Arc 3: The Echo Sovereign's Path
The moment Lin Fei stepped beyond the Hollow Spiral, something in the Veinfield broke.
Not shattered — not destroyed — but unsealed.
The mist pulled back, not dispersed, but kneeling. The fragmented memories lining the shattered land bent inward, forming a spiral of fractured ground that whispered with a thousand voices. Each word was a remnant, each echo a plea.
"You're not the first."
"But you might be the last."
⚡ System Notice: Sovereign Path Initiation Triggered
[Requirements Met: Domain Stabilization, First Echo Contract Completed, External Entity Recognition, Phantom Harmony Achieved]
[Warning: This path is irreversible.]
[Initiate?]
→ Yes / No
He didn't hesitate.
→ Yes.
And the Veinfield roared.
⚔️ Awakening the Rootless Crown
A shockwave of spirit essence thundered outward from Lin Fei's core, not as a technique but as a system-triggered evolution. He fell to one knee, gasping, as a crown of invisible qi ignited above his head — not seen, but felt. Not worn, but grown.
It wasn't metal. It wasn't even spiritual energy.
It was a Rootless Crown — a mark of sovereignty not over people or land, but over echoes, domains, and all fragmented legacies that clung to reality like regrets refusing to die.
🔥 New Status Unlocked: Echo Sovereign Initiate
[You are no longer a cultivator in training. You are a ruler in the making.]
[Your domain is now your court. Your echoes, your people. Your enemies, your history.]
Lin Fei clutched his chest. It felt like his body was unraveling and being rewoven with memories that were never his — thoughts of dead wielders, lost cultivators, vanished domains.
He saw glimpses.
— A girl kneeling beneath a burning tree, whispering to roots that didn't hear her.
— A blind swordsman sealing his sword in silence to forget.
— A thousand screaming voices, buried under crystal soil, forgotten by everyone… except the System.
"Why me?" Lin Fei whispered.
🌀 System Response:
"Because you listened when others screamed."
👑 The First Sovereign Gate
The sky split.
Not in the normal, heavenly-tribulation way — but like a scroll being opened across dimensions. The sky above the Hollow Spiral peeled back, revealing a vast expanse of geometric light, layered circuits of qi and rootruned glyphs.
From it, a door descended.
Tall as a mountain. Framed in mirrored crystal. Marked with twelve symbols — each a root, each a fate.
💠 [You Stand Before the First Sovereign Gate]
[Access Restricted: Echo Sovereign Candidates Only]
[Requirements to Enter: Domain Root Capacity ≥ 30%, Minimum Echo Harmony: 5, Sovereign Mind: Awakened]
[You Qualify]
A voice — deep, unrelenting — thundered from behind the gate.
"Do you come to claim what was never given?
Will you steal from the past to birth your future?
Will you tread where sovereigns fell and never rose again?"
Lin Fei took a step forward.
"I will."
🌿 Inside the Gate: Realm of the Dying Courts
When he passed through the gate, the world changed.
He was standing on a vast plain of broken thrones and crumbling courts. Each throne pulsed with a different flavor of spiritual despair — some cracked by betrayal, others hollowed by ambition, others still scorched by forgotten wars.
Above him floated a citadel of roots — a palace with no base, just suspended branches holding up silence.
This was not a place of cultivation.
It was a place of judgment.
"All Echo Sovereigns must inherit a court.
To rule, you must earn the echo of an age that no longer breathes.
Choose. And survive."
Twelve thrones. Each with a title etched in glowing script.
Court of Severed Joy
Court of Infinite Regret
Court of Hollow Flame
Court of the Silent Vein
Court of Broken Time
Court of the Drowned Star
Court of Crimson Echoes
Court of Glass War
Court of the Forgotten Sword
Court of Twilight Pact
Court of Endless Hunger
Court of the Rootless King
The last was darker than the rest — not damaged, but unfinished.
"This one is unclaimed," the System whispered. "It has never had a ruler. Its root is your fate."
Lin Fei stepped toward it.
And the trial began.
💀 The Sovereign Trial: Rule by Remembrance
A wind tore across the realm.
Shadows surged from the court, forming an army — no, a history. Every battle the Court of the Rootless King had ever seen, now remade as living echoes, bound to challenge the one who dared to take its throne.
Lin Fei had no time to hesitate.
[Spineburst Qi Art — Reinforced]
[Verdant Fang Viper — Advanced Form: Crowned Serpent]
[Subdomain Activated: Reclamation Spiral – Combat Bloom Phase]
He fought not just with strength, but with memory.
He summoned echoes he had claimed — "Ren the Thorned," "Vessel-Speaker Yi," even the fractured thoughts of the Bloom Broker that had slipped into his domain through contact.
Every swing, every strike, every breath — a negotiation between life and past.
One by one, the shadows fell.
But the last was different.
It took the shape of Lin Fei himself.
No scars. No pain. No memory.
Just raw potential. Pure power — unshaped, unbound, unhurt.
The him that might have existed without loss.
"Do you still want to be more than this?" it asked.
He nodded.
"Then prove that pain has a crown."
They clashed.
Not with blows, but with everything they had never said, never admitted, never let go of.
In the end, the fake faded.
Lin Fei knelt before the throne.
And it opened to him.
👑 The Sovereign Is Chosen
⚡ System Notice: Sovereign Gate Challenge Completed
[You are now the First Echo Sovereign of the Court of the Rootless King]
[Effects:]
— Domain Capacity Increase: +400%
— Echo Harmony: +12
— New Ability Unlocked: Crown of the Unwritten Root
— New System Layer: Sovereign Edicts (Locked)
— New Access Level: Mid-Tier Sovereign Authority
The throne reformed beneath him.
No longer broken. Now forged from shimmering rootstone, bleeding light and echo both.
The realm of dying courts began to recede.
And the Sovereign Gate whispered:
"The first court is yours. But twelve remain. And others are watching."
The gate sealed behind him.
And Lin Fei, now an Echo Sovereign, returned to the Veinfield — changed.
🌌 Arc 3 Begins
When he emerged, the Veinfield bowed.
His domain now pulsed with a heartbeat not just of roots, but of will.
And far across the plane — in hidden domains, behind shattered moons, beneath systems untouched by light — other Sovereigns stirred.
Some laughed.
Some sharpened blades.
Some whispered his name.
Lin Fei.
The Rootless Crown has returned.
And the game begins.