The night stretched endlessly, its silence thick with unspoken warnings. Xu Tianyin stood beneath the skeletal branches of an ancient tree, his gaze unfocused as he listened—not with his ears, but with something deeper.
The void did not speak in voices.
It whispered in absences.
And right now, there was an absence where something should have been.
A faint shift in the wind. A disturbance in the stillness.
He wasn't alone.
His grip tightened around the crude wooden staff he had picked up earlier. It wasn't much of a weapon, but in his hands, it was enough.
The first attack came as a ripple in the air.
Xu Tianyin twisted to the side, just in time to see a dagger slice through the space where his chest had been moments before. The blade gleamed faintly under the moonlight before vanishing into the shadows.
A test.
They were gauging his reaction.
He exhaled, slowing his heart rate. He couldn't fight like normal cultivators. He had no spiritual energy to reinforce his body, no protective talismans to shield him from harm.
But he had something else.
Survival.
He had spent years enduring, learning the patterns of those who sought to eliminate him. Every breath he took was another stolen moment, another defiance against a world that refused to acknowledge his right to exist.
And he was still here.
The second strike came from above.
A sharp whistle in the air, a blade descending with lethal precision. Xu Tianyin didn't move back. He stepped forward, into the attack, slipping just past the falling weapon as he drove his elbow into the unseen attacker's ribs.
A startled grunt. A body staggering.
For the first time, he caught a glimpse of his assailant—cloaked in black, their face concealed.
But their eyes—he could see their eyes.
Shock.
They hadn't expected him to move like that.
Xu Tianyin didn't give them time to recover. He turned sharply, bringing his staff upward, catching them across the jaw with a brutal crack. The figure crumpled to the ground, unconscious before they could cry out.
Silence returned.
But he knew there were more.
He turned his gaze to the darkness beyond the trees. They were still watching. Still measuring.
His survival was a challenge to them. A contradiction to their understanding.
And contradictions demanded answers.
Xu Tianyin took a step forward, his voice steady despite the weariness in his limbs.
"Come out."
Nothing.
Then—
A voice, smooth and unreadable, drifted from the shadows.
"Interesting."
His jaw clenched, but he kept his breathing slow.
This wasn't over.
Not yet.