Chapter 105 — I Cannot Lose You

  Moonlight lay over the empty living room like a pallid veil.

  Two eternal lamps flickered in the corners, stretching Derek’s shadow as he knelt before the coffin—

  long,

  long across the floor.

  The funeral earlier that day had drawn a crowd.

  The hypocritical sobs.

  The rehearsed condolences.

  The carefully performed grief.

  All of it had made him sick.

  Now, at last, there was silence.

  Just him and his sister.

  Just like before.

  Scarlett lay within the coffin, prepared to flawless perfection.

  A snow-white dress wrapped her slender body, while vivid red curls spilled across the silk pillow like frozen flames.

  The faint scent of incense mingled with the chill of death, thick enough to suffocate.

  The mortician’s hands had been skillful—almost erasing every trace of illness.

  Only the slight hollowness of her cheeks betrayed the torment of the past two months.

  Derek’s trembling fingers traced features he knew down to bone and blood—

  the silken red hair,

  the emerald-green eyes that would never open again.

  In his memories, those eyes were always bright with mischief,

  calling him “Brother Derek” in a spoiled, playful voice.

  “Scarlett…”

  His voice fractured.

  Only when his vision blurred did he realize he was crying.

  By the time he came back to himself, his forehead was pressed against her cold brow.

  The taste of blood spread across his tongue—

  he had bitten through his own lip.

  “I’ll avenge you.”

  He whispered the words softly, his tone terrifyingly calm.

  “If I can’t kill him…

  then I’ll kill the one he protects.”

  Slowly, he sank down beside the coffin and pulled out his phone.

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  The screen lit up.

  Two photos appeared side by side.

  One—a newspaper image of YiChen Caelestis, his profile cold and severe.

  The other—Elena Lin’s student ID photo.

  “Caelestis…”

  Derek’s fingernails scraped against the phone case, the sound sharp and grating.

  “You took away the person I loved most.”

  Crimson Spirit Fire suddenly surged from within him, engulfing his body in a blood-red glow.

  The flames wavered violently, as if intent on burning both flesh and hatred to ash.

  “I will make you…”

  “…pay the price.”

  A final tear fell onto the screen,

  blurring Elena’s smiling face.

  ————

  Darkness.

  Boundless darkness—

  thick as congealed ink, swallowing all form and sound.

  —Drip.

  A single point of crimson surfaced, like a venomous serpent’s pupil, slowly blooming within the void.

  —Drip. Drip.

  The sound of falling blood grew clearer.

  Closer.

  Faster.

  YiChen snapped his head up—

  —Elena was suspended in midair.

  Her chest had been pierced clean through.

  Blood cascaded from the wound, soaking her snow-white dress in brilliant red. Scarlet spilled endlessly from the corner of her lips; each labored cough dragged bloody foam from her lungs, splattering across her pale fingers.

  “El… Elena…?”

  The sound lodged in his throat, shredded as if twisted by a blade.

  —Buzz.

  From the depths of his mind, a warped voice hissed like a venomous snake:

  “Caelestis… I will make you suffer worse than death.”

  —Crack.

  An invisible hand crushed his heart.

  Agony detonated outward from his chest, devouring every nerve.

  Who?

  Who dared touch her?

  Rage erupted.

  Spirit Force ran berserk.

  Dark-gold divine power detonated violently, tearing through the darkness like a hurricane. Space itself shuddered as fissures ripped open in all directions.

  “AAAAAH—!!!”

  His roar tore the nightmare apart.

  Reality answered.

  The bedroom was drowned in blinding Spirit light.

  —She cannot die.

  —Never.

  Bang!

  The bedside lamp exploded.

  A glass tumbler shattered.

  The air screamed.

  The floor cracked faintly beneath crushing divine pressure.

  Elena jolted awake, golden-pink Spirit Force bursting around her like scattered stardust.

  “YiChen!”

  She shot upright and saw him trapped in the nightmare—

  brows knotted tight, veins bulging at his temples, every muscle drawn taut as if about to tear apart. Dark-gold Spirit Force rampaged like a storm, shredding the bedsheets into strips.

  —He had never lost control like this.

  “YiChen! Wake up!”

  She lunged forward and cupped his face with both hands.

  Pink-gold Spiritflame erupted—alive, surging—coiling instantly around the rampaging golden power. The two forces intertwined, sealing them both within a cocoon of light.

  YiChen’s eyes flew open, remnants of blood-red terror still burning in his pupils.

  “Elena…”

  He crushed her into his arms, gripping so tightly it hurt. His entire body shook like a wounded beast.

  “YiChen—stop!”

  He didn’t hear her.

  Near-mad darkness churned in his eyes.

  Elena clenched her teeth.

  —Purification.

  Pink-gold Spiritflame surged like a flood into his Spirit Meridians.

  “—Mm!”

  YiChen threw his head back, Adam’s apple jerking violently. Only a broken breath escaped before he was dragged into a searing abyss.

  Spiritflame detonated inside him—

  exploding into countless star-fires, like burning feathers scraping through bone and marrow, tearing through consciousness itself.

  “Haah…”

  His awareness nearly shattered.

  He twisted his head aside—

  their breaths collided, ragged, chaotic, scorching.

  Elena swayed with dizziness, chest pressed to his, feeling his frantic heartbeat slam against her ribs.

  Yet her control never wavered.

  The Spiritflame moved with ruthless precision, burning through the final trace of black thorns.

  “Ugh…!”

  YiChen’s consciousness was swallowed whole.

  He collapsed into the hollow of her neck, voice hoarse, broken beyond restraint.

  “I can’t… lose you…”

  Something in Elena’s heart softened completely.

  She stroked the back of his head, gentle beyond measure.

  “It’s okay,” she whispered, fingers gliding along his spine.

  “I’m here.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Pink-gold and dark-gold Spiritflame lost all boundaries, merging completely in the space around them.

  The world was dragged into a soundless abyss.

  Perception.

  Time.

  Language.

  All dissolved.

  —This night could not be recorded.

  ?

  Spiritflame surged.

  Spirit Meridians resonated.

  YiChen’s consciousness fell into a silent torrent—

  no time, no form,

  only energy flowing like a living nebula.

  When the searing tide finally began to recede, Elena’s fingertips still trembled lightly against his chest.

  Moonlight slipped through the gauze curtains, edging their entwined hair with silver.

  YiChen’s pupils contracted sharply.

  A clarity he had never known flooded his mind, as if his soul had been washed clean—then returned to his body.

  He caught sight of a strand of transparent light-pattern—

  a fragment of law drifting within the Spiritflame, fine as a spider’s thread, yet carrying the fundamental truths of heaven and earth.

  —Humm.

  Perception spread like a rising tide.

  Shattered glass.

  Wood grain.

  Metallic dust.

  The frequencies of all matter transformed within his mind into a radiant spectrum of light.

  A domain unfolded—

  silent, invisible.

  The shards of glass scattered across the floor began to tremble, rise.

  Cracks sealed themselves in midair.

  The fragments settled gently back onto the tabletop—

  whole, flawless, as if never broken.

  “The most absolute fusion…” YiChen murmured, faint divinity glimmering in his eyes,

  “…reveals the most fundamental law.”

  His Adam’s apple shifted.

  A breath-light smile touched his lips.

  “…I think I understand now.”