The three of them walked in silence for a while, the city's noise wrapping around them like background music.
Cars rolled by. A few people stared at Zhenyu's faintly glowing eyes, then at Shen Hao's very normal school uniform, then decided this must be some kind of eccentric street performance and kept moving.
Only when they were a block away from the school did Haoran finally speak.
"Shen Hao," he said calmly, "I know you have questions."
"That's one way to put it," Shen Hao muttered. His tone was sharp but controlled. "Two strangers appear from nowhere. One nearly crushes half my class into the floor with spiritual pressure. The other tells me Earth was 'supposed to be silent.' And now apparently my cultivation speed is some big cosmic problem."
He stopped walking, turned to face them both.
"I think," he said slowly, "you should start explaining."
Zhenyu only smiled faintly, like someone watching children argue.
Haoran nodded once. "Fair enough. First, understand this, Earth sits far outside the main star regions. To most cultivators, this planet doesn't exist. It's not mapped, it's not monitored, it's nothing but dust."
"Wasn't exactly quiet for me," Shen Hao said dryly.
"That," Haoran continued evenly, "is the problem."
He clasped his hands behind his back as they walked again.
"News travels in strange ways," he said. "When a small, forgotten world suddenly produces a cultivator who reaches the Demi-Conqueror Realm in under fifteen years… people notice. The wrong people."
Shen Hao frowned. "What wrong people?"
Zhenyu finally spoke, voice low but carrying an edge like wind through steel.
"The Concord. The Star-Devouring Courts. The Ascendant Hall. Names you've never heard."
He glanced sidelong at Shen Hao, triple pupils glinting faintly.
"Names you don't want hearing about you. Not yet."
Shen Hao felt a slow weight settle in his chest.
Haoran sighed softly. "I came because I wanted to understand what happened here. To see you myself. Quietly."
He shot a look at his brother.
"Zhenyu," he said dryly, "did not agree with the 'quietly' part."
Zhenyu bit into another snack he'd pulled from nowhere, speaking around the food. "If you didn't want attention, you shouldn't have a prodigy breaking realms on a forgotten planet. That's interesting. I go where things are interesting."
Haoran gave Shen Hao a look like see what I deal with?
Zhenyu only smiled faintly, completely unbothered.
They reached a quieter street, away from the school crowds. Haoran turned to Shen Hao.
"Here's what matters," he said. "You've grown too fast. Earth has stayed hidden because no one expected anything here worth noticing. But you…"
He let the sentence hang.
Zhenyu finished it for him. "You lit a beacon without knowing it."
Shen Hao folded his arms. "So what now? You two just… show up, drop all this on me, then vanish?"
Haoran's eyes softened slightly. "No. We'll stay. For a while. To make sure certain… forces… stay away."
Zhenyu smirked. "And to see what else you do next."
The air felt heavier, though not from pressure this time.
Shen Hao looked between them, the calm, controlled Haoran and the unreadable, smiling Zhenyu, and realized his life had just shifted again, the same way it had the day he first stepped into the Echoing Mountain Realm.
They didn't head straight for Shen Hao's house.
Haoran wanted to talk. Zhenyu wanted to "see what humans do." And Shen Hao… well, Shen Hao mostly wanted to survive the day without cosmic factions, interstellar brothers, or his classmates discovering that half the universe might now be watching Earth because of him.
So they walked.
Or rather, Haoran and Shen Hao walked. Zhenyu kept trying to hover until Haoran shot him a look so sharp he finally grumbled and let his feet touch the pavement again.
"Shen Hao," Haoran said as they crossed into the busier part of the city, "the Concord and the Ascendant Hall are only two of the great powers out there. There are others, hidden sects, wandering clans, the Deep Star Tribes… things with reach far beyond the Void Gate City."
He kept his voice calm, even, as if discussing the weather instead of forces that could erase planets on a whim.
"You're strong," he continued, "but strength attracts attention. Some of it… is dangerous."
Shen Hao frowned. "And you think they'll come here?"
Haoran glanced at him. "If they learn what's on this planet? Yes."
Zhenyu, however, was not listening.
He'd stopped to stare at a street vendor selling skewers, head tilted like he was examining a rare artifact.
"What is this?" he asked the vendor bluntly.
The man blinked. "Uh… grilled chicken?"
Zhenyu sniffed it, nodded solemnly, then handed the man three gold coins from some unknown realm.
"Sir," the vendor said, confused but delighted, "this is… way too much...i.."
Zhenyu had already walked off, chewing thoughtfully. "Not bad. A little bland. Needs star-salt."
Haoran sighed. "We talked about blending in."
"I am blending," Zhenyu said seriously. "I purchased local cuisine. Very normal behavior."
Shen Hao pinched the bridge of his nose.
It got worse when they passed a clothing shop.
Zhenyu stopped dead in front of the window display.
"These are the dominant garments of this realm?" he asked, pointing at the mannequins in jeans and hoodies.
"Yes," Haoran said flatly.
"They look weak," Zhenyu said. "No armor. No spiritual threadwork. How do these humans survive assassinations?"
"This planet," Shen Hao muttered, "doesn't… have those."
Zhenyu stared at him like he'd grown another head. "No assassins? How boring."
Two teenagers passing by snickered. "Bro, that cosplay commitment is wild."
Shen Hao gave them a pained smile. "Yep. Big convention this weekend."
By the time they left the main streets, Shen Hao was exhausted. Not physically, Demi-Conqueror body or not, but mentally.
Too many stares. Too many whispers about "movie actors practicing for a role." Too many times Zhenyu nearly blew their cover by asking things like How many cultivators rule this planet? in the middle of a coffee shop.
"We should head back," Shen Hao said finally. "Before you attract even more attention."
Haoran agreed with a nod. "The portal site is east of here, correct?"
"Yeah."
So they turned east.
Walked two blocks.
Then three.
The noise of the city faded behind them.
The air grew still.
Even the traffic sounds disappeared until only the wind through the trees remained.
Shen Hao slowed. Looked around.
Stone markers dotted the ground in neat rows. Names carved into every one.
"Uh," Shen Hao said slowly, "why are there so many carved stones here?"
Haoran stopped too, eyes narrowing faintly.
Zhenyu just kept chewing his skewer. "Strange place. Everyone writes their name on the ground? Some cultural custom?"
Shen Hao stared at him. "…This is a graveyard."
Zhenyu froze mid-bite. Looked around. Then at Haoran. Then back at the stones.
Finally, he said with absolute seriousness:
"Humans have very bad taste in picnic spots."
Shen Hao closed his eyes. "I hate both of you."