The bird didn't blink.
Didn't twitch.
Didn't move at all — except for the slow, measured shift of its head from side to side.
Yue Lin narrowed her eyes. "Something's off…"
Riven leaned forward slightly. Then he saw it.
Its pupils.
They weren't reflecting light. Weren't tracking movement.
Just blank.
Almost milky.
"…It's blind," he murmured.
Yue Lin exhaled. "Good. For a second I thought it was some sort of scout beast. The way it just stared…"
Riven nodded slowly. "Maybe it still is. But at least it can't see us."
A beat passed between them. The bird continued to sit there, eerily still.
Riven's hand hovered over the stone wall. "We should scare it off."
Yue Lin nodded before reaching down to her thigh, fingers brushing over the hilt of her short-bladed knife. It made the faintest click as it slid free from its leather halter.
The bird's head jerked instantly.
Its wings flared open.
Before either of them could react, it launched itself forward — not toward them, but off the rock, nearly slamming into a tree as it flailed into flight.
But then—
It let out a sharp, strangled cawww — harsh, almost mechanical — and then adjusted its course like a thread had pulled it taut, vanishing between the trees.
Gone.
Yue Lin hadn't even pulled the knife out fully.
They stared at the empty space for a moment longer.
"…That's fast," Riven said.
"Yea..." she muttered.
They stayed still for a while longer, watching the trees.
But the bird didn't return.
No more sharp cries. No wingbeats. Just the usual hum of the forest's quiet tension.
"…We'll need to be more careful," Yue Lin muttered.
Riven nodded.
>>>
The days blurred after that.
Or what passed for days, in a world with no sun or moon.
Time slipped by, paced only by hunger, cultivation, and the weight of exhaustion behind their eyes. The clock at the edge of the island ticked steadily downward — the only marker that their time here was limited.
They had shelter. Water. Just enough food.
So they practiced.
Both had broken through their cultivation realm not long ago, and another realm jump so soon was unlikely. It was clear their path toward immediate improvement wasn't through raw cultivation alone right now.
Instead, they honed their martial skills.
Riven currently knew four martial techniques:
- Falconburst Kick — Upper F-Rank, Minor Mastery
- Frostbind Chains — Upper F-Rank, Minor Mastery
- Vaern's Basic Martial Arts — Mid F-Rank, Minor Mastery
- Velvet Thorn Acupuncture — Unknown Rank, Major Mastery
Velvet Thorn had been his most recent breakthrough — and also the strangest. The technique had clicked into place suddenly, a surprise to even him. He'd always expected to improve on Vaern's Basic Martial Arts the fastest, but maybe he had some talent with needles, having broken through with just some usage.
But even so, he knew he wouldn't be making more progress there any time soon.
The other two — Falconburst and Frostbind — were situational. Strong, yes, but costly. They relied too heavily on clean setups or more qi than he could afford to burn through in long engagements.
Which left him with Vaern's Basic Martial Arts.
Simple. Reliable. Cheap.
It wasn't flashy. Just clean, utilitarian strikes woven with threads of qi. At Minor Mastery, it gave him a ten percent power boost — nothing special by itself. But the real benefit of the skill was in its extremely minor usage of qi.
The cost was so low, he could keep it active throughout an entire encounter — reinforcing each strike, parry, and dodge with just a touch more weight, more speed, more intent.
And it was basically an overall strength increase of ten percent, which albeit not too high could make sustained fights for the enemies very difficult to endure.
Riven felt like he would be able to breakthrough to Major Mastery here the soonest, deciding to focus solely on this.
He trained with it every day — drilling footwork, breath pacing, strike alignment. Not to perfect it. Just to embody it.
Over and over again.
Until—
Somewhere in the middle of a flow sequence, his body moved just a little too smoothly. His qi aligned before he consciously willed it. His elbow strike cracked through the air with a sharpness that surprised even him.
He stopped.
Breathed.
Felt.
There it was.
The qi now moved like it belonged to the technique. As if his body finally understood the form as more than a motion — but as an instinct.
Major Mastery.
A boost to twenty percent.
And for someone with a beast-lineage body already stronger than most at his level… that was no small jump.
He flexed his fingers, eyes narrowing slightly.
It wasn't the flashiest progress.
But it was real.
And when the next fight came — that might just be the difference between survival and another lost arm. Or worse.
He looked toward Yue Lin.
She stood near the mouth of the cave, her blade drawn and pointed slightly downward, breath steady. A thin coat of dull grey qi traced the edge of her knife — the same muted glow he'd seen a hundred times now.
He wasn't entirely sure what the technique was called. She hadn't told him, and he hadn't asked.
But whatever it was, it had become her focus.
Over the last stretch of time, she'd done nothing but practice that skill — over and over again. Channeling qi into the blade until it was wrapped in that smoky hue, holding it there as long as she could. Then, as her reserves waned, she'd stop. Sit. Cultivate. Regain her qi. And start again.
He never once saw her complain.
Eventually, she paused with the knife still in hand, eyes narrowing faintly. Then her expression shifted — just slightly — as if something had clicked into place. Not a full smile, but close. That quiet kind of satisfaction when a thing finally does what you'd been trying to make it do.
Progress.
He didn't need to ask.
She'd improved, too.
"Do you wanna try hunting some stags?" Riven asked, pushing off the rock wall. His tone was casual, but there was an edge of restlessness beneath it. "I'm getting real tired of pond fish."
And it wasn't just taste. The fish had grown warier, scarcer. It was taking longer each time to catch enough for even one meal.
Besides he really wanted to get some more of those beast cores.
He didn't know if there would be another chance as good as this afterward.
Yue Lin exhaled sharply as she looked at his almost sparkling eyes — not quite a laugh, but close — and gave a faint nod. "Yeah. Let's go."
With practiced quiet, they slipped out of the cave, leaving the pond behind, the forest folding around them once more.
It wasn't their first patrol through the nearby woods. They'd mapped this stretch by instinct, now — learning where roots made noise and which branches always snapped. Knowing which brush offered decent cover and which didn't.
Now they moved like shadows between the trees, eyes sharp, senses open.
And they were looking for only one thing.
A stag.
Alone.
They didn't have to wait long.
Maybe twenty minutes passed. Maybe more. The time felt elastic here — stretched and quiet — but eventually, Yue Lin slowed, lifting a hand.
Riven followed her gaze.
There.
Just beyond a rise in the terrain, a shape moved between the trees. Broad-shouldered, smooth of stride. Antlers like burnished branches.
A stag.
It was alone. Grazing near a shallow dip in the ground, its head occasionally lowering to nibble at the moss. Gold lines faintly traced its horns — not as vivid as the stronger ones they'd avoided, but still dangerous.
One of the "weaker" ones.
The kind that had killed the girl duo weeks ago.
Riven glanced to Yue Lin. She gave the slightest nod.
They split — as far as the chain allowed — flanking it without words, feet nearly silent across the forest floor. Riven circled left, sticking close to the rise, while Yue Lin melted between trees, staying to the right. The stag didn't notice.
Not yet.
Riven flexed his fingers, getting ready to start the fight with his needles to give Yue Lin a chance to strike with her knife, before he would swoop in and help with his now slightly improved power in close range, courtesy of Vaern's Basic Martial Arts.
They inched closer.
The stag raised its head.
They froze.
Its ears flicked once — then it turned away again, unconcerned.
Too late.
Riven stuck first.