The morning mist clung to the rice fields like thin silk curling around Jin Mu’s legs as he trudged through the paddies. His bare feet sank into the cool mud every step felt heavier The ox pulling his cart gave a lazy grunt steam rising from its nostrils.“Come on, old friend,” Jin Mu muttered patting its flank. “If we finish before noon Elder Ruo might still have a hot meal for us.”The beast snorted unimpressed Jin Mu smiled anyway Talking to animals was easier than talking to people People asked questions why a man with no Qi veins wandered from village to village why his pendant never left his neck even when he slept,He’d been on the road for five years doing what small work he could repairing fences, carting harvests, driving off wild dogs. Enough to eat His father’s pendant hung against his chest, dull silver etched with a pattern no craftsman could name It was all he had left of a life burned away long ago.By midday he reached the next village a clutch of huts ringed by half

By the third day of travel the storm had passed leaving the world washed clean the grasslands stretched in endless gold and the mountains ahead shimmered blue beneath a sky so wide it made Jin Mu dizzy to look at.He walked beside Orin in silence their footsteps keeping a steady rhythm on the dirt road the scholar’s chatter filled the air when the quiet grew too heavy soft and thoughtful “Do you ever think about how small we are? Orin asked suddenly “The heavens the sects and the immortals… we scurry about like ants and call it destiny.”Jin Mu gave a faint smile “Ants still build kingdoms.”“True But sometimes the rain comes.” Orin tilted his head watching a hawk circle overhead “I used to think knowledge could shield us from that Lately, I’m not so sure.”They stopped at a roadside shrine half-collapsed and overgrown with vines Someone had left offerings dried rice a single coin and a sprig of plum blossom already browned by the sun. The carving on the stone was worn smooth but Jin

The road out of Heiyan through the southern cliffs was narrow and rough Jin Mu walked ahead his cloak torn his sleeves stained from the night before. Orin followed a few steps behind, humming softly as he scribbled notes into his weathered journal.“Do you always take notes after nearly dying?” Jin Mu asked without turning.“It keeps my hands from shaking,” Orin said cheerfully. “And my mind from breaking.”Jin Mu’s lips twitched into a faint smile It vanished quickly, but Orin caught it.They reached a plateau by noon, overlooking a sea of clouds. From here, the land stretched far villages like pinpricks of clay and smoke they stopped to rest.Orin unpacked dried fruit and cold rice handing half to Jin Mu. “You fought like a man who’s been training all his life,” he said. “But you move differently No stance I’ve seen before What do you call that?”“I don’t,” Jin Mu replied. “It just happens.”“That’s not how Qi works.”“I don’t think what I use is Qi.”Orin chewed slowly, studying hi

A ripple of black flame tore through the street, shattering stone and shrouding everything in smoke Screams echoed up the terraces as people fled, their silhouettes blurring in the mist. From the library steps, Jin Mu could see the chaos spreading houses collapsing, talismans flaring the air alive with lightning that never reached the ground.“The seal’s corruption,” Lian said, her voice trembling. “It’s consuming the city’s foundation stones.”Orin looked around wildly. “You mean the city itself is becoming unstable?”She nodded. “The Lotus wards are breaking whatever was sleeping under the Hollow is here.”Jin Mu’s gaze sharpened He could feel it now that same pulse of Death Qi, multiplied a thousandfold. It called to him like a heartbeat beneath the earth.“Then we end it,” he said.“End it?” Orin snapped. “With what, exactly?Jin Mu didn’t answer His pendant was long gone, but the storm inside him stirred silver and black light threading through his veins.Lian stepped back, alarm

The southern wind carried dust instead of rain.For three days they followed the old trade road a line of cracked stone half buried in sand the horizon shimmered with heat by day and glowed faintly violet by night as if the earth itself remembered the storm that had broken Heaven’s law.They rarely spoke.Orin limped now one leg bandaged from the ruins of the City of Veils. Lian walked ahead staff in hand, her eyes scanning the distance for movement Jin Mu kept to the rear silent his senses half in the world and half beyond it.The Death Qi inside him had changed.It no longer roared it breathed At times it felt almost gentle humming under his skin like an echo of wind through stone but when his focus slipped it swelled a tide pressing against its own boundaries.On the third morning they reached the edge of the Fallow Steppe a plain of gray grass and scattered stones. At its center stood the husk of a once-great tree, its roots fossilized into black glass.Orin shaded his eyes. “Tha