Xu Tianyin's world tilted the moment his fingers brushed against hers.
A rush of something unplaceable passed through him—not energy, not warmth, but something deeper, something that made the marrow of his bones tremble. The cold of the night, the weight of exhaustion, even the ache of his wounds—all of it faded into the background.
When his vision cleared, he was no longer standing in the snow.
The world around him had changed.
Gone were the barren trees and moonlit forest. Instead, an ancient courtyard stretched before him, surrounded by jagged mountains that loomed like silent watchers. The air was thick with something unnameable, something that felt neither alive nor dead.
His body sagged. The only thing keeping him upright was the hand still gripping his own.
The woman released him the moment he steadied himself.
"You are slower than I expected," she said, studying him with an expression that wasn't quite disdain but wasn't far from it either.
Xu Tianyin's breath was uneven. He didn't answer.
His gaze flickered around, taking in the place she had brought him to. The courtyard was cracked, overgrown with strange black vines that pulsed faintly in the dim light. The stone beneath his feet was old, weathered by time, but the intricate carvings upon it had not faded. Symbols he did not recognize spiraled outward, forming an array unlike any he had ever seen.
"What… is this place?" His voice was hoarse.
"A remnant of something that should have been erased," the woman replied. "Much like you."
Xu Tianyin stiffened.
There it was again—that quiet certainty in her voice, as if she had already decided what he was, what he should be.
His fists clenched. "I don't even know who you are."
The woman regarded him for a moment before finally speaking.
"Bai Yeming."
A name. But it gave him no answers.
Bai Yeming's gaze drifted to his injuries. With a flick of her sleeve, something invisible shifted in the air. The pain in his body dulled. His wounds did not heal, but they stopped worsening.
"That should keep you alive," she said. "For now."
Xu Tianyin's body sagged slightly, but he forced himself to stay upright. "Why?"
Bai Yeming's expression did not change. "Because the heavens wish to erase you."
The words sent a chill through him.
He had known—of course, he had known—that he was different. That he was hunted. That his own family had cast him out, fearing what he was.
But to hear it spoken so plainly…
To hear it from someone who said it as if it were a simple fact, not a cruel twist of fate…
Xu Tianyin swallowed. "And you?"
Bai Yeming studied him, her silver gaze unreadable. "I am what remains when the heavens make mistakes."
The words meant something, but he did not yet know what.
He glanced at the array beneath his feet. "What is this place?"
"A graveyard of paths that were never meant to exist."
A silence stretched between them.
Then Bai Yeming spoke again.
"If you wish to live, you will not take the path the world expects of you."
Xu Tianyin's breath was slow, measured.
He had no path.
He had nothing left.
And yet—
There was something in her words, in this place, in the weight of what should not exist but did.
The heavens had cast him out.
The world had rejected him.
But he was still here.
And if he was not meant to exist—
Then he would carve a path that was never meant to be.
And he would make the heavens regret ever cursing him.