Overdraw the future and become a peerless martial god

Chapter 197 The Lock of Oblivion
Chu Ning stopped.

A mirror-like wall appeared ahead, fifteen feet high, made entirely of gray crystal, with broken edges and fragmented inscriptions, but in the very center, a line of dark gold ancient characters was clearly visible:
"Those who enter the Realm of Severed Memories must relinquish one memory."

Beneath the mirror wall was a soul array platform resembling an altar, where soul energy flowed slowly along the meridians, seemingly waiting for some kind of "feedback" before it could be activated.

He remained silent for a moment, his gaze falling on the fragment of soul consciousness that was about to be offered up.

That was an experience he had when he was in his hometown in Qingyang County.

He was subjected to a humiliating attack, pinned to the ground in the snow and his face trampled, simply because he had failed to repay his loan shark debts on time.

Chu Ning neither shed tears nor cried out.

After that, he never spoke a word to those people again.

It's just etched deep in my memory, something I've always carried with me.

He paused, sealed that memory away, and used his soul power to peel it off and send it into the mirror wall.

The moment the fragmented memories touched the mirror wall, Chu Ning's pupils contracted slightly.

Within the sea of ​​souls, a small area suddenly collapsed.

It's not pain.

Instead, it is a strange kind of "emptiness".

It's like an old wound that's been sitting in a corner for years suddenly disappearing.

He suddenly realized that he could no longer feel anger towards that group of people.

It's not just that they've forgotten what happened, but that even the capacity to "hate" itself has been stripped away.

He remembered that the incident "had happened," and he remembered that he "had been hurt."

But the emotions were completely gone.

For a moment, he stood there speechless, his soul momentarily frozen.

A very subtle sense of emptiness arose in my chest, as if some part of my "weight" had been hollowed out.

But then, another, even more indescribable feeling welled up inside me.

easy.

It's not a sense of relief, but rather a feeling of etherealness that emerges after being "forced to unload the burden."

It's like a stone has disappeared, yet you didn't realize that the stone had been hidden so deeply.

He subconsciously touched his chest, but couldn't feel anything.

"This is... the price of sacrificing a memory?"

"It's not about erasing memories."

"It's about rewriting yourself."

He withdrew his hand, his brows furrowed slightly, and looked at the extinguished patterns on the mirror wall, a deep sense of vigilance rising in his heart for the first time.

What if someone could manipulate him to discard his "key memories"?

Or what if he accidentally abandons his "true self"?

He suddenly realized:

This is not just a simple "pass".

Instead, they took a brick from his soul and left a blank space.

The real him, but a part of him has been cut off.

He murmured softly, his voice low, yet carrying an unprecedented caution:

"...We can't just give them away casually anymore."

The mirror wall remained silent for three breaths, as if "confirming" the weight and structure of this sacrifice.

Then, a faint light appeared, and the inscription restarted.

[Memory sacrifice completed]

The gate to severed memories has been opened.

The next moment, the entire space trembled slightly.

The soul array platform began to float, and the inscriptions on its edges lit up layer by layer, like the awakening sequence of some deeper mechanism.

Chu Ning felt a slight sinking under his feet, and he seemed to hear a low-frequency soul call in his ears, like the murmurs of hundreds of people calling from the ground.

The platform slowly sank, as if it had been pulled out of the current realm, and sank into a deeper layer of the soul consciousness structure along some invisible trajectory.

Just as Chu Ning was about to step into the core area of ​​the "Memory Severance Domain," a blurry afterimage suddenly appeared on the mirror wall:
—A young man dressed in a black robe stood in front of a platform resembling a "projection stand". His soul lock was burning brightly, and he was being suppressed by some kind of huge soul machine. His soul consciousness was being forcibly "torn apart" strand by strand and projected into the four mirrors.

His face was blurry, but his figure and aura were almost identical to Chu Ning's.

Chu Ning paused slightly, a vein throbbing on his forehead.

The next second, the entire domain of severed memories suddenly opened up.

A vortex of soul energy enveloped him completely, pulling him into a chaotic "Soul Source Ruins".

This is a fragmented place where memories have been destroyed and history has been erased.

And the fragments of memories belonging to "others" are waiting for him here.

The breath of the soul surged forth like waves.

Chu Ning was swept into the center of the vortex, and the surrounding area instantly turned into a shattered Soul Mirror Plain.

The ground is pieced together from countless broken mirrors. When you step on it, you can faintly hear the "murmurs of the past," as if each mirror has recorded the "memory of someone who has been forgotten."

The sky was gray, reflecting a distorted boundary map, on which coordinate text kept collapsing, reforming, collapsing, and reforming again.

Chu Ning did not stop walking. He cautiously released his soul energy, only to find that the soul lock was suppressed to an extremely heavy degree, and even his lightning energy became sluggish.

Suddenly, the mirror in front of them lit up.

A projection emerged from the shattered mirror.

—That was a frontier camp from a lost era.

The tents were tattered, the Soul Pillars had collapsed, and in the distance, an ancient Boundary Tower was burning, with lightning crackling through its cracks, and the sky was as red as blood.

In the scene, a group of martial artists are fleeing in panic. Some are carrying wounds, some are cursing, and one of the tall and thin young men suddenly turns around and looks in a certain direction.

His eyes were panicked, his voice hoarse, yet choked with disbelief:

"Chu Ning! You're still in that Soul Tower? Are you insane?! You haven't come out—"

The sound seemed to pierce through the very space itself.

That "Chu Ning" was like a lightning bolt piercing his soul, still echoing endlessly in the depths of his mind.

After the mirror shattered, a brief silence fell over the surroundings.

But just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief...

The fourth mark of the Soul Lock on Chu Ning's palm suddenly throbbed again, and lightning burst forth violently from the inside out.

This was not the release of a soul technique, but a resonant vibration that was close to the "evolutionary threshold".

Around the fourth rune, the vague and uncertain fifth soul rune faintly emerged as an "undefined rune line," like a lightning bolt mark, winding for a few breaths before quickly disappearing.

He slowly raised his left hand and flicked his palm lightly.

A thin wisp of lightning connected to the soul imprint. In an instant, the air seemed to be torn apart by a silent thunder, and the boundary field trembled silently.

—The three patterns of the Soul Lock tremble slightly.

Lightning energy rose heavily from Chu Ning's body, surging in reverse under suppression, weaving three layers of pale silver lightning marks.

That was not the regular operation of an ordinary soul lock, but an extremely ancient reverse pulse circuit, like roots breaking through the soil, sprouting new branches under suppression.

Within the sea of ​​souls, the five elemental thunder cores no longer remained stable in order, but instead intertwined and rotated in opposite directions, faintly forming a slowly unfolding five-colored thunder wheel.

At the center of the wheel, an extremely complex "residual pattern" appeared.

—That is the "boundary lock mark" personally carved by Master Hunyuan. Only when the soul lock truly enters the critical point of "five-pattern resonance" will its afterglow be revealed.

However, just as the fifth rune was about to solidify, an invisible ripple of boundary lock pressed down from the void.

It did not originate from Chu Ning, but rather from the underlying rules of the "Land of Locked Source," which were suddenly sealed off.

He felt a chill run down his spine and immediately realized:
Although this place awakened the "fifth mark remnant" within him, it did not grant him the "authority lock".

Before the formal "locking ceremony" is completed, even if the fifth mark is generated, it can only be a "reflection" and cannot be truly awakened.

A moment later, the pattern dimmed slightly and slowly disappeared into the depths of the Soul Wheel, leaving only a lingering tremor in the sea of ​​consciousness.

Chu Ning slowly opened his eyes, a little cold sweat on his forehead.

He murmured in a low voice:
"So... this fifth mark wasn't acquired through cultivation, but rather—unlocked through inheritance."

"Only by mastering the Origin Seal of the Boundary Lock can one truly step into it."

His hand trembled, and his soul was violently shaken.

In that instant, his feeling wasn't "becoming stronger," but rather, that something was trying to take over the Soul Chains.

The sudden movement made him take a step back, sweating profusely.

The next second, the Mirror Domain suddenly distorted, and a dragging sensation, like an undercurrent, swept him into the second fragment. He stood before the fragment, sweat beading on his forehead, his Soul Lock still throbbing, and a faint heat emanating from his palm, as if something was stirring inside.

That wasn't a fluctuation of soul power.

Rather, it is a more subtle tremor—like the lock-like patterns deep within the bone marrow, being "observed."

The surrounding mirrors have also changed.

The shattered pieces of the lens began to silently shift their angles, focusing on his figure, like eyeballs fixed on him.

Chu Ning instinctively took a half step back, gathering lightning at his fingertips.

"...Is it locked?"

His eyes darkened.

The next moment, an invisible dragging sensation suddenly rose from beneath my feet.

It was neither wind nor gravity.

Instead, it was the tearing sensation of his sea of ​​consciousness being "anchored" by an external force that directly grabbed the root of his soul consciousness and began to sink.

[Deepening Soul Frequency Resonance]

[Matching lock in effect]

Chu Ning let out a low roar and forcibly activated the fourth rune of the Soul Lock. Lightning exploded in his palm, attempting to counter the attack.

"Stop right there—!"

Lightning burst forth, instantly transforming into a lightning shield, attempting to tear apart this chain of soul consciousness.

But that power did not break.

It has no physical form, nor does it follow the laws of the soul path.

It is the original lock of the main soul layer of the ruins, which directly penetrates the defensive structure and precisely suppresses the core of the soul's origin.

Chu Ning felt a jolt in his head, the lightning went out in the next instant, his limbs went numb, his center of gravity was forcibly pulled away from his body, and his consciousness suddenly tilted.

"...It's not a soul technique."

"Yes... it's an order."

He was horrified. Before he could even think, he was swept into the core of that mirror.

Consciousness is stripped away, and resonance begins.

Not a bystander.

It means to enter.

--black.

Complete, enclosed darkness.

He found himself standing in the center of a closed stone hall, surrounded by a soul-binding array densely covered with inscriptions. Three candlelights illuminated the totems faintly visible on the stone walls—not in the style of a soul-binding pavilion, but more like some kind of ancient clan pattern.

His left hand was bound by soul threads and pressed against a huge stone tablet, blood flowing from his palm into the tablet.

He tried to speak, but no sound came out.

Deep within his soul sea, a calm yet extremely ancient consciousness whispered within him:

"After the contract is formed, you will lose all your true names."

"Old acquaintances are all severed, and new shadows will be erected."

"You will become Chu Ning."

……what?
—At this very moment, the resonant “Real Chu Ning” experienced a violent tremor deep within his soul consciousness.

He suddenly felt an indescribable tearing apart—not physically, but at the level of consciousness, as if two "selves" were violently colliding and fighting for the right to exist deep within his soul.

On one side is that body with lingering memories, empty and calm, being rewritten into "Chu Ning".

On the other side, his true soul consciousness is trying to protect its boundaries, name, and memories.

"...It wasn't me!!!"

He roared inwardly.

But the ceremony continued.

The inscription on the monument was so bright it almost burned through the soul.

Chu Ning felt herself beginning to lose her sense of self within that body—emotions faded, consciousness blurred, and her sense of time was stripped away.

He realized that if the ritual were completed, he might not only be "experiencing" that person's memories.

He will become him.

Just then, the outside world exploded with a deafening roar.

The violent impact shattered the soul monument, extinguished the candlelight, and broke the inscription circuit.

The ceremony was forcibly interrupted.

The body slammed heavily against the stone wall, bones cracking and pain shooting through the body along the spine.

But what was even more terrifying was the feeling Chu Ning experienced at that moment—a sense of relief and survival deep within his soul:
It was as if the person had broken free from a coffin that was sealing them.

His soul suddenly sprang out of that body, like a tree branch swept away by a torrent, pulled from the abyss.

Even so, a faint trace of the soul remained deep within the sea of ​​the soul:
Chu Ning – already registered.

The next instant, the "body" suddenly raised its head and looked towards the other side of the stone hall.

A middle-aged man dressed in a misty white soul robe was looking down at him with a cold expression.

In his vision, the outline of the middle-aged man clad in a misty white soul robe became increasingly clear.

Unlike the Soul Chart Pavilion warriors Chu Ning had seen before, his robes did not have the usual "Soul Chart Five Patterns," but were instead embroidered with a black and gold hexagonal seal with an extremely ancient design.

The seal features a relief carving of an eye with three lines at its center, inscribed on the left shoulder. The remaining lines below are in seal script, which does not appear to be the inscription currently used by the Soul Picture Pavilion.

Chu Ning felt a chill run down his spine; that was the mark of the "layer editor" from the legendary Soul Map Pavilion.

It is said that only the first-rank attendants who participated in the establishment of the First-Rank Pavilion in its earliest days were entitled to wear it.

"...This is not an ordinary ceremony."

"This is the naming of the creator level."

His thoughts had barely formed when he heard the man slowly begin to speak, softly reciting the final words:

"The object being transformed in the record has been identified. Execute the sixth template of 'Soul Constructing and Destiny Setting'."

"Using a false name as a seal, and locking in the source as a medium..."

His voice was deep and resonant, like an inscription on a stone tablet, but lacked the warmth of a soul's resonance.

As Chu Ning was being held atop the Soul-Suppressing Tablet, a chill ran down his spine:
Did he... give me this name?

Or is he merely a "oath-taker in the program"?
The man's eyes never looked at Chu Ning.

Only just before the ceremony was about to begin did he whisper an ancient phrase that almost no one could understand:
"The ninth generation, Ning Xu has not returned."

The man held the boundary scroll and whispered a string of soul oaths:

"The one whose seventh soul ring was shattered, the one whose memory runes were annihilated."

"Using false names as seals, and locking in the source as a medium."

"From this day forward, I will use the remnant of my soul as a guide, and bear the name of the Soul Lock—Chu Ning."

Chu Ning roared in his fragmented memories, but the sound wouldn't come out.

He saw that the body's eyes were empty, as if its soul had been extracted and replaced with some kind of code that "conforms to the inscription trajectory".

Halfway through the ceremony, a strange change occurred.

A violent roar came from outside the stone hall.

A soul explosion shattered the soul monument, rebounding from the outside and impacting the entire formation.

The candle went out, the inscription destroyed itself, and the ritual collapsed.

The body fell backward, crashing heavily against the stone wall. Soul blood gushed out, and a glimmer of struggle finally appeared in its eyes.

The screen jolted—the projection shattered.

Chu Ning abruptly broke free from the resonance.

He knelt at the core of the Broken Memory Domain, covered in cold sweat. The fourth rune of his Soul Lock throbbed violently, as if rejecting it, yet also as if accepting it.

After a long silence, he whispered:

"...I am not him."

But an even lower, more intense cry of the soul emanated from somewhere within his body:

"But you inherited his legacy."

That was the last sentence left behind by a shattered soul's lingering thoughts.

(End of this chapter)