Blossoming Path

Chapter 196: To Engrave in One's Heart

Silence stretched between us.

Tianyi and Windy sat across from me, unmoving, their eyes reflecting the faint glow of the cavern’s entrance behind us. I had just finished explaining everything; the carvings, the warnings, the Interface’s creation, and, most importantly, how Tianyi and I had triggered the tablet together, awakening the Heavenly Interface.

I had expected… something. A grand reaction, maybe. Shock. Awe. The kind of revelation that shook the very foundation of belief.

Instead, Tianyi’s wings twitched slightly, and she tilted her head.

Her first words were not what I had anticipated.

“And when we triggered it, it made you the Interface Manipulator?”

I nodded. “Yeah. That’s when I got the title. I don’t know exactly what it means yet, or why it chose me, but… it’s given me access to powerful skills, allowed me to grow faster than anyone else could.”

Tianyi’s antennae twitched. “That’s not right.”

“What?”

Windy hissed beside her, his long body shifting slightly. She glanced at him before translating.

“Windy agrees.”

I stared at them, waiting for more.

Nothing.

Just… mild offense that I had been the only one given the title.

For a moment, I processed this. Then a quiet chuckle slipped past my lips. Then another. And before I knew it, I was laughing. Genuine, deep laughter that echoed off the cavern walls.

“Why are you laughing?”

I wiped a tear from my eye, shaking my head.

“I just—” A breathless chuckle escaped me again. “I spent all this time thinking about the implications, the weight of it all. And the only thing you care about is why you didn’t get the title instead.”

“I am being serious. Can I complain to the Interface?”

I laughed even harder. They stared at me, unimpressed.

I exhaled, finally getting control of myself. Maybe I had been expecting too much. After all, my two closest companions weren’t human. They had no grand myths or historical reverence for the Heavenly Interface. They didn’t see the legacy of what it represented. Ɽ𝒶ΝỘ𝐁Èş

To Windy, it was just another weird human thing. Something that had been present since the day he opened his eyes.

To Tianyi, it was a slight against her personal dignity.

That was it.

I smiled, shaking my head. “I don’t know why the Interface picked me. Maybe it should’ve chosen you instead.”

Tianyi folded her arms. “Perhaps it did not think I was worthy in that form.”

“That’s ridiculous. If anything, you were just as deserving.”

She simply nodded, as if accepting my words at face value. But deep down, I felt the the realization settle again.

Because I was the one who bore this title.

I was the one tasked with keeping the Interface. With remembering these people who had built it.

How?

How could I live up to something like that?

Now that I knew the truth… and its connection to the Heavenly Demon, what was I supposed to do?

I ruminated over the words etched into the cavern’s walls. A fragment of a cosmic script, they had called it. The Interface hadn’t simply descended from the Upper Realm, it had been created. But by what? By who?

The Upper Realm itself was something I struggled to fully comprehend. It wasn’t just another plane of existence. It was where immortals roamed, where gods, demons, and even Buddha himself were said to exist.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

And somehow, a fragment of something from that realm had made its way here, into the hands of mortals, and had been shaped into something greater.

Or something far worse.

If the Interface had been a gift, why had the last words left behind been warnings?

Why had the Heavenly Demon been invoked in the same breath as its origins?

And if the Heavenly Demon Cult had access to the same power—

I shook my head sharply, as if I could physically cast the thought away.

That was a nightmare I didn’t want to entertain.

I exhaled slowly, glancing at Tianyi and Windy, who were still watching me expectantly. “It’s time to go.”

Tianyi nodded, giving the cavern one last glance before turning toward the exit. Windy flicked his tongue, but slithered after her without protest.

But I wasn’t ready to leave. Not yet.

I took one last look at the chamber. The dust-covered walls. The carvings etched by hands long turned to dust. The words of those who had built something greater than themselves—something meant to uplift, preserve, and never be forgotten.

And now, we were the only one left who knew.

I stepped back, dragging my gaze over every inch of the walls, every faded inscription, every shattered remnant of their message.

They wanted to be remembered.

So I remembered.

I memorized everything I could, committing the carvings, the patterns, the layout of the chamber to my Memory Palace, ensuring that no matter what happened, this knowledge would not disappear with time.

And as I turned to leave, I hesitated.

A strange, unspoken pull held me in place.

I swallowed, then bowed my head slightly, whispering, “Thank you.”

I wasn’t sure who I was speaking to. The ones who had created the Interface? The unknown writer who had scrawled those last desperate warnings? The Interface itself?

I didn’t know why they chose me to continue their memory.

But I would do my best.

I clenched my fists.

“I won’t let the demonic cult win.”

With that, I turned and stepped through the frozen waterfall, leaving the ruins behind.

The forest swallowed us whole.

The eerie stillness of the cavern was replaced by the crisp sounds of nature. Rustling leaves, the faint hoot of an owl, the gentle whisper of wind through the trees.

The cold was still there, biting at my skin, but it was bearable. The sky had already begun to lighten, hints of dawn creeping over the horizon.

We moved quickly. The gap in patrols was brief, and we used it to slip back into the village unnoticed.

By the time we reached home, exhaustion was crushing me.

It felt as though I had spent the entire day working, but in reality, the day hadn’t even started yet.

I threw my satchel onto my desk, resisting the urge to collapse into bed.

What was I supposed to do with this knowledge? Who could I even tell?

Jian Feng? Elder Ming? Feng Wu? Even if they believed me, what could they do? What could any of us do against something this vast?

The Interface wasn’t just some divine gift. It was a tool. A system created to uplift the world—or enslave it.

And if the demonic cultists discovered that I was the Interface Manipulator…

A cold shiver ran through me.

I had no idea what sort of magic they could use. If they realized what I was, what if they kidnapped me? What if they had some horrific ritual to extract the Interface from me, to merge it with their own power?

What if they could twist it the same way they twisted the people they turned into converts?

I shuddered at the thought.

No. I couldn’t let them find out.

I had no idea why the Interface had chosen me. No idea how or why it worked the way it did.

But one thing was clear.

I wasn’t just some cultivator looking to grow stronger anymore.

I was now holding a key to something far bigger than myself.

And if I made a single mistake…

The wrong hands would take it.

Time passed.

The crisp morning air carried the sounds of training; the steady rhythm of footsteps on frost-bitten ground, the sharp exhales of exertion, heavy rocks pounding onto the earth. I moved through the motions with precision, the Dance of a Thousand Flames flowing seamlessly from one step to the next. My footwork was steady, my strikes clean. My body had long since memorized the drills, reacting out of habit rather than conscious thought.

But my mind was elsewhere.

“You are distracted.”

I opened my mouth to argue but stopped. He was right.

I had barely been paying attention. My body had gone through the training by muscle memory alone while my thoughts had remained buried in the ruins, in the words carved into stone, in the weight of a history no one else seemed to remember.

“I…” I hesitated. “It’s nothing I can talk about right now.”

Elder Ming studied me for a long moment before nodding. “Everyone has their right to privacy. If it is something that can be shared, I trust you will do so when the time is right.”

“Of course,” I said, grateful he didn’t press further.

Unfortunately, someone else was far less graceful.

A voice piped up from my right.

“Ohhh, so it’s a secret, is it?”

I turned just in time to see Wang Jun waggling his eyebrows, a smug grin stretched across his face. “Come on, Kai. You can’t just tease something so ominous and then expect me not to be curious. Why don't you tell me, your best friend?”

I huffed, jutting out my chin so I was looking down on him despite being a head taller than me. “It’s not something your feeble mind could comprehend.”

“Feeble? Feeble?! Need I remind you that I learned how to write before you even knew how to hold a brush?”

“Just because a flower blooms before a tree does, does that make the tree any less significant?”

There was a moment of silence.

Then realization dawned on Wang Jun’s face.

“Did you just call me a flower?” His voice turned flat.

I shrugged. “If the analogy fits.”

Wang Jun lunged at me.

I yelped as he shoved at my shoulder. Not enough to hurt, but just enough to jostle me off-balance. I barely caught myself, half-laughing, half-protesting as I tried to keep my footing.

“You dare compare me—a master blacksmith—to a flower?!” Wang Jun huffed. “Unacceptable. I demand satisfaction!”

I twisted out of his reach, only for him to grab the collar of my robe and shake me.

“I’m still injured, you brute!”

“I don’t see that stopping you from running your mouth!”

Elder Ming watched the great struggle unfold before him with the weariness of a man too old to be dealing with our antics. “Enough. Go wash up. Morning training is done.”

I groaned, shaking off Wang Jun’s grip as he finally released me, though not without one last playful shove for good measure. He grinned, clearly pleased with himself, while I adjusted my robes with as much dignity as I could muster.

“Unbelievable,” I muttered, brushing off the dust from my sleeve.

The brief moment of levity faded as I turned back toward my home, my focus shifting back to the most pressing task.

Curing the converts.

I wasted no time once I returned. I pulled out my notebook, flipping through hastily scrawled theories and notes. This was the last piece of the puzzle; the final task required to complete the cure.

The Essence Purifying Elixir.

I had been focused on testing the blood samples, on understanding the influence of the Bloodsoul Bloom, that I hadn’t considered the elixir’s role beyond its name. But now, I saw it clearly. The elixir wasn’t just a purifying agent, it was a foundation. One upon which derivatives could be formed from.

I tapped my fingers against the desk, running through the connections in my Memory Palace.

The convert’s blood was infused with demonic qi. But more importantly, it had been changed at a fundamental level. That was what made them more accepting of demonic energy. It wasn’t just a corruption, it was a transformation.

That meant I couldn’t simply purge the taint. I had to revert the change entirely.

The Essence Purifying Elixir alone wouldn’t be enough. It was too simple, too straightforward in its function. But if I combined it into a proper blood detoxification medicine…

I inhaled sharply.

"That's it."

I needed to use the elixir as a base, a stabilizing foundation that could be synthesized with other ingredients to act as a full detoxification agent.

The answer was so obvious now that I could see it in its entirety. I needed to cleanse the blood, not just expel the taint. Otherwise, they would never truly be free of the conversion process.

I reached for my satchel, already pulling out dried herbs, ground powders, and a series of vials filled with my prior experiments. I didn’t have much room for error—I only had a limited number of ingredients to work with, and I couldn’t afford to waste them on failed attempts.

I spent the afternoon running through every permutation in my Memory Palace, mentally crafting and deconstructing the formula. Mixing. Matching. Testing combinations before they ever touched a physical vial.

I was so deep in my work that I barely noticed when Tianyi, perched near the window with a book in hand, suddenly tensed.

She snapped her head toward the door, her antennae twitching.

I followed her gaze instinctively and caught the faint flicker of lantern light outside. Several disciples, converging on a single point far beyond the village’s edge.

The darkness around them only made it more ominous.

I rose immediately, shoving my notes aside. I didn’t hesitate. If the disciples were gathering like that, something had happened.