The morning of their departure came with a tense, brittle calm.
The morning of their departure came with an uneasy stillness.
Snow blanketed the earth in thick layers, muting footsteps and swallowing sound. The rising sun burned gold through a pale sky, casting long shadows from the huts and trees of Bai Village. Outside the training hall, a group of elite trainees stood in silence, bundled in furs and leather armor, their weapons strapped to their backs or waists.
Adam stood among them.
Zhao spotted him first and waved with his usual lazy grin. "About time you got here," he said, stepping forward and pulling Adam into a brief embrace. "Ready to get mauled in the woods?"
Adam chuckled and returned the hug. "If I die, it better be after you."
"I'm faster," Zhao said, smirking.
Before Adam could reply, another figure approached. Lin Yao.
She walked toward them, face calm, lips pressed in a line of focus. Her cloak was neatly fastened, her blade strapped across her back. She stopped before them, nodding once.
"Adam," she said.
He nodded back. "It's been a while."
"Not that long," she said simply.
Zhao glanced between them, then cleared his throat. "Well, this is awkward."
They both looked at him, and for a moment, something passed between the three—familiar, but frayed. The warmth of old friendship was still there, but Adam could feel it clearly: a gap. An invisible space between him and Lin Yao that hadn't been there before.
When had it started? he wondered. Was it me… or her?
She moved on quickly, joining the front group of martial artists, her footsteps precise and confident.
Adam watched her go.
The sense of distance only grew.
---
The group assembled outside the village gates in formation.
What Adam had expected to be a simple hunting trip was anything but.
The formation was deliberate and tier-based. At the center, protected on all sides, were the newly advanced Tier 3 martial artists—Adam, Zhao, and a handful of others. They were the focus of this operation: not warriors, but students. Their main objective wasn't hunting but surviving.
At the rear, to Adam's surprise, were Tier 1 martial artists—those still in foundational training. Their job wasn't to fight, but to protect against ambushes or stragglers. They moved in squads led by none other than Instructor Lin, whose steady presence anchored the back line.
But the real shock came when Adam saw Lin Yao walking up the front ranks, joining the Tier 2 martial artists.
He blinked. "Wait… she's Tier 2 now?"
Zhao nodded, voice low. "Not just that. She's already near the top of the tier. I heard she's training directly under her father."
Adam followed her figure as she joined the vanguard, moving with purpose. There was no hesitation in her gait, no fear in her eyes. She had changed.
At the very front, leading the hunting party through the frost-covered path, was a tall, broad-shouldered man clad in gray and black armor. His hair was tied in a sharp knot behind his head, and his presence radiated quiet authority.
"That's him," Zhao said. "Master Lin Kuan. Lin Yao's father. His reputation precedes him as one of the last great warriors who had defended the borders during the Southern Beasts Uprising nearly a decade ago."
Adam had only heard of Lin Kuan in whispers. He looked the part. Every movement was sharp, efficient. Even the instructors near him seemed deferential.
Despite being called a hunting party, Adam was beginning to understand that this wasn't about game or food. This was a field expedition—a coordinated, disciplined operation.
Lin Kuan addressed the group once, his voice firm and resonant.
"This is not a mission to prove yourselves. It is a trial to learn. Tier Two martial artists will learn to fight and hunt as a unit. Tier Threes will learn how to survive. The rest of you—watch. Intervene only if ordered or if your life is in danger."
The gates creaked open. The white forest awaited.
---
As they crossed the threshold of Bai Village and stepped onto the snow-covered path, Adam found himself remembering another threshold.
The first time he descended the mountain.
How his body had trembled with weakness. How every branch, every noise, every gust of wind felt like a predator. How he had hidden from shadows, from animals, from the forest itself.
He had been prey.
Now… he was still cautious, still wary. But not afraid.
His steps were grounded. His eyes scanned with precision. His breath was steady, his body prepared.
That was five years ago, he thought. This time… I'm not running.
He looked ahead at the white trees, tall and swaying, and felt a spark of anticipation.
---
The Whitewood was unlike anything Adam had imagined.
Even at its edge, the air changed. Colder. Tighter. As if the trees themselves were watching.
Thick snow coated the ground, interrupted only by the occasional animal track or frozen bush. Sunlight barely filtered through the canopy. Every sound—each crack of ice, each shifting of boots—felt too loud in the hush of the wild.
The group moved in their tiered formation. Lin Kuan led the vanguard, Lin Yao among the frontmost fighters. Behind them moved the Tier Twos, all carrying spears, sabers, or bows. The Tier Threes—Adam and Zhao included—followed close, flanked by instructors. At the rear marched Instructor Lin and the Tier Ones.
Adam quickly realized that even in formation, the forest refused to feel safe.
The deeper they walked, the quieter it became. Trees grew closer. Animal sounds vanished. A deep, cold hush settled over the woods.
But unlike before, Adam's body responded.
His hearing was sharper. His muscles lighter. His breathing more efficient. He didn't tire like he once did.
Tier Three, he thought. It really is something else.
Still, that sense of tension remained. Every glance into the shadows between trees felt like staring into a mouth preparing to close.
Zhao muttered, "I hate how quiet it is."
"You'd rather be screamed at by beasts?"
"At least then I'd know where they are."
---
Hours passed. The sun climbed, then began to descend again behind a gray sky.
They passed animal tracks. Once, they saw a corpse of a deer torn in half, black blood soaked into the snow. One of the instructors paused to inspect it.
Lin Kuan raised a fist. "We camp here."
The area was a clearing surrounding a blackened stump, ancient and cracked as if struck by lightning. Firepits were dug, small shelters built. Fires were lit with dried resin and twigs.
Adam sat by the fire next to Zhao. Lin Yao stood farther off, speaking to her father in hushed tones.
Before Adam could call out, Instructor Lin approached and addressed the group.
"This is your first lesson. Watch the woods. Feel them. As Tier Three martial artists you shouldn't only rely on eyes and ears. You must begin to sense what the body can't explain. Use your connection to the dark matter in the air to sense your surroundings"
He gestured to the darkness. "Something is watching us right now. Don't try to find it. Let your body tell you where it is."
Adam closed his eyes.
At first, there was only the wind. The crackle of fire. The shifting of snow. But slowly… a chill ran up his spine. A tug behind his ribs. His breath caught.
He turned his head slightly—toward the northeast edge of the clearing.
There, beyond a thick pine tree, stood a figure.
It wasn't human.
Just a shadow. Tall. Wrong. It didn't move. It didn't breathe. But Adam knew it was there.
He could only sense it for a moment and then it was gone.
He opened his eyes. Zhao to his surprise Zhao and the others were looking in a different direction.
Instructor Lin nodded once. "Good."
---
That night, Adam couldn't sleep.
He lay by the fire, cloak wrapped tightly around him, his sword resting against his chest. The forest was quiet, but his mind wasn't.
That figure hadn't felt like a beast. Nor like dark matter.
It felt similar to the darkness he absorbed when he killed the wolf.
Not in form—but in essence. That same overwhelming otherness, that deep pull in his gut, as if something buried in him was being called.
He gritted his teeth. What was that?
He tried asking Zhao if he sensed anything unusual but he only looked at him in confusion.
---
At dawn, a signal echoed through camp.
A trail had been found—massive, deep-clawed prints crushed into the snow, leading through the eastern ridge.
Lin Kuan gave the order. "Tier Two, formation. Tier Three, remain close."
They tracked the trail for hours before finding it.
A beast—large as a bull, gray-furred with six legs and jagged bone-covered teeth—feasted on a dead elk beneath a cluster of frozen trees.
"A Whitejaw," someone whispered. "Class Three predator."
Lin Kuan raised his arm.
The Tier Twos moved with practiced unity. Spears circled. Arrows released. The beast roared and charged.
Adam watched from behind cover, every nerve on edge.
Lin Yao struck first, fast and precise, her blade moving like light between ribs and joints. Others followed. The beast thrashed, but it was overwhelmed—bled out by the team's coordination.
Within moments, it collapsed.
Adam stepped forward instinctively and tried touching the dead beast.
He wanted to feel something. But there was… nothing.
No whisper. No pressure. No pull.
He blinked. That strange sensation he'd come to associate with the wolf, with his kills—it wasn't here.
And he understood.
This power… only shows itself when I take the life.
It wasn't the beast. It was the act. The killing.
He stepped back to his position.
No one else reacted or sensed anything. They only took it as the curiosity of someone who joined the hunt for the first time.
And that was good.
---
That night, as the fires burned low, Adam stared at the sky.
He thought about Lin Yao, about the distance between them. About the strange shadow that no one sensed beside him. About the darkness in him that no one else could feel. About the path ahead—unknown, unwritten.
And for the first time in a while, he realized. He still had many questions, and only by getting stronger will he find the answer.