The battlefield didn't exist.
At least, not on any map. Not in any living memory. The red earth stretched endlessly under a sky the color of a fresh bruise, littered with the skeletons of warriors from no dynasty Luo Feng recognized. Their bones were wrong—too many joints, too many teeth.
The Fox Spirit's seventh tail had manifested on the journey, its fur streaked with crimson like bloodstained snow. It hadn't spoken yet. It just pointed northeast, toward the only structure visible in this wasteland—a lone willow tree with silver leaves, its branches cradling a figure in tattered white robes.
Li Qing stopped walking. "We shouldn't be here."
[System Alert: Check-In Location – The Unwritten Battlefield]
[Mission: Retrieve the Final Nail]
[Reward: Memory Unlock (25%)]
[Warning: Some Graves Should Stay Buried]
Luo Feng's pulse hammered in his throat as he approached the tree.
The woman hung from its branches by a single red thread looped around her wrist, her silver hair obscuring her face. The God-Sealing Nail protruded from her chest, its head pulsing like a second heartbeat.
Then the wind shifted—
—and Luo Feng remembered.
[The First Memory: A Promise in Blood]
She pressed the nail into his palm, her hands shaking. "When the time comes, you'll have to do it yourself."
Luo Feng (but not Luo Feng, the real one) choked out a laugh. "You overestimate my cruelty."
Her smile was the last thing he saw before the world rewrote itself.
The vision shattered as the woman's head snapped up, revealing a face Luo Feng had seen in a hundred broken memories—
—and a hundred nightmares.
"You're late," the Wife of Ashes said.
[The Trial: Three Truths Before Dying]
1. The Nail's Secret
The moment Luo Feng touched the nail, the battlefield screamed to life. The wrong-boned skeletons lurched upright, weapons in hand.
The Fox Spirit's seventh tail finally spoke, its voice layered with echoes:
"The final nail isn't in her heart. It's her heart."
Li Qing's sword cleaved through a skeleton. "Explain fast."
2. The Wife's Sacrifice
The woman's fingers closed around Luo Feng's wrist, her touch burning with residual divinity.
"They needed someone to hold the timeline in place while they remade it," she whispered. "I volunteered."
Her free hand pressed against his chest—where the hollow space ached.
"You were supposed to forget everything. Especially me."
3. The Original's Betrayal
Then the worst truth:
The real Luo Feng hadn't just agreed to the rewrite.
He'd orchestrated it.
[The Choice: Kill or Save?]
The skeletons closed in. The Wife of Ashes smiled.
"Do it properly this time."
The System offered no options. No glitches. Just a single line:
[She is Already Dead. You Are the Blade.]
Luo Feng pulled the nail free.
[Check-In Complete (At What Cost?)]
The battlefield dissolved like ink in water. The Wife of Ashes crumbled to dust, her final breath a whisper:
"Find the others."
In Luo Feng's hand, the nail melted, merging with the others to form a silver key.
[Memory Unlocked: 25%]
[New Truth: The Nails Are Keys to the Cage Around Reality]
The Fox Spirit's seventh tail coiled around the key, its crimson streaks darkening.
"Now we put them back," it said.
Li Qing looked at Luo Feng like she didn't recognize him.
"Back where?"
END OF THE CHAPTER28