Morning broke in smothered light, filtered through thick clouds and veils of fog. The trees whispered in the wind—an unnatural rhythm that didn't belong to the forest. It was too measured, too synchronized. Like breath drawn from a corpse.
Rael crouched in the underbrush, one knee pressed against damp moss, his right hand gripping a fragment of core-glass. The sharp edge pulsed faintly with residual Qi, scavenged from the beast he'd slain days ago.
Twenty feet away, hidden behind a moss-veiled oak, the trap was set. Strands of translucent Qi-thread stretched invisibly across the clearing like the web of a patient spider. Anything stronger than a rabbit would trigger the chain—a snap, then a blast of pressure, followed by a spray of bone-shrapnel from the bomb-spore seed he'd buried in the soil.
A brutal surprise.
But not a fatal one.
He needed one alive.
Lin Shuang stirred beside him, fingers brushing the hilt of her dagger as she blinked herself awake.
"They're coming," she murmured.
He nodded.
A presence in the air had changed—slight fluctuations in the wind, echoes bouncing strangely, the absence of birdsong. Signs too faint for untrained senses, but Rael had learned to see the threadwork of the world in motion.
And someone was tugging on it.
He didn't know exactly how many, but the Serpent Coil never worked alone. Three, maybe four. They moved without footfall, like hunting ghosts.
But they hadn't accounted for someone like him.
---
[You have activated Combat Preparation Mode.]
[Trap Set: 3]
[Trap Quality: Improvised (Qi-Fused Core Shards + Beast Resin + Trigger Threads)]
[Warning: Environmental damage may affect durability.]
Active Status: Focused
Strategic Thought Process enhanced. Reactive speed increased.
---
One of the intruders stepped into view.
He wore black robes with green scales embroidered across the collar—faint, like stains soaked into fabric rather than stitched. His face was half-covered in lacquered bone, hollow eyes glinting silver from within the mask. A ceremonial dagger hung from his hip, but the real danger was in the orb floating at his side: a soul lantern, thrumming with inner light.
Rael held his breath.
The man paused, sniffed the air, and spoke.
"She was here."
"Are you certain?" another voice asked—softer, but colder. Female.
"Yes. Blood trail ends here. But…" The masked man frowned. "Something's off. I sense a disturbance."
The second figure emerged—taller, robed in silk dyed in shifting colors. Her skin was pale like bone, lips bruised purple, and her eyes glowed faintly as she activated her detection technique.
Then she stepped into the trap.
The forest ignited.
The core-glass bomb detonated in a flash of light and pressure. Qi exploded outward, turning air into a blade. The woman screamed as razor fragments ripped through her thigh and hip, shredding muscle and robes. The masked man staggered back—but too late.
Rael moved.
He exploded from the underbrush with a force born from discipline. His dagger struck downward—angled for tendons, not heart. He didn't want the kill yet. The masked man turned, just in time to raise a weak shield—but it shattered under Rael's blow, the reinforced bone of his dagger grinding against bone and muscle.
Blood sprayed.
The man dropped.
Lin Shuang lunged past Rael like a shadow, her blade finding the wounded woman's throat before she could scream again.
It was over in seconds.
---
[You have critically injured: Cultivator - Serpent Coil Acolyte (Iron Vein Stage)]
[Status: Alive – Unconscious]
Warning: Soul Lantern Detected. Contained Spirit Echo Imprint Present.
Proceed with caution.
---
Rael stepped over the corpses and knelt beside the wounded man. He flicked open the bone mask and saw a face still twitching with breath—young, barely older than Rael himself. Pale skin marred by dark tattoos that pulsed faintly with residual soul energy.
Lin Shuang knelt beside the woman's corpse, plucking the bone ring from her finger.
"They were scouts," she said. "The main group won't be far behind."
Rael said nothing.
Instead, he placed his fingers against the man's temple and pressed a strand of Qi inward—thin, controlled, just enough to stimulate the spiritual nerve cluster behind the eyes.
The man gasped awake.
"Don't scream," Rael said quietly, pressing his dagger against the hollow beneath the jaw. "I need answers."
The boy stared at him in terror—but didn't resist.
"Why are the Serpent Coil hunting this deep into neutral forest?"
The boy's throat worked. "Orders. We were told… there's an echo here. A remnant. A spark fallen from the Otherworld."
Rael's eyes narrowed. "Me?"
"I don't know! Just the whisper. 'Find the cursed seed before it takes root.' That's what we were told."
Seed.
His fists clenched.
He rose and drove the hilt of his dagger into the man's neck, rendering him unconscious again. Death would be too easy—and answers were still needed.
---
They burned the bodies by the creek, pouring beast-oil over the remains to mask the scent. Rael placed a soul-binding talisman over the unconscious scout, tethering him to the core-shard cage he'd carved into a tree.
"You're going to interrogate him?" Lin Shuang asked, arms crossed.
Rael nodded. "Eventually. But not here."
She looked at him curiously, then said, "You fight like a sect executioner. But you talk like a strategist."
He shrugged.
She pressed further. "What's your goal, Rael? You're not just surviving, are you?"
Rael stared into the flames as the bodies turned to ash.
"No," he said. "I'm building something. Quietly. Carefully. Because when the time comes—"
He met her gaze, his voice cold and low.
"—I'm going to take this world by the throat."
---
They traveled east, avoiding the main path. Rael kept to the river's edge, using the sound of water to mask movement. Along the way, they passed remnants of old battlegrounds—piles of broken spirit stones, shattered bone-plates, ruined altars where cultivators once fought over territory and treasure.
And then, just before dusk, they crested a hill and saw it.
A city.
Half-ruined. Overgrown. Hidden in the folds of the forest, swallowed by vines and silence.
"What is this place?" Lin Shuang whispered.
Rael felt it in his bones—an old hum, like the echo of a bell no one had rung in centuries.
[You have discovered: Ruins of Lanxu City]
Status: Abandoned Cultivator Stronghold
Estimated Collapse Date: 137 years ago
Warning: Spiritual Anomalies Detected. Beast Activity Unconfirmed.
Potential Opportunity Level: High
Rael stepped forward.
The city gates yawned open like a dead man's mouth.
And inside, the darkness watched.
---