86: Chapter 86 A critical hit isn't luck, it's debt.

When the morning light washed over the snowy plains, ice beads still clung to Chen Fan's eyelashes.

He was dozing wrapped in Su Shuang's Fox Fire cloak when he heard a faint, scratching sound in his daze, like someone lightly scraping a stone slab with their fingernails.

"Hmm?" He rubbed his red, frozen nose and snapped his eyes open, his pupils suddenly contracting—beneath the layer of ice on the surface of the kindling stele, those names written in blood were slowly moving! The handwriting for "Blue Ash" was like a small red fish, swimming above "Xiao Ma" with a flick of its tail; the crooked strokes of "Wang Iron Pillar" shook, actually completing the missing corner of the character for "Pillar" on its own; at the very edge, the name "Li... San," which didn't even have a full surname, suddenly saw the dot at the end turn into a complete "Si."

Chen Fan bolted upright, not even feeling the pain when his knee struck the base of the stele.

He leaned in for a closer look; the names beneath the ice moved faster and faster, finally arranging themselves into a line of ancient seal script in the center of the stele: "Stars hang over the vast wild plains; words exist outside the book of fate."

"This is..." Just as his fingertips were about to touch it, Su Shuang's low, raspy voice came from behind him.

She had stood up at some unknown point, the hem of her moon-white skirt stained with melting snow, her fox ears peeking out half an inch from her hair, their fur shimmering with a pearlescent glow in the morning light. "It's the lost 'Star Language Incantation' of Qingqiu." Her fingertip lightly tapped the inscription, and the characters beneath the ice suddenly rippled. "A Star Speaker isn't just one person; they are a group of Awakened ones who were gouged out of history by the system."

Chen Fan's Adam's apple bobbed. "Gouged out?"

"They once tried to tear open the book of fate." Su Shuang's nails dug into the body of the stele, causing ice chips to flutter down. "As a result, they were all marked as 'Cleared'—just like the 'Chen Fan · To Be Deleted' you saw in the star map." When she turned around, the Fox Fire in the depths of her eyes dimmed slightly. "What the system erases isn't just fate, it's... the evidence of having existed."

Chen Fan crouched down, pressing his palm against the cold stone patterns at the base of the stele.

He activated the critical hit system, trying to resonate with the stele—but the usually roaring system voice was muffled this time, producing only a faint hum.

Just as he was about to frown, the scream Xiao Ma made when he was locked to the sacrificial pillar suddenly rang in his ears: "Brother, I don't want to die!" That voice carried a sob, mixed with the crisp clanking of iron chains, as clear as if it had happened yesterday.

His heart suddenly throbbed with pain.

Chen Fan remembered the half-piece of roasted sweet potato Xiao Ma had stuffed into his hand before being dragged away, and remembered how that kid always said he'd buy a flowery dress for his younger sister back home once they cleared the dungeon.

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, a crimson gold burned in his gaze. "You want to erase them?

I’m going to carve these names into my very bones."

The critical hit system exploded in his mind!

[Triggered "Obsession Resonance": Critical Hit Multiplier x5, Additional Skill: "Wrath Engraving" (Can transform the last words of the deceased into temporary buffs)]

Chen Fan let out a low growl and slammed his right fist heavily onto the ground.

Spiderweb-like cracks split the frozen earth, and golden flames surged out. Tongues of fire wrapped in molten slag carved four large characters into the ice before the stele with a "shing": "Xiao Ma Immortal."

After the flames died out, the handwriting shimmered with a metallic luster, and even the ice layer had been scorched into shallow pits.

"A hundred years ago, the Star Speaker's final words—"

Stone Throat's voice suddenly rose from underground, sounding like the ley lines were slowly articulating words. "I wrote my name ten thousand times, yet they still said no one existed."

Chen Fan's whole body jolted.

He thought of the corpses in the dungeon judged as "data errors" by the system; he thought of Wang Iron Pillar clutching a photo of his daughter before dying and saying, "Brother, help me remember"; he thought of Blue Ash's final smile as he said, "Chen Fan, you have to live for us."

He suddenly laughed, his eyes stinging. "So what the system fears isn't resistance, but being remembered?" He pulled off the coarse cloth belt from his waist and used the fire of the Flame Marrow to write "Blue Ash" on it, tearing it into strips with a "rip" to tie to the side of the stele; he then tore off his cuffs, writing "Wang Iron Pillar," "Li Si," and "Auntie Zhang"—with every name he wrote, the critical hit system vibrated slightly, as if in response.

When the midday sun shone on the kindling stele, the flames on its body suddenly turned from gold to white.

Chen Fan looked up and saw fine cracks spreading across the stele's surface, yet they didn't affect the ball of light at all; instead, it grew brighter as it cracked, as if it were going to burn the stone itself into stardust.

"Sizzle—"

The sound of boiling lava came from underground.

The Molten Heart Eye opened a crack, and blood-red light reflected on the snow, revealing three crimson characters: [Luo Yan · Awakened].

"Luo Yan?" Chen Fan muttered the name, suddenly remembering the "Star Speaker" Su Shuang had mentioned.

He tried to predict a critical hit, silently chanting "Frost Devour" in his heart as he gathered coldness in his right fist—the moment he struck out, a three-meter-long ice path spread beneath his feet, freezing the soles of his boots until they were frosted; without waiting for the cooldown, he silently chanted "Flame Burst," his left fist wrapped in crimson-gold flames as he smashed it onto the ice. The ice layer exploded with a "boom," and shattered ice mixed with molten slag sprayed two meters high, like a miniature volcano.

The system notification rang out at the right time: [Bloodline Resonance proficiency increased, cooldown reduced to 20 minutes]

Chen Fan wiped the ice shards from his face and turned to share the news with Su Shuang, only to see her leaning against the stele with a trail of blood at the corner of her mouth.

Moon-white Fox Fire flickered on her fingertips, and nine translucent fox tail phantoms rose behind her, only for two of them to fade away in the blink of an eye.

"Su Shuang!" He rushed over in large strides, supporting her trembling shoulders.

"My bloodline... is about to give out." Su Shuang raised her hand, her finger pointing to the darkest corner of the star map. "There is an abandoned Star Gazing Platform there; legend says the Star Speaker once heard 'Whispers from Beyond' at that place.

Go there, perhaps you can find a way to save me." She coughed twice, blood droplets splattering onto the back of Chen Fan's hand. "Any later... and the last lineage of Qingqiu will also be marked as 'Cleared' by the system."

Chen Fan's throat tightened.

He bent down to pick Su Shuang up on his back; her weight was so light it made his heart race with worry—the last time he carried her was in the Bronze Dungeon, back when she could still laugh and poke the back of his neck with her fox tail.

He adjusted his posture to make her more comfortable and said in a low voice, "Hold on, I'm taking you there."

Before leaving, he took one last look at the kindling stele.

The white flame at the top of the stele burned even brighter, and the cloth strips he had just tied fluttered loudly in the wind. The names of "Blue Ash" and "Wang Iron Pillar" were scorched black, yet they were carved deeper than any gold lacquer.

"Wait for me to come back," he said softly to the stele. "I'm going to turn this stele into a tower—taller than their Tower of Fate."

As he stepped forward, a booming sound came from behind him.

Chen Fan looked back and saw the white flame atop the kindling stele soaring into the sky like a golden sword, splitting the leaden-gray clouds.

...

When night fell, the wasteland was dyed a deep purple.

Chen Fan walked through the snow with Su Shuang on his back, his boot prints crushing the starlight scattered on the ground.

He was planning to find a crevice in the rocks sheltered from the wind to rest, when he suddenly heard a faint "crackling" sound behind him.

He stopped in his tracks.

Under the moonlight, a cluster of ghostly white light was moving at the end of the snowy plain.

The light drew closer and closer, and Chen Fan's pupils constricted—it was actually the kindling stele!

A deep pit remained where it had originally been rooted; its body was covered in cracks, yet it moved forward slowly as if it had a life of its own. With every step, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the ice, and the white flame atop the stele always pointed in his direction.