The pull did not fade.
If anything, it grew clearer with every step Kael took away from the collapsed forge. At first it had been a faint sensation, barely more than an itch beneath his ribs. Now it tugged at him with quiet insistence, a thin thread stretching across miles of land.
Blood resonance.
Kael slowed, closing his eyes as he focused inward.
The warmth responded immediately, not surging, not demanding, but extending outward like a cautious probe. He felt it brush against something distant, familiar, and fragile.
His breath caught.
Mother.
The realization hit harder than any heavenly pressure.
Kael staggered slightly, bracing himself against a tree as the resonance sharpened. He could feel her blood clearly now. Not the details of her thoughts or emotions, but her state.
Fear.
Exhaustion.
And beneath it all, a trembling instability that made his bones hum with warning.
"She's alive," Kael whispered. "But not safe."
The warmth pulsed once.
Agreement.
He moved.
Not recklessly.
Relentlessly.
Kael adjusted his stride, letting bone intuition guide him through terrain that would have slowed any other traveler. Hills flattened beneath precise footwork. Dense undergrowth parted as he passed, broken by carefully controlled force.
Pain flared through his joints with each burst of speed.
Incomplete Bone Forging punished excess.
Kael ignored it.
Blood resonance pulled him forward, tightening like a rope drawn taut.
As he ran, understanding settled in.
Heaven had not found him.
Not fully.
But it had found where he came from.
"They are not hunting me," Kael muttered grimly. "They are baiting me."
The land grew familiar.
Kael slowed as the forest thinned, memories rising unbidden with each landmark. The shape of the hills. The bend of the river. The path he had walked countless times as a child.
The village lay just beyond the next rise.
Smoke drifted into the sky.
Kael stopped.
His bones locked instinctively, posture tightening as danger flared through his senses. The warmth surged, then steadied under Structural Breathing.
This was not random destruction.
It was deliberate.
Kael crested the rise slowly.
The village was still standing.
Mostly.
Several huts had collapsed inward, roofs shattered, walls reduced to splintered timber. Fires burned low, controlled, not raging. Cultivators moved through the streets with methodical efficiency, herding villagers into the central square.
Ironclaw Sect.
But not only them.
Kael's eyes narrowed.
Among the gray-robed cultivators stood others dressed in pale gold and white, their presence pressing subtly against the air. They did not shout. They did not act.
They observed.
Heaven's agents.
The mark burned faintly within Kael's perception.
"They want me to see this," he whispered.
The warmth stirred darkly.
Consume.
Not yet.
Kael crouched at the forest edge, forcing his breathing to slow as he took in every detail. He counted enemies automatically, tracking blood signatures with cold precision.
Ironclaw disciples.
An elder.
Two heavenly observers.
And something else.
A formation.
Subtle, spread across the village like an invisible net, its pressure light but persistent. A containment array.
Not designed to kill.
Designed to delay.
Kael's jaw tightened.
"They expect me to rush in."
The blood resonance flared sharply, pain lancing through his chest as his mother's fear spiked.
A shout echoed from the square.
"You have one more chance," the Ironclaw elder said loudly. "The devil entity originated here. Reveal yourselves or accept collective punishment."
Murmurs of panic rippled through the villagers.
Kael's hands clenched.
This was not justice.
It was demonstration.
Kael closed his eyes.
He reached inward carefully, extending blood resonance further than he ever had before. The warmth flowed out along the thread connecting him to his mother, then split, branching outward into the village.
For a moment, the sensation overwhelmed him.
Dozens of blood signatures pressed against his awareness at once. Fear. Pain. Desperation.
He almost lost control.
Almost.
Structural Breathing anchored him.
Kael focused.
Filtered.
He isolated the most important signals.
The elder.
The heavenly observers.
The formation anchors.
Understanding bloomed.
The array was keyed to pressure patterns, not specific targets. It would activate fully if he crossed the boundary openly.
Kael opened his eyes.
"I won't give you what you want," he murmured.
He moved sideways instead of forward, circling wide through the forest until he reached the outskirts of the village opposite the main road. His bones protested as he climbed the familiar slope toward his old home, but he did not slow.
The hut still stood.
Damaged.
But intact.
Kael felt the blood resonance tighten painfully as he drew closer.
He slipped through the broken doorway silently.
Inside, his mother sat on the floor, hands bound loosely, watched by a single Ironclaw disciple. Her face was pale, eyes hollow with exhaustion, but she was alive.
Kael's vision narrowed.
The warmth surged violently.
Consume.
Kael stepped into the room.
The disciple turned too late.
Kael struck once.
Not with blood.
With bone.
The man collapsed without a sound, skull fractured cleanly by a precise blow.
Kael caught the body and lowered it gently.
He turned to his mother.
Her eyes widened.
"Kael?" she whispered.
He knelt before her, fingers already working at the bindings.
"I'm here," he said softly.
Tears welled in her eyes.
"I knew," she said shakily. "I knew you would come."
Kael swallowed hard.
"I'm sorry," he said. "They should never have touched you."
Footsteps sounded outside.
Shouts followed.
The formation reacted.
They had felt it.
Kael rose slowly.
The warmth surged, no longer restrained.
Not wild.
Directed.
He stepped outside.
The air thickened instantly as the containment array activated fully, pressure pressing down from all sides.
Villagers screamed as cultivators turned.
The Ironclaw elder's eyes widened.
"So the devil shows himself," he said coldly.
Kael stepped into the open square.
Bones steady.
Blood controlled.
He met the elder's gaze.
"You came for me," Kael said calmly. "So look at me."
The heavenly observers stiffened slightly.
The mark flared.
Kael felt their attention sharpen.
The elder sneered. "You think yourself strong enough to defy heaven?"
Kael did not answer.
He raised his hand.
Blood answered.
The formation shuddered violently as Kael seized control of the blood flow within its anchors. Ironclaw disciples screamed as pressure reversed, the array collapsing inward on itself.
Kael moved.
Fast.
Decisive.
He crossed the square in a blur, striking with precise force that shattered cultivation cores and broke bodies without unnecessary excess.
This was not slaughter.
It was removal.
The elder tried to retreat.
Kael was there first.
He seized the man by the throat and lifted him effortlessly.
"You wanted a response," Kael said quietly. "Here it is."
The elder choked, eyes bulging in terror.
Kael crushed his core.
The body fell limp.
Silence descended.
The villagers stared in stunned disbelief.
The heavenly observers finally moved.
They stepped forward together, expressions unreadable.
"This settlement is under heaven's authority," one said calmly. "Stand down."
Kael turned to face them.
His bones hummed softly.
"Authority," he repeated. "Earned by pressure."
The observers raised their hands.
Kael felt it instantly.
Suppression.
Refined.
Targeted.
He gritted his teeth as pain flared through his skeleton, cracks forming and sealing rapidly.
Incomplete Bone Forging strained.
But held.
Kael laughed softly through the pain.
"So this is all you have," he said. "Pressure without foundation."
The observers faltered.
Kael stepped forward.
Blood resonance flared outward, not consuming, but dominating.
The observers retreated.
Not defeated.
Warned.
Kael turned back to the villagers.
"Leave," he said simply. "Now."
They did not hesitate.
As people fled, Kael returned to his mother, lifting her gently.
"We are leaving," he told her.
She nodded, gripping his sleeve tightly.
As they walked away from the village, Kael felt it clearly.
Something had changed.
Heaven had pushed.
He had answered.
And the cost of mercy had just risen sharply.
Far above, the Heavenly Sovereign watched the projection with narrowed eyes.
"It chose intervention," he said quietly.
"Yes," an attendant replied. "Incomplete, yet effective."
The Sovereign's gaze hardened.
"Then it will choose again," he said. "And next time, the price will be higher."
Below, Kael carried his mother into the forest, blood resonance finally easing as distance grew.
He did not look back.
Mercy had been extended.
But never again for free.