Chapter 9: The Ash-Locked Cult
Three days passed.
Jiang Fan hadn't spoken a word since the Trial.
The wind whispered around him, but he didn't hear it. His thoughts stretched beyond the Ghostspine Mountains—into the cracks of his soul where the system's cold voice once echoed, offering salvation in the face of despair.
But now… he wasn't so sure.
He hadn't been chosen.
He had chosen.
Why?
He didn't remember.
Not fully.
But the truth was clawing its way up, like something buried under centuries of regret.
The earth trembled.
His eyes snapped open.
A ripple of qi—faint, dark, distorted—swept across the mountains.
He knew that signature.
It was old. Twisted. Reverent.
But not toward any god.
No…
Toward him.
Elsewhere – Crimson Hollow
A temple stood, carved into the bones of a fallen colossus. Its ribs arched above like cathedral spires, and its spine had become a staircase where disciples crawled on knees cut raw by stone.
They wore robes of gray ash, stitched with crimson thread.
Their faces were burned—ritualistically marred to erase individual identity.
A gong rang.
From the depths of the temple, a voice echoed:
"He stirs."
The disciples pressed foreheads to stone, chanting:
"The Heart Demon walks. The Path awakens. We who burned our names await his command."
Atop the highest rib, a figure in black bone armor raised his hand.
His voice was hoarse, like sand and regret.
"He has remembered the First Choice."
A murmur of awe swept the cult.
"He will remember the rest."
Back in the mountains, Jiang Fan descended toward the southern cliffs. Something had pulled him here—not instinct, but resonance. The same kind he'd felt when he first accessed the [Supreme Heart Demon God Technique].
And there, half-buried in volcanic glass, he saw it:
A statue.
No taller than a man.
But it was him.
Not how he looked now.
How he looked then.
Gaunt. Wounded. Eyes hollow. Kneeling.
In chains.
Jiang Fan approached slowly.
At the statue's base, an inscription:
"He who embraced the Lie to escape the Truth."
The wind howled.
Then a voice—
"Welcome back, Herald."
From the shadows, dozens emerged.
Hooded. Ash-stained. Their faces bore his likeness, carved crudely into masks of bone.
The leader stepped forward—tall, emaciated, with ritual scars running across his scalp.
He knelt.
"We are the Ash-Locked. You are the First Sin. You are the Last Hope."
Jiang Fan said nothing.
"Speak," the cultist pleaded, forehead touching rock. "Speak, and we shall burn the skies for you."
"…What are you?" Jiang Fan asked, voice low.
The cultist smiled with cracked lips.
"We are the ones who remembered you… before you remembered yourself. Before the heavens marked you for death. Before the systems hunted your soul."
Jiang Fan's eyes darkened.
"Tell me the truth."
The cultist hesitated. "You truly do not remember?"
"I remember enough to want the rest."
"Then come," he whispered.
And led Jiang Fan deeper into the earth.
They walked through tunnels of obsidian and ash, where bones formed murals—images of Jiang Fan battling shadows, holding a dying girl, and sitting upon a throne of screaming corpses.
"My name is Luhen," the cultist said. "I was the first to hear your scream. When you fell into this world, you didn't simply transmigrate. You… descended."
"From where?"
"From above the system. From outside the cycle."
Jiang Fan stopped walking.
"You're saying I'm not from Earth?"
"No," Luhen whispered. "You are. But you weren't the first version of you to fall."
The tunnel pulsed with silence.
"…You were the last."
Jiang Fan's head spun.
Before he could ask more, they reached a chamber.
A great pit lay in the center, filled with statues—all of him.
But each was different.
One held a child.
One bled from the eyes.
One smiled while choking a god.
Luhen gestured.
"These are echoes. Remnants of failed timelines. Attempts to destroy the system. Attempts to save it. All of them ended here. All of them died."
"But you," he said, turning to Jiang Fan, "you survived."
The system chimed.
Memory Fragment Unlocked: "The Fall of the Echoes"
User has inherited traits from at least 7 alternate selves.
Seed Growth: 63.4%
Warning: You are being watched.
Jiang Fan stiffened.
Luhen went pale. "They know."
"Who?"
"The ones who built the system."
Far, far beyond the reach of gods, a massive eye opened across the void.
It blinked once.
And then began to weep blood.
End of Chapter 9