The spirit chickens had returned to the sect.
They were different now.
Gone was their gentle clucking. They strutted around with glowing feathers, eyes filled with vengeance, and an aura strong enough to scare off a Foundation Realm squirrel demon. One of them had taken up position on the sect's highest roof, staring into the void like a general awaiting war.
Jin Nian sighed.
"They were gone for three hours," he muttered, rubbing his temples. "What could possibly change a chicken in three hours?"
"Life outside the sect is cruel," said Wu Ling solemnly, offering him tea. "They've seen things."
---
The true problem, however, was not poultry.
It was the man still hovering outside the spiritual boundary of the sect.
He had returned—bandaged now from the earlier chicken assault—and was watching them with narrowed eyes.
He hadn't introduced himself yet, but the six golden rings circling him meant he was from the Heavenly Dao Registry, a branch of cultivators responsible for recording forbidden knowledge, lost sects, and other threats to the balance.
They were the same people who had once classified Living Sect Cultivation as a universal taboo.
And now he was here. At their doorstep. Probably for the stone.
---
Inside the main hall, Jin Nian convened his "inner circle."
It included:
Hong Yan, the dramatic loudmouth disciple who somehow kept accidentally discovering secrets.
Wu Ling, who was either wise beyond her years or just terrifyingly calm.
Mo Jing, a new disciple who hadn't spoken yet but constantly wrote in a black notebook and sometimes giggled for no reason.
"We have a problem," Jin Nian said, glancing outside at the floating man.
Hong Yan waved nervously. "I think he waved back."
"He didn't," Wu Ling said. "He was just brushing off a ghost bug."
Jin Nian cleared his throat. "Focus. That man is probably here for the ancient artifact we found. If he realizes what it is—what I am—we're going to be classified as a rogue sect."
"...I thought we already were," Mo Jing whispered.
Jin Nian glared. "We're a pending-approved sect. There's a difference."
---
Just then, the sky flickered. The man at the border descended slowly, not stepping into the sect—smart move—but hovering just at the edge, hands up in peace.
He smiled.
"Greetings," he said calmly. "I am Elder Lan Fei of the Heavenly Dao Registry. I mean no harm."
Jin Nian appeared at the boundary, robes fluttering dramatically. A small crab scuttled out of his sleeve. He ignored it.
"This land is sacred," Jin Nian said, adopting his best fake-wise voice. "And our noodles are not for outsiders."
Lan Fei blinked. "I—what?"
"I mean… our ways are our own."
Lan Fei smiled thinly. "I sensed an ancient pulse of forbidden cultivation. A signature we haven't seen in nine centuries. I was hoping to speak to your sect master."
"I am he," Jin Nian said.
The man tilted his head. "You? But you're only… Qi Condensation. Low stage. Probably malnourished."
"Excuse me! I eat three times a day!"
"...Do the noodles count as food?"
"They count emotionally."
---
Lan Fei tried again.
"I'm not here to threaten you. But that stone you pulled from the pond—it's a Primordial Memory Node. And if it's real… someone wants that knowledge back. Someone dangerous."
Jin Nian's heart thudded.
"Why would they want it now?" he asked, unable to hide the fear in his voice.
Lan Fei gave him a look.
"Because the last time this kind of knowledge reawakened, it started a war. One that ended with the extinction of three sects, a sentient mountain, and a talking frog who claimed to be a god."
There was a pause.
Hong Yan whispered, "...Was the frog lying?"
---
Lan Fei looked straight at Jin Nian.
"If your sect is truly harmless… if that stone is an accident… I'll file it as a dormant relic. But if there's more? If you're hiding a forbidden legacy—"
A golden rune lit up around him.
"—then the Registry will come. And they won't bring conversation. They'll bring judgment."
The warning lingered in the air like thunder before a storm.
Then, just as calmly as he came, Elder Lan Fei turned and flew away into the clouds.
---
Back inside, Jin Nian collapsed on the floor, face flat against the tile.
"This is bad," he groaned. "So bad."
Wu Ling knelt beside him. "We can hide the stone."
Mo Jing whispered, "We can bury the mountain."
"No one's burying the mountain!" Jin Nian snapped, sitting up.
He looked at them. His little disciples. Still so young. Still thinking this was all fun and games.
And maybe… maybe part of it still was. But not the stone. Not what it awakened.
Because that stone wasn't a memory.
It was a key.
---
That night, Jin Nian returned to the stone alone.
He placed a hand on it again, feeling its pulse echo through his bones.
> System Notification:
[Memory Fragment 2/33 Unlocked]
A new vision surged forth.
He stood in front of a massive door shaped like a lotus in bloom. Behind him, hundreds of disciples stood—cloaked in dark crimson, their eyes glowing with swirling runes.
He heard his own voice.
> "If I fall, this knowledge must not die. I will seal it within myself, scattered in pieces, each one locked by the growth of a new heart—"
Then silence.
---
Jin Nian gasped awake.
The system chimed again:
> New Function Unlocked: Heart Sect Expansion (Locked Until 100 Disciples)
You sealed 33 fragments of forbidden knowledge within yourself before death. Only the growth of your sect can awaken them.
He stared at the message.
So that was it.
Every disciple. Every expansion. Every inch of spiritual land… was a key to unlocking the truth of who he was.
And what he had once done.
---
He whispered to the night sky:
"I didn't just die… I erased myself."
---
Reader Question:
What do you think Jin Nian sealed that was so dangerous, he had to erase his own memory of it? Was it power, guilt… or something darker? Leave your thoughts!