🌖----
The air in the mountains grew heavier with each passing hour.
It wasn't something Lian Feng could see, but he could feel it—like walking under a sky that was slowly turning into a ceiling.
They moved at dawn.
Li Yun led them through narrow passes and along broken ridges where even mountain goats would hesitate. The wind was sharp, and the clouds hung low, hiding the peaks like veils.
"They're getting closer," Lian Yue said quietly.
She could feel it now—thin, invisible threads spreading through the world.
"Yes," Li Yun replied. "The Star Execution Array doesn't look for you like a hunter. It… defines the space you exist in. Once it finishes, anywhere you stand will already be part of it."
Lian Feng frowned. "That sounds… unfair."
Li Yun almost smiled. "The heavens were never fair."
---
By midday, they reached a narrow stone bridge stretching between two cliffs over a bottomless ravine.
Li Yun stopped.
"We cross one at a time," he said. "Carefully."
Lian Feng went first, leaning heavily on the railing. Lian Yue followed, her steps slow but steady.
Halfway across, she froze.
"Li Yun…"
He looked up sharply. "What is it?"
"I can't… I can't feel the sky," she said, confused. "It's like… something is blocking it."
That was when the air changed.
The clouds above them suddenly stopped moving.
Then they began to rotate.
Slowly.
Like a giant, invisible wheel turning.
Li Yun's eyes widened.
"They're starting it. Here."
---
The bridge shook.
Light began to gather in the sky, forming faint, enormous lines—circles within circles, symbols older than any language.
Lian Feng grabbed the railing. "That doesn't look good!"
"It's not," Li Yun said sharply. "Yue, get across. Now!"
She ran.
The moment her feet touched the far side, the bridge cracked.
A line of blinding light cut through the air where she had just been.
The stone bridge shattered.
Lian Feng screamed.
Li Yun leapt.
For a heart-stopping second, he was falling—
Then he caught the edge of the cliff with one hand and pulled himself up in a burst of light.
They didn't stop.
They ran.
---
The sky was no longer normal.
Even Lian Feng could see it now—faint, glowing lines stretching across the clouds, like a massive web being drawn over the world.
"That's the array?" he asked, breathless.
"Yes," Li Yun said. "It's locking onto her existence."
Lian Yue felt a strange pressure, like the world itself was trying to remember her too precisely.
"It hurts," she whispered.
"I know," Li Yun said.
---
They reached a narrow cave just as a pillar of light struck the mountain behind them, turning rock into glass.
Inside, the cave was dark and cold.
Li Yun set up several layers of barriers.
For a moment, they could only hear their own breathing.
Then Lian Feng laughed weakly. "So… we're being hunted by the sky now."
"Pretty much," Li Yun said.
Lian Yue didn't laugh.
She sat down, hugging herself.
"This is because of me," she said.
Li Yun knelt in front of her. "This is because the heavens are afraid."
She looked at him. "What if they're right to be?"
He didn't answer immediately.
Then he said, "Then we'll prove them wrong."
---
Outside, the light continued to move.
The array was still incomplete.
But it was learning.
Adjusting.
Searching.
High above, in a place of pure order, the Celestial Council watched.
"The lock is forming."
"The Sun God is interfering."
"Expected."
"Do we accelerate?"
A pause.
Then:
"Yes."
---
Inside the cave, Lian Yue suddenly gasped.
Her body arched as a wave of cold passed through her.
Li Yun caught her. "What's happening?!"
"It's… reacting," she said, teeth clenched. "The thing inside me… it doesn't like this."
Lian Feng's voice trembled. "That's bad, right?"
"Yes," Li Yun said quietly. "Very."
The air around Lian Yue began to shimmer faintly, like light seen through deep water.
For the first time, Li Yun felt it clearly.
Not just power.
Not just danger.
But…
A consciousness.
Ancient.
Patient.
Awakening.
---
Far above, the lines of the Star Execution Array brightened.
"The vessel is resonating."
"Good."
"Then we're close."
---
Lian Yue looked at her trembling hands.
"If this continues," she whispered, "I don't know how long I can hold it."
Li Yun's jaw tightened.
"Then we'll have to stop the array," he said.
Lian Feng stared at him. "How do you stop something that covers the sky?"
Li Yun looked upward, through rock and cloud and light.
"…You break the hand that's drawing it."
And for the first time, the path ahead was clear.
Even if it meant—
Going to war with heaven itself.