The moon hung high above, a silent witness to the unfolding drama below. Zhao Wei stood at the edge of the cliff, her silhouette framed by the cold light. The wind whipped around her, carrying the faint smell of salt from the distant sea. It was a place where memories, both old and new, converged, a place where she could hear the echoes of voices long silenced.

  Her heart, still beating with the weight of betrayal, seemed to sync with the rhythm of the waves crashing far below. The ocean was vast, but it was the silence of the cliffs that unsettled her. Here, there were no voices of her past life, no whispering winds to comfort her. The memories of Wei Ning, the person she had once been, felt like they were slipping away, drowned in the roar of her present struggles.

  But something was stirring in the shadows.

  She turned, the wind pulling at her cloak, and for a brief moment, she thought she saw him, the figure she had left behind in the ashes of her first life. It was a fleeting image, a wisp of a shadow, but it was enough to send a jolt through her chest.

  “Still chasing ghosts, Zhao Wei?” the voice came from behind her, a familiar drawl that pierced the stillness.

  She didn’t need to turn to recognize the speaker. The sharp tone, the casual indifference, Feng Ren. Of course. Who else would dare approach her in this desolate place?

  “I’m not chasing anything,” Zhao Wei replied coldly, though the pulse in her chest betrayed her. She forced herself to keep her gaze on the horizon. “But you might be.”

  Feng Ren stepped closer, the click of his boots against the rocky ground the only sound in the quiet night. His figure appeared beside her, mirroring her stance as he stared out at the sea. “It’s not ghosts you should be worried about,” he said, his voice low. “It’s the living that’ll get you killed.”

  Zhao Wei remained silent. She was done with words, done with explanations. The game was changing, and the rules had shifted beneath her feet. The Creed had been too quiet, too calculating. She couldn’t help but wonder if they were waiting for her to slip, if they were just biding their time.

  And yet, despite the chaos, there was a part of her that refused to relent.

  “What is it you want, Feng Ren?” Zhao Wei finally spoke, her voice steady but sharp as a blade.

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  He chuckled, a sound that didn’t reach his eyes. “Want? I don’t want anything. I’m here because you owe me. You still haven’t explained what happened all those years ago. Why you betrayed me.”

  The question hung in the air, thick with unspoken history. Zhao Wei’s jaw tightened, and for a moment, she considered walking away. There were too many secrets, too many lies that she had buried deep. But this, this was different. There was something about Feng Ren’s voice, something raw in his words, that made her pause.

  “Betrayal,” she said quietly, her eyes narrowing as she finally turned to face him. “Is that what you think? That I betrayed you?”

  Feng Ren’s gaze softened for the briefest of moments, and she caught the flicker of something beneath the hardened exterior. “You tell me. You were the one who disappeared without a trace. You were the one who”

  “I didn’t leave you,” Zhao Wei interrupted, her voice sharp now. “I was taken. Do you think I chose to vanish into the abyss? Do you think I wanted to be a ghost, hunted by the Creed?”

  Feng Ren’s eyes hardened again, the softness gone. “Then where the hell were you?”

  The question wasn’t simple. It was a demand, a challenge, and in that moment, Zhao Wei saw the depth of his confusion, his frustration. But there was no easy answer. No simple explanation that could fill the chasm between them.

  Instead of answering, Zhao Wei turned away and stepped toward the edge of the cliff. The wind tugged at her cloak, pulling it behind her like a black flag, and she spread her arms wide as though embracing the very forces that threatened to tear her apart. The sea below churned, foamy waves crashing against the rocks with a ferocity that mirrored the storm inside her.

  “Are you going to stand there forever, Zhao Wei?” Feng Ren’s voice was tense, frustrated. He was no longer asking. He was demanding.

  She closed her eyes, her mind racing through the years that had led her to this point. The years of betrayal, of false promises, of survival. There was so much she had lost. So much she had abandoned to be reborn. But now, as she stood on the edge of this cliff, she realized there was something more, something that had been forgotten.

  The prophecy.

  The one that had haunted her dreams, that had whispered to her through the veil of time. A prophecy that had once been her guide, but now it was a chain. A weight that she couldn’t escape. She had thought she could outrun it. She had thought she could escape the expectations placed upon her. But the universe, fate, or whatever force bound her to this cursed destiny, wasn’t about to let her go.

  “I’m not the same person I once was,” Zhao Wei said, her voice calm but laced with a certain finality. She turned to face Feng Ren, the weight of her words hanging between them. “And you, Feng Ren, are part of a past that no longer serves me.”

  He opened his mouth to retort, but before he could speak, there was a flash in the distance. A flicker of light, almost too faint to notice. A signal. A warning.

  Zhao Wei’s instincts kicked in, and she was already moving before Feng Ren could react. She darted toward the shadows, her body a blur as she disappeared into the night. She didn’t have time for more words. The prophecy wasn’t just a myth. It was a threat.

  And tonight, it was coming for her.