can butcher monsters—! look shiny and high-and-mighty—!!”
“But what did it cost—?!!”
“Every atom of the guy called ‘Yun Xi’—! every drop of effort—! dream—! self—! possibility—!!”
“Traded—!! For this—!!”
“I’m a puppet running on code—!! a ghost crammed into a pretty hull—!!”
“Wearing ‘Yun Xi’s’ name—! ‘Yun Xi’s’ skirt—! doing ‘Yun Xi’s’ chores—!!”
“So where is ‘Yun Xi’—?!!”
“The living, breathing, laughing, crying, secretly-ambitious ‘Yun Xi’—?!”
“Dumped like trash—? Wiped away like Shadowmare residue—?!!”
“Answer me—!! Meng Yun Xi—!!”
“By what right—?!!”
“By what right do you erase me—?!!”
“By what right do you steal my choice—?!!”
“By what—right—?!!!”
The tirade struck the match inside a powder-magazine body. Millennia of pent-up magma blew the last dam.
“BZZZZ—!!!”
Eternal Dream: Prime Abyss vomited a blinding silver-blue flare that bleached the room white. The bracelet shrieked, joints rattling apart.
“AROOO—!!!!” Xing Dian howled, body warping, stretching, indigo fire laced with murder-red washing every corner like a runaway solar flare.
“MRRROW—!!!” Yue Fei’s screech skewered the air as the white cat slammed into the wall, fur on end, violet eyes wide with apocalypse, mental shields shredded.
The bedroom dropped into a berserk pocket of broken space.
Loose objects—books, trinkets, pillows, bottles—levitated, whirled, collided, shattered; paper snowed; glass chimed; light bent into fun-house ribbons; the walls groaned like crumpled paper.
Yun Xi hovered at the storm’s eye, cherry-white hair whipping like furious sea serpents, a chaos aura crackling loud enough to shred eardrums. Her sapphire gaze burned super-nova bright, cold and insane. This wasn’t an attack; it was a tsunami of annihilation born from a soul told it did not deserve to exist.
Meng Yun Xi answered with absolute silence.
Facing the raw, blood-soaked howl, facing a storm that tore reality—
the inner sea of consciousness stayed dead.
No words.
No excuse.
No comfort.
Not a ripple.
Only the timeless, sub-zero hush that freezes souls.
That hush mocked louder than any sneer, any curse, any false pity. It told Yun Xi her fury, her pain, her very being, weighed less than a dust mote in vacuum.
“Huh... huh...”
The rant burned through the last oxygen in her spirit. The roar guttered into ragged wheezes. Star-fire died in her eyes; wild hair fell limp; the world-breaking tempest drained away as fast as it rose.
CRASH-CLATTER-THUD!!!
Everything that had floated crashed down in a junk-yard rain. Books, shards, odds and ends smashed into chaos; dust mushroomed up.
Yun Xi’s body folded like a cut marionette, pitched face-first onto the cold littered floor.
Thud.
She lay perfectly still, a hollow doll, silver hair fanned out to hide whatever expression remained. On her wrist, Eternal Dream: Prime Abyss had gone dark—except for one hair-fine silver crack gleaming like frost in twilight, a fracture as quiet and final as a tombstone.
“Master—!” A dim blue spark that was Xing Dian whimpered, tottering to her cheek, trying in vain to warm cold skin.
“Mrr... ow...” Dust-coated Yue Fei crawled over, blood threading from his lip. He nudged her unresponding arm with his head, violet eyes drowning in a grief he had never learned to name, mewling a requiem no one would answer.
In the bedroom, only the after-echo of falling objects, the spirits’ keening, and the grave-yard mess remained—plus that slender crack in the bracelet, a silent death certificate for a soul that had screamed itself into pieces.