Chapter 68 – Echoes of a Forgotten Era
The Weight of Ruins
The silence in the ruins was not empty. It was heavy—pressing down like the weight of unseen eyes. Luo Fan had walked through countless battlefields and abandoned sects before, but this felt different.
It wasn't just the shattered stone or the faded sigils of the Starborn Stream Sect that unnerved him.
It was the feeling.
A weight in the air, as if the ruins themselves remembered.
The lingering traces of cultivation energy still clung to the broken pathways, flickering weakly in the cracks of celestial jade tiles. Some stones still bore the engraved names of sect disciples—now fractured, split in half, their legacies cut short like unfinished stories.
Luo Fan ran his fingers over one such engraving.
The name was barely visible. The Reset had erased so much, yet this remained.
A defiant trace of existence.
> "Dramatic pause for maximum emotional impact… Yep, this is where the protagonist has a deep reflection moment."
> "EchoStar, not now."
> "I'm just saying, if this were an anime, this would be the part where the music swells and we get a slow, emotional flashback. Maybe a single tear for effect?"
Luo Fan exhaled sharply. "If you're done narrating my life, help me locate the strongest residual energy."
EchoStar hummed, its surface flickering as it scanned.
> [Detecting: Residual Spiritual Echoes]
[Analysis: Sect Energy Weakened – Memory Imprints Possible]
> "Ooooh, 'memory imprints.' That's either really cool or really terrifying."
> [Warning: Unstable Echo Detected – Proceed with Caution]
Luo Fan's eyes narrowed.
A memory imprint. A fragment of the past still lingering in the present.
This was what he was searching for.
He stepped forward, weaving through fallen columns and shattered meditation platforms, until he reached the inner sanctum.
The chamber had once been the Starborn Sect's Heart of Starlight—a place where elders meditated beneath a vast celestial dome, aligning their spirits with the cosmos.
Now, the dome had collapsed.
Fragments of glowing starstone lay scattered across the floor, their once-radiant inscriptions dimmed but not entirely gone.
And in the very center—
A floating tear in space.
A crack in reality itself.
It pulsed with dim light, flickering between existence and nonexistence, like a forgotten memory struggling to remain.
Luo Fan stepped closer, feeling the weight of time pressing against him.
> "Uhh, I know I joke a lot, but even I think touching a literal crack in space is a bad idea."
> "Noted."
> "…But you're going to do it anyway."
> "Obviously."
He reached out—
And the world shifted.
A Glimpse into the Past
Light exploded around him.
For a brief moment, the ruins vanished.
Luo Fan stood in the past.
The Starborn Stream Sect was whole again. Celestial bridges stretched across the sky, connecting floating pavilions and shimmering training grounds. Star lanterns floated gently, casting golden light on the faces of hundreds of disciples practicing beneath a vast, glowing sky.
And at the center of it all—
A younger himself stood, surrounded by his fellow sect members.
Not as a rogue cultivator.
Not as a forgotten name.
As the Sect Master.
The past version of him spoke, his voice firm, carrying authority.
> "The Starborn Stream Sect is not just a place of cultivation—it is a promise. A promise to rise, to endure, to reach beyond the heavens themselves."
Luo Fan clenched his fists.
This… this wasn't just an illusion.
This was real.
A memory that had defied the Reset.
His gaze swept across the faces of his disciples—some familiar, others blurry, distorted by the Reset's erasure.
And then—
One figure stood out.
A disciple with sharp eyes, a familiar presence.
They looked directly at him—not at his past self, but at the present Luo Fan.
> "You came back."
The moment shattered.
Luo Fan gasped as the ruins returned, the brilliant sect of the past collapsing into dust once more.
The voice still echoed in his ears.
You came back.
> [New Quest Update: Unravel the Forgotten Imprints]
[Objective: Find the One Who Still Remembers]
Luo Fan exhaled, steadying himself.
There was someone out there—someone who had survived the Reset's erasure.
And they were waiting for him to remember.
> "Okay. That was definitely not normal."
> "No kidding."
> "So! Do we panic now or later?"
> "Neither. We find them."
> "Great. Because hunting down a ghostly disciple in a shattered reality totally sounds like a relaxing next step."
Luo Fan smirked, stepping forward.
If the past still had echoes left behind—
Then so did his future.
And he was going to reclaim it.
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[To Be Continued…]
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