While Senior Ju questioned the boy with calm, measured words, beneath the surface of civility and conversation, a storm was already building.
Jurra, though appearing as an average man in a faded robe, stood motionless, like an immovable mountain hidden behind a curtain of mist.
His gaze never faltered, and his tone remained calm. But Lin Hei, despite cultivating his heart and mind from Misty's cruel and hard training, could feel an unbearable pressure under the simplicity of that stare.
The man was hiding something.
No, not just hiding—masking himself so completely that Misty, a being born from celestial mist and divine essence, couldn't detect even the faintest trace of spirit flow from him.
It was like speaking to a mirror that refused to reflect.
And yet, he spoke. He asked for information. He asked what was happening in this world. He acted like a traveler, an outsider—but one who bore the weight of entire worlds in his silence.
Lin Hei answered carefully, sharing only what was necessary: the upheavals of the sects, the mysterious vanishing of Beast Lords from the lower realms, and the growing war between the Nine Heavens Pavilion and the Crimson Claw Sect.
He didn't dare to lie this time.
He spoke of chaotic energies returning, and of dragons—real dragons—appearing in realms where they hadn't been seen in thousands of years.
All the while, Misty floated behind Lin Hei, her whispering voice weaving threads of suspicion in his ear.
"I am now sure he could be one of them."
"Really? I feel comfortable talking to him." Lin Hei whispered.
"Don't lose focus! That thing is dangerous!"
Lin Hei frowned. "That makes no sense."
"No, think about it," Misty insisted. "There are entities that do not obey natural laws. Fragments of broken heavens, sentient ideas that manifest as beings. I've heard stories… back in the upper realms. Of Watchers. Of the First Error. Now that Dao was disturb and these things have entered here, it's going to be a problem…"
"That's a myth."
"So is surviving the Severance Storm, yet here we are."
Lin Hei wanted to deny it. He needed to deny it. But the feeling in his chest said otherwise.
The more Senior Ju spoke with gentle curiosity, the more it felt like he wasn't learning… but confirming.
Like he already knew and simply wanted to see if Lin Hei was worth letting live.
Then… the sword moved.
The ancient blade on Lin Hei's back, sheathed and bound by six talisman chains, suddenly vibrated.
Slowly, the chains snapped one by one, peeling into the air like burning paper.
A hum filled the cave. Then, a shriek.
The sword flew into the air, unsummoned, unsheathed, and glowing with unbearable intensity.
Runes danced along its surface, ancient and forgotten, each one pulsing in rhythm with Lin Hei's heartbeat.
Then it struck the ground.
SWOOSH.
A horizontal slash of spiritual energy erupted from the blade and struck the ceiling of the cave. But it didn't stop there.
BANG!!!
The entire world cracked.
The stone shattered into dust before the explosion could even register. Air collapsed inward before bursting outward in a dome of pressure.
A maelstrom of Qi surged like a tidal wave, tearing apart the walls, obliterating the floor beneath them.
Lin Hei's body was flung backward by sheer force, Misty wrapping herself around him like a shield of silver mist.
The sky opened.
Rocks spiraled into the air, fire erupted from fractures in the earth.
The mountain began to collapse as space itself buckled.
The explosion wasn't just destructive—it was surgical, aimed to disrupt spiritual flow and tear apart the leyline energies that tethered the cave to the land.
And yet, through the chaos, as reality cracked and trees miles away buckled under the shockwave, Jurra stood still.
Unmoving.
Untouched.
Watching them go.
Watching the sky collapse in streaks of color and flame.
Watching the sword vanish into rift-light.
Watching the boy and the mist-girl vanish into a fold in space.
As though it were all… inevitable.
Far, far away—in a crater beside a silver lake that did not exist minutes before—Lin Hei tumbled out of the spatial rift, coughing blood.
Misty's form was flickering, like candlelight caught in a storm. She hovered beside him, pale, translucent—barely holding herself together.
"Misty!" Lin Hei gasped, crawling toward her, his body scorched from the backlash of the escape.
She turned toward him weakly. Her silver hair was nearly invisible now. Her voice was hollow.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
Lin Hei stared at her. "Why… why did you burn your core to make the passage? Why?"
She looked down, her features trembling.
"That… thing… would not have let you go."
Lin Hei shuddered. "He wasn't even doing anything. Just asking questions."
"That's why," Misty hissed, her voice shaking. "Don't you get it? Predators don't roar before they bite. That one… he was watching. Not talking. Not threatening. Watching. Waiting for the moment we became comfortable. That man—if we had given him what he wanted, he would've smiled. Nodded. Then..."
She stopped, face paling further.
Lin Hei waited, then asked, "Then what?"
"Then he would have unmade you."
Her voice was cold now. Empty.
"You wouldn't even feel pain. You would've just stopped being alive. That attack I gave him, that is incredibly high, it was a first step attack but what happened to him? Not even a single scratch! You would've died the moment he desired it—no, we! The only reason we survived is because I used a forbidden spatial carving ritual. I burned part of my origin."
Lin Hei's hands trembled. "You—"
"You've seen fragments," Misty said, cutting him off. "You've seen the top of the mountain and thought you knew the sky. But that… thing… is not from here. I couldn't even tell if he was bound by the Dao. He wasn't natural. And unnatural things don't have to obey the rules. They just choose to."
She began to flicker again, her body dispersing into mist with each pulse of her voice.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Lin Hei asked, voice cracking.
"I couldn't," she said simply. "Not while he was watching. I only had one chance, and I took it."
Lin Hei clenched his fists. "We need to get help. We need to report this to the Pavilion, the Jade Thrones—"
"No," Misty interrupted. "They won't believe you. And even if they did, what could they do? That thing didn't arrive here; it woke up here. That's worse. It looked like it was familiarizing itself with the land. It was cunning, using its mind. We have to be careful!"
She looked at him for a long moment.
"We have to cultivate. Fast. As fast as possible. Lin Hei! Go and cultivate fast. That thing would catch up to us in no time!"
"But—"
"We must return to the higher realm," she whispered. "And warn them. Because if more like him are here… if that one is just the first… or maybe a lot of them have entered in the lower realms already!"
Her eyes met his, heavy and ancient.
"Then this realm will not survive."
Lin Hei nodded, his throat dry.
They had no more time.
They had to grow strong enough to stand at the edge of that void and not blink.
They had to become something more—or be erased like dreams before dawn.