Chapter 77: Echoes of the Celestial Fusion
The scarlet mist breathed.
It rolled through the gorge in slow, unnatural waves, curling around jagged rocks and ancient trees. Wherever it passed, the vegetation withered slightly before recovering, as though the mist were stealing something from the world and returning it a moment later.
Han Feng stood before the entrance of an ancient ruin.
The mountain surrounding it had split open long ago. Black stone formations protruded from the fractured walls, resembling enormous claws reaching toward the sky. Faded runes covered the entrance, most of them eroded beyond recognition.
Yet the formation remained active.
Barely.
Han Feng could feel its fluctuations through the soles of his boots.
He crouched and touched the ground.
A faint pulse passed through the stone.
Then another.
His expression grew serious.
"Still alive after all these years..."
He withdrew his hand.
Over the past several days, he had explored a number of abandoned sites across the Western Region. Most contained little more than broken formations, exhausted spiritual veins, and remnants of ancient cultivators.
Some had already been looted.
Others were too dangerous to investigate without proper preparation.
But the ruins before him were different.
Their formation wasn't simply protecting the entrance.
It was responding to something beyond it.
And the energy involved was not entirely familiar.
Since the disturbances around Baihua City, Han Feng had noticed increasingly strange changes in the flow of spiritual energy. At first, he had attributed them to the natural differences between regions.
That explanation had gradually become impossible to maintain.
He had seen stars that did not belong to the local sky.
He had witnessed a spatial distortion that revealed a landscape beyond his understanding.
He had experienced visions of ancient formations and a man named Wang Lin, whose presence seemed to reach across an impossible distance.
Most disturbing of all, the Celestial Diagram had reacted to each phenomenon.
Han Feng looked toward the scarlet mist.
"The celestial energy is becoming unstable."
He paused.
"No. That's not quite right."
The energy itself was not simply becoming unstable.
Something was interfering with it.
As though another set of laws were pressing against the natural order of this world.
Han Feng disliked the thought.
It suggested a scale of danger that cultivation alone might not solve.
He adjusted his dark cloak and reached into his storage pouch.
A small Gu emerged between his fingers.
The Subtle Perception Gu.
Its translucent body resembled a floating eye, with a narrow golden iris surrounded by faint silver veins. Han Feng had obtained it through an exchange with an old hermit who lived near the western border.
The Gu was useful for investigating unfamiliar environments. It could detect residual spiritual fluctuations, identify concealed formations, and reconstruct brief sensory impressions from recent disturbances.
It could not predict the future.
It could not see through every concealment.
And it was particularly unreliable in places where several different energy signatures overlapped.
Those limitations made it useful.
Han Feng preferred tools that revealed part of the truth over artifacts that promised everything.
He fed the Gu a small amount of Gu essence.
"Investigate the entrance. Don't go deeper than necessary."
The creature floated forward.
It passed through the broken stone arch and disappeared into the darkness.
Han Feng waited.
The mist moved around him.
Somewhere in the gorge, a stone fell from a cliff.
He counted his breaths.
One.
Five.
Ten.
Then the Gu returned.
Its iris flickered.
Images appeared within it.
A long stone corridor.
Damaged statues.
Ancient inscriptions.
A central chamber.
And an altar surrounded by black and crimson formations.
Han Feng's eyes narrowed.
The Gu transmitted another impression.
A pulse of dark energy moved through the altar.
Beneath it, something answered.
Not with a clear spiritual fluctuation.
With a distortion.
The image abruptly collapsed.
The Gu dropped into Han Feng's palm.
A thin crack had appeared across its shell.
He examined it carefully.
"That was enough to damage you?"
The creature twitched weakly.
Han Feng immediately withdrew his spiritual sense from it.
He had obtained the information he needed.
The ruin was dangerous.
More importantly, the danger was not limited to its formations.
He could leave.
That would be the safest choice.
But if the altar was connected to the disturbances he had been investigating, abandoning it might mean losing an opportunity to understand what was happening.
Han Feng stared at the entrance.
After a moment, he sighed.
"Just a look."
He stepped inside.
"And if anything feels wrong, I leave."
He knew how often such promises became meaningless once a cultivator discovered something valuable.
He intended to keep his.
The Altar of the Broken Laws
The entrance corridor descended beneath the mountain.
Black stone walls enclosed the passage. Ancient lamps lined the sides, but none had burned for centuries.
Han Feng proceeded slowly.
The Art of the Celestial Veil suppressed his aura, while the Subtle Perception Gu remained in his palm. Its damaged shell dimmed whenever they passed an active formation.
Every few steps, Han Feng stopped to inspect the walls.
The inscriptions were old, but their structure resembled certain patterns he had encountered in the ancient network connected to the Celestial Diagram.
That did not prove a common origin.
Ancient cultivators borrowed from one another. Formations were copied, modified, and repurposed.
Still, the resemblance was troubling.
At the end of the corridor, he reached a broad chamber.
The ceiling disappeared into darkness.
Stone pillars rose from the floor, their surfaces covered in faded images of cultivators kneeling beneath a fractured sky.
At the center stood the altar.
Black jade formed its base. Crimson lines crossed its surface, meeting at a circular depression in the middle.
The altar pulsed faintly.
Each pulse caused the surrounding spiritual energy to change.
For a few breaths, the chamber felt saturated with Qi.
Then the energy thinned until even Han Feng's spiritual perception struggled to detect it.
He approached the altar without touching it.
There were several layers of formations.
The outermost layer had almost collapsed.
The second appeared to be a containment formation.
The third was unfamiliar.
Its lines did not follow the natural circulation of Qi. Instead, they seemed to redirect energy toward a point that did not physically exist.
Han Feng frowned.
"You're not containing something inside the altar."
He traced the pattern with his eyes.
"You're preventing something from entering."
A faint vibration passed through the chamber.
The Subtle Perception Gu twitched.
Han Feng immediately stepped back.
The altar's crimson lines brightened.
For an instant, a symbol appeared above its surface.
Six points.
A circular path.
And a seventh mark, barely visible at the center.
Han Feng's breathing slowed.
The Celestial Diagram responded inside his consciousness.
Its six points rotated once.
The seventh remained dark.
Then the symbol above the altar disappeared.
Han Feng stared at the empty space.
"Of course."
Another ancient ruin.
Another incomplete formation.
Another connection he couldn't yet explain.
He was beginning to suspect that the Celestial Diagram had drawn him toward more than one ancient site. Yet he had no evidence that it actively guided him, and he refused to mistake repeated reactions for deliberate instructions.
Perhaps he was following the same trail as countless cultivators before him.
Perhaps the same energy attracted the same kinds of people.
Or perhaps the ancient network was responding to him.
Until he knew which explanation was correct, he would assume none of them.
He turned toward the altar.
"Let's see what you're protecting."
He released a thin strand of Qi.
The instant it touched the outer formation, the chamber trembled.
The crimson lines flared.
A sound emerged from the depression at the altar's center.
Not a voice.
A breath.
Then the spiritual energy around Han Feng collapsed inward.
The air became heavy.
The Subtle Perception Gu screamed through his spiritual sense.
Han Feng retreated.
Too late.
A reddish-gray shape rose from the altar.
It had no fixed body.
Its outline shifted between a humanoid shadow, a cloud of smoke, and a collection of jagged fragments that seemed to occupy different positions simultaneously.
Two black hollows formed where its eyes should have been.
The moment they turned toward Han Feng, he felt something press against his consciousness.
Not a direct attack.
An examination.
Something was searching through the surface of his spiritual sense, attempting to identify what made him different.
Han Feng's expression hardened.
He activated the Celestial Veil and immediately reinforced his spiritual defenses.
The pressure increased.
A voice entered his mind.
"You..."
The sound seemed to come from several directions at once.
"...do not fully belong to this world."
Han Feng did not answer immediately.
His mind raced.
The entity had detected something.
But what?
His previous life's memories?
The Celestial Diagram?
The resonance left by the ancient relics?
Or the strange connection he had experienced in the vision involving Wang Lin?
He had no way to know.
He refused to reveal more than necessary.
"And you," he replied carefully, "are not entirely here."
The entity became still.
For the first time, Han Feng sensed something resembling surprise.
Then the black hollows widened.
The pressure struck.
Han Feng was thrown backward.
His shoulder slammed into a stone pillar, and pain shot down his arm. Before he could recover, the shadow stretched across the chamber.
Its movement distorted the space around it.
Han Feng saw three different versions of the same attack.
One swept toward his chest.
Another emerged behind him.
The third seemed to come from a direction that had no corresponding passage through the chamber.
He reacted to the first.
His Abyssal Shield unfolded in a burst of dark light.
The attack struck the shield.
Cracks spread across its surface.
Han Feng staggered.
The second attack passed through his shadow and tore a groove into the stone behind him.
The third vanished before reaching him.
He barely had time to breathe.
"This thing isn't stable..."
The entity's outline continued to flicker.
It seemed less like a living creature and more like an incomplete impression being forced into the world.
But incomplete did not mean harmless.
Han Feng could feel the pressure grinding against his spiritual defenses.
He needed to end the encounter before it exhausted him.
He released the Celestial Transmutation Gu's power.
A thin current of Qi passed through the Gu, transformed briefly, and returned as a controlled pulse of Gu essence.
The energy spread through the Abyssal Shield, reinforcing its damaged structure.
It bought him a few breaths.
Nothing more.
Han Feng raised his other hand.
A narrow spiritual blade formed between his fingers.
He struck toward the entity's outline.
The blade passed through its upper body.
For an instant, the shadow split.
A soundless scream rippled across the chamber.
The entity recoiled.
Han Feng felt the backlash immediately.
His spiritual sense jolted as though a needle had pierced it.
He almost lost control of the blade.
The entity was vulnerable to spiritual attacks, but the resistance was severe.
He could not continue exchanging blows.
His cultivation was only Qi Rank 4, and his Gu Master cultivation remained Rank 2. His advantages came from concealment, compatibility, and careful use of limited resources—not from overwhelming force.
He glanced at the altar.
The crimson formation was still active.
The entity had emerged from its central depression.
Perhaps the altar was the source of its manifestation.
Perhaps it was the only thing keeping the shadow partially anchored to this world.
Han Feng didn't need to understand its entire nature.
He only needed to stop it from attacking him.
His gaze moved to the damaged Subtle Perception Gu.
The creature was almost spent.
But it had recorded the altar's fluctuations.
That was enough.
Han Feng withdrew the Gu and reached into his storage pouch for an old scroll wrapped in black cloth.
The scroll had come from the hermit who traded him the Subtle Perception Gu. The old man had claimed it contained a fragment of an ancient wisdom inheritance, but had warned him never to unseal it without a clear reason.
Han Feng had not forgotten the warning.
He also hadn't forgotten the hermit's final words.
Some formations do not need to be defeated. They need to be reminded of what they were built to do.
Han Feng looked at the scroll.
"Let's hope you weren't lying."
He fed it a small amount of Gu essence.
The seal remained intact.
He added another controlled pulse.
A golden line appeared across the cloth.
The scroll reacted to the altar.
Not to the shadow.
To the formation beneath it.
Han Feng's eyes sharpened.
"That's it."
He threw the scroll toward the center of the altar.
The moment it landed, the golden line spread across the surface.
The ancient inscriptions illuminated one after another.
The shadow convulsed.
Its outline broke into several overlapping shapes.
The pressure against Han Feng's consciousness weakened.
For a moment, the entire chamber became silent.
Then the altar released a wave of golden light.
The shadow was dragged backward.
Its black hollows remained fixed on Han Feng.
"The boundary..."
The voice fractured.
"...must not..."
The formation flared again.
The remaining words dissolved into a roar of distorted energy.
The entity collapsed into the altar.
A violent shock wave swept through the chamber.
BOOM!
The ceiling cracked.
Stone pillars shattered.
Han Feng threw himself toward a side corridor as debris rained down behind him.
A piece of stone struck his back.
He stumbled but continued running.
He did not look back.
The passage shook around him.
Dust filled his lungs.
His spiritual sense was nearly exhausted, and the Abyssal Shield had collapsed completely.
He reached the entrance just as a section of the corridor fell behind him.
Han Feng threw himself through the opening.
The mountain trembled.
A deep rumble rolled through the gorge.
Then everything stopped.
The scarlet mist slowly returned to its previous rhythm.
Han Feng lay on the ground for several breaths, struggling to regain control of his breathing.
His shoulder throbbed.
His back hurt.
The Subtle Perception Gu was dead.
And the ancient scroll had been consumed by the formation.
He had gained no treasure.
No cultivation advancement.
No new Gu.
Only a handful of uncertain answers.
Han Feng slowly sat up.
"That went badly."
He looked toward the sealed entrance.
Then, despite himself, he laughed once.
"At least I'm still alive."
The Meaning of the Echo
Han Feng did not leave the gorge immediately.
He found a narrow shelter beneath a nearby rock formation and spent several hours recovering.
He treated his injuries, restored what little Qi he could, and carefully examined his spiritual sense for lingering damage.
The pressure left by the entity had not disappeared completely.
A faint sensation remained at the edge of his consciousness.
Not a mark.
Not a tracking connection.
More like the memory of being observed by something that had never learned how to see the world properly.
Han Feng disliked it.
He disliked even more that he could not determine whether the entity had recognized him or merely detected the Celestial Diagram.
He closed his eyes.
The Celestial Diagram appeared in his spiritual sea.
Its six points rotated slowly.
The seventh remained dark.
No new information emerged.
Han Feng opened his eyes again.
"You're not going to explain anything, are you?"
The Diagram continued rotating.
He sighed.
"Didn't think so."
He turned his attention to the memory of the entity's words.
You do not fully belong to this world.
The statement could have referred to his reincarnation.
It could have referred to the Celestial Diagram.
It could have referred to the strange resonance connecting him to ancient formations.
Or the entity might have been repeating something it had once heard from another person.
Han Feng refused to choose an explanation without evidence.
One thing, however, was clear.
The shadow had not behaved like an ordinary spiritual beast or a conventional Gu.
It had appeared through a formation.
Its body had remained incomplete.
And when the altar activated, it had been pulled back into the depression at the center.
That suggested a connection between the entity and the containment formation.
Whether the formation was imprisoning it, protecting the surrounding area from it, or preventing it from entering completely remained unknown.
Han Feng looked toward the ruined mountain.
"Whatever you are, you weren't supposed to come out."
The thought brought him little comfort.
He had disturbed the altar.
Even if the formation had reactivated, he couldn't be certain it would remain stable.
Someone else might investigate the disturbance.
The Celestial Corpse Sect might detect it.
And if the shadow had transmitted any information before being pulled back, then his presence might already be known to something beyond the ruin.
Han Feng stood carefully.
He needed to leave.
Not because he had solved the mystery.
Because he hadn't.
And the longer he remained, the greater the chance that another unknown would find him.
A Sky With Two Suns
Several days later, Han Feng crossed a valley covered in purple mist.
The region was avoided by most cultivators in the Western Region. According to local rumors, the valley contained the remains of an ancient formation built around a sealed Immortal Gu.
Han Feng did not believe the rumor entirely.
Stories about Immortal Gu were common in dangerous regions. Most were exaggerated, misunderstood, or deliberately spread to lure treasure hunters into traps.
Still, the valley's spiritual fluctuations were unusual enough to justify cautious observation.
He moved along a ridge, keeping away from the densest mist.
Then the sky darkened.
Han Feng stopped.
The clouds above the valley began to rotate.
Red lightning crossed the horizon, illuminating the mountains in brief flashes.
The spiritual energy around him surged.
His Blue Star Flame Gu emerged from his spiritual sea without being summoned.
Its blue fire trembled violently.
Han Feng immediately took out the Gu and examined it.
"What's wrong?"
The flame stretched toward the sky.
For an instant, its tiny points of light aligned into a pattern.
The Celestial Diagram responded.
All six points brightened.
The seventh remained dark.
Then Han Feng saw it.
A second sun.
It hung beside the familiar sun, almost transparent.
Its outline was blurred, as though it existed behind a layer of glass.
Han Feng stared.
The second sun did not cast ordinary light.
Instead, its presence distorted the colors around it.
Clouds appeared to bend toward it.
The red lightning changed direction.
And the spiritual energy flowing through the valley began to oscillate in two conflicting rhythms.
Han Feng's heart beat faster.
"This isn't a natural phenomenon."
He did not immediately activate another Gu.
He watched first.
The second sun brightened.
For a fraction of a second, the sky behind it disappeared.
A different landscape became visible.
Floating mountains.
Three pale moons.
A river of black fire winding between enormous stone pillars.
Then the vision vanished.
Han Feng's breathing slowed.
He had seen similar imagery before.
In the vision involving the crystal cocoon fragment.
In the ancient memories preserved by the Entangled Memory Gu.
And in the brief distortion above Baihua City.
The details were not identical.
But the sensation was unmistakable.
Something was pressing against the boundary of his world.
Han Feng cautiously activated the Blue Star Flame Gu.
The Gu did not reveal the entire phenomenon.
It could not explain what lay beyond the second sun.
But it allowed him to distinguish two overlapping spiritual signatures.
One belonged to the world around him.
The other was unfamiliar.
For a few breaths, the two signatures occupied the same space.
Then they separated.
Han Feng's expression became grim.
"Two realities..."
He paused.
"...touching at the edges."
That was the most he could conclude.
He had not witnessed a complete fusion.
He had not seen the laws of two worlds permanently merge.
The second sun could have been an image transmitted through a spatial distortion, a temporary overlap between distant environments, or something else he lacked the knowledge to describe.
But it was real enough to affect the valley.
And that meant the phenomenon was becoming more dangerous.
Han Feng withdrew the Blue Star Flame Gu and moved behind a rock formation.
He had no intention of standing in the open while the sky behaved like a broken formation.
The second sun brightened once more.
A faint pressure passed through his spiritual sea.
Then, from somewhere beyond the distortion, he sensed something.
Not a voice.
Not an attack.
A distant awareness.
For one terrible instant, Han Feng felt as though something had turned its attention toward him.
He immediately suppressed his aura with the Art of the Celestial Veil.
The pressure vanished.
The second sun faded.
The clouds resumed their ordinary movement.
The red lightning disappeared into the distance.
Han Feng remained behind the rocks for several minutes.
Only after the Blue Star Flame Gu had settled did he allow himself to move.
He looked toward the place where the second sun had appeared.
"The phenomenon is getting stronger."
His voice was quiet.
"And something may be able to sense us through it."
He did not know whether the attention he had felt belonged to a person, a creature, or a natural intelligence associated with the foreign world.
He would not pretend otherwise.
But the possibility was enough to change his plans.
He would avoid large spatial disturbances until he understood more about them.
He would also need better information about the ancient network and the seven-point pattern.
The two mysteries might be connected.
Or they might only appear connected because he was encountering both at the same time.
Either way, he could no longer afford to investigate blindly.
The Celestial Corpse Sect Reacts
Far to the north, the Celestial Corpse Sect's main hall erupted into confusion.
Several formation plates had activated simultaneously.
Red light flashed across their surfaces.
Spiritual lamps flickered.
A sealed Gu inside a jade chamber began beating against its container.
The hollow-eyed elder stood before a massive window, watching the distorted sky.
Even from the sect's territory, the second sun was faintly visible.
An elder beside him swallowed.
"Is that another spatial disturbance?"
The hollow-eyed elder did not answer immediately.
He had spent centuries studying ancient formations and forbidden techniques.
He had seen records of similar events.
But those records were incomplete, and most had been written by cultivators who had died before they could understand what they witnessed.
"The heavens are changing," he finally said.
Another elder frowned.
"Can a Gu Master cause this?"
"Not through ordinary means."
The old man turned toward the formation plates.
Their surfaces were covered in unstable spiritual fluctuations.
"This is not the work of a single cultivator."
He paused.
"At least, not in the way you mean."
The other elders exchanged uneasy glances.
The hollow-eyed elder remembered the image recovered from the young master's final memories.
Han Feng.
The blue flame.
The ancient altar.
He could not prove that the young cultivator was responsible for the disturbance.
But he had become convinced that Han Feng was connected to it.
And in a world where ancient seals were weakening and unfamiliar energies were beginning to appear, a connection like that was too valuable to ignore.
"Find the boy," he ordered.
This time, no one questioned him.
"Use the old records. Search every report involving the seven-point pattern, foreign spiritual fluctuations, and ancient containment formations."
"And if we find him?"
The elder's eyes darkened.
"Observe him first."
A pause.
"Do not provoke him unless absolutely necessary."
That order surprised the others.
The elder continued.
"If he is merely a witness, we may still learn something from him."
His gaze returned to the distorted sky.
"And if he is connected to the phenomenon more deeply than we suspect..."
He did not finish the sentence.
He did not need to.
Everyone in the chamber understood the implication.
The Celestial Corpse Sect had spent centuries pursuing power over life, death, and the remnants left behind by the soul.
But whatever was approaching from beyond the visible sky might not obey any of those principles.
For the first time in many years, the elders were not certain that their knowledge would be enough.
The Man Who Watched the Heavens
Far beyond Han Feng's world, beneath a different sky, Wang Lin interrupted his meditation.
He opened his eyes.
The spiritual energy surrounding him remained stable, yet a faint ripple had passed through his perception.
It was similar to the disturbance he had felt before.
Only this time, it lasted longer.
Wang Lin slowly raised his head.
For an instant, a second celestial body appeared beside the familiar sun.
It was faint.
Almost transparent.
Then the image disappeared.
Wang Lin's expression changed.
"This is not the heaven I know."
He extended his spiritual sense toward the sky.
Nothing answered.
The surrounding laws remained intact.
There was no obvious sign of invasion.
No hostile presence.
No sudden collapse of spiritual energy.
Yet he could not dismiss the phenomenon.
He had felt something beyond the familiar boundaries of his world.
A distant resonance.
A brief impression of another consciousness.
And, beneath it all, a pattern that seemed to vanish whenever he tried to examine it directly.
Wang Lin remained silent for a long moment.
"Something is interfering with the laws."
He lowered his gaze.
"But what?"
No answer came.
The second sun did not return.
The sky continued as before.
Wang Lin closed his eyes, but his meditation had changed.
He would remember the disturbance.
And if it appeared again, he intended to be ready.
The Great World's Unspoken Secret
In another world, a man with red hair stood beneath an unfamiliar sky.
Fang Yuan watched a thin crack of light form above a distant mountain range.
His expression remained calm.
He had seen countless strange phenomena throughout his life, and very few deserved immediate fear.
But this was different.
The crack did not release Qi.
It did not resemble a formation.
It did not follow the natural patterns of the world's laws.
For a brief moment, a foreign landscape appeared within it.
Then the crack closed.
Fang Yuan narrowed his eyes.
"Heh."
He had no intention of panicking over an unexplained phenomenon.
Panic wasted time.
And time was a resource like any other.
He considered what he had seen.
If the disturbance could reveal another environment, it might represent an opportunity.
It might also represent a threat.
The difference depended on what crossed the boundary, how the boundary behaved, and whether the phenomenon could be controlled.
Until he knew those things, acting would be premature.
Fang Yuan turned away from the mountain.
"Even the heavens can develop weaknesses."
A faint smile touched his lips.
"But a weakness is only useful when you understand how to exploit it."
He continued walking.
Behind him, the sky remained clear.
Yet far beyond his sight, another thin crack appeared.
For less than a breath, two realities overlapped.
Then they separated again.
Neither world had collapsed.
Neither had fully touched the other.
But the boundary between them had become something that could no longer be ignored.
The Echo Remains
Back in the Western Region, Han Feng stood beneath the shelter of a rocky outcrop.
The sky had returned to normal.
The second sun was gone.
The Blue Star Flame Gu had settled into a quiet flicker, though its tiny points of light still shifted whenever Han Feng looked toward the horizon.
He examined his condition.
His Qi reserves were stable.
His spiritual sense was tired but unharmed.
The Gu remained intact.
No breakthrough had occurred.
No new power had awakened.
Yet Han Feng felt that he had learned something important.
The disturbances were not merely rumors.
They were not confined to dreams or ancient records.
And they were not necessarily caused by the same force.
Some phenomena involved spiritual energy.
Others affected space.
Still others seemed to involve memories or consciousness.
It was possible that all of them were connected.
It was equally possible that several different forces were reacting to the same underlying change.
Han Feng had no proof either way.
He took out the incomplete map and studied the markings once more.
The broken circular symbol near the purple valley resembled the formation beneath the ancient altar.
Not exactly.
But enough to justify further investigation.
He marked the location and put the map away.
The next step would not be to charge toward the nearest anomaly.
It would be to find reliable records.
He needed to understand the seven-point pattern, the ancient containment formations, and the strange energy detected by the Blue Star Flame Gu.
Only then could he decide where to go next.
Han Feng looked up at the sky one final time.
For a moment, he thought he saw a faint purple light behind the clouds.
He blinked.
It was gone.
"Whatever is happening," he murmured, "I won't understand it by chasing every shadow."
He turned toward the distant mountains.
"I need to learn which shadows matter."
Then he disappeared into the mist.
Far above, unseen by ordinary cultivators, a thin silver line briefly appeared across the heavens.
It vanished before anyone could record it.
But somewhere beyond the boundary, something had noticed the response.
And this time, it did not look away immediately.