Dawn broke weak and cold, the fractured moons bleeding pale light through the canyon walls. The survivors stirred slowly, clutching their meager belongings as if expecting the Bone Court to descend at any moment.
Shen Yuan rose before the others, his side still throbbing beneath the half-dried bandages. He tightened his grip on the chipped spear and scanned the group.
They were weaker than they had been the day before. Hollow-eyed, starving, brittle as glass.
"We move," he said.
No one questioned him.
By mid-morning they reached a ridge overlooking a wide valley. Shen Yuan crouched low behind a jagged outcrop, Yun Xue and two of the less-injured survivors at his side.
Below, a Bone Court slave camp sprawled across the valley floor. Makeshift pens of iron and talisman-bound wood held dozens of branded captives. Ashwater cisterns glimmered faintly in the cold light, guarded by Bone Court enforcers who moved with mechanical precision.
Shen Yuan's stomach tightened at the sight of the brands. Each one pulsed faintly on its victim's neck or forearm, a network of talisman lines crawling like veins under the skin.
[ SUPPRESSION FIELD INTENSITY: 68% ]
I projected the readings through the tether.
The brands aren't just marks. They're suppression nodes, tuned to draw on the bearer's energy. Every branded cultivator is a living anchor for the Bone Court's arrays.
Shen Yuan's jaw tightened. "How do we remove them?"
That's the problem, I said. Ripping them out kills the host. The brand fuses into the spiritual network—it's designed to harvest until the soul burns out.
Yun Xue's eyes narrowed as she watched the guards. "Then why are we here?"
"Because," Shen Yuan said quietly, "we can't run from the Bone Court forever. If they can track these brands, they can track us. We have to learn how to break them."
Yun Xue gave a sharp nod. "What's the plan?"
Shen Yuan looked at the camp again. The walls weren't high, but the suppression field was thick, and there were too many guards to fight head-on.
"We take one alive," he said. "One branded captive. Then we figure it out."
Night fell hard and fast. The survivors waited in silence as Shen Yuan and Yun Xue slipped down the ridge with three volunteers.
[ QUEST GENERATED: INFILTRATE THE CAMP ]Objective: Retrieve one branded captive alive.Reward: Increased chance of survival for all.
The tether pulsed as I pushed the Quest into their minds. Their breathing steadied, fear tightening into resolve.
The Bone Court camp was quiet, but not unguarded. Talismans hung from the gateposts, glowing faintly with suppression energy.
Stay low, I whispered through the tether. The perimeter wards will sense any sudden surge of qi.
They moved like shadows across the ash. Shen Yuan reached the outer fence and pressed himself against it, listening for the guard rotation.
Two guards passed. Shen Yuan waited until their footsteps faded, then slipped through the gap Yun Xue had found earlier—just wide enough for a single body.
Inside, the branded captives huddled in the pens. Some stared blankly into the distance, eyes glazed with exhaustion. Others watched the intruders with wide, fearful eyes but didn't make a sound.
Shen Yuan crouched by the nearest pen and studied the brand on a young woman's neck.
[ SCAN: SUCCESS ]
The data flowed into my core.
The brand's talisman matrix is anchored in three layers: surface skin, spiritual network, and meridians. Removing it cleanly requires precise counter-runes… which we don't have.
"We can't remove it here?" Shen Yuan asked under his breath.
Not without killing her. We need time, tools, and a place where the suppression field isn't cutting every thread I try to weave.
Yun Xue glanced toward the watchtower. "We don't have time. Which one do we take?"
Shen Yuan's eyes swept the pen. Most of the branded captives were too weak to walk, but one man—broad-shouldered despite the chains—met Shen Yuan's gaze and didn't look away.
Him.
Shen Yuan picked the lock with a scavenged talisman shard. The man rose slowly, his chains dragging against the ground.
The noise carried.
"Who's there?" a voice barked from the watchtower.
The alarm talismans flared.
[ ALERT: DETECTION – 9 ENEMY SIGNATURES INBOUND ]
"Move!" Shen Yuan hissed.
They bolted from the pen, the branded captive stumbling between them. Arrows whistled through the air, one grazing Shen Yuan's shoulder.
Guards poured out from the watchtower and the central hut. Talisman-forged glaives gleamed as they closed in.
Shen Yuan planted his spear and met the first attacker head-on. The clash rang through the camp, sending captives scrambling deeper into the pens.
Yun Xue slashed another guard across the leg with her dagger, then yanked the branded captive forward. "Go!"
Shen Yuan drove his spear through the chest of the next guard and turned just in time to deflect a glaive aimed at Yun Xue's back.
There were too many.
[ QI RESERVES: 13% ]
We can't hold this, I said. I'll generate a distraction—east side, three seconds.
The tether pulsed, and one of the suppression anchors overloaded with a blast of white light. Guards stumbled back as the shockwave threw ash into the air.
Shen Yuan didn't hesitate. "Now!"
They sprinted for the gap in the fence as the camp reeled. A glaive tip caught Shen Yuan's arm, tearing through muscle, but he kept moving.
The branded captive stumbled and nearly fell, but Yun Xue dragged him onward.
They reached the fence, slipped through the gap, and vanished into the ash-choked night.
They didn't stop until the campfires were only faint pinpricks behind them.
The branded captive collapsed in the shadow of a canyon wall, gasping for breath. Shen Yuan knelt beside him, his own breath ragged.
"You're safe," he said. "For now."
The man looked up, his eyes hollow but defiant. "I was dead the moment they marked me. You should have left me."
"No," Shen Yuan said firmly.
Yun Xue dropped beside them, clutching her dagger. "We can figure out how to break the brand, right?"
I studied the mark crawling up the man's neck.
If I had my full core, yes. But now…
"Now?" Shen Yuan prompted.
Now we need to buy time.
[ SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 33% ]
The number flickered on my interface as the man slumped forward, unconscious.
The Bone Court wouldn't ignore the raid for long.
Shen Yuan looked back toward the distant glow of the campfires. The branded captives still chained in those pens wouldn't survive the next purge.
But they couldn't save everyone. Not yet.
"We'll make it work," he said quietly. "One step at a time."
The survivors looked to him for direction again, waiting for orders.
They didn't need to say it.
He was their leader now.
And that was a beacon Veylan would never fail to find.