The morning air was thick with incense and anticipation.
Elder Rowan had arranged it. A Golden Brush Rite, a divination ceremony meant to measure loyalty, potential, and alignment with Heaven itself.
I knelt among the lowborn, head bowed, muscles coiled, pulse synced to the rhythm of the elder's chanting. The Golden Brush hovered above the clan, tracing threads of fate across every soul.
And then I felt it: a presence beyond the ceremony. A Balance Warden, golden-mantled, piggybacking silently on the divine probe. Its gaze flickered along the crowd, lingering for a heartbeat on me.
This is no ordinary inspection.
The System nudged.
[Emergency Shop Prompt: Counter-Sigil: Hollow Signature – 5 AP (One-time)]
Five Abyss Points. Pain. Risk of detection if mishandled. The Warden could sense a cheat, a flaw, a whisper of concealment.
I spent the AP instantly.
[AP Balance: −5][Counter-Sigil Acquired.]
I inscribed the sigil under my tongue, subtle, mechanical. Its lines hummed faintly, invisible to mortal eyes.
The Golden Brush descended. Thread by thread, it scanned my dantian, my meridians, the flow of my qi. My hollow channels pulsed faintly beneath the Veil. The sigil activated.
[Counter-Sigil: Active.]
The brush paused, hovered, and then painted my file:
"Fate-Negative but Harmless."
The words carried through the murmurs of the court. No one questioned me further. No one dared.
I exhaled, hiding the relief and the surge of satisfaction.
For three days, my meridians would resist simple divinations, my trace signature blurred just enough to remain unnoticed by casual probes.
Far above, the Warden recoiled slightly, then left a tracer mote in the clan's ancestral idol. It would follow me, a quiet note that Heaven's attention had been drawn.
I didn't flinch. Let it follow. Let it wait. I had survived the first direct gaze of Heaven itself.
And if it wished to challenge me further… I would be ready.