"The world is stitched with hidden threads — some silk, some bone. Pull the wrong one, and it unravels in blood."
The morning fog of Yuexi Forest lay thick as wet cotton over the worn path. Trees loomed like ancient sentinels, their limbs twisted into haunting silhouettes. The chill was sharp — not from the weather, but from something older that lingered in the soil.
Rael moved in silence, every step deliberate, as he pulled his cloak tighter around his body. His breath misted in the cold, curling into the shadows like ghosts seeking their graves.
Behind him, the injured girl limped quietly, clutching a half-bound wound on her side. Her name, as he'd learned last night, was Lin Shuang. A minor rogue cultivator from the scattered clans of Jiangbei.
She hadn't spoken much since he'd rescued her from the Bloodbone Beast. Only muttered thanks. And something stranger:
"Why did you help me?"
Rael hadn't answered. Not because he didn't know. But because the truth unsettled him.
He hadn't done it out of kindness. Not truly.
He was testing something.
Himself.
---
[You have absorbed: Minor Beast Core - Bloodbone Beast (Rank: Iron-Blood)]
Partial Trait Imprint: "Sanguine Bones"
Effect: Bone density temporarily increased. Internal resilience boosted.
Duration: 3 hours.
Warning: Retention cost beyond limit may damage internal meridians.
---
He'd used the core's trait sparingly, even while fighting, feeling the power surge through his limbs like molten iron. But even now, the dull ache that followed it throbbed through his spine — proof that traits, like all gifts in this world, came with a price.
He glanced at his hand — veins still faintly tinted red, pulsing with residual Qi.
"It fades fast," he muttered.
"Of course it does," the devil murmured in his head. "You think Heaven would let you keep strength so easily? If you want permanence… take more. Kill more."
Rael said nothing.
But he didn't deny the urge.
---
They stopped near a shallow creek. Water trickled through moss-covered rocks, the sound like broken music in the stillness of the forest.
Lin Shuang collapsed beside it, letting out a shaky breath. "We can't keep going without rest."
Rael nodded, scanning the terrain. They were still two days from Linghai City's outskirts — and at least a day from any known sect outposts. They were deep in neutral territory, outside the protection of any regional faction.
A perfect place for cultivators to die and be forgotten.
Or for others to hunt them.
[Soul Interface Active]
Name: Rael
Cultivation: Mortal Body (Tempered)
Qi: 41
Core: None
Physique: None
Affinity: Undiscovered
Status: Fatigued (Mild), Stable
Trait Slots: 0/1 Active
Equipped Trait: None
Inventory:
Basic Cultivator Robes
Bone Splinter Dagger (Reinforced)
2x Minor Beast Cores (Unabsorbed)
Burned Prayer Beads (Unidentified)
Dry Rations
Water Flask
He flicked his hand and summoned the [Bone Splinter Dagger] from his side pouch. The blade shimmered faintly in the low light — not enchanted, but crafted from the fang of a high-grade beast, making it sharper than most mortal weapons.
"You should eat," he said, passing Lin Shuang half of the dry ration.
She hesitated. "You saved me, you don't need to—"
"You'll slow me down if you collapse. I don't do charity."
That shut her up.
---
They ate in silence.
Rael's mind wandered — back to the moment he arrived in TAO, to the strange pulse in the soil beneath his feet. It had felt… alive. Like the realm itself knew who he was.
Or what he carried inside him.
"The threads are moving," the voice murmured again, faintly amused. "Someone's noticed you."
"Who?"
"Not a who. A what. This realm remembers what you were — and it fears what you might become again."
---
Night fell quicker in the Mingxu Realm. The bamboo grove turned to a maze of shadows, and the silence thickened.
As they made camp — no fire, only Qi-lantern shards for dim light — Lin Shuang finally spoke again.
"You fight like someone trained… but not like any sect I know."
Rael didn't look at her. "That's because I wasn't trained in your world."
She blinked. "You… mean you're from the other side?"
He paused.
So she knew.
More than she let on.
He turned to face her, eyes sharp. "You've seen others?"
She hesitated. Then nodded. "One. A year ago. In the Black Sand Flats. He screamed in a tongue none of us understood. He was powerful — until he exploded."
Rael frowned.
That didn't sound like a soul integration gone wrong. It sounded like possession.
Which meant something — or someone — had tried to force a crossing without balance.
"How did he die?"
"We burned the corpse. His blood was… wrong."
Rael filed it away. Every scrap of knowledge about this realm's interaction with Earth was a clue — and a warning.
He closed his eyes, trying to still his thoughts.
---
That night, he dreamed.
Of silk threads descending from the sky.
Each thread wrapped around a part of his body — head, hands, heart, spine.
Then pulled.
He screamed as his limbs were torn apart — not physically, but spiritually. The sensation was cold, but agonizing.
And from the sky above, a voice whispered:
"Your fate is knotted with the past you left behind."
"Untangle it… or drown in it."
---
He woke before dawn, drenched in sweat.
The creek nearby still flowed. Lin Shuang was asleep, curled up tightly, dagger in hand.
He stood, stretched, and turned toward the eastern path.
And then he saw it.
In the shadows between trees, a sigil carved into the bark.
Fresh.
A circle with a serpent eating its own tail.
He crouched to examine it.
The mark of the Serpent Coil Sect — a hidden group of rogue cultivators known for soul harvesting.
And they were close.
"They smell your blood," the devil growled. "They think you're prey."
Rael smiled coldly.
"Then I'll teach them otherwise."
He stepped back, eyes narrowing, mind sharpening.
He began laying traps in the underbrush — thin threads of Qi-twine, shards of core-glass buried just under the moss. He calculated angles, blind spots, scent masking.
Not brute force.
Strategy.
"Let them come," he whispered.
"I want them to."