Lin Chen sat upright on his bed, breathing unevenly. His eyes moved towards the open window. "It's time to sleep. Where are you?" he called, but no answer came. He waited for a moment, then looked towards the empty space beside the window. The small black cat usually curled up there at night, but tonight, there was no sign of him. Cold air entered through the window, making the candle flame on the table tremble. Lin Chen frowned and pushed the blanket aside. He got out of bed and walked towards the window. The yard was quiet beneath the moonlight. The old pear tree stood near the wall, its branches casting shadows across the ground. He looked around carefully, but nothing moved. "Where did you go this time?" he muttered, resting one hand on the window frame. His expression grew more serious.He glanced towards the forest beyond the village. "Don't tell me you went out there again."
Xu Yang moved quietly between the trees. The bell had called him, not only with its sound but with something buried in his memory. Each step towards the shrine brought back small fragments he could not understand. He saw stone corridors hidden beneath the earth, dark threads running through the ground, and heard distant voices speaking in a language he had never learned. None of it made sense, but the strange feeling kept pulling him forward. Seriously? It's night, he thought, his ears lowering in annoyance. Normal people are asleep at this hour. So why am I walking through a forest?... His tail flicked as he stepped over a fallen branch. And of course, it has to be another mysterious shrine. Can't anything in this world be ordinary?... He glanced at the dark trees around him. I thought being reborn as a cat would at least give me a chance to sleep whenever I wanted. Apparently, even that was too much to ask...
He continued along the narrow path, avoiding the roots that rose from the ground. There's really no peace in another world either. Back there, I worked all night. Here, I investigate supernatural disasters instead. Different world. Same exhaustion. He let out a quiet breath and shook his head. Do I just not qualify for peaceful sleep in any reality? The forest offered no answer. Xu Yang lowered his head and kept walking. I should have stayed in the village. A warm bed, a quiet room, and absolutely no ancient things trying to get my attention. That would have been nice. But no. The bell had to ring, and apparently, I had to be curious enough to follow it. He stopped at the edge of the forest.
The shrine stood ahead, its wooden beams damaged by years of neglect. Several paper seals hung from the entrance, their yellowed edges torn and worn. The bell rope swayed gently, even though there was no wind. "You came." Yan Luo's voice came from beside the stone steps. Xu Yang turned his head. Yan Luo stepped out from behind one of the old pillars, his expression serious. "You felt it too," Xu Yang said, looking back at the shrine. Yan Luo nodded and walked closer. "The seal is weakening. Something beneath it is beginning to turn its attention outward." Xu Yang's tail moved once. "It has always been there." Yan Luo looked towards the ground beneath the shrine. "Yes," he replied. "But it has never looked back."
For a moment, neither of them spoke. The shrine was quiet, but the air around it felt heavy. Yan Luo studied Xu Yang for a moment before speaking again. "You're changing." Xu Yang's ears twitched. "You're imagining things." Yan Luo did not look away. "Your presence is becoming weaker. The villagers forget you when you leave their sight. Even the children have stopped calling your name." Xu Yang lowered his eyes and looked at the stone beneath his paws. "That is the nature of a delusion," he said calmly. "It fades when people stop paying attention to it."
Yan Luo's expression became more serious. He stepped closer. "You call this a delusion, yet the land responds whenever you appear. The bell rings for you, and the threads tighten when you pass." Xu Yang remained silent. A dry leaf moved across the stone path and stopped near his paw. After a moment, he looked up at Yan Luo. "Then perhaps the delusion is not mine." Yan Luo studied him, his brows drawing together slightly. "You really do say unsettling things too casually," he muttered. Xu Yang flicked one ear and looked away. "I'm tired. There's a difference." Yan Luo did not seem satisfied with that answer. He stepped closer and examined the cat's face. "Tired or not, you speak like someone watching this world from outside it."
Xu Yang's tail moved slowly behind him. "And you ask questions as if you expect me to explain something I barely understand myself." Yan Luo paused, apparently unsure how to respond. Xu Yang let out a tired breath and lowered himself onto the stone step. "Excellent. Now that we've agreed I'm confused too, can we stop acting as if I planned all this?" Yan Luo closed his eyes for a brief moment and rubbed his forehead. "Your attitude is genuinely difficult." Xu Yang looked up at him. "And yet you keep following me." Before Yan Luo could reply, the ground trembled. It was not strong enough to shake the trees, but the dust on the shrine steps rose slightly before settling again.
Yan Luo immediately turned towards the ground, his hand moving to the talisman inside his sleeve. "Did you feel that?" he asked in a low voice. Xu Yang did not answer. His golden eyes were fixed on the earth. For a brief moment, the world before him changed. He could see thousands of pale threads running through the soil, roots and stones. They were not physical strands, yet he could see them clearly. They twisted around one another and gathered beneath the shrine, forming a knot that seemed ready to break.
Xu Yang stared at them. These were not threads connected to people. They belonged to the place itself. The vision disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Xu Yang lost his balance and stumbled backwards. Yan Luo caught him before he fell. "What did you see?" he asked, keeping one hand beneath the cat's body. Xu Yang quickly steadied himself and stepped away. "Nothing." Yan Luo narrowed his eyes. "That didn't look like nothing." His voice remained calm, but he did not move aside. "Tell me what you saw. Perhaps I can help." Xu Yang looked towards the shrine again.
For a moment, he seemed unwilling to answer. Then he lowered his head slightly. "I saw threads." he admitted. Yan Luo's attention sharpened. "What kind of threads?" Xu Yang's tail flicked uneasily. "Memory threads. But they weren't connected to people." He looked at the ground beneath the shrine. "They belonged to this place. Something here remembers." Yan Luo's expression changed. He glanced towards the old wooden structure, then back at Xu Yang. "A place should not remember like that." Xu Yang gave a small nod. "I know."
High above the shrine, Wang Xiao stood among the branches of an old tree. He remained completely still, watching the threads gathered beneath the shrine. From where he stood, their shape was clear. They connected the village to a single point that should not have existed. At that point stood a small black cat who continued to insist that he was nothing. Wang Xiao's eyes narrowed slightly. "How interesting," he murmured. His gaze followed the threads as they moved beneath the ground. "A correction denied..." He paused, considering the pattern once more. "Or perhaps something that was never meant to be recorded." The leaves shifted around him as a light breeze passed through the branches.
Wang Xiao did not move. His attention remained on the shrine. "Threads that bind people can be severed," he said quietly. "But threads that bind a place..." He stopped speaking and looked towards the buried foundation. Whatever lay beneath the shrine was connected to something much older than the village. After a moment, his expression grew colder. "Those are far more troublesome." He remained silent for some time, studying the strange pattern. Then he raised his eyes towards the faint lattice in the sky. "If Heaven has noticed..." He did not finish the sentence. Instead, he looked back at the shrine and asked softly, "Who buried you here?" He stayed for another moment before turning away. He would not interfere. Not yet.
Back in the village, Lin Chen pulled on his coat and stepped outside. The bell's echo still seemed to linger in his ears. The night was colder than usual, and the paths between the houses were empty. He looked towards the rooftops and then down the narrow lanes, searching for a familiar black shape. "Hey!" he called. "Where are you?" His voice travelled through the quiet village, but no answer came. Lin Chen frowned and stepped away from his doorway. "Why are you outside at this hour?" he muttered as he checked the corner near his neighbour's house. He found nothing. His worry slowly turned into irritation. "What if something happens to you?" He stopped beside the old stone wall and looked towards the forest path. "This is ridiculous," he grumbled. "You disappear whenever you want, and I'm the one who has to look for you." He glanced back towards his house, as if considering whether to return.
But after a moment, he tightened his coat and continued walking. "Just wait until I find you," he muttered. "You're not getting away with this so easily." At the shrine, the bell rope jerked. Once, then twice. The bell rang again, louder than before. Its sound travelled through the trees and reached the distant village. Xu Yang's fur stood on end. Yan Luo turned towards the entrance, his expression hardening as he watched the bell move. Deep beneath the shrine, something ancient shifted. It was neither waking nor sleeping. It was beginning to recognise something it had not sensed for countless years. And for the first time, it knew that someone was remembering it.
The bell's sound slowly faded, but the air around the shrine remained heavy. Yan Luo stood at the bottom of the cracked stone steps, looking at the ground. "The memory threads are no longer dormant." he said. Xu Yang sat beside him, his tail wrapped around his paws. His golden eyes remained fixed on the soil. "Threads imply weaving," he replied. "And weaving implies intent. Who is the weaver?" Yan Luo did not answer immediately. Instead, he knelt and pressed two fingers against the ground. A faint pulse travelled through the stone. He kept his hand there for a moment before lifting it. "They are not newly woven," he said. "They are being rewritten."
Xu Yang's ears moved slightly. "That is worse." Yan Luo took a talisman from his sleeve and held it above the soil. The paper trembled, and the ink on it slowly grew darker. "Memory threads bind a place to its history," he explained. "They keep events in order. They ensure that the past remains connected to the present." Xu Yang looked at the talisman. "And what happens when someone rewrites them?" Yan Luo's fingers tightened around the paper. "Continuity begins to break. People remember things differently. Events change. A village may wake up believing it has a past that never happened, while forgetting the one it actually lived through."
A faint breeze passed through the trees, but none of the leaves fell. Xu Yang raised his head and looked towards the sky. A faint geometric pattern shimmered in the distance, almost hidden by the darkness. "Heaven's lattice is reacting." he murmured. Yan Luo followed his gaze. "It is trying to bring the conflicting histories into agreement." Xu Yang watched the faint lines flicker. "And failing." Yan Luo lowered the talisman. "Threads can be cut." he said. Xu Yang turned towards him, his expression becoming serious. "You would sever a village from its own past?" Yan Luo shook his head slightly. "They can also be anchored. If we strengthen them, they may become harder to change."
Xu Yang's ears lowered. "That would preserve the distortion as it is." Yan Luo looked down at the ground, his expression troubled. "Then there is a third method." Xu Yang studied him. "Unweaving?" Yan Luo nodded. "We return the threads to their origin. To the moment they were first bound." Xu Yang's eyes narrowed. "Origins are rarely safe." Yan Luo met his gaze. "Neither is what is happening now." The bell swayed again, but this time it did not ring. Yan Luo looked up at it before speaking. "Every weave has a centre. A point where all the tension gathers. If we find it, we may understand what is rewriting the threads." Xu Yang looked towards the ground. "You already suspect where the centre is."
Yan Luo remained quiet for a moment. Then he looked directly at the cat. "You are the convergence point. Wherever you go, memories begin to falter. Wherever you stay, the threads change to accommodate your presence." Xu Yang's tail struck the stone once. "That is a coincidence." Yan Luo stood up slowly. "The land does not recognise coincidence." Xu Yang rose to his paws. For a moment, he looked towards the shrine as if trying to understand what lay beneath it. "If I am the centre," he said quietly, "then ending the threads would mean ending me." Yan Luo did not answer. His silence was enough.
Meanwhile, Wang Xiao walked along a narrow stone path that led into the mountains. At the end stood a gate made from the twisted roots of a dead tree. A faint dark light passed through the roots, but Wang Xiao did not hesitate. He stepped through the gate and entered a large chamber. Its ceiling disappeared into darkness, and small embers drifted through the air. At the centre of the chamber sat a figure on a throne made of black stone. The man's face was partly hidden in shadow, but the dark robes and the mark of the Demon Clan on his sleeve made his identity clear. He was Mo Cang, the Demon Clan Leader. "You have been watching!" Mo Cang said.
Wang Xiao stopped before the throne and bowed slightly. "Observation should come before intervention." Mo Cang rested one hand on the arm of his throne. "And what have you observed?" Wang Xiao raised his head. "Memory threads binding a human settlement. A convergence point taking the form of a cat. And Heaven's lattice attempting to reconcile histories that should not exist together." Mo Cang's fingers stopped moving. The chamber fell silent. "So the knot is tightening at last," he said. Wang Xiao studied him. "You knew this would happen?" Mo Cang leaned back against the throne. A faint smile appeared on his face. "I did not know. I anticipated it. The threads were already damaged long before that village was built. The humans simply built their homes on top of a fault in memory."
Wang Xiao's eyes narrowed slightly. "And the convergence point?" Mo Cang looked towards the darkness above him. "A remnant. A being that survived an earlier unweaving. Such remnants draw continuity towards themselves, just as a wound draws the flesh around it together." Wang Xiao's expression grew more serious. "Are you saying the cat did not cause the distortion?" Mo Cang shook his head. "No. He is preventing it from collapsing completely." Wang Xiao folded his hands inside his sleeves. "Then what happens if the threads are unmade?" Mo Cang answered without hesitation. "The village will cease to have ever existed."
Wang Xiao remained still. He considered the answer before speaking again. "And if the threads continue to be rewritten?" Mo Cang's expression lost its faint amusement. "Then reality will grow weaker. Other settlements may begin to lose their pasts. The borders between realms may also become unstable." Wang Xiao lowered his eyes briefly. "A small area erased from existence, or a distortion that continues to spread." Mo Cang nodded. "That is the choice." Wang Xiao looked back at him. "Will the Demon Clan intervene?" Mo Cang's form shifted slightly. For a moment, his eyes became visible within the darkness. "Would you have us intervene?" Wang Xiao did not answer at once. His thoughts returned to the black cat standing at the centre of the threads, speaking as if none of this had anything to do with him. After a moment, he raised his head. "Not yet." Mo Cang gave a low laugh. "You are curious." Wang Xiao's expression remained unchanged. "I am thorough."
Back at the shrine, the ground had become still again. Yan Luo remained near the steps while Xu Yang stood a short distance away, looking towards the trees. "If unweaving would erase the village," Xu Yang said, turning his head towards Yan Luo, "you will not do it." Yan Luo looked at him but said nothing. Xu Yang continued, "You cannot. You are bound to protect human continuity." Yan Luo's fingers curled slightly against his palm. "I am bound to prevent a greater collapse," he replied. Xu Yang lowered his head.
For a moment, he looked more tired than before. Yan Luo watched him carefully. "What are you afraid of?" he asked. Xu Yang raised his eyes again. "That I will remember." Yan Luo's expression changed. He took a step closer. "Remember what?" Xu Yang looked towards the distant sky, where Heaven's lattice flickered like a cracked mirror. "Why the threads were cut the first time." Yan Luo opened his mouth, but before he could ask another question, the shrine bell moved. No sound followed. Even so, both of them felt a vibration pass through the ground. Yan Luo immediately looked down. The threads beneath the shrine had begun to move again.Xu Yang stepped back, watching the pattern change. "That has never happened before." Yan Luo whispered.
Far away, Mo Cang tilted his head as if he had sensed the same change. "It begins!" he murmured. Wang Xiao stood before the throne, his gaze fixed on the Demon Clan Leader. He did not ask what had begun. He already had an idea. At the shrine, the threads gathered beneath the earth and formed a pattern too precise to be random. The shape was similar to the faint lattice in the sky. Xu Yang stared at it, and for a brief moment, something in his eyes suggested recognition. But the feeling disappeared almost immediately. "This is a coincidence!" he said, turning away from the pattern. Yan Luo watched him but did not argue. For the first time, he was no longer certain that it was only a coincidence.
At the edge of the forest, Lin Chen stopped walking. He had not planned to come this far. He had followed the path while searching for the cat, and before he realised it, he had reached the old shrine. Moonlight fell across the stone steps. A familiar black shape sat near the entrance. Lin Chen's frown eased slightly when he saw it. "There you are!" he said, walking closer. "What are you doing here?" Xu Yang did not move. His tail was wrapped around his paws, and his ears moved once at the sound of Lin Chen's voice. He was not grooming himself or looking around for food. He was simply staring at the ground.
Lin Chen slowed down as he approached. He looked at the cat, then at the empty space around the shrine. "What are you looking at?" he asked, crouching a little. When Xu Yang did not react, Lin Chen tilted his head. "Are you guarding something? Or are you just staring at the ground for no reason?" Xu Yang's ears twitched, but his eyes remained fixed on the earth. Lin Chen followed his gaze, though he could see nothing unusual. A faint sound came from the trees behind the shrine. He immediately turned around. "Who's there?" he called, taking a step away from the cat.
The trees stood still. He looked between the trunks, but no one appeared. Yan Luo was moving silently through the trees nearby, watching the shrine and the changes in the threads. Lin Chen could not see him. As far as he knew, the forest was empty. After waiting for a moment, Lin Chen turned back towards the cat. "Forget it," he muttered, shaking his head. "You're just a cat." He reached out as if to pick Xu Yang up, but stopped when the cat did not move towards him.
Lin Chen lowered his hand and studied him. Something about the cat's behaviour felt unusual tonight. "You don't usually sit this quietly," he said. Xu Yang finally turned his head and looked at him. Their eyes met for a moment. Lin Chen blinked, slightly surprised by the cat's serious expression. "What?" he asked, drawing his hand back. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Xu Yang said nothing.
Lin Chen let out a small breath and stood up. He glanced towards the shrine entrance, then back at the cat. "Come on. It's late. We should go home." He waited, but Xu Yang remained where he was. Lin Chen's brows drew together. "Are you not coming?" The cat only looked towards the ground again. Lin Chen followed his gaze once more, but there was still nothing he could see. He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling increasingly confused. "Why are you here?" he asked quietly. "What is so important about this place?" Xu Yang's ears moved, but he gave no answer. Lin Chen looked at him for a long moment before glancing towards the dark forest. The night was quiet, yet something about the shrine made him uneasy. He could not explain it. He only knew that he did not want to leave the cat there alone.
Beyond the trees, Yan Luo remained hidden, watching both of them. Xu Yang returned his attention to the threads beneath the shrine. Somewhere deep underground, they shifted again, slowly and quietly. Lin Chen looked down at the cat and spoke once more. "Why are you here...?" The cat did not answer. Lin Chen waited, but only silence followed. He finally crouched beside Xu Yang, keeping his eyes on the strange, still shape. Neither of them noticed the faint movement beneath the stone steps. The memory threads continued to shift, as if something below the shrine was waiting for them to make the next move.