Riven hurried back to the cave.
Inside.
Yue Lin's body jerked slightly where she lay curled near the wall, her brows drawn tight, lips parted in a barely-there gasp. One hand gripped her sleeve. Her chest rose sharply once—then again—like she couldn't get enough air.
She didn't scream.
But whatever she saw behind her eyelids, it wasn't peaceful.
Riven's expression softened. He stepped quietly back, the tension in his shoulders shifting.
So… not as unfazed as she looked after all.
He returned to his place near the entrance, sitting down silently with his back to the stone and eyes on her, watching.
Of course not. With this chain.
He looked down at the pale chain binding them before shivering slightly, the earlier scene flashing past his eyes.
A few minutes passed.
Then Yue Lin stirred again — slower this time. Her grip on her robe loosened. Her breathing settled. She blinked once, then twice, like waking up from somewhere far away.
She noticed him nearby.
"...Bad dream," she said, voice low. "It's nothing."
Riven didn't press. Just nodded.
But inside, something quiet clicked into place.
If even she was shaken — the girl who'd joked through corpses and looted her enemies without blinking — then now wasn't the time for stag-hunting or chasing golden dreams.
They needed to focus.
Find the exit.
Get out alive.
Everything else could come later.
They quickly gathered some wood and made a fire to roast some of the stag meat.
After dinner they packed everything up they could before leaving the cave quietly.
"This way," Yue Lin murmured, pointing toward the island's outer edge.
They didn't know where the exit was, but they knew it had to be somewhere at the edge. Sooner or later, a way out had to appear.
A while later the void yawned open in front of them again. A thousand-meter drop into nothingness.
They followed the edge in cautious silence.
The forest on this side of the island felt older somehow. Less cultivated. The trees grew in even more twisted shapes, their bark cracked and mottled like dried wounds. Strange birds occasionally called overhead — too high to see, but always just enough to keep them alert.
That was different from the previous forest which had been silent all around.
Once, they passed two skeletons.
One with a missing head and another with a waist cut in half — half-picked clean, robes torn and discolored. It didn't take a genius to know that they were previous trial takers.
Yue Lin quietly collected the corpses before they went on their way.
Time passed.
The sky overhead remained a pale, washed-out blue or black, but the light never shifted. No sun. No stars. Just ambient, eternal daylight.
Then Yue Lin stopped.
"Up ahead."
Riven followed her gaze.
Nestled against a short rise in the terrain was a flat, upright slab of stone. Covered in moss, but unmistakably carved. Its surface glowed faintly, as if something beneath the stone still lived. There was a little bit of dust on top.
They approached.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Wary of any traps.
But there was nothing abnormal to be found.
Eventually Yue Lin extended a hand to wipe the dust away.
What was revealed behind it were glowing numbers, simple, stark white against grey stone:
[29:21:16]
Just then it changed.
[29:21:15]
"…It's counting down," Riven said.
Yue Lin nodded. "This must be how long we have left on the island."
Riven looked at it again.
Almost 30 days left.
Which meant they'd already spent one month here.
And it had certainly not felt like it.
The nonexistant day and night cycle must have messed with their sense of time.
They turned to the edge.
And saw it.
Far across the void, another island floated — long and narrow, like a blade suspended in air. It led toward the big statue they'd seen at the start.
Relief softened both their expressions.
They'd found it.
Now all they had to do… was wait.
"It looks like there's only one more island after this one," Yue Lin murmured, eyes narrowing as she studied the shape in the distance.
Riven nodded.
But there was no path visible yet. Just stone, silence, and a clock that refused to stop ticking down.
Riven's gaze lingered on the numbers for a moment longer before turning back toward the forest. "Let's not wait right here, though. We still need to find a place to set up camp. Somewhere we can actually rest, near water if possible."
Yue Lin agreed with a faint hum. "And shelter. A cave, ideally. Somewhere we can guard."
The idea of staying too close to the stone slab felt… unwise. Too exposed. Too obvious.
Something about it gave them a bad feeling.
They marked the location mentally, taking note of the closest trees, the slant of the land, the cliff's shape. Then they turned back and slipped once more beneath the forest canopy.
They didn't find a cave right away.
What they did find were stags.
Many of them.
The first time it happened, they were just circling the forest's edge, scouting for fresh water. Riven heard the faint rustle of leaves before he saw the antlers — massive, branching high, catching the light like burnished gold.
He froze.
Yue Lin pulled him back behind a root-twisted tree just in time.
The stag passed the clearing below, every step slow and deliberate. Its body was leaner than the one they'd killed earlier, but not weaker. If anything, it moved with more focus — its gaze sharp, breath even.
It wasn't alone.
Over the next few hours, they saw three more.
Each one bore faint gold markings along its horns, some even trailing down their spines. One in particular, taller than the others, had faint golden light flickering through its mane. Riven didn't need to say anything. They both knew they couldn't fight that one.
Not yet.
Even the smaller ones were no joke.
Yue Lin glanced at him later that night and muttered, "Even the weakest is at least as strong as the one that killed those girls."
Riven nodded grimly.
So they didn't engage.
Not yet.
Instead they skirted around until eventually they found a pond — a wide basin of clear water nestled between moss-covered boulders. And above it, tucked in the rockface like a secret, was a cave.
Shelter.
Clean water.
And enough tree cover nearby to hide a fire if they kept it low.
It wasn't perfect.
But it was good enough.
"This'll do," Riven said, before carefully entering the cave to check for any danger.
Once they cleared the insides Yue Lin nodded. "Let's make it home. For now."
They took the next hour clearing out the cave — removing old roots, checking crevices for beasts, brushing away dust. Nothing dangerous inside, thankfully. Just the smell of damp stone and old soil.
Once it was done, they sat near the entrance, overlooking the pond below.
"We should stay here except for food hunts," Yue Lin said, stretching her legs out with a quiet sigh. "But no risks. If there's a group, we stay hidden."
Riven nodded. "If it's a strong one, we should still avoid it," he added. "If it's one of the weak ones…"
"We strike. Quick and clean."
She finished his sentence.
The plan wasn't perfect — but it was realistic. They'd survive. Maybe even thrive.
And in the meantime, they'd cultivate.
If either of them broke through again, it would change everything. More power meant safer hunts. More cores. More chances to push forward.
Riven especially felt the pressure.
He needed more of those gold cores — more of that feeling, that shift inside his blood. If he could just reach the next stage of his bloodline, if he could unlock another Divine Ability…
Then maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't have to keep hiding.
And he had a feeling that finding more cores like this once they left would be very difficult.
But for now, he had no choice but to wait.
A crackling fire was lit at the back of the cave, fed with dry branches and kept low enough not to smoke. They ate. Then rested.
The forest around them was still — the soft wind brushing against the leaves above, water gently lapping against the pond's edge.
Then—
A sound.
Both of them froze.
Not the deep-throated call of a stag.
Not rustling from a passing beast.
But a high, trilling cry — sharp, strange, echoing faintly through the trees. The kind of call they'd only heard in the distance before. Higher. Lighter. Birdlike.
Yue Lin rose first.
Riven followed.
They stepped toward the cave entrance, quiet as breath, and peered through the shadows.
A shape sat just outside — perched on a low rock across the clearing.
It was a bird.
But not one Riven had seen before.
Its feathers were iridescent, gleaming faintly even in the forest shade — not quite silver, not quite white. Its eyes were a dark violet, almost black, and entirely too intelligent as it stared straight into the cave.
Unmoving.
Watching.