Dawn crept slowly over the ravine.
The snow had stopped, but the cold still clung to the earth like a second skin. Thin beams of sunlight slipped through frost-covered trees, casting long shadows across the cave entrance.
Inside, Lin Xuan sat upright.
Every muscle in his body ached. His breath came shallow and slow. The vessel he had inherited—this frail child's body—was fragile beyond words.
But he was awake.
Alive.
And he remembered everything.
Beside him, Little Rock—Xiao Yan—slept curled like a kitten. Her arms wrapped around her knees. Her breathing uneven.
She had stayed up all night watching him. Her face was stained with soot and tears, but she slept peacefully now, as if a storm had passed.
Lin Xuan lowered his gaze.
"This body… belonged to someone who died of starvation."
"And yet this girl—this child—gave him what little she had left."
His fingers clenched weakly.
"The old me would've dismissed such sentiment as useless."
"But now…"
His stomach growled.
The sound was quiet, but it echoed in the small cave like thunder.
His body was deteriorating rapidly. If he didn't eat soon, he'd fall into another coma—or worse.
He looked around. Only the broken bark Xiao Yan had carried remained. No roots. No water.
Nothing.
Suddenly, she stirred.
"Brother…?"
Her voice was soft, eyes blinking open in the pale light.
"You're really awake…"
She smiled.
Lin Xuan nodded.
"Are you hungry?" she asked, immediately reaching for the basket.
She offered him a thin strip of moss-covered root.
He took it.
Bitter. Dry. Barely food.
But he chewed it slowly, eyes never leaving hers.
"You found this?"
She nodded. "I go out every day… I trade stones for roots… sometimes."
Her hands tightened around the basket.
"The last few days, no one gave me anything."
"They said we were cursed…"
Lin Xuan's expression darkened.
"Even after death… this divine body draws misfortune."
"This world rejects what it doesn't understand."
He looked at the girl again.
"But she didn't."
"Xiao Yan," he said quietly.
She looked up.
"I need you to show me the way to the village."
Her eyes widened.
"But… you're still weak."
"I won't fight," he said. "I just need to see it."
She hesitated. Then nodded.
A few hours later, they reached the edge of the ravine. Far below, hidden between dead trees and broken paths, lay a forgotten mountain village—half in ruins, roofs caved in, fences rotted.
A place for those with nowhere else to go.
The outcasts.
The broken.
The unwanted.
Lin Xuan stared for a long time.
"Even here… life clings to the edge of extinction."
"No spirit energy. No cultivation. Just… survival."
He closed his eyes.
Then opened them with resolve.
"We can't stay here forever."
"You… shouldn't stay here forever."
Little Rock looked up at him, confused.
"But where else can we go?"
Lin Xuan smiled faintly.
It wasn't warm.
It was sharp—like a blade yet to be forged.
"Anywhere."
"Everywhere."
"The path forward isn't found… it's carved."
And for the first time since his return—The divine blood in his veins stirred.