Mu Qian didn't move.
Not because she was tense or preparing a technique, but because she didn't need to. Her relaxed posture carried something unsettling: the certainty of someone who knows that, no matter what happens, she won't be the first to fall. The air around her retained that faint electrical quality, a constant murmur that never quite erupted.
Lin Ye opened his eye with effort and studied her more closely.
She carried no visible weapons.She wasn't activating any domain.
Yet her presence was… defined.
"If you've come to kill me," Lin Ye said hoarsely, "I should warn you I'm not much of a show right now."
Mu Qian smiled, tilting her head.
"Relax," she replied. "If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't be talking to you."
Yan Mo cleared his throat softly.
"Mu Qian," he said. "This isn't an object of observation. He's injured."
"Precisely because of that," she countered. "It's when someone is injured that they stop pretending."
Lin Ye let out a slow breath.
"I don't know what's worse," he murmured, "the ones who want to kill me quickly or the ones who want to understand me slowly."
Mu Qian took a step forward. The Eye of the Threshold reacted immediately, sending a clear warning—not hostile, but unpredictable. She was different from Qin Jue, different from Bao Renkun. She didn't impose.
She adjusted.
"What you did last night," she said, "wasn't a complete technique. It was a resonance."
Lin Ye frowned.
"That sounds expensive."
"It was," she nodded. "But not for you. For the environment."
She leaned in slightly, studying him closely.
"Local space took longer than usual to correct itself. That doesn't happen without leaving traces."
Yan Mo crossed his arms.
"You shouldn't tell him all of this so soon."
"Why not?" Mu Qian replied. "He's already on the board. Pretending otherwise only makes him more dangerous."
Lin Ye looked from one to the other.
"Could someone explain why I feel like I just walked into a conversation that started years ago?"
Yan Mo sighed.
"Because you did."
He stepped a little closer to the improvised bed where Lin Ye lay.
"Huo'an isn't just a trade city," he continued. "It's a point of friction. Routes, minor bloodlines, secondary archives… and observers converge here."
"Spies," Lin Ye summarized.
"Some," Yan Mo admitted. "Others look for anomalies—people who don't quite fit."
Mu Qian smiled with a spark of amusement.
"And you, Lin Ye, don't fit at all."
The silence stretched for a few seconds.
"Great," Lin Ye said. "And what do they do when they find someone like that?"
"It depends," Mu Qian answered. "Some try to use them. Others eliminate them before they grow."
"And you?" Lin Ye asked.
She met his gaze directly.
"I want to see what you become."
The Fragmented Threshold Sutra vibrated faintly—not as a warning, but as an acknowledgment of high risk.
"That doesn't sound very reassuring," Lin Ye said.
"It shouldn't," she replied. "But it's not an immediate threat either."
Yan Mo intervened before the tension could rise further.
"During your recovery," he said, "you'll be off the official radar. I'll see to that. But I can't block gazes like Mu Qian's."
"Nor do I want you to," she added. "If someone is going to interfere, I'd rather know in advance."
Lin Ye closed his eye for a moment, processing.
"So," he said slowly, "let me see if I understand. I can't train, I can't fight, half the world is starting to watch me… and my only advantage is that they still don't know what to do with me."
"Correct," Yan Mo nodded.
"And," Mu Qian added, "you learn faster when you're at the edge."
Lin Ye let out a dry laugh.
"Fantastic. I always wanted my talent to be 'learning under mortal threat.'"
Mu Qian straightened and took a step back.
"Rest," she said. "I'll watch you from afar… for now."
"Was that a promise or a warning?" Lin Ye asked.
She smiled without answering and, in an unsettlingly natural way, simply ceased to be there. There was no obvious distortion. Space didn't tear.
It simply… accepted her absence.
Lin Ye snapped his eye open.
"She's gone?"
Yan Mo nodded gravely.
"And that, boy, is what worries me."
Lin Ye swallowed.
"Because I didn't feel any transition."
"Exactly," Yan Mo replied. "That means she didn't pass through the Threshold."
The silence fell heavy.
"So…" Lin Ye said. "What kind of people are starting to look at me?"
Yan Mo didn't answer right away. He walked to the wall, placed his hand against the cold stone, and spoke without turning around.
"The kind who don't act when someone is weak," he said. "They act when someone starts to become interesting."
Lin Ye closed his eyes again, his body exhausted, his mind working despite the fatigue.
Two months of recovery.A bloodline that had reacted.Observers who belonged to no clear faction.
And somewhere in the city, decisions were beginning to take shape.