5 — Eyes Above the Wind
The mountain did not react immediately.
It never did.
Azure Wind Sect had stood for nearly four hundred years. It had seen prodigies rise and fall, elders betray each other, wars against neighboring sects, and three recorded internal purges.
It did not panic over small irregularities.
But it remembered them.
The morning after the Windless Chamber opened, the air felt deceptively ordinary.
Outer disciples trained. Buckets splashed at the well. Wooden swords struck dummies in rhythmic patterns.
Li Yuan walked into the courtyard as usual.
No one knew what had happened the night before.
That was the first relief.
The second—
The golden crack had not reappeared.
But something had changed inside him.
His body felt heavier.
Not sluggish.
Grounded.
When he stood, the weight of his bones felt more real. When he stepped, the contact with stone seemed firmer.
The Origin Trace was not increasing his visible strength.
It was restructuring him.
He moved toward the training ground.
As he passed other disciples, faint fragments drifted in the air as usual.
⟡ Endurance +0.02 ⟡⟡ Arm Stability ⟡
He observed them calmly.
But something else happened.
When he focused, the fragments no longer looked entirely blue.
Some carried faint golden threads inside them.
Tiny.
Barely noticeable.
But present.
Inside his mind, the system flickered.
[ Fragment Composition Analysis Expanded ]
[ Minor Origin Contamination Detected in Environment ]
His breathing slowed.
Contamination?
Or resonance?
He did not absorb anything yet.
He needed to understand first.
—
Above the outer courtyard, in a quiet side hall overlooking the terraces, Elder Qian stood near a carved stone railing.
He was not the strongest elder in Azure Wind Sect.
But he was the most attentive.
His cultivation had plateaued years ago at a level most disciples could not comprehend. Advancement no longer concerned him.
Observation did.
He had felt the fluctuation the previous night.
Subtle.
Not spiritual qi.
Not demonic influence.
Not external invasion.
Something internal.
He extended his perception gently across the lower terraces.
Disciples appeared normal.
But one aura—
One—
Felt denser.
Not stronger.
Denser.
His gaze settled on Li Yuan.
The young disciple stood near a wooden dummy, adjusting his stance before striking.
Nothing flashy.
Nothing explosive.
Yet—
Each movement carried weight.
Elder Qian narrowed his eyes slightly.
"That boy again."
He did not descend.
He did not confront.
Because true anomalies revealed themselves when left undisturbed.
He would watch.
—
Chen Hao noticed it too.
Not the aura.
The absence.
Li Yuan was no longer reacting like a cornered animal.
There was no tension in his shoulders.
No hurried glances.
He trained steadily.
That calmness was dangerous.
After morning drills, Chen Hao approached one of his closest associates.
"Watch him."
"Closely?" the associate asked.
"Not openly," Chen Hao replied. "If he's hiding something, let him think we aren't interested."
Strategic.
Because pressure created mistakes.
And Chen Hao wanted to see one.
—
That afternoon, outer disciples gathered at the Ranking Stone again.
Not for challenge.
For routine calibration.
Every seven days, the formation adjusted slightly to account for meridian refinement.
Li Yuan stood among them quietly.
The stone pulsed once.
His name shimmered faintly.
Rank 184 → 176.
Small change.
But enough.
Murmurs rose again.
Xu Ren appeared at his side without announcement.
"You move faster than expected."
"I move steadily," Li Yuan replied.
Xu Ren's lips curved slightly. "That's what worries them."
"Does it worry you?"
Xu Ren glanced at the ranking stone thoughtfully.
"Only if you don't choose a direction."
Direction.
Faction.
Alignment.
Li Yuan understood.
Power without alignment was unstable in sect politics.
But he also understood something else.
If he aligned too early, he would be used.
If he remained alone too long, he would be targeted.
Balance was survival.
"I will decide when necessary," Li Yuan said calmly.
Xu Ren studied him for a long moment.
"You're not afraid."
"No."
That answer was simple.
And truthful.
Xu Ren exhaled lightly. "Then you are either foolish or dangerous."
He left without waiting for a response.
—
That evening, Li Yuan returned to his dormitory and sat cross-legged once more.
The system responded immediately.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[ ORIGIN FRAGMENT SYSTEM ]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Realm: Body Tempering — Early StageProgress: 63%
Strength: 4.6Agility: 3.9Physique: 4.3Endurance: 3.9Comprehension: 4.3
Origin Trace — Martial Body (Sealed 98%)
Integration Stability: 84%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
He focused inward.
The Origin Trace was quiet.
Dormant.
But it subtly influenced integration.
When he mentally simulated absorbing a fragment—
The system responded differently.
[ Origin Trace Modifying Absorption Efficiency ]
So that was it.
The trace did not give raw power.
It optimized structure.
Reduced rejection.
Strengthened foundation.
This was long-term growth.
Not immediate dominance.
He opened his eyes slowly.
Good.
That meant patience would compound.
—
Three days passed.
No duels.
No direct confrontation.
But the atmosphere thickened.
Chen Hao's faction began training harder in visible ways.
Zhang Wei's circle whispered more frequently.
Xu Ren began speaking with neutral disciples quietly.
Lines were forming.
Not openly.
But undeniably.
And then—
The first external pressure arrived.
A messenger from the inner court descended unexpectedly.
An official notice.
All outer disciples were to participate in a joint evaluation exercise in seven days.
Location: Northern Forest Boundary.
Purpose: Subjugation of rogue beast clusters.
Collective exercise.
Supervised.
Rankings would adjust based on performance.
The courtyard erupted in excitement.
For many, this was opportunity.
For others, danger.
Li Yuan understood immediately.
This was not coincidence.
Evaluation exercises allowed unofficial elimination.
Accidents happened.
Beasts killed the weak.
Mistakes were not investigated deeply.
Chen Hao approached him quietly after the announcement.
"You'll participate," he said calmly.
"Yes."
"Good."
Chen Hao's gaze was steady.
"In the forest, strength speaks louder than politics."
It was not a threat.
It was information.
Li Yuan met his eyes.
"In the forest," he replied evenly, "there are no witnesses."
Chen Hao's lips curved faintly.
For the first time—
There was something like approval in his expression.
"Exactly."
High above the courtyard, Elder Qian listened to the announcement as well.
He had not ordered the exercise.
But he did not oppose it.
Sometimes—
Pressure revealed structure.
His gaze shifted once more to Li Yuan.
"If you are truly anomalous," he murmured softly, "the forest will respond."
—
That night, as Li Yuan sat in silence, something subtle occurred.
The golden crack did not appear.
But the air around him felt slightly heavier.
The Origin Trace pulsed faintly.
And deep within the sealed module—
Progress increased silently.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[ Origin Recovery Protocol ]Progress: 3%Condition Triggered: Environmental Catalyst Imminent━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
He did not consciously see the message.
But he felt the implication.
The mountain had been quiet.
But the forest—
Would not be.
And long-term tension had just found its first arena.